Don't Forget , the registration Deadline is coming up Saturday, January 23 !

WHAT: Piedmont Science Fair for Non-Public Schools

WHO: Students in grades 3 to 12 that reside in the 11 county area comprising Region 5
(Alamance, Caswell, Chatham, Davidson, Forsyth, Guilford, Orange, Person, Randolph,
Rockingham, and Stokes counties)

WHEN: Saturday, January 30, 8:30-5:00pm

WHERE: High Point University, Congdon Hall

DETAILS: There will be a science demonstration and hands-on science activities.

There will also be campus tours available for high school students and their families.
Lunch is on your own. There are restaurants in the area (none available on campus) or bring your own bag lunch.
Interviews will begin after lunch.

Award Ceremony will be held at approximately 4 p.m. after the score tabulation.

Winners of this fair can advance to the Region 5 Science Fair at SciWorks on Feb. 19, 2010.

IMPORTANT: All participants must fill out the required forms as stated on the NC Science & Engineering Fair website:

http://www.ncsta. org/

These forms should be completed before starting the experiment.
The forms do NOT need to be displayed with the project board, but should be available if asked for by the judges.

HOW: To register, please email the following information.
(Due to space limitations, there is a maximum of 12 students per school.)
============ ========= ========= ========= =
Name of School or Homeschool Group:
Contact Person:
Contact Person Address:
Contact Person Email:
Contact Person Cell Phone:
(This is in case I need to get a hold of you during the science fair.)
============ ========= ========= =========
For each student, include the following...
Student's Name:
Student's Grade:
Title of Project:
Category of Project (select one of the following):
Biological Science
Physical Science
Earth/Environmental Science
Technology
(For a description of the categories, see 

sciencefair/students/categories.htmlhttp://www.ncsta.org/

DEADLINE FOR REGISTRATION is Saturday, January 23.

Registration fee is $10 per student, payable at check-in on the day of the science fair.
Please make checks payable to Jeanne Reppert.
Team projects are allowed.

Please feel free to email with any questions at:
thepineweaver@ gmail.com

Sincerely,
Jeanne Reppert and Heather Blonsky
Co-coordinators of the Piedmont Science Fair for Non-Public Schools

This is one I've been looking to recommend!  For many years now many people have asked me what to do with their younger children for Language Arts.  I have really searched and not found anything that was entirely pleasing.  In fact after three children I wrote my own Language Arts curriculum for second grade for my last child.

All About Spelling has helped with this dilema!  Actually this is much more than "spelling".  I think it's great for spelling, phonics, reading and more!  All About Spelling sent us level two which we used with our 4th grader who is a little behind in reading. 

But let me start with what I think makes it stand apart and what we particularly appreciated:

1. It prepares younger students for dictations.  I’ve not seen another program that does this and this is such a crucial skill for teaching and reinforcing grammar as they get older.  We use dictations in our Language Arts program (Total Language Plus) that starts at about 3^rd grade and starts using dictations at about 4^th or 5^th grade.  No other program I’ve found prepares  the K-3 students for this skill like All About Spelling.  Bravo!

2. The review method helps you identify those “holes” and reinforces what you need to work on.  With my older children we ended up doing a lot of workbooks for these early phonics skills which was usually overkill and gave them in many cases more then they needed.  With All About Spelling the review system lets you see exactly where they need to focus and reviews until they get it! 

For instance when we reviewed the book 1 cards I found a few basic sounds that my daughter had forgotten or wasn’t sounding quite right.  I know she knew them correctly at one time but somehow she’d forgotten.  With their card system I was able to find where the “holes” were so we can fix them. 

3. This system is multi-sensory which helps to cement learning.  I know my now 9^th grader would have taken to this as he’s one of those busy learners and making the words with tiles would have appealed to him.  My daughter seems to like uses the tiles to figure out spellings, somehow it seems to help her to visually “see” it.  A few times when she’s been doing dictations I see her stop and pull the tiles letter tiles to help her figure out a word.  She’s asked when we’re done with them if she can move the tiles to the refrigerator to make words.

4. While the site recommends buying extra student sets if you’re using it with multiple children it can certainly be used over and over again years apart for younger siblings, another great plus for larger homeschool families!

5.  It’s affordable!  Many phonics type programs with these hands on features are pricey.  We find the price of $39.95 for level two to be quite reasonable.  The letter tiles set is extra if you don’t have them, $26.95, but you only get them once for all 5 levels.  Level one set is only $29.95.  Personally, I would use this and add literature and handwriting, that’s it! 

How does it work?

You get a set with lots of cards that are easy to punch out.  They are phonogram cards, sound cards, key cards, and word cards.  The guide tells you how to set these up in a card file box.

With the starter set you get letter tiles which the guide also tells you how to set up and where to place them on a table or magnet board.  We just used a table to start, hopefully we’ll get a magnet board soon.  I don’t think it’s necessary but helpful.

The teachers guide is scripted and tells you step by step what to do.  Now I have to say usually I steer away from curriculums that are “scripted” as I prefer to go my own way and don’t want to “read” from a script but I have to say it actually is pretty nice.  I don’t exactly read it and I sometimes skip spots or add more reinforcement as tips in the margin suggest depending on if I feel she’s got the concept or not.

It’s a total of 25 well thought out lessons which have a lot of flexibility.  We definitely  want to continue to finish book two and may purchase book three.  I’m thinking once a week but if I had planned from the beginning of the year I might schedule it more depending on how quickly you want to get through and where your child is at.

Now I realize I didn’t even say much about the “spelling”.  Yes, they do spell both with the tiles and on paper but the understanding of the why’s and learning the in's and outs of phonics and language makes it easy so that the spelling part of it is no big deal.

I will definitely recommend this one and will probably have more to say in future blogs this year as we get closer to finishing so stay connected if you’d like to hear more about our experience with All About Spelling.  If you’re looking for something like this be sure to check out the sample lessons available on their site to see if this might be right for you.

*All About Spelling provided me with free materials in exchange for my opinions in this review.

This high school course on Financial Accounting from Professor in a Box would be a great investment for anyone with high school students.  It can be used as a college level class or to prepare to take the accounting CLEP exam.  We found it to be quite extensive in scope.

The program consists of 4 computer DVD disks; 3 with lesson and student problem content and one instructors CD which has exams, quizzes, syllabus and the lessons in printable form.  Any homeschool mom will appreciate the lesson plans being all laid out including estimated time needed per lesson.  There are a total of 28 lessons which you can chose to do in one semester or a whole school year.  Personally, I feel like it would be more do-able for the average high schooler over the whole year.  This of course would depend on their other coursework load.

On their site they allow you to download the entire syllabus  so you can see for yourself what it covers. They also make a sample chapter available.    I encourage you to check it out for yourself.

The course is set up as a series of slides with a lecture going with the slides.  As you go through the slides the content is not just read but also additional information is given.  It’s not flashy, just plain slides with words or portions of spreadsheets.  The voice isn’t polished and has a bit of scratchiness to it.  It’s not hard to listen to but rather it makes me feel as if I’m listening to a college professor rather than a “canned” tape.  I would recommend taking notes as you go through the slides (just as if you were in a class).  It’s not that you can’t go back and look at the slides again for the information but it helps keep you occupied while listening and helps place it in your mind.  There is a lot of information!

One of the big pluses for many high school students will be that there is not a “textbook”.  You simply listen to the “lecture” while watching the slides, study the concepts a bit then do the problems.  I think if you pay attention it’s not too difficult.

We ended up trying this out with our most “active” child and I have to say it was difficult for him to pay attention.  I do believe we will have him do this for coursework in the future and I will require note taking which I think will help.  He’s in 9^th grade and I think it will fit better for him in 11^th or 12^th.  It’s not that he’s too young, I think it will just be more relevant.  Also, I might point out even though he had trouble staying focused and sitting still he scored very well on the problems.

I’m sure we will use it for our now 11^th grader who is actually very interested but is a little overwhelmed this year with coursework.  He does get bogged down with heavy reading so this style of learning will be a nice break for him.  The coursework talks about why you’d want to know accounting and I think the closer the kids are to getting out there in the real business world the more relevance it may have (at least for my kids!)

We are studying economics this year and it really does have a lot of overlap (at least in the beginning chapters we looked at) so that was nice.

Bottom line, I think this is an excellent course for any homeschooler interested in accounting. It sells for $134.99.  The cost could be a problem for some but if you’re looking at a community college class this would be a nice (and affordable) alternative where you could still keep them home and use it again for future siblings! 

 *Professor in a Box provided this material free to me for the purpose of my opinions in this review.

 Is everyone cooking today?  I always have certain things I do the day before Thanksgiving so I don’t have so much mess on Thanksgiving day.  It’s not the cooking that would bother me, it would be the dishes!

This morning we made 4 loaves of cranberry bread (two for breakfast/snacking tomorrow morning) and one for the freezer.  It was supposed to be two for the freezer but who can resist warm bread?  I just found this recipe this year and it’s awesome!  It’s the right balance of the tart cranberries and the sweetness of the bread!  Don’t forget to buy extra cranberries for your freezer now because they’re hard to get after Christmas.

The Cranberry bread is so pretty I think it would make fabulous Christmas gifts.  I saw small porcelain bread pans with holiday designs for only $1 at The Christmas Tree shop which would be great to bake them in and give away or you could just pull it out of your own pan and wrap in cellophane.

This is originally a vegan recipe so I’ll give you the regular diet substitutions.

Cranberry Quick Bread

1 cup all purpose flour

1 cup whole wheat pastry flour (you could use another cup of all purpose instead)

1 cup chopped cranberries

¾ cup sugar

½ cup pecan meal (optional)

2 t. baking powder

½ t. salt

1 t. flax seed meal whipped with ¼ cup water (or 1 egg)

1 T. frozen orange juice concentrate mixed with ½ cup water

½ cup vegetable oil (I used a little less, probably 1/3 and it worked fine)

Preheat oven to 350.  Mix liquid ingredients together in bowl (I used my kitchen aid).  Stir in dry ingredients.  Don’t over mix.  Pour into loaf pan sprayed with non-stick spray and bake 50 minutes.  Cool 5-10 minutes in pan before removing to rack to cool completely. 

My daughter and I also do the Sweet Potatoes ahead (which we did this morning.)  I don’t think I’ve ever shared our Sweet Potato recipe on the blog but I’ve been asked for it quite often when I serve it so here goes.  We think it’s the best ever!

Praline Sweet Potatoes

4 medium sweet potato’s peeled, chunked and boiled till tender, drain.

½ cup sugar

¼ cup butter

¼ t. salt

½ cup evaporated milk

2 eggs

Again I use my kitchen aid and mix the above ingredient until smooth.  We like to do ours in the microwave because on Thanksgiving day the oven is occupied so we pour into a microwave safe casserole.  For the topping mix ¼ brown sugar, 2T. flour, 1T. melted butter and ¼ cup chopped pecans and crumble over the top.  Microwave about 15-20 minutes from the refrigerator.  If you are serving right after making it may take less time because it won’t be “chilled”.  I’m sure it would work in the oven too but I’m not sure of time.  I’d guess 350 for 30-40 minutes?

Okay, I don’t really know what to call these but it’s something the girls and I saw at a craft show this summer and decided to copy.  They would make great gifts for girls with long hair and they’re so easy your kids can make them for their friends.

All you need is cording, (about a yard, though you can make them any length depending on how long the person’s hair is) we used a suede type and pony beads.  At the fair they also were selling it with the simple plastic hemp type cording. 

Take your length of cording and put the two end together and thread bead through both ends at the same time pulling up to leave a loop at the top.  Continue threading as many beads as you’d like (the more beads and length the more “French braid” look.)  When you have enough separate the ends and put one or more pony beads on the individual strands and tie off.

To put the hair into it first make a high pony with just the front part of your hair (like how you start a French braid) and you can actually use an elastic to hold (this helps keep it from sliding.)  I try to catch the cording in a loop of the elastic so it doesn’t slide.  If your hair is thick enough you may not need to do this.  Pull the hair through the top loop then add hair from either side (again, like French braiding) and put into the next loop, pull the beads tight as you go and continue.  It can take a bit of practice but if you’re familiar with French braiding it will be very easy to get the hang of!

The picture is of my hair that my daughter (who doesn’t know how to French braid) did, it could be a little “tighter” but you get the idea.  It looks really cute in little girls hair with two “braids”. 

I had hoped to have more gift ideas up on the blog by now but we've had the plague here.  Not really of course, but it sure feels like it.  I finally feel today the best I've felt in two weeks so with any luck in the next few days look for stone coasters, corn bags and more...

Today we did a workout with Gymathics by Exploramania.  It’s the next product up for review with the Old Schoohouse Crew.  The creator of  Gymathics states, “I wanted to create products that synthesize education and a healthy lifestyle, beginning with my passion for math education.”  I would describe it as a cross between a kids workout class and a math concept introduction.

The DVD is about 30 minutes of exercise set to some background music with graphics put up on screen showing various math concepts.  They concepts are things like skip counting, prime number, types of triangles and patterns.  It’s recommended for grades 2-5 for the math concepts and the exercise for kids of all ages.  There is a clip on their site so you can get an idea of the format.   For my own kids I could only get my 4^th grader to try it out.  My older kids gave me looks like, “You’ve got to be kidding.”    

One of the teaching concepts Gymathics is taking advantage of  is multi-sensory learning.  I know from my own research in teaching language arts to younger children that motion is simply more then keeping the kids busy, it’s actually been proven to help make brain connections.  Their web site has a page devoted to the research behind this philosophy.  The basic idea is that kids will retain the knowledge better the more senses they involve to learn it.

Lexie liked it okay but I don’t know if it’s something she’d do more then a few times.  I think younger kids may want to do it over and over more readily.  It sells for $24.99 so I know for our family I would want it to be something we’re going to watch more then once or twice.  My daughter already participates in a fit kids class so the exercise part may not be as novel to her.  The math concepts she didn’t already know she wouldn’t fully get from doing this once or twice but if you had a child who watched it repetitively I think they could gain familiarity if not mastery of some of the concepts.

It’s a great idea especially to get kids active and moving! 

One thing I do just have to note is that in one scene the main instructors t-shirt appears a bit too tight (or the room was too cold) which would be bothersome if my teenage boys had been watching.  They have been trained to look away if something like that appears.  I’m sure it was not intentional and my daughter did not notice but it was obvious to me and just want to mention it as it might be offensive to some families.

*The DVD Gymathics was provided to me free from Exploramania for the sole purpose of my honest opionions in the review.

We were given a free membership to the Avko site as part of the Old Schoolhouse crew in exchange for our review on the information there.  I have to say I was initially overwhemelmed by the amount of information that I found and quite unsure where to start!

For starters there are five e-books on various spelling and reading issues, along with one on teaching a dyslexic student.  These are not small e-books, but rather lengthy and in depth pieces of work.  For instance the one I downloaded on word families is almost 1500 pages!  It lists words by their patterns (like CVC, homophones or prefix) as well as Greek and Latin roots and so much more.  I don’t even think I can explain everything that’s in it!  It would be useful if you were devising your own spelling lists and wanting to take them from  those groupings.  The first pages of this large e-book goes through their method and philosophy of learning spelling to give you some ideas.

The book on teaching dyslexic students would also be helpful if you are thinking you may have a child who is struggling and either is or may be dyslexic.  I might mention also that there is  an audio file on, “I Think My Child Might be dyslexic, Does it Matter?”

Besides the e-books and audio’s of various convention workshops there are a variety of other stories and articles.  Some seem to be humorous, inspirational, information and some even a little goofy (like one titled, “TOP 8 MORONS.”) 

Some of the information on the site could be useful for any homeschool family but I think it would be especially useful for those using their Sequential Spelling program.  I have never used it and much of the site refers to it or is extra evaluations or worksheets to go with it.

If you’re looking for lots of information on spelling and somewhat on reading this might be for you.  For myself personally having not used their program much of the information was not particularly useful to me.  If my children were younger and I was still trying to figure out the spelling/reading thing the reading might have pertained to me more, or if I had a child struggling in that area.

The membership is $25 per year and their site lists ALL the many resources available there.

This just in from Catherine Fortin:

My colleague Diane Farrug & I are starting up an exciting resource for homeschooling parents: a free e-newsletter full of free ideas, activities, and printables supported by clear "how to teach" tips for parents.

We realize that what we do, teaching a foreign language takes so much training and experience, and we want to give this to homeschool parents.

We also include free videos on how to teach and how to do specific lessons and activities. The days of giving children a Spanish or French handout and not really knowing what to do with it to maximize it are over.  We're here to help.

Here is the link to the sign up for the free homeschool e-newsletter:

http://foreignlanguagefun.com/2009/11/free-nativity-mini-book-in-french-and-spanish-for-homeschoolers/

Catherine F Fortin

http://foreignlanguagehouse.com

This looks wonderful - Go sign up! Merit K

Wheel on the School by Meindert DeJong is one of those books in the Total Language Plus program that we just have never gotten to; there are so many good choices!  We had a little gap in our read aloud schedule so we decided to squeeze it in!

What a delightful and unusual book!  Barbara Blakey, author of our Total Language Plus study guides, has always said it was well written and I must agree.  I was especially impressed with the way the author ties in individual events into one larger event.

Shora is the town that has no Storks on their roofs which is the catalyst for all the action in The Wheel on the School.  At the school, the children and teacher begin discussing this problem and why it exists.  From there thy take action and decide to find a wheel for their school.

In their search they encounter people and experiences they normally would not have.  It’s quite humorous at times and also makes you pause and think of similar people that you have maybe misjudged or need to get to know.  We laughed and I even caught myself with a tear in my eye when Janus tells his story about the boat but I won’t spoil it for you, you’ll just have to read it!

The Total Language Plus study guide has suggestions for projects on writing assignments on things like Storks, reports on being handicapped (Janus one of the main characters is in a wheelchair), mapping of Holland, Africa, fishing and so much more!  My daughter Lexie has decided she definitely wants to do this one!  She’s not quite ready yet, she’s on Whipping Boy right now, maybe next year. (It's suggested for 5th or 6th grade.)

Here’s a map we found online of the Netherlands (Holland) with cities and seas filled in, http://geography.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?site=http://www.m%2Dw.com/cgi%2Dbin/nytmaps.pl%3Fnetherlands and here’s an outline one http://geography.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?site=http://www.m%2Dw.com/cgi%2Dbin/nytmaps.pl%3Fnetherlands .  We could not locate Shora but you can locate Amsterdam where Janus talks about the man writing the newspaper column and you can of course locate the North Sea.

In the book they talk about sleeping in “cupboard” or “closet” beds.  I found articles from people who had toured and viewed them but no pictures.  We did find these replicas based off illustrations, http://www.remodelista.com/posts/childrens-rooms-bed-cupboard .  I thought they were really cute though they in reality I doubt were that “cute” in favor of more functional. 

We also thought there would be a lot of pictures and information on dikes.  I didn’t find a “really” good site though you can search and see vacation pictures of dikes.