Science Blogs

These blogs, all by the same person, look amazing!

Home Biology

Home Chemistry

Home Physics

Handicrafts

Secular Charlotte Mason has my favorite list of handicrafts.  I've printed it out so I can use it as a checklist and for inspiration.

Grammar Links

Living Books
Grammar-Land by M.L. Nesbit

Printables
SparkleBox KS2 Grammar

Online Games
Crazy Libs
Clean Up Your Grammar
The Grammar Gorillas
Grammar Practice Park

Etc
play Mad Libs (for beginners, print out flashcards and let them pick from a stack of noun, adjectives, etc. until they are comfortable coming up with ones on their own)

Organizing and Checklists

I love Ambleside Online, but I have found organizing all of the information to make it usable for our family to be a bit of a headache.  I finally created a bunch of checklists for Year 1 and shared them in a previous blog entry.  I also created a checklist for the Formidable List of Attainments For a Child of Six and shared it in a separate blog entry.  Lastly, this literature list from Higher Up and Further In (which she has since moved to Charlotte Mason Help) has been a huge help!

What I have done is to print off a copy of Lindafay's Higher Up and Further In booklist, which was originally a list of Ambleside Online's suggestions.  I 3-hole punched the list and put it in a folder like this:

 

Then I created my own little key and wrote in on the first page, like this:

 

In a separate folder, I placed all of the checklists I created (and linked to above) with the Daily/Weekly checklist placed inside a page protector in the front so I can use a dry-erase marker on it.

The other pages follow, for example:

Now, whenever I want to peruse the used bookstores I can take along my booklist folder so I buy the things we need.  And when we accomplish a task or finish a book we can check it off of our list.

Devolve Me

Wow!  After receiving the newest e-mail from Charlie's Playhouse I immediately went to the site and discovered a really fun link.  It's called Devolve Me and it's from The Open University.

Check out my kids:
Nate Devolved
Nikolai Devolved

Some other fun links from Charlie's Playhouse

Ambleside Online Year 1 Checklists

I needed to create a document that I could laminate and use as a checklist when I schedule our lesson plans in Homeschool Skedtrack and thought it would be nice to share it with anyone else who wants to use it.
Ambleside Online Year 1 Checklist



And some more:

Ambleside Online Year 1 Checklist for History and Geography

Ambleside Online Year 1 Checklist for Literature

Ambleside Online Year 1 Checklist for Poetry

Ambleside Online Year 1 Checklist for Natural History & Science

A Formidable List of Attainments for a Child of Six

Have you heard of Charlotte Mason?  No?!  What rock have you been hiding under? ;-)  To learn more, I highly recommend that you visit Ambleside Online and do some reading!

A Formidable List of Attainments for a Child of Six
from a curriculum outline of a CM school in the 1890's

1. To recite, beautifully, 6 easy poems and hymns.
2. To recite, perfectly and beautifully, a parable and a psalm.
3. To add and subtract numbers up to 10, with dominoes or counters.
4. To read--what and how much, will depend on what we are told of the child.
5. To copy in print-hand from a book.
6. To know the points of the compass with relation to their own home, where the sun rises and sets, and the way the wind blows.
7. To describe the boundries of their own home.
8. To describe any lake, river, pond, island etc. within easy reach.
9. To tell quite accurately (however shortly) 3 stories from Bible history, 3 from early English, and 3 from early Roman history (*Note ~ Americans might want to substitute early American for early English).
10. To be able to describe 3 walks and 3 views.
11. To mount in a scrap book a dozen common wildflowers, with leaves (one every week); to name these, describe them in their own words, and say where they found them.
12. To do the same with leaves and flowers of 6 forest trees.
13. To know 6 birds by song, colour and shape.
14. To send in certain Kindergarten or other handiwork, as directed.
15. To tell three stories about their own "pets"--rabbit, dog or cat.
16. To name 20 common objects in French, and say a dozen little sentences.
17. To sing one hymn, one French song, and one English song.
18. To keep a caterpillar and tell the life-story of a butterfly from his own observations.

Here is the checklist I created to keep track of what my children have accomplished.
Ambleside Online a Formidable List of Attainments for a Child of Six Checklist

Wordless Wednesday

Balance Scale

Some of Nik's math problems have been giving him a bit of trouble.  He does excellent with the following types of problems:

2 + 3 = __
5 - 2 = __
__ + 4 = 4
__ - 2 = 2
2 + 2 + 1 = __
5 - 2 - 3 = __
3 - 2 + 2 = __

But if he sees problems like the following he gets very confused:

2 + 3 = __ + 1
5 - 2 = 4 - __
4 - __ = 3 - 0

So to help him out, I drew a balance scale similar to those he has seen in other MEP problems and told him that both sides of the equation need to be equal to each other (or balanced).  I think he gets it!  Woohoo!  I'm going to make up a sheet of problems for him to do tomorrow to see if he did truly get it.

Here's a pic of the balance scale. I have no idea why the paper looks pink, though!  lol  It was just a white sheet of cardstock.

Viking Voyages

The Viking Voyages game from Ellen McHenry's Basement Workshop is an awesome FREE game that goes along with any study of Vikings very nicely.  You need to supply your own die and 4 playing pieces.  I used pieces of Bendaroos rolled into a spiral.  This is our board all put together.  See the little Bendaroos spirals sitting on France?

Egypt and a Very Happy Birthday Boy

We adore Playmobil toys!  The very happy birthday boy received a ton of really nice gifts today, including some Egyptian grave robbers and the Sphinx, and he has spent the last 5 hours playing with them!  lol  Now I need to pry him away for bedtime. 

Learning a Foreign Language

I can't decide when to start.  Now or in a few years? 

I can't decide what to use.  Rosetta Stone or Pimsleur?   (Our library system carries Pimsleur, so I'm leaning towards that or a combo of both.)

I can't even settle on what language to study!  Mandarin, Arabic, Spanish, French?

Thoughts?

Grammar-Land

Wow!  I have another great find today.  It's a public domain book titled Grammar-Land (pdf file) by M.L. Nesbitt that I downloaded to my Sony Reader and it looks awesome!  I highly recommend you check it out.

Noble Knights of Knowledge

I need to win the lottery!  I re-discovered a math program named Noble Knights of Knowledge that I read about a couple of years ago, when Nik was far too young to think about math curricula, and I NEED it!  :-)

Seriously, I think Nik would love it, considering he enjoys math and is all about knights these days.  I printed a couple of the sample pages so I can try it out, but I'm pretty sure I'm going to be saving my pennies so we can buy this program to supplement the MEP program we're using as our main math curricula.

I would love to hear you review if you have used the program.

ETA~ I finally found a used copy and Nik LOVES, LOVES, LOVES it!!!  I really wish they were still selling this program.  If you have a child who is into everything story-based and resists "regular" math, do try to get your hands on a used copy of this program!

Nature Study

We don't get to nature study as much as I would like, but we are trying.  I simply adore the Outdoor Hour challenges from the Handbook Of Nature Study blog.  The challenges utilize the book Handbook of Nature Study by Anna Botsford Comstock, which is available for free online.

We also do a lot of reading about animals found in our area.  We really enjoy books by Thornton W. Burgess (The Burgess Bird Book for Children, The Burgess Animal Book for Children, and Mother West Wind's Children are favorites.)

We've been focusing this year on the Burgess Bird Book for Children, as scheduled for year 1 by Ambleside Online (more about this free online curriculum in another post, coming soon!)  To go along with it, I found these awesome cards that I can't seem to find online again! lol  Isn't that the way it always goes?  I'll try to find them again and post them, because they are awesome.   Also, from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology there is a coloring book that has some of the birds in it.

A book that we discovered at the thrift store yesterday instantly became a favorite; it is Feathers For Lunch by Lois Ehlert.  We sat down a few minutes ago to read the story together and Nik said, "I can read this one!"  So he did read it, and with very little help.  It has illustrations of some common birds and lists their names and shows the sounds they make. 

We also had an opportunity to observe some non-native birds when we pet-sat some parakeets for my  cousin, a fellow homeschooler.  The birds go home today, and we're very sad to see them go.  Jay-Jay (the jet plane) and Twilight gave us many hours of fun and allowed us to observe birds up-close.  Mom and Dad might just have to buy themselves some birds as a Christmas present to ourselves.  ;-)

The Art Book

One of the free resources we are using for visual arts this year is The Art Book by Maryanne Messier. The lessons instruct you to use 12x18 construction paper to make the book, but we just printed the handouts smaller and fit everything onto letter-size paper so we could insert them into page protectors.

 

 

 

 

 

Learning About Art and Ninja Turtles

It sounds like a funny combo until you think about it! After all, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are named after four famous artists: Raphael Sanzio da Urbino, Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni, Leonardo Da Vinci, and Donato di Niccolò di Betto Bardi or Donatello.

My 6-year-old loves all things super-heroish, and TMNT qualifies. My husband planted the idea to study these 4 artists after I mentioned the book we read a few minutes ago titled "Portraits: A First Discovery Art Book" and the picture of the TMNT Leonardo that my son was drawing while I talked to Dad on the phone.

I had to get the idea down, but I don't have a plan formed yet. As always, I'll continue to update with links as I find interesting resources.

Rafael
Rafael
Web Gallery of Art
ABCGallery

Michelangelo
ArtsEdge: Let's Talk About Painting
Michelangelo
Web Gallery of Art
ABCGallery
Michelangelo.com
Stanford - The Digital Michelangelo Project

Leonardo da Vinci
Leonardo da Vinci
Metropolitan Museum of Art
Institute and Museum of the History of Science
Web Gallery of Art
ABCGallery
Museo Scienza
Museum of Science
Vinci: Leonardo's Home Town

Donatello
Donatello
Metropolitan Museum of Art
Web Gallery of Art

Homeschooling in NY State

Links:
New York State Education Department (NYSED)
NYSED Home Instruction
New York Home Educators' Network (NYHEN) I highly recommend you visit this site!
Diploma Requirements For Students Entering Grade 9 (pdf file)
New York State Education Department Virtual Learning System
Learning Standards of New York State

Math Links

MEP 
MEP Main Page
MEP 101
The School Bell: Number Families
NOVA | Hunting the Hidden Dimension
ABC Teach: Shapes
Tux of Math Command
Count On Math Games
Math Fact Cafe
HomeschoolMath.net Free Math Worksheets
DadsWorksheets.com free worksheets
CSMP Mini Computer
Learn NC Math
Think Zone Shortest Shortcut
Don Potter Math
Learning Wave
Aunty Math
Geometric Paper Constructions
Money Instructor
Funschool Math Games
Hands on Equations
Math Printables from SEN Teacher
Houghton Mifflin Math
McGraw-Hill Math
Roman Numerals Snakes and Ladders Game
Triangular Math Facts Cards from Donna Young
Addition Facts Copywork from S.J. Murphy (look along the left under the heading "Math Downloadable Worksheets"

Geography Links

Time For Kids: Around the World
Growing Up Around the World: Books as Passports to Global Understanding for Children in the United States
World Atlas "The List"
World Atlas Outline Maps
National Geographic Maps: Tools for Adventure
National Geographic: Geography Action!
Houghton Mifflin Education Place: Outline Maps
Library of Congress: Cities and Towns Maps
Holling C. Holling: A Literature Approach to Geography
World Landmark Cards Created by Susanne von Saalfeld
Kids Konnect World Geography
Ideas on How to Study the Middle East from TWTM message board
National Geographic Earth Pulse
Visual Geography Series
Geography Matters