Back to School - Switched on Schoolhouse

Good grief!  I have just been running to catch up to myself the past few days!  Since today is Monday/homeschool day, I'll give you just a short entry, since this entry was really just to appologize for running late.
Alpha Omega puts out a curriculum for use on the PC.  It is all on disc, so it can be reused as many times as you need.  If you have a big family like me, reusing schoolbooks is a major plus.  The fact that the program grades the students' work is just a really awesome bonus!  It is called SOS, Switched On Schoolhouse.  Each subject for each grade runs around $75.  Split that up between 5 children, and you've only spent $15 on each child.   If you order your programs in the month of April, a discount of 20% is applied.  Now if you are REALLY lucky, you can find these disks on ebay.  There tend to be more in the month of April.  I have gotten disks as low as $5!  Yes, that's $1 per child.  Every once in a while I even impress myself.

Back to School Monday - World Maths Day and Dr. Seuss's Birthday

Tuesday, March 2nd is the birthday of almost everyone’s favorite children’s author, Dr. Seuss! This is just the excuse I need to blow off a little steam. This time of the year is really tough on both teachers and students. (We’d much rather be outside than looking at the same old books.) A day filled with nonsense and silliness, as well as books and worksheets is the perfect compromise to keep us a happy homeschooling family.

• http://www.outer-limit.net/coloring/grinchpages.shtml Outer-Limit.net has 17 free printable Grinch coloring pages.
• http://www.lucylearns.com/ has over 20 free printable Dr. Seuss coloring pages and activities. Print and color the Cat in the Hat, two sneetches, over ten Grinch coloring pages, the Lorax, a truffula tree and Sam-I-Am offering his ubiquitous Green Eggs and Ham.
• Cat in the Hat Tic-Tac-Toe game. Color, cut and paste game board and cat in the hat game piece. Laminate all pieces or print on card stock for a reusable Dr. Seuss game.  http://www.seussville.com/seussentennial/pdf/threecats.pdf
• Seussentenial (http://www.seussville.com/seussentennial/participation1.html) from the Seussville website has free printable activities.

We will be having green eggs and ham for breakfast as I read my favorite book, Green Eggs & Ham, which was read to us every other night before bed.  How the Grinch Stole Christmas is probably the only book that my mother, my children, and I can all recite. And who didn’t learn to read using The Cat in the Hat? It wasn’t until about 2 years ago that I could read Fox in Socks without stumbling over the words. I am quite excited to be sharing some of my favorite stories with my children. Besides, it means that I get to relive that part of my childhood with them. Happy reading!
 
Today is World Maths Day. I’m not sure that it’s a recognized holiday. But when encouraging our kids to practice their math skills, I’ll take any sort of holiday they want to throw my way! www.worldmathsday.com allows children all over the world to practice their math facts in exchange for points. If the student scores enough points, his name, school, and country are listed on the home page to show the world that he is a genuine math nerd! In my home, this title is worn with pride. I, myself, am a self professed math nerd.

Back to School Monday - borrowed info

What an weekend!  For a bunch of self proclaimed homebodies we spend quite a bit of time out and about this weekend.  It has been increasingly important to us that we get out to see our friends and family, even if only to stop for a 15 minute visit.  There is always work to do, there is always laundry and a sink of dishes.  There are always floors to sweep and papers to go through.  If we wait until we have time for these imoprtant people in our lives, then we will miss out of some of the greatest joys of this life.  Yes, all of these tasks were waiting for me when I got home, but with a renewed spirt my load didn't seem quite as heavy.
This brings me to the actual point.  Because of our increased activity this weekend, I am borrowing the listing from the Homeschool Freebie site this morning.  They look to be very interesting.  I am especially excited about today's freebie.  We are already almost a week into Lent.  It offers some wonderful ways of teaching our children about this season as wel as some fun activities. 

Well, here we are again with another great lineup of exceptional and unique homeschool and family resources for you.  Hopefully you'll find something here that will inform, delight, and even surprise you this week, which will soon become a welcome visitor in your household!


(Psstt: If so, PLEASE spread the word and tell your homeschooling friends about our site this week. This will help us continue to bring these resources to you!)


Here's the rundown:

Monday, February 22: LENTEN TREE & ACTIVITIES BOOK (PDF ebook) by Miiko Gibson


Lent, which began last Wednesday (Ash Wednesday) is the 40 days (excluding Sundays) before Easter.
For many families, Easter just happens. Don't let that occur this year. Have a meaningful Lent by doing a special activity each day of Lent. Then fill in the fruit on the Lenten Tree Chart and countdown to Easter.

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Tuesday, February 23rd:  MY PLANT (PDF ebook)


A simple nature-study project, written for younger students, about growing a plant from seed and keeping a four week observation diary of its growth. Gently written, with an example "plant diary" kept by an 8 year old boy over 100 years ago. This is a great activity to start now in anticipation of the coming springtime growing season.

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Wednesday, February 24:  GRAMMAR LAND (PDF ebook)
Back by popular demand!


"What is Grammar Land? Where is Grammar Land?  Have you ever been to Grammar Land? Wait a minute and you shall hear..." In this classic read aloud book, published way back in 1878, author Nesbitt creates an amazing fantasy land not unlike "Alice In Wonderland", where the citizens are the nine parts of speech (Mr. Proper Noun, Dr. Verb, Little Article, etc.) and all are governed by the stern but wise old Judge Grammar.  It's a fun, fascinating way to learn some of the basic grammar rules all the while carried along by the very memorable characters and a wild adventure to boot. Highly recommended!


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Thursday, February 25:  THE STORY OF WILLIAM TELL (PDF ebook)


Classic retelling of the amazing true story (or is it a legend?) of the national hero of Switzerland - mountaineer, shepherd and bowman, William Tell. Read the story of how Tell was forced to shoot an apple off his son's head by the cruel governor Gessler, and how Tell became instrumental in leading the Swiss people to freedom.


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Friday, February 26:  PETER WHEAT! (PDF comic book)
Get ready for some delightful cartoon adventures as we introduce PETER WHEAT and the folk of the wheat field, drawn by the inimitable Walt Kelly (creator of "Pogo").
> > Yes, yes, I can hear it now: Many of you are thinking "yuck.  That's not for us." Well, we know this doesn't sound all that great right now to most of you, but all I can tell you is... TRUST US ON THIS ONE.
Give it a chance - your kids will absolutely love these stories,  we guarantee it! Great read alouds or reading practice too!
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You can find each of these resources on their respective days at:
http://www.homeschoolfreebieoftheday.com
NOTE: If you ever have any trouble accessing the site with that link, try
http://www.homeschoolfreebie.wholesomechildhood.com


...it works too!

Back to School Monday- Learning the Alphabet

Occasionally we find a product that we love so much that we wish we had found it years earlier. I found such a product at my library. It is put out by Preschool Prep Co. This series is a mother’s dream! Without any gimmicks, bells, or whistles it teaches children everything from their colors to their alphabet and even a handful of sightwords. It seems that little ones learn best by repetition. Yes, there are a few tricks that help, but to really get things stuck in heir heads they just need to see and hear it over and over and over until it is memorized. Imagine your little boy watching his favorite show. He can recite all of the dialogue to the entire show including the theme song. You probably can, too, because you’ve watched it 3 times a week for 6 months!  Repetition! 

I picked up a DVD on the library shelf that was titled “Meet the Letters”. It looked cute.  Besides, my almost 5 year old was having a tough time with some of the letters at the end of the alphabet. On our 15 minute rides into town, he mastered those letters.  He just needed the repetition. Little did I know that my 2 year old was picking up quite a bit as well. I admit that I hoped that she would learn a letter or two, but I never expected the entire alphabet to be memorized! We followed up this DVD with others that taught vowels, shapes, numbers, and eventually sight words.

I can’t say enough wonderful things about them! They even have a website that offers things like flashcards and coloring books that correlate to the pictures in the program. http://www.preschoolprepco.com/ They aren’t expensive, but you know me. I’m always looking for ways to save. I made my own flashcards. Had I found these when my oldest was learning these symbols, I would have no problem spending the $15 for the DVDs. I think that it covers all of the material necessary for preschool and most of the material in kindergarten. Workbooks and patience can cost so much more. But since our family has probably reached it’s maximum capacity, I find that using the library is a wonderfully frugal option! Liz Price = Free!

P.S. If you do decide to buy the DVDs, ordering from Amazon.com through my links will help us. I believe in full disclosure!

  It is the beginning of Valentine’s week. I am so grateful that we have all week to prepare for it. Valentine’s Day is one of those holidays that does not hold a lot of traditions at our house. That means that it is open for any sort of harebrained ideas that I can dream up! We are making sure that we make time in our day for the many crafts and activities that will come with this holiday. Let me confess, getting boys excited for V-day is not such a simple task. For them it is more about hoping for chocolate goodies than it is expressing their affection for anyone, including their own sweet momma. It brings a certain comfort that vanishes once the talk of girlfriends starts filling their minds.

I have found a couple of cute ideas for our crafts this week.  http://www.lessonplanspage.com/Valentines.htm#4
This site has ideas that include art, computer, language arts, math, and even science and social studies. Oh yes! I am excited about the math facts written on one side of a broken heart while the answer is on the other half. I fully expect the construction paper hearts to be completely worn out by the time Friday gets here! There is even a writing assignment involving chocolate kisses! This is my kind of assignment. While it’s not exactly frugal, it does involve chocolate! Of course, there are the classic art projects like weaving a heart shaped basket and making a little man out of different sized hearts.  I really encourage you to take a look at this site. It looks like there are lots of activities that use the simplest of materials, just a little time and effort.

Another project that we will have this week is to address our many Valentine cards to all of our homeschool friends in preparation of our party this week. Perhaps a penmanship lesson could be made out of this! Just in case you didn’t buy your children’s valentines in March of last year for 90% off, you can print out your own. There are some really cute ones that I have found, most of which are free.  http://www.currclick.com/product_info.php?manufacturers_id=0&products_id=33641&it=1 This is a link to a packet of Valentines that are very appropriate for little ones. There are no kissy and mushy cards, plus several for family members. It’s very cute! There are several more listed here: http://www.currclick.com/advanced_search_result.php?keywords=Valentine&manufacturers_id=&author=&pfrom=0&pto=.50&x=41&y=9

We must also decorate our shoebox that will become our mailbox. I can just imagine the masses of crayon, colored paper scraps, glue sticks, foam stickers, and glitter that will be decorating my floor through out the week.

Back to School Monday

This is the point in the school year when it becomes even harder than normal to keep the children’s attention. Their Christmas toys call out to them from the other room. They seem to say, “You have been working on that book for 5 months now. I’m new and shiny!” More often than not, they are persuaded by the talking toy.
What can we do as parents and teachers in order to keep their attention? Our school budgets for the year have long been spent. Just one new workbook for each of the 3 older children would be quite helpful, but could cost between $15-$45. I suppose we could just continue to argue and correct them, making everyone’s morning a disaster.
Luckily the Erskine Family has come to my rescue! Each school day a new PDF or mp3 file becomes available for download totally free on their website: homeschoolfreebies.com. We have listened to historical stories, printed off coloring books, and read beautiful books originally published a hundred years ago.

“Every weekday, Monday through Friday, we’ll post a new homeschooling “freebie” to this site. What kind of “freebies”? Stuff like: Unit Studies… Ebooks… Audio Programs… Games… Samples… Lesson Plans… classic books… and other quality resources! This is the REAL THING.
Many of these will be products that you would normally pay for on their regular websites… but here on the Homeschool Freebie of the Day site, they’re 100% free… at least for that one day! Just download your copy and enjoy! It’s as simple as that!”
These new materials add that little bit of excitement that can spark just enough interest to make it through January and February without blowing our minds or our budgets.