Paper Doll Site

My thanks to Sara over at the Hemmeke blog for this link. apparently her daughter loves to make paper dolls, and she is able to go to making Friends Paper Dolls. In Sara's words

I like these because I can print everything in black and white outlines, allowing my daughter to color and decorate them as she wishes. They are big, easy to handle and cut, and not at all the trendy grown-up Barbie-ish dolls. The best part is it's all free!!

I don't think that my boyo will be into paper dolls... but I can see that this site could be useful for outlines for making characters to tell a store or two though...... :)

Socialization....

Just the other day I was talking with my sister and she mentioned how busy she thought I would be with our boyo when he grew up a bit. She knows that we are planning to homeschool him, and she said "you'll be busy driving him around, cause he'll need his socialization".

My first thought was
1. Don't all parents drive their children around to activities of one sort or the other?
2. I'm not worried about socialization.

I look back at my school days. I loved learning. I hated the playground. The socialization aspects of things... ick! I did like when they let the "big kids" play with the "little kids" I had a blast organizing the little kids and playing games with them. Gave me something to do and people to help. Fun that was. Didn't last long because "big kids can't play with little kids don'tcha know?"

Why would I want to send my child to school to have to deal with socialization?

What if he ends up having to deal with bullying and name-calling and not having good friends at school? Why should he have to deal with all that "ick" in order to have "socialization"? I've been there, done that, don't need my boyo to go through that.

Besides...I think he'll learn a whole lot more, more quickly, at home.

He won't have to deal with schoolmates liking or not liking him.
He won't have to deal with bullying.
He won't have to deal with having to decide...do I stick up for this child being bullied or do I run away so I don't have to deal with it or get hit for sticking up for him?
He won't have to deal with teachers pushing their own agendas (just his parents doing that!)

So, how do I answer the questions of socialization?
Should I just say...it's not a concern for me?
I'd rather he learn how to function as a Christian in society, than that he spend his days with same age students learning how to social with them?
That yes, I will enter him in sports...but not because I want him to socialize, but because I want him to learn to use his body and to work co-operatively and to learn from someone other than me in something. If he makes new friends in the process... cool, if not, that's okay too. :)

I'm not too worried I guess about the whole socialization. I figure he'll make friends in time. :)

But what do you think?

Useful sites perhaps?

Here is a site that might prove beneficial down the road. It is called Homeschooling Plus.

And another site that might provide useful helps. A to Z Home's Cool.

Teaching your Child to read

Found this post on different ways to teach your child to read, from the very simple start of learning the ABC's and so forth.

• Step One: Learn the alphabet.
• Step Two: Connect beginning sounds to alphabet letters.
• Step Three: Connect ending sounds with alphabet letters.
• Step Four: Put letter sounds together to make words.
  
  

Books vs DVD's

Hmmm.. this post by Homeschool Australia caused me to once again appreciate the art of having a good book collection. :) Do books instead of DVD's. :)

Scott Foresman Online Grammar & Writing Handbook

My thanks to Sprittibee for pointing my way to this site.
As Sprittibee says

The Scott Foresman Online Grammar and Writing Handbook (a FREE curriculum) this week. We started using it yesterday and I really like it! .......The worksheets are quality PDF files and you can print them by section from a neatly organized table of contents.

Homeschool Math blog

I have to admit, I like the Homeschool Math Blog. I find lots of interesting things posted here. Some of free, others are not. I like the freebies, but mostly I like the ideas for teaching math that I find posted there.

This week she linked to this site. This site will help me not to have to make up so many of my own work sheets.. and gives me ideas for making sheets of my own that I can post up for others. :) Neat huh? :)

Children's book Lists

New blog to me: called The Thinking Mother

Found this post on Children's book lists.

It seems to me that there are two main types of book lists.

1. The first is a list of books that someone thinks are worthwhile to read. There are two general subsets of that kind of list:

A. Lists that make good read aloud’s; those books are not matched to the child’s independent reading ability, the adult reads the book to the child and the child can comprehend and enjoy books many years above the “independent reading level”.

B. The other type is used by adults to match content to a child, such as finding books that reinforce certain morals or character traits, finding books about horses, finding books on a science or history topic for the child’s personal interest OR to teach the child that topic in a school or homeschool situation (usually).

......

2. The other kind of list is a list of books with ratings by independent reading level of a child. Those lists are desired by teachers mainly, by homeschooling parents and by parents as well (if the parent is doing their own research rather than just using a book that the school recommends). Those lists are for both fiction and non-fiction. They can be used to help a child learn to read and they can also be used to find books that a child can read to themselves to teach themselves about a topic (rather than being read aloud to).

It can be a challenge to find book lists. Some are made into books, others are posted in on-line forums, and still others are made in a variety of ways.

When going through a book list, make sure you are aware of the author's bias. Make sure that you know what your child can handle.

Sounds a lot like using common sense.

I thought the article interesting and worth remembering.

F.A.M.I.L.Y

I have to admit, I saw this trick to learning how to spell family, and it made me smile.
AND I kept saying it over and over again to my 19 month old lad.

It's posted over at Homeschooling Asperger's, post called FAMILY.

Talking to Learn

I have to admit, I often think best while talking out loud.

So when I read this post Talking to Learn it made sense to me.

It reminded me of when I was in college, I would short form all my notes and then I would find an empty classroom, and I would "teach" the class what I needed to learn for my exam. I kept things in my noggin so much longer than when I silently went over and over my notes to learn them.

Mike closes his post with this line.

If you truly want to learn something in a way that it becomes part of you, then develop a lifelong habit of speaking out loud to aid in the process.

Pick Me Ups

I have to admit, this post from My Domestic Church got my brain spinning with ideas. :)

I liked all the neat ways she has listed for doing things differently to get oneself going again.

I am learning that doing things differently is just what a homeschool situation needs. :)

Instead of Negative, Find Positive

I have to admit, I like this turn of phrase. I found this at Information Age Education.

Making the point instead of seeing the negative, find a way to state a positive. I have to admit, I'm not so sure of some of the language used, but I did like the basic point.

Instead of asking question such as these:

* Why am I so bad at math?
* Why do I always get in trouble and my little brother doesn’t?
* Why do you always pick on me?
* Why can’t I ever find my homework?
* Why am I so broke all of the time?
* Why can’t I loose weight?

Ask questions such as these:

* Why am I so organized?
* Why is it easy for me to concentrate in class?
* Why do I love school?
* Why do I get such great grades?

Other questions that a person could ask themselves include:

Questions you may want to use to transform your class:

• Why are students so helpful?
• Why do I love my job so much?
• Why do I have such engaging lessons that require little prep?
• Why do my students listen to and follow directions the first time?

And here are some to transform the teaching profession (and a lot of other jobs too):

• Why do I get paid so well?
• Why is my work appreciated and acknowledged?
• Why am I so respected?
• Why do I love my job?

DVD: Egypt Eternal, The Quest for Lost Tombs

This post gives a review on National Geographic DVD: Egypt Eternal, The Quest for Lost Tombs.

This is what the poster has to say

Told through the eyes of three different archeologists, it's a refreshing change from many of the snoozers out there. The imagery is rich and captivating. The music is mysterious and fun (great for bellydance moves!) and the information is not so heavy that it becomes overload. The archeologists do a stellar job of bringing their finds to life and it is clear that their work is very much their passion in lif

Government takes child

I read this article and I was horrified. I found it courtesy of Semicolon.

It bothers me that children are forgotten and families are torn apart because of state-decisions that their way is the only way and who cares who gets hurt in the process.

Makes me glad I live in a country and province where home-schooling is considered just fine, and where acceptance is given.

God has shown his blessing to us in yet another way!

Rote Memorization

Homeschooling Hints posts this article on the value on rote memorization. It's something that I plan to do with Justin, so this article I found helpful.

I liked this paragraph

Another reason we have all but abandoned memorization in schools is today's overly entertained society. I'm all for making learning fun, but life is not just one big game. Children need to learn to do things that are difficult for the sense of accomplishment that it brings. This fosters a good work ethic and also teaches them to persevere in their personal relationships. Giving praise and rewards along the way will encourage them when they do not always see the bigger picture.

A Country Fair

I think this is a neat idea, to organize a country fair (not a fall fair, a country fair) with other homeschoolers in order to learn about different countries of the world.

I found this idea at A Child's Geography.

Researching

How to do good research.

A new to me blog, called the Success Files, has a well-laid out post on doing good research. The post is called Finders Keepers.

Should check out the rest of the blog. Looks like a rather informative one.

Population and other statistics

Discovered an interesting website. Population and country ranks. Done by the folks at geographic.org. A person can look up how a country ranks according to it's population, land mass, military and such like. Interesting to see where Canada ranks in it all. :)

I traced back and this seems to be home page here.