Sites I would like to look at again

Story Sites

The Story Home.

Here you will find original and classic children's audio stories. Every other week, The Story Home will offer a brand new story read to you by a very special storyteller named Alan, for FREE!

Kids Audio

We have over 200 audio stories in MP3 format for you to download and enjoy with your family and friends

Why not try our Reading Books? Or if you enjoy Colouring, choose from the Colouring Books section

teaching sites

Illuminations

I got the above site through Teach-nology.

Family Life

Families with purpose.

From the joyful celebrations of family nights to the wild and wacky fun of science experiments, our family fun section offers a host of great ideas for every family.

Teaching Made Easier

Teaching Made Easier is a site that I"m currently testing out.

So far it seems to have it's quirks, I can also see it's potential.

I had an email sent to me about it, and of course, now I can't find it. Anyways, that's just weird.

So it has a list creator and a variety of ways to make the same list in different ways. Vocab lists, bingo, games, and so forth. Haven't figured out yet if they do crosswords and such like.

Anyways, give it a boo if you are interested.

these are the types of activities that you can create.

Geography Layouts

I get an occasional bulletin from the homeschool e-store. I find it a useful bulletin, most come focused on one thing or the other.

This week it came with some good geography lesson planning ideas.

Geography Reference Tools
By Maggie Hogan

Assigning students to label maps or to do some other mapping project is a great hands-on way to instill map skills. But don’t jump in too soon! Before making assignments, it’s vital to: Instruct students in the use of geography reference tools!

Choose appropriate reference material. Consider:

* Typeface. Look carefully at the font style and size. If it’s too small for the student to read clearly, it will cause frustration. Younger students need bigger, clearer fonts.

* Lay-out and design. Busy and detailed maps that may appeal to a high school student may easily frustrate a fifth grader.

* Content. Look for atlases containing material complimentary to your lesson plans. While studying American history, you’ll be pleased to have a USA atlas on hand. (These too, come in a variety of levels.) Some atlases are almost strictly maps, while others include a wealth of other information: flags, planet and earth statistics, and cultural information.

* Atlas age. Is your only household atlas a ponderous volume from college days? It may be useful for some projects, but its political maps will be hopelessly out of date.

* Variety. No single atlas is going to answer every question asked. One atlas may be strong in political maps, while another is a great atlas for thematic maps, and another has exciting, eye-catching cartography.

* Wall Maps. Look for:
Africa in the center so that Asia isn’t split. (Many American made maps use a projection with the USA centered on the world map. This projections makes the USA look bigger than it really is and has the added disadvantage of splitting Asia in two. It’s hard to explain to younger students why one continent appears on opposite sides of a map!!)
Politically up-to-date.
Pleasing to look at and read.
Enough labeling to be helpful, but not cluttered.
Teach students which reference to use when:

* Road Map - for specific driving directions.

* Wall Map - countries and continents at a glance. Excellent for current events and the “big picture.” Not well suited for detailed map work.

* Globe - countries and continents in relationship with one another. Excellent for physical geography/science topics such as: latitude, longitude, hemisphere, rotation, eclipses, seasons, day and night, time zones, etc. Not well suited for most “find this place” type activities.

* Atlas - for finding specific places, political and physical features, and thematic information such as climate maps, population maps, etc. Not well suited for the “big picture” of physical relationship of continents/countries around the world.

* Almanac - concise information in one easy source on a huge variety of topics. Typically updated yearly. (Think of it as the “highlights” of an encyclopedia.) Not well suited for in-depth studies.

* Encyclopedia - in-depth information on countries, peoples, places, events, etc. Not well suited to current events - only as current as its publishing date.

* Dictionary - concise definition, pronunciation, and spelling of geographic terms. What is a “butte” and how do you say that?!

Excerpted from: The Student History Notebook of America by Maggie S. Hogan. Available from www.BrightIdeasPress.com

Heart of Wisdom

Okay, this looks like an excellent teacher resource page.

Called heart of wisdom.

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.

Friday Freebies

Rather than keeping these in my in-box, I thought I'd post the last few Friday Freebies from The Old Schoolhouse here.

Superkids Math Work Sheet Creator - This is a site that allows a person to create their own math sheets.

Busy Teachers Cafe is a resource place for k-6.

Then there is Silly books. This is a "a cute educational website for the younger ones". It "has more than 60 animated read aloud story books, story songs, fine art games, puzzles and more that help kids learn to read".

a St. Patrick's day unit study by knowledge quest.

Plus Free Learning Resources over at Googol Learning.

And a Valentine's Day Craft from Lighthome Publishers. It's in PDF format.

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.

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?