Some homeschool websites that have helped me recently.

4:41 PM - Saturday, March 3 - comments {2} - post comment

A Latin Centered what?

In my quest to better educate my children and prevent them from becoming uneducated wild animals, I have been reading through The Latin Centered Curriculum. 

I had always planned to teach Latin - really.  I took four years of it in High School - yes, that must be part of what my problem is.  I had planned to start in third grade.  Now, I think I will start in first grade.  I plan to use the Story of the World volume 1 for History.  My grand plan is that when we get to the Romans, we will start Latin.  I think that will be marvelous.

I have heard people say that after they read this book, they changed their whole way of looking at homeschool.  It revolutionized and streamlined everything.  I enjoyed the book, but I think I must have already had that revolution.

I agreed with many of the things he proposes for the primary year (k-3) - phonics, quality read alouds like 50 Famous Stories and Greek and Roman myths, recitation, copy work, Latin, math and nature study.  I didn't see that he recommended any workbooks or busy work.  That is great.  Dd6 is allergic to workbooks and I can't stand busy work. 

Overall - his book was nice to reaffirm what I had already thought.  He had some good arguments for his methods.  It is a worthwhile read.  It was great to see somebody else with a classical bent who believes that good stories to feed the imagination are more important to younger children that sitting in their seat doing busy work.  In some ways he reminded me of a more modern Charlotte Mason.   I think many people underestimate how much kids can learn and do.  I don't think kids need to be spoon-fed bits of information.  I want to fill my children's heads with ideas and stories that will spark their imaginations.

4:01 PM - Saturday, March 3 - comments {0} - post comment

Make any good Puzzles lately?

8:09 PM - Friday, November 3 - comments {1} - post comment

Free Complete Math Programs

Comprehensive School Mathematics Program (CSMP) Preservation Project  

Entire K-6 math curriculum, including masters and workbooks...

7:40 PM - Tuesday, October 31 - comments {0} - post comment

MAth Games Site for K - 12

10:47 PM - Saturday, October 28 - comments {0} - post comment

Science Links

I am planning a physics class for T next semester.  I was originally a physics major in college, so I am very excited to be able to share this with my son.  I have been combing the web this weekend looking for resources and links.  I really want this course to be inquiry based, but still keeping the math that is required.  A lot of physics can't really be appreciated without calculus, but there are many principles and concepts that are very learnable at the pre-cal level of math.  Here are some sites I plan to use with this high school physics.  I am hoping to only buy 1 book and get he rest of the information free.

Great science Sites I found that are not physics but I plan to keep and use.

http://science.howstuffworks.com

Great explanations with graphics demonstrate scientific principles and basic how stuff works.

http://www.kidsastronomy.com/

Good graphics. It has some lesson plans, sky maps, and some games and jokes.  Could be used alone by older kids or together with younger ones.  This one is more for my little one and about astronomy and not strictly physics, but it was too good to not include.

Resources and information

http://www.newton.dep.anl.gov/askasci/phys98.htm

answers to all of the physics questions you and your students can imagine

http://www.aip.org/history/exhibits.html

good information on the history of physics

http://www.practicalphysics.org/

Experiements that are easy to perform that illustrate principles of physics.  There is also discussions about the principles aimed at the teacher.  I am planning to use experiments from this site to demonstrate the principles to T during physics next semester.

http://www.studyphysics.ca/index.html

notes by a teacher for his students from two physics classes.  The will be good teacher prep information.  It might also be used with other information instead of  purchasing a textbook.

http://electron4.phys.utk.edu/high_school_physics/

Univeristy of Tennessee Department of Physics is an online physics tutorial for high school students (and their moms).  It has all of the content broken into lessons with quizzes at the end of each lesson

http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/hframe.html

Is an interesting resource for formulae and explanations   It uses concept maps for navigation.  It has example problems with links back to explanations.

The fun stuff

http://www.docfizzix.com/mouse_trap_cars_tips.htm

has information on the science of mouse trap cars.  It has good how-too information, kits,  tips, and plans.

http://www.catapultkits.com/

has kits and plans for catapults and trebuchets

http://cpphysics.homestead.com/student.html

has links to interesting physics projects that will inspire you and your kids

has ideas and information for science projects.  These would make great “homework” assignments to demonstrate concepts.

http://www.scitoys.com/

instructions and parts lists for making inventions and gdgets that demonstrate scientific principles

9:32 PM - Saturday, October 7 - comments {0} - post comment

Free Resources

10:54 PM - Sunday, September 24 - comments {3} - post comment

Geography - an amazing site

This is a great site that hubby found today.  It is a map of world - with zoom-able digital satellite images.  And if that wasn't great enough, people upload geotagged photos.  So what you get is a big picture of the world and photos of places and people in it.  For examples, here is a link to Egypt.  How about Borneo, Japan, New York City,  Pike's Peak, or the whole world?  You can contribute too. You add pictures of your hometown and your favorite places.  This is a great idea and has some great content already.  We can make it even better. I think this week we are going to add some of our pictures.

2:40 PM - Sunday, September 10 - comments {0} - post comment

Squeaky Shoes

Do you like little squeaky toys?  My dog has one that she loves.  She will squeak it and run around with it until it drives me crazy.  I don't know what ever possessed my to get Chinese Squeaky shoes for my dd2. The first time she tried them on, she ran around the house making a squeaking sound with every step.  It absolutely cracked me up.  I laughed and laughed and laughed some more.  I love those little shoes.

Today the mailman brought the next size up of squeaky shoes for her.  I can't believe how fast she is outgrowing shoes.  My hubby said that she is running around squeaking them again.  Delightful.

Besides amusing me, squeaky shoes are great for when we are in stores.  I can hear if she tries to wander off while I'm reaching for a book or a carton of rice milk.

Jenny at TinyBirdOrganics is very nice and carries lots of organic and free trade clothing and baby things.  I try to buy from work at home moms whenever I can.  I'd rather my spending power go to small businesses that have a passion for what they do.

1:13 PM - Saturday, July 1 - comments {2} - post comment

Laurie Berkner Band

My kids love the Laurie Berkner band.  At least the younger two do. My teenager will sing along to many of the songs, but I don't think he would actually say that he likes it.  There are not many things cuter than watching your children sing "Mommy has a cow on her head and she keeps it there all day."  The girls not only like to sing the words as they remember them, they also like to make up their own verses to them. 

I have never been a real big fan of kids music.  It usually annoys me, but I can put up with alot of Laurie.  I think it sounds more like real folk-type music than just music made for children. We have just one cd and one dvd that we watch in the van, but my girls are learning lots of cute and fun songs.  Some of them are original to Laurie and some are remakes of classic folk tunes.

4:37 PM - Friday, June 30 - comments {1} - post comment

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