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. :)

A Homeschool Expo

So anyways, I was just browsing around and discovered this site.

Called the Ultimate Homeschool Expo 2007.

This is what part of the intro says

Ready for a big dose of encouragement?
No time to travel?
No extra money for hotels…parking…and eating out?
Can’t break away from your family?

Well…we have the PERFECT solution!

Join us for our:
Ultimate Homeschool Expo 2007!
May 1-5, 2007 (PLUS! Preview Chats weekly leading up to the event)

Ready for a fun Virtual Seminar??? One that promises to make homeschooling easy and doable? This is your event!

Right there in the comfort of your home you can join us! We have an amazing speaker line-up! AND…if you have to miss any sessions, we are recording it for you to download by Mp3 and listen to at your convenience! Can you beat that?

No crowds!
No makeup!
No parking!
No walking for blocks and blocks!
No expensive trips or hotel stays!
No babysitters!

Just plan something fun for your family–maybe a
cozy movie day or a fun project to keep them busy–then, kick back to enjoy!

Talk about FUN! This is one that you will not want to miss!

anyways, tickets are 35$ a pop. doesn't sound too bad for what they are offering, mind I've never been to a homeschool expo so I would have no idea what to expect.

freebies always sound good to me though....... :)

Magazines, Resouces and Curriculum

Links for these things.

LiveFreeLearnFree

Live Free Learn Free is a magazine for unschoolers and other natural learners. All material is written by those who home educate – both parents and children. It is an inclusive magazine, not only for and by experienced unschoolers, but also for and by those just starting down the path. It embraces those who are radical in their unschooling methods and those who are less so.

Life Learning magazine

Life Learning, founded in 2002, is an intelligent, high quality, professionally edited and produced, 48-page magazine written by and for unschooling families who trust themselves and their children to learn freely and naturally what they need to know to live successful, happy lives.

Connections E-zine

The Link A USA based news link of all types of homeschooling information. Might be a good resource.

Home Education Magazine.

This website presents homeschooling information, support and encouragement, resources and reviews, free newsletters, networking and discussion lists, and - best of all - the online archives of Home Education Magazine, offering 10 years of articles, interviews, columns, resources, reviews and more which you can read online, anytime - FREE!

The Home Educator's Tour.

The Home Educator's Tutor magazine is a resource for parents and anyone who works with children. The goal of the H.E. Tutor is to provide a resource for the studies that go beyond a basic education to fulfill a liberal (generous) education that is affordable.

HomeSchool World. This is where you can find information on the Practical Homeschooling Magazine. You can go there and request a free copy of their magazine.

HomeSchool Enrichment.

provides encouragement, inspiration, practical teaching ideas, complete unit studies, educational craft projects, and much more in a manageable, easy-to-read format! Enrich your homeschool

HomeSchooling Parent.

A bi-monthly magazine that encourages readers through interest stories, curriculum and teaching tools that can be used in the home-classroom, family matters, educational travel, .... and much more.

Ambleside Online ...

Welcome to Ambleside Online, a free curriculum designed to be as close as possible to the curriculum that Charlotte Mason used in her own PNEU schools. Our goal is to be true to Charlotte Mason's high literary standards. Ambleside Online uses the highest quality books and costs no more than the cost of texts. The curriculum uses as many free online books as possible, and there is no cost to use this information or join the support group

An Old fashioned education.

Welcome to An Old-Fashioned Education. I'm Miss Maggie, owner and creator of this site. You'll find here a directory of free homeschool curricula, literature and text books organized for the use of homeschooling families.

A Beka Books. A publishing place as far as I can tell.

My Father's World. Does a curriculum.

Preschool through High School

Easy to Teach	Integrated Biblical Content	Less Preparation
Strong Academics	Multi-age Unit Studies	International Focus
Hands-on Activities	Great for Homeschool	Character Development

A Home for Homeschoolers. This is a homeschooling forum. I am sure there are other homeschooling forums out there but I have yet to find them. if anyone knows of other ones, please let me know, both so I know of them, and also so I can list them as resources for other folks.

The Homeschool Blog Awards

Go to THIS PAGE to find the nominations and to eventually vote. Voting is April 9-15, 2007.

I'm listing this not because I will vote, I don't know most of these people, but I am listing it as I think some of these people might be a good resource in the future.

Homeschool Conference for Free?

This person has posted a way to get into a Homeschool conference for free.

From her site:

Want To Go To Your Homeschool Convention for FREE?

This is a wonderful opportunity! If you have a homeschool convention coming up that you would like to attend but your budget is a little tight, TOS may be able to help. Want TOS to pay your way in?

TOS will pay for your full entry to the convention if you are willing to pick up business cards from the speakers and vendors at the convention. Once TOS gets your package and short written report, you'll be reimbursed for your full entry.

Contact Gena first and make arrangements because TOS doesn't want to pay for more than one person's entry per conference. Anyone interested can email Gena at gena@tosmag.com and put CONFERENCE in the subject line.

Help get the word out! The more conferences covered the better.

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! :)

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.

Paper Doll Site

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

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

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

Socialization....

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

But what do you think?

Useful sites perhaps?

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

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

Teaching your Child to read

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

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

Books vs DVD's

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

Scott Foresman Online Grammar & Writing Handbook

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

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

Homeschool Math blog

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

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

Children's book Lists

New blog to me: called The Thinking Mother

Found this post on Children's book lists.

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

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

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

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

......

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

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

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

Sounds a lot like using common sense.

I thought the article interesting and worth remembering.

F.A.M.I.L.Y

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

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

Talking to Learn

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

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

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

Mike closes his post with this line.

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

Pick Me Ups

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

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

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

Instead of Negative, Find Positive

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

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

Instead of asking question such as these:

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

Ask questions such as these:

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

Other questions that a person could ask themselves include:

Questions you may want to use to transform your class:

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

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

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

DVD: Egypt Eternal, The Quest for Lost Tombs

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

This is what the poster has to say

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