Master and Commander by Patrick O'Brian Re-creations by Grace Livingston Hill Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen Post Captain by Patrick O'Brian HMS Surprise by Patrick O'Brian Heart and Mind by Ruth Beechick A Biblical Home Education by Ruth Beechick Dumbing Us Down by John Taylor Gotto Getting Things Done by David Allen
Homeschool Booklist
The Day-By-Day Kids' Bible by Karyn Henley Missionary Stories With the Millers by Mildred A. Martin The Story of the Word, Vol. 2 by Susan Wise Bauer Singapore Math, 1B Singapore Math, 2B Handwriting Without Tears - My Printing Book HWT Cursive Hadwriting AVKO Sequential Spelling
Your kids can record any folk song or playground song they know. There is a toll-free number to call to make your recording, or you can send them a home-made MP3. Actually, you can record stuff that you remember as well. Remember all those jump rope and Mary-Mack songs that you learned as a kid? Here is a chance to do the version you learned!
Last year after I lost my freezer contents when the door was left slightly ajar, I purchased a freezer alarm. It saved us last night by letting us know that the door had been left open a small crack. Nothing had happened to the food, except for a tiny layer of condensation that had frozen over a few things on the top shelf.
There is a little sensor that attaches inside the freezer near the back. A little wire runs out and the alarm unit sticks to the outside of the freezer. This unit is preset so that when the temperature inside the freezer rises above 15 degrees, the alarm goes off. It is battery-operated, so it would work in a power-failure.
This type of alarm works best for a separate freezer unit. I don't think most freezers that are attached to a refrigerator get cold enough for it to work. It can be switched off during the times when you are defrosting.
Our freezer is in the garage, and we could easily hear the alarm inside the house. The wire is small, but it does leave a tiny gap in the seal of the freezer. We think it is worth the small loss of energy.
Here is a list I have compiled of all the Thornton Burgess books I could find that are available for free online.
If you have read any of the Burgess stories, I know you have fallen in love with the little characters. We always look forward to hearing about nosy Peter Cottontail, mischievous Sammy Jay, and wise Grandfather Frog. For me, the best thing about them is reading them aloud. The dialog is charming, and I love doing the different voices.
I know that Ambleside Online curriculum recommends some of them, as do other homeschool curricula. They are wonderful stories which teach morals and values while exploring the world of wildlife.
The majority of the Burgess books that you can find online are at Gutenberg.org. There are a few more out there, however, that are not included on Gutenberg. Most of these are not available in text format, because they are scanned images. They do include the color illustrations by Harrison Cady.
Additional Link: Podcast of Old Mother West Wind by Lori K. Brooke. There are audio versions of some of the Burgess books available at Gutenberg.org and Librivox.org, but I wanted to share these because they are different, and not as easy to find. The woman reading them has a grandmotherly, sweet voice, and there is background music added which gaves them a relaxing, bedtime feel.
Please comment if you know of any other Burgess stories available online, and I will add them.
A friend shared this idea for memory work with me: When memorizing a passage, start with the last phrase first. This actually works very well. I have not tried it when memorizing a very long passage, such as a chapter in the Bible, or an entire poem, but if you are learning two or three Bible verses at a time, it makes it easier. For instance, look at this passage:
For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.
Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.
Jeremiah 29:11-13
Start out saying, "Jeremiah twenty-nine eleven through thirteen," to yourself. When you have that, you can add, "Seek me with all your heart. Jeremiah 29:11-13." That is pretty easy, so add, "You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart."
Keep going back, phrase by phrase, until you have the whole thing.
My friend explained a couple of reasons why this works. The first thing she told me is that you will know the end of the verse better than the first, so when you repeat the verse from the beginning, you will grow more confident as you go along. This helps with anxiety and stress. I believe this is true whether or not you are saying the passage to another person or not. The anxiety is a more internal anxiety rather than just a "performance" anxiety.
Another reason is that often the main point or the most important point is contained in the end. It helps to know the point that you are working towards. In the example I gave, you could probably argue against that, so here is a better example:
Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.
Ephesians 4:29
Here, "that it may benefit those who listen" is the point of the verse, it is the logical conlusion. If you have the last phrase secure in your mind, the first part makes more sense.
Please share any ideas you know that help when memorizing short or long passages.
Dr. Scholl's Freeze Away works great for us! My 9-year-old daughter had a wart on her finger. We saw this at the store and decided to give it a try before going to the doctor. It was very easy to use, did not hurt much, (per her report, and she is a weenie about pain!) we only had to do it once, and in less than two weeks, the wart was gone! 'Nuff said.
Jul. 7, 2008 - Living Math Monday: Anno's Magic Seeds
We read a second book by Mitsumasa Anno, called Anno's Magic Seeds. It is another good living book, and I recommend it. Mr. Anno has written several more books, and we are going to check into them soon. I might have to just give them a blanket recommendation if they are all as good as the two we have read.
In Anno's Magic Seeds, a man named Jack is given two seeds. One seed, he is told, will feed him for a year. He is to plant the other seed, and he will grow a plant with two more seeds on it. This way, he can be self-sustaining.
He soon figures out that he can improve things if he saves both seeds one year, and plants two seeds. So he finds some other way to eat for a year, so that in the spring he can plant two seeds. The following year, he has three seeds to plant (after eating one of course.)
This book very simply explores the concept of planting and harvest, showing the geometric pattern of increase each year. The watercolor pictures are beautifully simple. Again, this appears to be a simple picture book, but the concepts are much deeper. It would be appropriate for any elementary-aged child.
This guy was lonely and so he decided life would be more fun if he had a pet.
He went to the pet store and told the owner that he wanted to buy an unusual pet. After some discussion, he finally bought a centipede, which came in a little white box to use for his house.
He took the box back home, found a good location for the box, and decided he would start off by taking his new pet to the bar to have a drink. Then he asked the centipede in the box, "Would you like to go to Frank's with me and have a beer?" But there was no answer from his new pet.
This bothered him a bit, but he waited a few minutes and then asked him again, "How about going to the bar and having a drink with me?" But again, there was no answer from his new friend and pet. So he waited a few minutes more, thinking about the situation. He decided to ask him one more time; this time putting his face up against the centipede's house and shouting, "Hey, in there! Would you like to go to Frank's place and have a drink with me?
A little voice came out of the box "I heard you the first time! I'm putting on my shoes."
2 cups small curd cottage cheese
1 small box Jello
1 8 oz. container Cool Whip
1 can crushed pineapple, drained
1 sliced banana
Stir powdered Jello into cottage cheese. Add fruit, then add Cool Whip. Any flavor of Jello may be used. Strawberry Jello is a good one to start. Different fruits may be substituted. Mandarin oranges, grapes, strawberries, and fruit cocktail are all good options. Drain any canned fruit.
This is an old standby that we always loved when we were kids. I made some the other day, and it is still wonderful!!
Esperanza Spalding was on David Letterman the other night. I actually don't even watch Letterman that much, but I'm glad I was watching that time, because I would have missed this:
Ahh! I am downloading this from iTunes right now. This song is called "Precious."
Hey, I looked at her MySpace page, and it turns out she "was home-schooled for a significant portion of her elementary school years."
When my youngest got ready for table foods, it was tempting to get him the little jars of chunky toddler food. They didn't seem very cost effective, however, and the selection was pretty sparse, but the convenience would have come in handy many times, especially when traveling.
I discovered that he really liked the chunky canned soups they have at the store. They have so many different varieties with lots of veggies. There are some reduced-sodium varieties, to cut down on the salt.
Now that he wants to feed himself, I just drain off the broth, and the pieces are the perfect size for him to pick up. I keep these on hand for the times when the rest of us are eating something that he doesn't care for, or that I am not sure he can handle yet.
The other cool thing is that they taste great to the rest of us. There is very little waste, because someone is always willing to eat the leftovers.
Jun. 24, 2008 - Web-link Wednesday - BBC History for Kids
BBC History for Kids has some really interesting games and animations for elementary ages, if you are studying any history from that part of the world, such as the Vikings, Celts, or Anglo-Saxons.
If American History is on your menu for the next year, Our Los Banos provides a free curriculum for grades 2-6.
Jun. 23, 2008 - Living Math Monday: The Adventures of Penrose the Mathematical Cat
We had a week off this week, as the older kids were at Grandma’s. Today I will review another book recommended on the Living Math site.
The Adventures of Penrose the Mathematical Cat by Theoni Pappas is a book of math activities that children will enjoy. Penrose is a cat that belongs to a mathematician. The mathematician is always working on lesson plans and mathematical drawings, and Penrose becomes interested in these papers. He dreams that the drawings and numbers come to life and talk to him. This part of the book seems awkward to me. My daughter was enchanted at first, she loves anything with talking animals, but it soon got old, and she didn’t end up finishing the book.
The book introduces higher math concepts, and each chapter is rather short, with activities at the end of each chapter. When needed, answers can be found in the back of the book. The activities are designed to be fun and to get kids thinking about the math concepts that are introduced. Sometimes I had to help my daughter to grasp the concept by paraphrasing what had happened before she knew how to get started on the activity. I didn’t mind having to re-explain the math concepts, but I think that part was a weakness of the book, where it could have been a strength.
We liked this book for the activities, but we found the part about Penrose the cat to be tiresome after a few chapters. We have found another book with some of the same concepts in a more fun, kid-friendly format. I will review that book next week.
Dole 5-A-Day is a commercial website designed for parents, teachers, and kids. It would help you cover fruits and vegetables for a unit study, or just to go over for some guidelines for snacks and meals. There are recipes, games, songs, videos, and much more. Though it is a commercial site, I did not see a great deal of promotion of their specific brand other than a small Dole logo on each page. Of course, they sell fruits and vegetables, so they are definitely promoting their product, but I don’t think they push their own brand too much for a kids’ website.
Jun. 16, 2008 - Living Math Monday: One Grain of Rice
This is third in a series of posts where I am documenting our adventures in living math. The first post in the series is here.
We read a book called One Grain of Rice by Demi. A selfish raja in India stores up rice each year so that in time of famine there will be enough. When the famine comes, he won’t share and the people are starving.
A girl named Rani comes up with a plan. In return for a kindness, she asks the raja for one grain of rice that day, and a promise that he will double the amount of rice each day for 30 days. The raja agrees to the plan.
From there, we see how this simple plan gives the people their rice back. The selfish, foolish raja becomes wise and fair after being tricked out of all his rice.
Amazon rates this book for grades 1-4. It is easy to see that this is not correct. This book would be useful for all ages, maybe even up to college. The reading level is very easy, perhaps second grade level, but the concept is very deep.
I found a few links with ideas for using this book, especially for more advanced students.
One Grain of Rice Unit: Ideas for a unit study. This is an older website, and some of the image links are broken, but the text is all there. Look under Math Connections and Other Subject Connections to help make a complete unit study.
Illuminations Another lesson plan. It uses some algebra, but I am beginning to see it is not too early to introduce these concepts. I would not expect my gradeschoolers to completely understand, but they can observe and get a taste of what is there.
The Solution Site There are some great plans on here, including an MS Excel sheet that is already set up for your student (great for younger ones who do not know how to use MS Excel.) Students get ½ cup rice to weigh and they learn to count a small amount to approximate how much rice would be in a 1 lb. bag of rice.
More Than One Grain of Rice Here is a PDF with some lesson plans. We printed out one of the pages to use for our notebook pages.
Kids Econ Lesson This is a lesson on economic scarcity using the book. Very simple and to the point. Good for younger students.
What we did: We made a notebook entry to show the grains of rice Rani was given each day. To calculate, we used the simple MS Excel spreadsheet. We measured out an ounce of rice, and counted the grains of rice. This was very hard, but my daughter did it with me helping her. On the spreadsheet, there is a way to figure out how much rice can be carried by a child, a pickup, a semi-trailer, and a train car. We decided to represent the number of pickups that would be needed to carry 1 billion grains of rice by using clip art pictures of a truck. We had to copy it 37 times on our paper.
We also used a picture from The Penny Project to show what one billion would look like in pennies. We pasted our items to notebook sheets.
This is the first entry in our new Mathematics Notebook. I would have never considered a math notebook before beginning Living Math, but it makes perfect sense.
I was reminded Friday of one of my favorite sites by this post. I commented about some historic sheet music sites, and I thought I would share them here:
These are great sites for history as well as music. The artwork on the covers on some of this music is beautiful, and can really give you a feel for the era in which it was published. Some of the content is racist, the artwork and the lyrics, so don't turn your kids loose here without discussing that aspect first. I have found that some of the music is a bit out of focus when printing, but it is a minor issue.
Last weekend was difficult. My dear mother-in-law is undergoing cancer treatment. Right now, she is getting chemo, radiation, and they are backing off another medication, because it was having bad effects.
We went to see her on Saturday. For the first time since I’ve known her, she was not a picture of grace, patience, and serenity. She was truly miserable. Job came to mind several times that day. She kept her husband and daughter on their toes. Though I tried to help, she didn’t really want my help.
(I think that's because she is not used to me care-giving. I was able to coach them on some positioning strategies. As she is bed- and chair-bound, she is at risk for developing pressure ulcers, and that is my specialty, so maybe I was able to help by proxy.)
I got to thinking, though. “Performance” has often been a part of the Christian life for her. Even though she is a Bible-believing Christian, and is close to the Lord, she gets hung-up on the concept of works and being good enough. My husband has often tried to encourage her from the Word, that since we can never be good enough, we need grace. And we receive grace. But the works philosophy has been ingrained since she was a child, so it is hard for her to let go of the concept. She feels she needs to do more and do better.
Now, sadly, she is not able to do more and do better. Instead of living out her Christian life, she has reached the end of any of her abilities. She is managing to just survive.
Today, the words to this song came back to me. I heard it a lot growing up. But it is real to me in a new way this week. Here are some of the words:
When we have exhausted our store of endurance
When our strength has failed, ere the day is half done
When we reach the end of our hoarded resources
Our Father’s full giving has only begun.
His love has no limits, His grace has no measure,
His power no boundary known unto men;
For out of His infinite riches in Jesus
He giveth, and giveth, and giveth again.
From “He Giveth More Grace” by Annie Flint
As a believer in Christ, do you struggle with works vs. grace? Is is hard for you to trust that your salvation is really secure in Christ, without you adding in the good things that you do. When you fail, do you worry that God cannot forgive you now? The Word of God says He is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of His glory, with exceeding joy. (Jude 24) He wrote your name on the palm of His hand. (Isa. 49:16) You are loved with an everlasting Love. (Jer. 31:3)
Teacher Tube is a free site for educational videos. They have short videos for teachers and for students. It is in no way as large as YouTube, but it is also very specific for educational videos, and is a safer environment for kids.
There is one other site like this that I have seen, but you do have to view an ad for a few seconds before watching those videos. On Teacher Tube, the ads are separate from the video screen.
I had a positive experience with Teacher Tube. The first time I visited, there was a Google Ad on the site that I didn't like. It was not obscene, but it was for a fiction book and the picture on the front of the book was not really appropriate for students. I wrote a polite complaint, and in about an hour, I had a very nice reply from the staff telling me how to report such a thing if I saw it again (copy the ad image and email it to them.) That just left me with a good feeling about the site, that they are concerned with keeping it friendly.
My little fellow (19 months) loves his bath. He has a lot of fun, but he splashes too hard. I have been working with him on not making big splashes. He has several toys to play with in the tub, but he would rather slap the surface of the water and send splashes everywhere. (I keep the water depth very low, but it seems that the splashes go a really long way when he is excited. This gets to be a problem, and the older kids have a fit when he splashes the roll of toilet paper!)
Here are the couple of things that have worked to help him. First, when we get in the tub, we touch the water very gently and say, “Soft, soft.” He gets that. He will very gently slosh the water. Each time he lifts his arms to splash, I say, “Soft, soft.” Still, the temptation is too great. He will sooner or later try and splash really hard.
One other thing is helping us. When I first put him in the tub, I wash him quickly, including his hair. Then the rest of the tub time is “his” time. I show him his toys and remind him that we touch the water “Soft, soft.” He plays around for a while, then that urge to splash gets too strong. I try to catch him before he splashes and cue him not to splash, but when he does, he immediately gets pulled out of the tub. He does not appreciate that at all. I think he is getting it, though. He is getting longer bathtimes lately because he is able to hold off on the splashing for longer.
This is a reality-based homeschooling blog. We have three children. Peanut is a 9-year-old girl, Junior is a 6-year-old boy, and Bubby is a 1-year-old boy. We live in the south-central US.
Now that he wants to feed himself, I just drain off the broth, and the pieces are the perfect size for him to pick up. I keep these on hand for the times when the rest of us are eating something that he doesn't care for, or that I am not sure he can handle yet. 
Duke Library Digital Collections
Lester S. Levy Collection
