Review: Beekeeper's Lab

Do you know what we discovered the other day?   A BEE's Nest!!!!   In our own backyard!   It wasn't a honeybee, just a normal bumblebee... doesn't matter though, the lad and I were so excited, and we carefully covered up the nest again (and reinforced it with other wood). When Gramma stopped in the afternoon, she was delighted as well and had the lad show her where the bee lived.   We like having easy going bees flitting about the house, so imagine our delight when the "Beekeeper's Lab" showed up in the mail!  :)

Kim Lehman is an author who knows bees well, having been a hobby beekeeper for 20 years and a contributing author to various bee publications and coordinating the Kids and Bees program.  She writes with a desire not only to teach, but help people really learn and see the beauty that can be found in all aspects of care-taking bees.

Her book has 8 chapters, covering everything you can think of in the world of keeping bees.  Each section is called a lab and can be everything from information to an experiment or art project that you can do. From providing the bees a safe home to working with beeswax and honey. It closes with a whole section on how to be helpful to bees.  This is a very informative and fun book about beekeeping.

Each page is filled with tons of images to delight and inform.  The images further explain the well written text enabling you to complete each project well.

Help bees find a home

How to make fire starters

On almost every page you will find a supply list, bee buzz (Tidbits of information about bees), Fun with Kids, how to take it further, and a safety note (only if required). 

All these helpful features make the Beekeeper's Lab a very helpful and informative book.  I am actually looking at sourcing out some of these materials to do a co-op class since alas.. I have no bees from which to take honey or wax.  :)  I think it would be fun to make honey sticks and beeswax art.  To help youth make smoker bundles and bee bread.  Learning about bees, their importance, their usefulness to mankind and how to protect them is vitally important to our food chain.  Keep the bees, keep the food, sustain life.   A good thing that!

I wonder if anyone will join me in making a wax candle holder?

 

Or perhaps make a whole host of the other crafts and projects found within the pages of this marvellous book all about bees?   52 different ideas.  Pick and choose or do one activity a week for a whole year!  :)  You will find activities that will challenge your teens or delight the littles and everyone in between.  Science, art, bee care, 52 different labs to entertain, delight, educate and inspire everyone in your family.

The Beekeeper's Lab: 52 Family Friendly Activities and Experiments Exploring the Life of the Hive.
Author: Kim Lehman.
Publisher: Quarry
144 pages
250 photos
8.5 x 8.5 inches
Reviewed for: The Quarto Group

Where can you find this treasure trove?

 Amazon.ca - Beekeeper's Lab: 52 Family-Friendly Activities and Experiments Exploring the Life of the Hive

 Amazon.com - Beekeeper's Lab: 52 Family-Friendly Activities and Experiments Exploring the Life of the Hive

This post may contain affiliate links - using affiliate links from A Net in Time helps fuel this blog and our homeschool - thank you! ©2006-2017 A Net In Time. All rights reserved. All text, photographs, artwork, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written consent of the author. A Net In Time/

Walking with the Waodani and a Boy's Questions

For the past few weeks, my lad and I have had the joy of Walking with the Waodani, as a review, a four part study put together by the Home School Adventure Co.. Imaging history, seeing God in action, trying new recipes and talking....oh the conversations we've had.  :)

 Walking with the Waodani is a four part study Lesson 1 = Shell Mera (Then), Lesson 2 = Shell Mera (Now), Lesson 3 (Ecuador) and Lesson 4 (Quito). For the purposes of this review we mostly worked with lesson 1 and 2.   It was created by the Home School Adventure Co., a company that has produced such wonderful resources such as Philosophy Adventure and Philippians in 28 weeks.  Producers of faith-centred products to broaden our hearts and minds. 

We received the preview version of this brand new study, it's a study near and dear to Stacy Farrell's heart, as she's been working on it for the past four years, gathering information, conducting interviews and just learning about an amazing group of people.  :)

We start off meeting a young man who made a great trip into Ecuador with an older mentor, where he met the Waodani.  In case you didn't know, the Waodani is the preferred name for Auca, the group of savage natives who killed a group of missionaries (the Nate Saint story) back in the day.

Each lesson is set up the same with lesson introduction, people & places, meals & markets, animals & agriculture and worlds and worldview.    We get the chance to read blog posts that further our education, interact with websites, and fulfill worksheet requirements.   The worksheets (taking the form of a travel journal) had a variety of components to it... question and answers about the material (often found in a blog post), a chance to rate a recipe, draw a picture of a favourite animal learned about and ... a creative writing opportunity.

I have to admit that my son freaked out the first time he saw one of these.  He was completely flummoxed and I needed to explain it a few times.   Once he figured it out though, he simply had fun with it.  It was indeed a joy to read, and for lesson two he was asking "What do I get to do this week?"   He did this work sitting on the computer as getting this lad to hand write anything is like pulling teeth.  :)  He was so very very pleased with his efforts when completed, but not enough to share them with everyone. :)  I honoured his request by hiding most of his work.   I expect that week three would cause him to grin...writing about a giant sloth snatching him away... it's an adventure!!!

Admittedly part of the work didn't interest him in the way intended, my story telling lad, rather than draw an animal  would instead tell me a story about the animal he would have drawn if he felt like it, stories about ants and a jaguar.   It's good to have the details in story form and hear about why he chose that animal and all the information he knows.

My son thoroughly appreciated the aspect of judging a recipe.  He thought roasted grubs would be good but was rather unsure about the live ones.  He would have liked to try them, but frankly...where does one find live eating grubs in Canada in the middle of winter?   I had no idea, and wasn't keen enough on the idea to research it.  :)

  Our fish experiment.. well.. let's just say that making up the fish recipe was not a hit in our household and lead to me making my first ever fish chowder.  A great way to use up the fish that I didn't want wasted.  :)

Lesson three has a meal that intrigues me, but not sure what the guys will think of it.  Good to experiment with new things though eh?     I am looking forward to reading through the history with my lad, I am positive he will ask lots of interesting questions. 


I have to admit that has been my favourite part of this unit study.... watching my lad's eyes as he learns new information and thinks about the sacrifice people make.   Families lose the husband/father ...and then go and serve among the people who killed them.  Changing an entire culture. 

Sussing out that sometimes "civilized" societies help best when they step back out of the way and let the "natives" handle things themselves... as the natives know best what works in their own culture.

We've had delightful conversations and those moments I treasure.  :)  OH... and the laughter... we laughed at some of the exploits of that young man.

You know you have options right?   You can easily complete one lesson over the course of a week (each day is colour-coded for ease), or you can stretch it out over a month.  You can use the material as a jumping off point for a more in-depth study of Ecuador, missionary work among indigenous people, innovative methods for travel and so much more. 

What else can I tell you?
I haven't seen the entire study as week four has yet to be released (along with a blog post).   I know you can see it in the store HERE.  I know that the price is flexible with the anticipation of $14.95 for the digital edition and $18.95 for the print edition.

I know there will be a giveaway involved in the release but beyond that....

It's a great study and I think you and your students/children could get a great deal out of it.  Seeing God in action, being inspired to try new foods, learning about some wonderful animals, seeing how a people group functions that is completely different than one's own and more.  I know that you should come prepared to laugh, to think, to be surprised and filled with wonder at God's amazing work.  Learn the history, learn the geography and the people.  It's good stuff indeed.  

This unit study covers geography, history, social studies, culture, and more.  It is a flexible curriculum that should suit most learning styles and families. 

 If you want to stay informed about the release, click here to stay in the loop.

 Other products being reviewed are: 
 Creative Freewriting Adventure which will also include the Creative Freewriting Adventure Coloring Book Edition  
I'd Rather Be Your Mommy, which includes I'd Rather Be Your Mommy Coloring Book Edition and the I'd Rather Be Your Mommy Print Set  
Celebrating Manhood: a rite of passage guide 

A couple of updates you might be interested in:

1. Digital Download $18.95

2. Print Edition: $21.95

3. Subscriber Preview can be found here.

 

Find us on social media 

 Twitter:  https://twitter.com/HomeSchoolAdven  @HomeSchoolAdven
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Hashtags: #hsreviews #celebratingmanhood #waodani #CreativeFreewriting

Where the lad learns early start, early end.

Monday:
Basics done quickly, wants to do no school at Gramma's other than playing a game and reading.

Tuesday:
Schooling done: but I'm sick so stayed out of the way.    He did everything on his list easily and quickly.  He's learned starting earlier means he is done earlier.  New sword was made.

Wednesday:
On fire with life today, schooling done quickly.   No Foodbank since I was still sick.
Sword broken in stupid accident.  New components purchased.  My fault the accident happened so headachy and icky feeling out we went to get needed supplies.    The lad worked on his iceberg experiment.   This is a redo of the experiment we tried last week but there were too many variables that were problematic.  The lad took the initiative to reconfigure it to be more accurate.  This allowed me to introduce writing a lab report in practice.  Been talking about it, now doing it.  He dictated this one to me.

Thursday:

On fire: schooling done quickly.
Introduced: reading about Canadians.  Picking one from three books I have, reading it and then telling me about it.   He was supposed to read one chapter but forgot the other day so read two today.   He narrated about Norman Bethune and Madeleine de Vercheres.

We had a pleasant surprise of learning more from an ART video about the human skeleton than from some of the medical ones we tried.

Friday:

I woke up feeling hollow and rather late...the lad was doing well with his schooling and was almost done. I asked him what his plans were for when he finished his schooling... he said "build a new sword mom". I said okay... build a sword! I got a Huge THANK YOU and a hug and off he went.

Fridays is our do it different day... we do almost everything differently except for bible and history. We normally do art, some type of STEM project and a fun word knowledge book. The work he does building a sword easily qualifies as a STEM project so it was easy to let him go. 


Saturday:

The lad had "cadet-o-rama" today so was gone most of the day. Hubby and I went out for breakfast and then since he's still not feeling well from the bug that soared through our house this week we went home and chilled.

I got a HUGE number of blog posts up and scheduled. We chatted and watched movies and just had a lovely quiet day. I also got the young bunnies photographed and my website updated. A good productive day.

Reviews:
Love is in the air, Love is in picture books. review of two picture books.
 Art Series: The Art of Cursive Logic.  A rather neat idea of a colouring book.

 
Faith and Life: 
Breathe in...out.  A poem for a word prompt party.
To what way does your heart turn?  Devotion from Ezekiel 33.
Recipe: Tuna Melts. 
The watchmans' Job Description.  Devotion from Ezekiel 33. 
Hymn Study: I come to the garden Alone.
Sunday Sermon: Your Own Personal Jesus.
 
Homeschooling: 
STEM: 3D St. Peter's Basilica.  Made a 3D puzzle of St. Peter's Basilica.
Lab Report on Icebergs. 
Learning about Canada: Artic Tern.  A quick report on Artic Tern, a teaching post for the lad.
C is for O Canada.  An ABC blogging post.
January Book Reads.   Books read over the past month.
Reluctant Artist - What do you do?  a practical guide to overcoming reluctance.  

Linking up at the following Places:
 
Homeschool Highlights.
Family Friday Link Ups:
Weird Unsocialized homeschoolers: Weekly Wraps Up.
Homeschool blog and tell.

Art Series: Arnold's Extraordinary Art Museum

I have to admit, when I first opened this book I thought...okay.. what kind of a weird little art book is this?  So I read it through, and then read it again because it intrigued in it's in weirdness. It's weirdness turned into a quirky way of  presenting different forms of art and ended up really intriguing
me.  I think it will intrigue you too.

 You might be asking, what makes this book quirky?

Well, it's done in a comic book format, it's a lovely hardcover book with great colour throughout from front to back.  The characters are a tad unusual, but they all have a great attitude and they all work with each other.

Arnold puts on an art show for his friends.   He is the collector and curator of the art museum, who wants to share his art collection with his friends.   He leads them on a marvelous adventure and they all learn much.

 Imagine if you could go to an art museum where you actually have to experience the art yourself.. like crawling through a tunnel to get to a Japanese tea room?  What if you learned how fascinating the colour blue was and how hard it was to prefect it?

Could you see a urinal as a piece of art?  Find it interesting to learn why ultramarine was used so often in pictures of the Madonna?  What about seeing the shadows or spaces of objects as the intrigue of artists?   I learned so much from this book, it was very neat.

At the close of the book, images of the actual art used and where they are found is depicted.   Some of the pieces were quite interesting, some more so after the reasoning behind them was given.

 It was so interesting to learn more about the different forms that art can take and some of the history and thought that go on behind them.  There is more to art than what you can just see.

I do have to tell you that I used this book with my art class....and they were delighted.  This book really resonated with my art students.   Check out the art project they came up.  :)

They started with circles and exploring that space, then someone got the bright idea of exploring what they can do with their hands, and then ...what if we mixed colours together and swirled them around, and what if we drop lids upside and ... it kinda went on and on from there.   It was a great finish off for our art class as the students had learned to work together and feed off each others ideas.  

 Arnold's Extraordinary Art Museum

Written/Illustrated by:
Catherine Ingram and Jim Stoten

Published by: Laurence King

Size: 10.1 x 12.06 ·

64 pages
Ages 7 and up

Reviewed For: Raincoast Books.


Amazon affiliate links are provided for your ease of finding this quirky book.  It doesn't affect your bottom line and blesses my heart more than you know.  :)   No pressure, but if you are intrigued by the book, get it!  Links are below.
 Amazon.ca: Arnold's Extraordinary Art Museum

Amazon.com: Arnold's Extraordinary Art Museum

Art Series: Art Lab for Kids

Welcome Wren to my blog today!!!   Yes, she is a total sweetheart to help me out with my art series.  She's going to be talking about a wonderful book called Art Lab of Kids by Susan Schwake.   You will normally find Wren (and her sister) blogging at FinchnWren.

How do you approach art in your home or homeschool? Are you a naturally talented artist yourself, for whom art creation just flows out? Or, are you someone who would love to teach art but have no ideas of where or how to start? Let me encourage you, if you fit into this last category: it’s much easier than you imagine! Even if you are not a trained artist, you really can teach the subject of art to your own children. There are so many books and resources available today to help you along in this. I’d like to share a very well-rounded book to help you in this journey: Susan Schwake’s ART LAB FOR KIDS. I refer to this book all the time for both our own homeschool art, and for the art class I teach in our local homeschool coop. What a resource!

 

ART LAB FOR KIDS is subtitled “52 Creative Adventures in Drawing, Painting, Printmaking, Paper, and Mixed Media.” Practically, that means you could take one adventure per week and have a year’s worth of art to do in your homeschool! Ms. Schwake’s book contains practical, step-by-step instructions, lots of photos, and pictures of completed artworks so that the artist (or mom) understands exactly how to teach and create each project. The author also provides a great resource list of recommended media in the first section, explaining how different ones work and can be used. She is an artist and art teacher with 20 years’ experience, so she brings both the ability to clearly teach and a huge depth of art idea resources to the reader.

ART LAB FOR KIDS has sections which cover the following:

• How to use the book and how to create art with others
• Drawing (ink, scribble, pastels, crayon, and more)
• Painting (miniature, Fauvist, charcoal, watercolor, tempera, etc.)
• Printmaking (silkscreen, stencil, cardboard relief, gelatin, and more)
• Paper (stamps, tissue, torn-paper, Pop Art, vellum…)
• Mixed Media (charcoal/watercolor, photos, watercolor and pencil, portraits, batik…)

While I think that ART LAB FOR KIDS would be ideal used as a curriculum, I have personally just read through it many times and selected specific art projects to teach, based on what my students were learning or what we found most interesting. Some projects we thoroughly enjoyed completing were painting an enlarged tiny section of a painting on a small square; “Painting in the Style of...,” and “Text as Texture.” And that’s only a fraction of the projects offered in this book. We’re looking forward to painting on tiny pieces of wood; reverse landscapes; gelatin monoprinting; and many more!

 

I recommend this book for anyone who’d like to go deeper into the world of artmaking, or art teaching, in a variety of art styles. These vivid, fascinating projects will keep you busy for hours and hours, happily creating!

Enjoy!

Wren from FinchnWren.

You can find this book through my affiliate links (helping to support this blog).

Amazon.ca

Art Lab for Kids: 52 Creative Adventures in Drawing, Painting, Printmaking, Paper, and Mixed Media-For Budding Artists of All Ages

Amazon.com

Art Lab for Kids: 52 Creative Adventures in Drawing, Painting, Printmaking, Paper, and Mixed Media-For Budding Artists of All Ages (Lab Series)

Linked up here:

Donna Young

DonnaYoung.org Printables and Resources

This web site is built by Donna Young and is an on-going project since 1998. Donnayoung.org offers free homeschool planners, homeschool planning tips, school calendars, household planners, and printables in various subjects.

before I lose these...homeschool helps

Full year notebook system. Costs $30

Highland Heritage Forms.

AAbc homeschooling.

HomeSchool Centre.

Home School Enrichment.

Old Fashioned Education.

Homeschooling, who me?

Ambleside Online.

DonnaYoung.org

homeschoolcorner.

homeschooling resources.

unschooling.com

the homeschoolplace.

the gateway

knowledge house.

homeschooling today - journal of homeschooling

homeschool oasis

homeschool learning network.

home school foundation

homeschoolers connecting.

Money and Children

Fun Money Lessons for Children

Watching money in action is a great way for kids to learn about how it works and what it means. There are many opportunities to turn everyday activities into money management lessons. You probably have your own, but here a few ideas to get you started.

At the grocery store. Children love making grown-up choices, so give them a budget and let them be in charge of selecting one or more items on your list. Before you go shopping, clip coupons together and reward them with the money you save.As they get older, hone their bargain-hunting skills by showing them how to comparison-shop, how to spot deals, and the differences (and cost savings) between generic and brand names.

At the restaurant. Whether you're eating take-out or dining out, give children a set amount of money and instructions to order a healthy meal. They'll practice budgeting and learn to check for what's included with their meal. As they get older, introduce them to the concepts of tax and tipping.

Playtime for the very young set. Set up play stores or restaurants with toy cash registers, coins, and groceries/food items.

At the ATM machine. Talk to your children about where money comes from, that you've earned it by working, and that you can only withdraw as much as you have in your account. When they're older, have them press the buttons and enter transactions at the bank machine.

Paying bills. When you're paying bills online, show kids that things like watching TV, using the phone, and turning on the lights all have to be paid for. While you're at it, talk about the difference between wants and needs, and the value of planning for long-term goals.

Education tip: Paying with cash rather than credit or debit cards will help your children understand how money is exchanged for goods and services. Let them figure out how much to give the cashier and verify the change. Ask for your change in small bills or coins to gives children an opportunity to recognize money and count it.

The entrepreneurial spirit. Support your child's interest in starting a business. From traditional lemonade stands, paper routes, lawn mowing, or selling crafts, children feel empowered by earning their own income. Use this fun opportunity to help them understand input costs (for the lemons, sugar, and cups), revenue and profits.

Saving. Consider giving your young children three piggy-banks — for saving, spending, and charity. Let them decorate the containers and have them help decide what proportion of their income (including allowance, gifts, or tooth-fairy money) goes into each. Swap piggy-banks for a real savings account around age 10.

Some folks I've heard do four piggy-banks just to make the math easier for their children. Saving, spending, charity and rainy day planning.

Money and the use of it can be taught most anywhere.

Much of this information was presented by "the Vault" from Scotiabank.

Reasons to Homeschool

I have to admit, I liked these. :)

Top Reasons To Home School Your Children

1. Studies show that home-schooled children average between the 80th and 90th percentile, regardless of the socio-economic background, or educational level of the parents.
Great student teacher ratio.
Very good communication between the student, teacher and parents.
The student can’t lie about their homework.
With a class size of one, they can’t copy anybody else's work.
The curriculum is in perfect agreement with the values of the parents.
The children will not bring bad habits home from school.
The pace of learning will be geared to the ability of each child, not the lowest common denominator.
You don’t have to fix lunch in the morning.
Children will be better adjusted socially if they don’t learn social skills from the street gangs.
Without peer pressure, they learn to think for themselves, not just parrot what the “group wants to hear”.
Every educator agrees that parental involvement is the key to success in a child’s education. How could one be more involved?
Your child will never be “just a number” in the classroom.

AND THESE ONES TOO!

The Top 20 Reasons to Home-school

20. Your kids never tell you that you're a lot dumber than their teacher.

19. If you can't find matching socks for your child first thing in the morning, who cares?

18. Cleaning out the refrigerator can double as chemistry lab.

17. Your kids never have a reason to think they'll get beat up by a gang at school.

16. If the principal gives the teacher a bad evaluation, she can stick her icy feet against his legs at night.

15. You can post the Ten Commandments on your school room wall, and you won't get sued.

14. You never have to drive your child's forgotten lunch to school.

13. Your child will never go to their 20th high school reunion, meet an old flame, and recklessly abandon their marriage.

12. You get to change more than diapers, you get to change their minds.

11. If you get caught talking to yourself, you can claim you're having a PTA meeting.

10. It's better to be slightly concerned about socialisation than very concerned about socialism.

9. Your child will never suffer the embarrassment of group showers after PE.

8. The only debate about the school lunch program is whose turn it is to cook.

7. You never have to face the dilemma of whether to take your child's side or the teacher's side in a dispute at school.

6. If your child gets drugs at school it's probably Tylenol.

5. The teacher gets to kiss the principal in the faculty lounge and no one gossips.

4. Your kids recognize that this list is numerically in reverse order.

3. Your honour student can actually read the bumper sticker that you have put on your car.

2. If your child claims that the dog ate his homework you can ask the dog.

1. Some day your children will consider you to be a miracle working expert and will turn to you for advice.

Some blogs entries to consider a bit further

I liked this one from School of thought as it gave good answers to why people are concerned about homeschooling vs public schooling.

Heart of Harmony helps us consider steps to take when making a child's garden.

I can't say that poetry is my thing, and I think I will find teaching it a tad bit difficult, but teach poetry I shall at least attempt. This post from Higher up and Further talks about poetic narration (whatever that is)

Free math worksheets (PDF format) at Twaddle-free math handouts.

High Desert hi-jinks brings a post on resources for doing a fox study.

My Domestic Church has a recommendation for using material from Bravewriter. Sounds like it might be a good program to use.

Friday Freebies from This Old Schoolhouse

I'm catching up so here's a hodgepodge of freebies on-line to help with homeschooling.

You Need a Story. you need to go to his site to sign up for his free weekly newsletter. Each newsletter will have a story. This is part of what he has to say:

At our house, reading aloud to the children is one of the pillars of their early education. And when I read to my own, I'd love to have your young'ns gather 'round with them. There's always room for a couple more.

In fact, if you'll let me know where to send it, I'll be glad to email you a FREE audio story each and every week in our FREE Weekly Newsletter. Sometimes I'll do the reading, sometimes it may be someone else. But each installment brings you an exhilarating audio adventure ---unabridged, of course---to enrich your children's minds (not to mention keep them occupied with something beneficial while you get other things done). The selection may be one of the great classics. Or, it may be one of those hidden gems from the vast wealth of children's literature. Or, it may be an enthralling story that has never yet been published. But it will always be clean, wholesome, and enjoyable for the whole family.

Home with Kids has a number of links that go to free homeschooling resources. this is what they have to say:

Most of the links listed below will take you to free resources. There are so many wonderful free educational sites now available online, that I can't possibly list them all. Use the links below as a starting point, but don't be afraid to explore what the world wide web has to offer.

The International Bible Society has a couple of videos that can be viewed on "who is Jesus" and "he has done it" Check them out.

Want to make a smoothie with your children? Check out Elkan's Paradise Smoothie.

I haven't had the time to really listen to this site called Just One More Book. It is a podcast on books.

Lessons at Home with Kids. This is a site with different monthly activities. A link that is from the same folks also does activities topically.

Family Education has a St Patricks day activity, a craft, and st paddy's cookie recipe.

Handwriting Helps

This Old Schoolhouse sends out emails to me every week. They often have a great deal of good information in them. Today's email contained places to find help with teaching children good handwriting skills.

These are the links

ready for kindergarten. This page lists a bunch of different activities to help children learn skills they need in order to perform other skills later. Good resource I think.

ABC teach. This site allows a person to download pages to help with learning how to print and write. Saves a person time in having to create these pages on their own. In the long run, this is a paid for service site, but they do have some pages listed for free.

Handwriting Worksheets. The URL in this page seems to indicate that is also comes from the ABC teach page, but the page is set up differently. Whether it is or not, free pages saves me time and energy in making them myself.

ESL Writing Wizard brings us this site on writing in Paragraphs.

Handwriting for Kids. Basic copying pages for children to learn good style in printing.

I managed to continue this theme by doing a search on my own.

Young Minds Handwriting Practice Sheets. Some of their items have been discontinued on-line and need to be purchased, but they contain more than the practice your letters pages. They have some "pre-writing" pages as well.

Tracer pages is a rather neat site. They allow you to make differently themed pages using different styles of printing. I never knew that there were different styles before. Apparently there is Zaner-Bloser, d'nealian, and cursive. Cursive I knew but the other two I did not.

Handwriting Pages is a site the is a compilation of handwriting pages on the web. I have not looked through all the sites, the ones I saw looked either useless or okay.

Alphabet Printable Materials this site looks promising.

Handwriting worksheets has this to say about itself

Print the Handwriting Worksheets to make a handwriting book for each letter of the alphabet. For each letter, there are 5 different printable handwriting worksheets for 2 styles of writing. The first five are Zaner Bloser style, the next five are D'Nealian style. Print the handwritng worksheets and bind together to make a book.

There were lots more pages that I could examine, but I figured this gave me a place to start.
We are as of yet, a couple years away from printing, and at least four from writing. :)

Renee's helps for me

Renee in Kingville sent me these links

Getting started in Homeschool.

Free Homeschool curriculum.

Alpha Omega Publishers.

Homeschool Curriculum Help.

This way I keep the links in case I lose the email! :)

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?

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!

articles I like to look at further

Making your own Rock Tumbler.

Christmas, wisemen, DVD.

Working on financial freedom. My idea is to teach Justin what I do. 10 percent right off the top. 1-2 percent just for saving for NEVER touching unless really need to. 10 percent for just saving for whatever. and the rest for spending as desired.

Record keeping for homeschooling.

Might want to think on this a wee bit.

rhymes for doing math.

Things to consider when homeschooling. and knowing it's okay to have to process it all.

questions to consider if you are doing okay homeschooling.

Evaluating your homeschool program.

English type stuff.. reading and comprehension. What to consider.

For archives of the Carnival of homeschooling, go here.

an article to read

Make your own Playdough!
3 C. cold water
1 1/2 C. salt
1/4 C. oil
3 C. flour
2 T. cream of tartar
1 T. vanilla
food coloring and (if you really want it to smell yummy) a couple of packets of Kool-Aid

Place liquid ingredients in a large pan. Quickly add dry ingredients. Heat on low. Stir constantly until dough pulls away from sides of pan. Cool. Add food coloring.

You're good to go! Store in a tightly sealed container or baggie.

A Place to buy science stuff

Science kit is a place online to get science equipment.

Can also check out places such as Scholars Choice, Discovery Toys, teacher supply stores, or GeoSafari. Depends on the age of child and items required.

Economics book

This is a recommended book for homeschoolers that talks about economics.

Whatever Happened to Penny Candy? A Fast, Clear, and Fun Explanation of the Economics You Need For Success in Your Career, Business, and Investments