TOS Planning

Organizing and Planning Your School: Your Special “OPS” Mission

Cheryl Allin, The Old Schoolhouse® Magazine

A

ugust is here, and it’s time to gear up for a new school year. Once again you begin to explore new ideas to organize and plan so that this year will be even more efficiently run than last year. What worked well? What can I do differently? With the kids a year older, and perhaps a new one on board, adjustments need to be made. Or perhaps this is your first year. Whatever your situation, we have a mission for you!

Your mission: a three-phase plan to get you and your family off to a great start.

Phase One: Organizing Your Space

It will take some time to organize your space, but spending a little time now will save you a ton of time later.

Materials needed:

· Home and school planner

· Three empty bins or laundry baskets labeled: keep, donate, and sell

· Trash can

· Different-sized totes, boxes, bins, or baskets, some with lids

· One pencil box per child and one for you

· Masking tape and a permanent marker for labeling bins

· Paper and pen to inventory supplies

· Blank, colored circle stickers (yard sale stickers)

· Cleaning supplies—rags or paper towels and soap or furniture polish

Optional:

· File cabinet

· Plastic drawer organizer

· Recycling bin

· Bookshelves

· Wrapping paper, brown paper sack, or newspaper comics

· 1”x 3” x 4’ piece of wood

· Wood clothespins

· Wood stain

· Clothesline

· Labeler

· Manila folder

· Hanging file folder

· Timer

Step 1: Organize Your Equipment and Papers

Organize important information: Place all important information like Web passwords, budget records, and car maintenance schedules in a home management folder or planner. Organize your address book by updating addresses and phone numbers and add this information to your planner. Immediately open all mail when you receive it and throw junk mail in the trash, file important paperwork, and place current items (bills, coupons, letters) in a manila folder labeled “pending.” Check this folder daily. ¹

Computers: Start by organizing your computer favorites and files. Dedicate folders to homeschooling and the subfolders to subjects in both your bookmarked Internet sites and all computer documents. By doing this you can easily access a Web site or file that you need.

For E-Book (and other large file) storage, you may want to use a USB flash drive. An excerpt from the E-Homeschooling: Embracing the E-Book Revolution (a free TOS E-Book) explains:

“Once the (computer) subdirectory gets too full, I remove it to a plug-in flash drive . . . devoted to homeschooling resources, and only plug the flash drive into my computer when I need an E-Book, want to peruse my E-Books, or add E-Books. It's a really quick process since the flash drive acts as a mapped drive. I keep a directory printout of all of my E-Books for easy reference (and because I like paper directories).”

File cabinets: This is a great organization tool to systemize all important papers both school- and home-related. Contemplate what your needs are to determine the cabinet size. There are many types of cabinets from an inexpensive, portable plastic one to the large, traditional, office file cabinet. Purchase manila folders and hanging file folders and label each by topic. If you already own a cabinet, start at the top drawer and go through each folder, throwing out, recycling, or shredding unwanted papers.

Make your own manila folder by folding large pieces of construction paper in half. If you do use manila folders, write on the tab using a pencil instead of pen (that way you can erase and reuse the folders when you are done with them) and set them in a 14” x 12” cardboard box. Cover the box with wrapping paper, brown paper sack (the children can decorate), or comics from the newspaper for a fun decorative touch. ²

Teacher’s materials: Place all teachers’ guides, planners, and workbooks in a school bag, crate, small box, or a spot in your teacher workspace. Make a pencil box of your own and fill with pens, pencils, hole punch, scissors, and other daily-needed items.

Instead of buying pencil boxes, wash and reuse plastic containers like sour cream, butter, whipped cream, or baby wipes containers. Each can be labeled and decorated with a permanent marker. ³

Step 2: Organize Your School Room

Bookshelves: Homeschoolers usually have more than one bookshelf, even with the E-Book craze! It’s time to organize them.

Empty each bookshelf by sorting items into the correct bins, and clean the shelves. If you need to keep an item but will not use it until next year, put it in an empty tote with a lid. Label the outside of the tote with the item name and store in your garage, closet, or attic.

Separate magazines by title and place each title in a separate magazine holder and return them to the bookshelf.

Use cereal and pancake mix boxes for magazine holders. First, cut off the top flaps. Next, cut half way down one small side, and place your magazines inside! ⁴

Group books by genre and use the color dots to catalogue the books. For example, blue stickers for non-fiction, red for fiction, and green for reference books. Also, label curriculum items the same way, red for math, green for spelling, and write the grade level on the sticker. Replace them on the shelf spine-out by color, grouping as needed. Take this time to make note of what you have and what you will need to purchase for the new school year.

Drawers, cubbies, and desks in the school area: This can be an overwhelming task, so empty one drawer at a time, placing items in the appropriate bin or trash. Wipe the drawers clean. Check that all pens, markers, and art supplies are usable, and throw out what isn’t working. (This is a great job for the kids!) Find a special place or consider buying plastic drawer organizers for supplies, and label each drawer with scissors, pencils, lined paper, white paper, crayons, markers, construction paper, glue, stickers, paints, and brushes. As you work, write a list of school supplies you need for the school year. Situate children’s curricula and pencil box, globes, microscopes, computers, and charts close by their work station.

Watch the sale ads for back-to-school specials, and stock up. Instead of using a plastic drawer organizer, use plastic gallon-sized zip bags and place in a sturdy, decorated cardboard box. ⁵

Last year’s school work: File the papers and projects you need for your records in the file cabinet or tote. Throw away or recycle the rest.

If you find yourself wanting to save everything, consider taking a digital picture of the item and download it on your computer in a file labeled (Child’s name) schoolwork. Dispose of the item. ⁶

Step 3: Organize Children’s Supplies

Make an area for each child’s supplies: a bookshelf, a drawer, or a book bag. Include a pencil box with 3 sharpened pencils (who likes to hear the electric pencil sharpener when instructing!), eraser, calculator, markers and colored pencils, and crayons. Any workbooks, textbooks, and manipulatives they use daily will go in this area. Organize by color coding. Each child gets one color for all their folders and notebooks.

Group manipulatives in see-through containers, such as clear plastic bags or plastic sandwich meat containers, so children can easily identify the contents. ⁷

If you don’t school in just one area during the day, you might also consider mobile storage carts for moving your school supplies to other areas of the house. In the E-Book Dreams and Designs, you will find details on how to do this:

“Narrow computer desks with an upright CD storage area, built in shelves, and a roll-out keyboard space . . . are ideal to convert to rolling storage carts because of their narrow style; they can roll through halls and doorways more easily . . . “

Step 4: Keep Clutter Away

What to do with all the paperwork: At the end of every school day, take any papers and projects and either file them in the child’s portfolio, display them on the wall (see next note on how to display work), take a digital picture, and throw it away or recycle.

Display your child’s work: Make an inexpensive display wall for art projects and special papers out of a piece of 1” x 3” x 4’ wood board with clothespins glued every foot. Your children can color the clothespins with their assigned color and use them to hang their work. Stain the wood and secure on an empty wall with screws and wall anchors. Remember to rotate out work as the year progresses, filing what you need to keep and throwing away or recycling the rest.

You can also hang a clothesline across the wall and hang items on it with the clothespins.⁸

Step 5: Finish

Schedule a time in the next week to donate all items and a time to sell the others at a book sale or on eBay. Follow through!

Step 6: Keep it That Way!

Clean up every day. At the end of the school day, set a timer on ten minutes and involve the whole family in a quick pick-up of the school area. File papers and put items in their assigned spots. Be consistent, and you will be amazed at how organized you stay.

Phase Two: Planning the School Year

Time is something we can never get back, so planning ahead for a smooth school year is top priority.

Step 1: Your Mission Statement

Create or reevaluate your homeschool vision statement. This is a statement that you create as a family and is the foundation of your homeschool. It includes the purpose, mission, and goals of your school.

Step 2: Know the Law

Research that the laws have not changed in your state: Check the HSLDA website for any changes, as well as the number of days your school must be in session.

Step 3: Organize Your Plan

Homeschool planner: Everything will be much easier to plan if you have all of your important papers, both home and school, in one folder or planner. When you need to reference something, you will have it all together. See a sample of one here.

Develop a yearly plan: Jot down your thoughts on these questions:

· What do you want to accomplish this year?

· When do you want time off for birthdays, holidays, and vacations?

· When and where will you have field trips?

· What is the start and end date of the school year?

· What subjects do you want to teach this year?

You can get a rough idea of your school year by placing this information into monthly calendars from your planner. For example, if you want to do a unit study on Thanksgiving in November and take some time off in May, write each in the appropriate month. Next, consider your curriculum. If your math curriculum has 36 chapters and you are schooling twelve months, you should average three chapters a month, so write what chapters you should be working on during that month. Scheduling this way will give you a rough estimate of where you should be if you get off schedule due to unavoidable circumstances.

Phase Three: Implement the Mission!

Complete one or two chores a day for the next few days, and you will see how easy it is to organize and plan for the next school year!

¹ Save time making charts and forms by purchasing The Schoolhouse Planner from The Old Schoolhouse^®. This planner has done all the work for you and combines homeschool and homemaking. It boasts four years’ worth of calendar pages, countless informative articles and charts, mouth-watering recipes, and over 150 charts and forms to aid you in planning your school year. Included are worksheets for keeping track of books on hand, teaching supplies, craft projects, field trips, repair projects, budget, and much, much more.

^2-8 Ideas found at www.econobusters.com.

Copyright 2008 The Old Schoolhouse^® Magazine. Reprinted with permission.

The Old Schoolhouse is having an

After Christmas Sale

The Schoolhouse Store is running a new contest . . . 11 winners per day for 6 days starting December 26! Each day, the first 10 customers in the store to purchase $15 or more win a gift package worth $122.38. In addition, the biggest ticket of the day will win the same gift package.

The gift package includes:

· And Then Mama Said . . . It Takes Time to Learn to Read—value = $9.95

· Homeschooling Methods—value = $14.99

· Publisher's choice of a TOS audiobook—value = $17.95

· Daystar Gift Certificate—value = $10.00

· Greenleaf Handwriting by George—value = $10.00

· Sue Gregg Cooking with Children CD—value = $10.00

· 2-year TOS Magazine subscription—value = $39.00

· Sir Kendrick & the Castle of Bel Lione from Perfect Praise Publishing—value = $8.99

· The Mitten book—value = $1.50

Total value = $122.38

Besides the 11 winners per day, the store has over 38 vendors participating in a HUGE sale. Over 200 items will be marked 20%-50% off. Sale ends December 31.

Organization Sale

Here's a link for a free E-Book, The New School Year: Planning Your Course and Letting the Lord Determine Your Steps. Many parents are choosing to start homeschooling in the middle of the year, and this would be a great resource to share with them.

The Schoolhouse Planner December 2008 Module
The Schoolhouse Planner
One-year print Canadian subscription.

TOS news

Customer #128,000 Takes All!

Have you heard about the Win Big promotion at the Schoolhouse Store? Customer #128,000 gets $499 worth of gifts to include: Biology 101, The Richest Christian Game, Homestead Blessings DVD’s, music CD’s, a $45.00 gift certificate to the Schoolhouse Store, and much more!

But hurry, the store is already on customer #127,257!

Here is the link for more details on the Win Big opportunity:

http://www.thehomeschoolmagazine.com/Homeschooling/You-Could-Win.htm

Click each link below for more information about each product. Free shipping at the Schoolhouse Store! (U.S. only)

November 2009 Module

Molly’s Money Saving Digest: November 2009 Photography

Gift Subscription The Old Schoolhouse® Magazine (don’t forget the coupon code below for the $7.95 sale)

Winter Issue Subscription (include the coupon code below for $7.95)

Text “Use coupon code $7.95”

Use coupon code SUB795

Download and Go Unit Studies by Amanda Bennett

40% off Canadian Subscriptions to TOS

This Old Schoolhouse (TOS) is a really good resource for homeschoolers.

I get the digital subscription because I find that otherwise it's just TOO expensive to get the magazine what with shipping charges and what not between Canada and the US.

BUT they are having a 40% off sale until October 30 (I know, not much time).

They are having a sale on Canadian and international subscriptions. Save 40% on one-year, print subscriptions to Canada and other international locations. Canadian one-year subscriptions are only $17.95, international one-year subscriptions are only $27.95. Very Cool is it not? :)

For those of you who live stateside, they are having a sale for you too! :) What...have one without the others? I think not! :)

Subscribe or renew for one year (U.S., print) and pay only $7.95.
PLUS, receive 10 FREE gifts.

There are 19 gifts from which to choose and you won't even have to pay shipping--that's free too.

Here is a sampling of the available gifts:

• How about a portrait from Sears®?
• Or a $20 gift card from Franklin Springs Media?
• Maybe one year of writing instruction from I Can Write Online?
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Hurry! The 10 gifts are gone at midnight on October 30!

How do you get the 68% savings and 10 free gifts of your choice?

It is so easy to get all of these goodies!

Here's what you need to do:

1. Place the one-year, print (U.S.) subscription in your cart. Or you can purchase a one-year subscription plus current issue (U.S.) for only $5.00 more. Or purchase a gift sub for friends!

2. Enter coupon code 10GIFTS at checkout.
3. Complete the checkout process.
4. We will email you a gift selection form after your purchase.
5. Complete and return this form via email.
6. We'll U.S. mail you 10 gift cards which can be redeemed for the gifts via U.S. mail, though several companies will allow you to redeem online or by phone. All of the companies will pay the shipping to get the product to you--no strings attached.
For our returning customers, you'll enjoy a FREE bonus gift.

With your renewal, you'll receive a FREE copy of Dreams and Designs--Homemade Supplies to Complement Your Homeschool! This bonus E-Book is in addition to the 10 FREE gifts!

So to get your subscription, go here or check it out here. :) Here is the link to the one-year plus current issue subscription and the link to the one-year gift subscription.

Tree Rubbings and more :)

As part of our unit study on Trees, Justin and I headed to the local dam for a walk. We talked trees, rocks, beautiful day, and did some tree rubbings.

We started with practicing with cedar tree leaves.

We did cedar leaves, maple tree bark, birch bark and ??? tree.
We took the leaves home and will put the leaves and rubbings in a book to look at later.

We moved on down the trail where Justin thought that gathering up all the corn leaves would be the safer thing to do. He didn't want people to trip or slip on the corn leaves...because they sneaky mommy! They make you slide and fall!




See that path? it's made by a snapping turtle.
It was at least 16 inches across, led from corn field to the lake.



Our curious of us guests. they got brave enough to come within 30 metres.

Crafting Pages

Make a hand-print turkey.

Justin liked this idea as well, and we have LOTS of baby food jars yet. Stained glass votives.

Fizzy Balls

You just mix 1/4 cup of baking soda, with 4 Tbs. water, and a few drops of food coloring into a dough. Put your little treasure in it and roll into a ball so that it looks like a stone. That's all. Just let them sit in the open air to dry overnight. (hide a small treasure inside)

The next morning you can just put the fizzy stones all in the GladWare box, and put it in a gift bag along with your bottle of vinegar.

You'll want to have a clear measuring cup or bowl handy so that you can pour the vinegar in and watch the magic happen.

The vinegar does lose its potency fairly quickly though so after doing a stone or two, you need to dump out that vinegar and get more before adding another stone.

Personalized memory Game. Thought this one had potential.

Consonants

Here's a sheet to print off for finding the consonants vs. vowels. :) and another by the same folks.

From TLSbooks comes Consonants worksheet and this one too.

Check out this website for free phonics materials which includes learning the consonants!

Kidzone has this page.

Phonicsworld has all kinds of pages.

Free Kindergarten worksheets.

Fun Fonix.

Free printable phonics worksheets, free printable activities, printable workbooks, and phonics worksheet makers from Fun Fonix.com.

Fun Fonix Intro: hard consonants and short vowels with writing practice for each letter

School Express this site has tons of stuff. Will take a while to go through it all.

More links to free sites

Homeschool Resources by the same person who does Mama Jen. From the welcome page:

As the homeschooling mother of five little ones, I am always on the lookout for inexpensive homeschool resources. This is a collection of resource sites that I have found or have been referred to. Many of the sites are completely free! ........ As I discover new sites, I will add them to the list. If you know of sites that should be added, please leave me a comment or email me so that the site can be added. If we put our minds and efforts together, we can spend more time homeschooling and less time searching for resources! So, please check back often and as always,
Happy Homeschooling!!!

More File Folder games

and more FFG again :)

watermelon File folder game

Make your own game boards! This site looks cool!

Activity Village has these file folder games.

Free Reading, a free on-line program for teaching reading Kingergarten to grade three. Here's one program.

Teaching counting skills. These put out by education.com. With Preschool worksheets and much more.

teachers.net has a variety of resources as well.

This is cool! Make a wind chime! :)

Variety of things

Child Care land has free stuff! :) Lots actually. Rather a fun find!

Mathwire. A site for teaching math to children. Looks interesting.

Learning Treasures. Here's a link to a page on Using Mice to learn counting. :)

Kinderplans They have a variety of themes/studies. here's one for working on Number 1-10.

Worksheet Universe. Preschool, Kindergarten and Grade One.

Primary Games. Needs a certain skill with the computer.

AAA Math. Math for children. Looks to have a variety of games/worksheets.

Suite 101 often has articles with links to a variety of resources. here's one for Learning to count.

Using the Spud of Bob the builder to learn counting. On-line activity.

Anyways, I'll add more as I discover them! :)

TOS Information

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It’s a $7.95 value—yours for FREE! Download it now.

Memory Card Maker

My hubby sent this link to me. Once I figured out what it was useful for I thought COOL!

Anyway, it's a memory verse maker.

I'll have to do a search on-line to see if there are any others out there.

Cereal box ideas

Jamin's cereal box ideas.

i want to look at the links here abit more, but thought I'd save this before I lost the link.

The Jesus Storybook Bible

I would like to get this book. The Jesus Storybook Bible.



The blog reviews that I read are very positive.

Written for children ages four and up, The Jesus Storybook Bible tells the one story underneath all the stories of the Bible and points to the birth of a child, the Rescuer, Jesus. Complete with 44 Bible stories, The Jesus Storybook Bible paints a beautiful portrait of Jesus and invites children to see that he is not only at the center of God’s great story of redemption—he is at the center of their story too. Children and adults alike will be captivated by the beautifully written narrative and the original and unique illustrations by accomplished artist Jago. Lloyd-Jones’ powerful gift of storytelling draws the reader into the greatest adventure of all time in an exciting page-turner that kids (and adults) find hard to put down.

File Folder Games

Have I ever told you to go the The Old Schoolhouse and get on their email newsletter lists? Well, go do it! Free homeschool goodies and oodles of ideas await you!

File Folder games is one such letter they sent out.

In a nutshell...you take a file folder, you put stuff inside it, keeps everything compact and you have a game or activity that your child can do.

I got the preschool set from the teacher's book bag. Our son LOVES the games (most of them). The one I got seems to focus on alphabet stuff...he thinks the honey pot game is just too much fun. :) But he likes the others as well. I don't use file folders as that would have cost more dollars...and I have oodles of card stock because I scrap book! So tape, cardstock, worksheets and voila! I can make a file folder type game/activity for him.

Here are Jamin's freebies on File-folder games. She has more on her page so make sure you go there as well. :)

File Folder Fun offers free file folders for preschool through second grade. You will find file folders for science, language arts, math and more! You can browse by subject or grade level. The more you click the more you find at this website!

Looking for phonics games? Check these out!

Adding and rhyming? Click here.

Simple addition, telling time, and counting money. Click here.

For preschool file folders, click here. (There are 22 to chose from on the yellow sidebar on the left.)

For more preschool file folder games click here. You will find them mixed in with a lot of other free printables for little ones.

and the following list is ones that I've found as well. See...I just love how one list inspires people to look further! :)

File Folder Games and Other Games
Activity Village
Essortment: Preschools educational file folder game
My File Folder games
File Folder game - opposites
bellaonline
Childcareland
GigglyGames
File Folder heaven has purchase options as well as free options.

Things to Try with File Folders
File Folder Games for teachers
come up with themes: seasons, months, alphabet books, and such like. Basically whatever you want, you can do if you just think about it.
Come up with different ways to do things: cut outs, hideaway, pop-ups and such like.
MakePlayDough.com
Ezine articles

This one I think does more that file folder games but it looked intriguing.
Printables for your classroom.

Handwriting Worksheets

first School

Handwriting and creative writing printable materials to learn and practice writing for preschool, kindergarten and early elementary.

Internet4Classrooms All sorts of sheets to use

TLS Books

Welcome to tlsbooks.com, where you'll find a variety of free printable worksheets for home and school use. Use our free worksheets to help your child gain valuable readiness skills or to reinforce material they may already be learning in school.

Keep and Share

Our free printable handwriting paper and handwriting worksheets are ideal for home and school lined paper use for kindergarten

, 1st grade & 2nd grade to learn both print and cursive handwriting. Using printable paper & lined paper to practice handwriting for preschool and kindergarten is essential for all young school students.

Each handwriting worksheet is printable in a high quality PDF download. Choose from a variety of lined paper and printable handwriting paper. Printable handwriting worksheets for general handwriting practice.

ABC Writing Worksheets this page links to a variety of resources.

how to mke silly putty

Hubby dear sent me this link on how to make silly putty.

Innovative Classroom

I like this site. It's called the innovative classroom.

it's not a big site. has lesson plans, classroom ideas and such like. Just a nice little site.

Printable Certificates etc for Homeschooling

We all need printables for homeschooling.

123 Certificates gives you forms for almost any school based achievement.

Just mommies gives you homeschool Report cards! :)

Chart Jungle gives a variety of printable resources. Charts, diplomas, calendars etc.

Educator

WAY beyond Justin at this point.
This site has free videos on biology, science, maths etc.

The site is called Educator.

How to teach a child to write a novel

I learned about this page through HomeSchool Freebie of the day.

What Little Blue School did was put together a PDF on How to Teach a Child to Write a Novel. My boy isn't quite old enough for this yet, but it looks like something we'll do in the future. :)

Go check it out.

Alphabet Lap books - A

This will of course be a series of 26! After all there are 26 letters in the alphabet.

I am hoping to every week design a week around one letter of the alphabet.

I will hopefully have games to play, poems to read, scripture to memorize and so forth.

I'll be using a variety of sources.

These three to start with:
http://www.homeschoolshare.com/alphabet_notebook.php
http://www.dltk-teach.com/minibooks/index.htm
http://www.homeschoolshare.com/level_1_lapbooks.php

But I won't of course use everything on the different sites. I'll be pulling off what I think I"ll use and all that. :)

Here's what I have to start
an alligator poem and an apple shaped letter book and a letter size sorting game.

I want to make a stencil of the letter A and put it up on the fridge with "a" pictures we find or can draw so that we remember what letter we're working on for the week. :)

I'm not sure about doing this one from DLTK's, book is cute, but seems Like you need LOTS of paper to do it. So just thinking on it yet.

I used this Letter A reproducible from Innovative Classroom.

Here's a neat site! Teacher Planet. Got a craft idea which I'm revamping to make a construction paper apple.

and then I got this idea, since Justin likes cats, to find pictures of cats that begin with the "letter a", so then I went here which got me cat names, and then all I had to do is find pictures. :) Here is an Abyssinian. American Bobtail. American Shorthair.

How to Do research

I thought this site pretty good.

It's from the Kentucky Virtual Library. Teaches children how to do research. :) It's interactive. Taught me a thing or two as well.

Should mention, it was sent to me in an email from TheHomeSchoolMom.

Independance Day?

I'm Canadian, so doing the whole independance day (US based) is not really my thing.

But I thought I'd post up these links because who knows....maybe I can rework them to do a Canadian theme for CANADA DAY! :)

Homeschooling 4 Free lists off different July 4 stuff people can do.

ABC teach has stuff as well.

Homeschooled Kids OnLine gives the history to it.

For Horse girls

TOS sent out this as well,

The Girlhood Home Companion’s Happy Trails Horse Club™ is a one-of-a-kind resource for girls who want to learn more about horses and explore the many positive ways to get involved with various riding disciplines. Each month features a different breed and discipline, weaving together a collection of fact and fiction about equestrians from the past and those who are making a difference in the world today.

So know any horsey folk? Perhaps that website might interest them. :) Here's the direct link.

TOS freebies

Have I ever told you to go the The Old Schoolhouse and get on their email newsletter lists?

Good way to get free stuff you can use when you homeschool.

yes, it's a pain to try to figure out the whole storage space thing, but it's free!

And what does it cost yah to get a couple of discs to store things on? not that much!

I'm on one list that sends me out stuff every Friday.

This past week they sent out their October Module from 2008 that normally you'd have to pay $7-12 for. And just by waiting a spell...I got it free! can't beat that now can you? :)

if you go here, you can even see what they've sent out. Happy looking!

Music Appreciation for the summer

Harmony Art Mom has put together a summer music/art appreciation course. It's mostly free! :)

Go check it out.

rather cool crafting site

homeschool freebie of the day sends out freebies to folks that they found here there and all over the place online.

Nice to have them doing the work.

anyways, they came up with this one over at Canon.

not exactly easy to do with a preschooler, but way cool none-the-less. If you have an older ... probably 8 and up ... child, then this site might be just the ticket for the crafty side of them. (if, of course, they have one).

I'm going to try this japanese bobtail one with my cat crazy lad.

Homeschool View Tube

hadn't heard of this site, someone...I think TOS alerted me to it.

anyways, here's the main page link to Homeschool View Tube.

Israel Unit Study

don't want to lose this TOS freebie on an Israel Unit Study.

Things to consider when doing a unit study

Books to use:
Welcome to Israel - Lilly Rivlin
Israel - Debbie Smith

History and Timelines
Learn more about Israel by compiling historical facts and events from its long and eventful history and adding them to your timeline. If you do not have a timeline on the go, you can construct one by following these directions - How to Make a Timeline Easily. Here is a link to a wonderful resource for timeline entries about Israel - http://contenderministries.org/middleeast/timeline.php. Here is another one that you may enjoy perusing or using for dates & events - http://www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/Facts+About+Israel/History/Facts+about+Israel-+History.htm.

Maps:
A unit study would not be complete without taking a good look at the lay of the land. Click here for both a labeled and unlabeled map of Israel. Have your students mark some of the major cities, the neighboring countries, and the sea to the west, at the least. For older students, have them use your teacher's map and fill in the rest!

Recipes of the land such as

Fava Bean Spread

Ingredients

• One can of fava beans, drained
• 1 Tablespoon olive oil
• 1 Tablespoon lemon juice
• ½ teaspoon salt
• ½ teaspoon pepper (more if you like pepper)
• Pita bread, torn or cut into triangles

Procedure

1. Drain the can of beans, and empty the beans into a saucepan.
2. Heat over low heat, mashing the beans against the side of the saucepan with a wooden spoon as they heat.
3. Continue mashing until the beans have become thick, pasty, and warm.
4. Add lemon juice, olive oil, and salt and pepper to taste.
5. Serve warm or at room temperature with triangles of pita bread.

Felafel

Note: This recipe involves hot oil. Adult supervision is required. Many grocery stores now sell prepared felafel in the deli section.

Ingredients

• 1 cup canned chickpeas, well-drained
• 1 clove garlic
• ½ teaspoon salt
• ⅛ teaspoon pepper
• ⅔ cup fine breadcrumbs
• 2 eggs
• 2 Tablespoons oil
• Oil for deep frying, enough to fill the pot about 3 inches
• Pita bread

Procedure

1. Mash the chickpeas in a large bowl.
2. Cut the garlic into tiny pieces. Add the garlic, salt, pepper, and bread crumbs to the chickpeas. Mix the ingredients together.
3. Add the eggs and oil to the mixture and mix thoroughly.
4. Heat oil in the pot until little bubbles rise to the surface.
5. Shape the mixture into 16 balls, each about 1-inch across.
6. With the mixing spoon, gently place a few of the balls in the oil—do not drop them in because the hot oil may splash.
7. Fry a few at a time until they are golden brown—about 5 minutes.
8. Remove the felafel with the slotted spoon. Drain them on a plate covered with paper towels.
9. To serve, cut pita bread in half to make pockets.
10. Put two or three felafel balls into each pocket and drizzle with tahini sauce (see recipe).

Serves 6 to 8.

Tahini Sauce

Some grocery stores stock tahini sauce, already prepared, or packaged tahini mix.

Ingredients

• ¾ cup tahini (sesame seed paste; can be purchased in stores that sell Middle Eastern foods)
• 1/3 cup lemon juice
• ⅛ teaspoon garlic powder
• 1/3 cup water

Procedure

1. Mix tahini, lemon juice, and garlic powder in bowl until you have a smooth sauce.
2. Add the water, 1 teaspoon at a time, until sauce is thin enough to pour.
3. Pour tahini sauce over pita sandwiches; can also be used as a dip for raw vegetables.

Hamentaschen

2/3 cup butter

1/2 cup sugar

1 egg

1/4 cup pulp-free orange juice

1 cup white flour

1 cup wheat flour – no substitutes

2 tsp baking powder

Jam

Beat butter and sugar thoroughly. Add egg and mix until well combined. Add the orange juice and mix again, until well combined. Add flour, ½ c at a time, alternating white and wheat, blending thoroughly between each addition. Add baking powder with last addition of flour. Refrigerate until chilled thoroughly – a few hours or overnight.

Roll dough as thin as possible without tearing (you may want to roll it between two sheets of flour-dusted wax paper). Cut out 3-4 in [7.6 – 10 cm]circles. Put a dollop of jam in the middle of each circle and fold up sides to make a triangle, overlapping as much as possible so only a small amount of jam shows in the center. Pinch corners to seal. Bake at 350 F [176 C] for 15 – 20 minutes until golden brown.

Sesame Candy

Ingredients

• 1 cup sugar
• 24 ounces honey
• 24 ounces sesame seeds
• Juice squeezed from one orange (or ½ cup orange juice)
• Grated rind of orange
• Peanut oil

Procedure

1. Measure honey and sugar into a saucepan. Heat over medium-low heat until the mixture boils vigorously.
2. Lower the heat just enough to keep the mixture bubbling. Add the sesame seeds, orange juice, and rind.
3. Cook, stirring constantly, for about 10 minutes.
4. Lightly grease a 9 x 13-inch baking sheet with peanut oil.
5. Pour candy mixture onto it and press down on the surface with a wooden spoon to flatten it.
6. Set baking sheet on a cooling rack and allow to cool for about 10 minutes. Cut into rectangles or diamond shapes.
7. Allow to cool completely. Wrap pieces in wax paper to store.

And then doing some crafts of toys from there

Hebrew Calligraphy - Learn to write like a Sofer using these handy tutorials! Before long, you'll be drawing like a pro. Here's the link - http://www.babaganewz.com/activities/index.cfm?cat=22&sub=calligraphy

Make your own dreidle - Chanukah Dreidels (spinning tops) are a tradition going back to the beginning of Judaism. Here's the link - http://www.chadiscrafts.com/fun/claydreidels.html

Where to Find Forms for Schooling

Printables:
The Homeschool Mom has a variety of printable organizers.
as well as Donna Young, Heritage Highland has these organizers, and the homeschool tracker comes with these ones.

There are some that are on-line as well.
google has a calendar, homeschool skedtrack, and homeschool inc.

If I have time to do more searching I'll add more. :)

Homeschool Freebie of the Day

Did you know that there are LOTS of homeschool resources on line that are free for the taking?

One such place is Homeschool Freebie of the Day. Just sign up (only to get reminder emails once a week). Get freebies! :) Easy peasy.

There are other places as well. Most governments will have stuff you can download, agricultural sites, poetry and such like. Give credit where it is due. But wow....it's amazing the stuff that is out there.

PLUS curriculums like hands of a child, knowledge quest and such like, if you join their mailing lists will give you free stuff from their sites as well.

school house rocks - pronouns

school house rocks - interjections

Conjunction Junction

another fun way to learn grammar.

Make your own Juice box car!

Go here.

make a car.

looks fun doesn't it?

How creative can you be???

You’ll need:

Two clean and dry juice or milk boxes
Some thin, flexible wire
Four matching bottle caps
Modeling clay
Scissors
A magic marker
Adhesive tape
Paint

WorkSheet Works

The Old Schoolhouse sends out weekly emails with freebies listed in them.

This week the freebie they sent out sends folks for the The Worksheet Works website.

From the email sent to me:

.... try this new educational website that I recently found.

Worksheet Works is a website with free printables in Math, English, Geography, and Puzzles of all kinds. There are also other printables such as calendars, graphic organizers to help with the writing process, graph paper for math, and many more. The best part is that it's all free for you to use!

Having gone to the site I have learned they have math, English, geography, a variety of puzzles, miscellaneous stuff, handwriting sheets, and such like. looks like a nice little site to keep track of.

I thought the secret map puzzle was just neat! hadn't thought of that idea before. :)

NOW... if you want to get the store freebies ..... go to The Old Schoolhouse website and subscribe to the emails yourself. :)

Some posts i liked and want to remember

Here are some posts that I've appreciated in the homeschooling world.

Successful homeschooling presents Why I am Still Homeschooling.

Walking Therein gives us Isaac's water experiments.

Justin liked this one: chicks hatching. :)



Homemade homeschoolers taught a lesson on Lichen.

Whereas Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers thought that mini-offices was interesting. I agreed. Thought it an idea worth keeping for later down the road.

Wired for noise talks about socialization and isolation.

graham family ministries

I just want to remember this site.

Graham Family Ministries.

They have downloadables of a variety of sorts. Spurred my imagination.

Math Mammoth Contest

Explain WHICH book or product interests you most (see the website). Then explain in several sentences the reasons and factors that keep you from buying it at this time. In other words, give your "excuses" for not buying. You can explain how much you perhaps love your current math curriculum, cite economics, and so on. Just let your fingers fly on the keyboard!

Math Mammoth is having a contest for books from her website.

This here be my entry. :)

What would I like to get should I have an opportunity to do so?
Math Mammoth Clock

is a worktext that covers telling time and reading the clock, telling time intervals, and understanding the calendar. It is suitable for grades 1, 2, and 3.

Why? Because telling time is important. :) And I figure this book will have some hints for helping my buggy learn to tell time that I might not think of.

Math Mammoth Canadian Money

is a worktext that covers money-related topics usually encountered during grades 1-3, using the coins and bills of Canada. The book contains both textbook explanations and exercises, and is designed to be very easy to teach from, requiring very little teacher preparation (you do need to find some practice coins before the lessons).

Why? A book that uses Canadian money! so many are just USA only. So I think this is cool.

And last but not least Math Mammoth Introduction to Fractions

contains fraction-related material suitable for approximately grades 2-4. This material does not include division or multiplication of fractions, nor adding unlike fractions. The lessons are mostly simple, introductory lessons to various fraction topics.

why? simply because the idea of teaching fractions seems a bit beyond my thinking today. I know my buggy is only 3 and fractions is not something he'll be learning yet....but it's good to be prepared. :)

Learn Greek

Dan Phillips has a greek blog. Go figure that I ever check it out as I'm not into greek...but I do think it would be good to learn...and as I'll be homeschooling our buggy I figure in time we can learn it together. Hopefully this site will still be around. If not..we have DAD! :)

So why learn greek?

because God used it to speak to us. What better reason? :)

it's all in videos as far as I can tell, so it should be interesting.

Canadian Electoral System

The US Election has the various US based homeschool boards posting all types of stuff on the US electoral process. It gets me thinking sometimes....some of these companies are able to spread their stuff world-wide...why not have a bigger offering of electoral process things...like for Canada? We just had an election too! Has no one made a Canadian Electoral Process Study?

So anyways, I figured I'd see what I could pull together from sites on-line. :)

Elections Canada On-line
- this site seems to have everything you can think of. from the basics down to the nitty-gritty.

Library of Parliament
- these folks put together a list of frequently asked questions.

Wikipedia
- they of course would have some type of entry :)

Elections
- gives us a good overview. Lists all the parties currently available as well.

That's all I've managed to find for now. I'm thinking it would be fun to pull some of this stuff together and see if I can make an actual study unit of it all. Wouldn't that be fun? :)

Should I ever get around to doing so...this site might prove useful for ideas (not copying, just things to think about). Found out about it here. And here's another site for ideas.

I would probably need to think about doing something also on all the different prime ministers we've had as well.

Homeschool blogger award nominations

from what I understand, you go here. follow the links and then nominate the homeschool blogger that you really like for whatever category.

should be interesting to see who wins.

Types of Poems - Acrostic

An acrostic poem is very easy to write. It can be about any subject. This kind of poem can be written in different ways, but the simplest form is to put the letters that spell your subject down the side of your page. When you have done this then you go back to each letter and think of a word , phrase or sentence that starts with that letter and describes your subject.

For samples go here.

for instance here's one I did

Rabbits:

Rascally
apple and grass eaters
binky about when happy
born in 31 days
into trouble they hop
totally enjoying their foods
smile makers

Types of Poems - Diamante

Do you want to try some poetry with your kids? In Our Write Minds has a great post on writing a diamante poem!

Diamante: A seven-line poem that takes the shape of a diamond.

Lion

Majestic, proud

Roaring, snarling, prowling

Mane, muscle . . . Fleece, fluff

Bleating, leaping, grazing

Meek, gentle

Lamb

A Poem of Opposites

Remember that the first and last words of a cinquain are synonyms—the last word of the poem renames the first. Diamantes, however, are poems about opposites: the first and last words have opposite meanings (or convey opposite ideas).

A diamante has seven lines that follow this sequence:

Line A: Topic A (must be a noun)

Line B: Two vivid adjectives that describe Topic A

Line C: Three interesting “-ing” action verbs that describe Topic A

Line D: Two concrete nouns about Topic A and two about Topic G

Line E: Three interesting “-ing” action verbs that describe Topic G

Line F: Two vivid adjectives that describe Topic G

Line G: Topic G (must be a noun)

So hop on over to Writing a Diamante Poem for another sample poem as well as detailed instructions for teaching your kids to write one of their own!

Copyright 2008 Kim Kautzer. All rights reserved. Used by permission.

Here’s another example:

Light
Clear, brilliant
Glowing, shining, revealing
Mirror, candle . . . Whisper, shadow
Deepening, sleeping, shrouding
Black, quiet
Darkness

all this comes from In Our Write Minds.

My boy is Three

Boy are the questions starting to come.

When I am going to put him in preschool?
Why I am not teaching him right now?
How am I going to give him social time with other children?
What's wrong with the public system...it's working for our children.
Do you realize how much time it's going to take you to do this?

Yes..... I knew there would be questions....

But some questions come so laden with "attitude" I have to be careful not to give attitude back.
Inform, educate, explain...don't be attitudinal.

ARGH!!!!!!!!! :)

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.

Mother's Day - 2008, freebies

TOS has sent out another Friday freebie newsletter. This one focuses on Mother's day. So here are some Mom's Day activities for children to do.

A homemade card - this one actually looks kinda neat, meant for older children though I think as it's more along the idea of a scrapbooked card. As TOS says :

This card will be a lovely keepsake. There are pull out cards where the kids can write a list of the things Mom does for them. Then, there are three other pull outs (That spell out M-O-M) for your kids to write things they appreciate about you.

Some Mother's Day coupons. These are strips of paper that children fill out with things they will do if requested.

Homeschoolzone has a whole whack of mother's day crafts that children can make. From magnets to paperweights to plants. Check it out. :)

Other on-line resources (I just plugged mother's day crafts into the search engine and this is some of what it came up with).

Enchanted Learning is much like homeschoolzone in that it provides a variety of activities for children to do. and then there's Danielle's place and Dltk's spot. For some other ideas you can go here or over to amazing mom's.

If none of those ideas work for you do your own search and see what fun stuff you can come up with. :)

Happy crafting!

Oh......while I was at it I thought hmm...why not research how Mother's Day came about. This is what I discovered:

The majority of countries that celebrate Mother's Day do so on the second Sunday of May. On this day, it is common for Mothers to be lavished with presents and special attention from their families, friends and loved ones. But it hasn’t always been this way.

Only recently dubbed “Mother's Day,” the highly traditional practice of honoring of Motherhood is rooted in antiquity, and past rites typically had strong symbolic and spiritual overtones; societies tended to celebrate Goddesses and symbols rather than actual Mothers. In fact, the personal, human touch to Mother’s Day is a relatively new phenomenon. The maternal objects of adoration ranged from mythological female deities to the Christian Church itself. Only in the past few centuries did celebrations of Motherhood develop a decidedly human focus.

That makes me wonder....where is all the hullabaloo about Mother's day that there is about Hallowe'en? Both started from pagan roots. :)

Wikipedia says much the same thing:

Different countries celebrate Mother's Day on various days of the year because the day has a number of different origins.

One school of thought claims this day emerged from a custom of mother worship in ancient Greece, which kept a festival to Cybele, a great mother of Greek gods. This festival was held around the Vernal Equinox around Asia Minor and eventually in Rome itself from the Ides of March (15 March) to 18 March.

The ancient Romans also had another holiday, Matronalia, that was dedicated to Juno, though mothers were usually given gifts on this day.

In some countries Mother's Day began not as a celebration for individual mothers but rather for Christians.

Regardless of the history, Mother's Day today is just a day where we can say to the important women in our lives....hey thanks! what you do means much.

So happy crafting for Mother's day!