Blogging at the Homeschooling Blog

For the past few weeks I have been writing some posts for The Homeschooling Blog. I have been writing 1 to 2 articles a week there. And that has been working out great. So, if you have a chance make sure to stop past and give a look see.

Learning and Retaining More in Less Time - Or Why I Like the Charlotte Mason Approach

After only a few months of homeschool this year it became very obvious that what we were doing wasn't working. I had a reluctant writer who was frustrated to no end at the thought of having to practice his handwriting. I had a 4 year old who would wander off and get into things while I was working with his older siblings. And I had a child who seemed to be bored due to not being challenged enough.

Time for a Change
I have been familiar with Charlotte Mason's method of school for a few years. I even tried implementing it with my oldest but it didn't work for him because he was used to - and liked - the more traditional way of doing school. He was in public school for 2 years and he thrives off of learning from textbooks and having a school schedule and a set curriculum to follow. So by trying to switch to CM with him, I was attempting to fit a round peg into a square hole.

But given that the school year was not coming together for everyone else, I started revisiting the idea of giving a Charlotte Mason type homeschool a try. And I am so happy that I took the plunge.

What to Do?
I spent some time going over 3 free homeschool curriculum that seemed to like a good fit for us. They were:

• Old Fashioned Education, 
• Ambleside Online and
• Simply Charlotte Mason.

I decided on Ambleside Online because EVERYTHING was available for free and I was able to find all of the books in PDF format on either Google Books or Archive.org. I spent about a week printing out the books and setting up a 4 day school schedule. I got each child a 3 ring binder and away we went!

The Change is Phenomenal
We have been finishing each subject in just a few minutes. But a lot of times the children go on talking about it long after that or they'll bring the subject back up again throughout the day. My son is OK with handwriting now because he only has to write a few words a day. He has to write his letters correctly, but it's not that many letters so he isn't overwhelmed any longer. My youngest listens to the reading in all subjects and it holds his attention. As a matter of fact, everyone seems to be learning something at his or her level.

Also, I've been feeling much more laid back about school because I know that adhereing to a strict schedule does not guarantee that the children will learn all that they need to. But exposing them to living books and a love of nature in a relaxed setting is proving to be much more effective. Homeschool will never be perfect but it has been soooo much better since making this change.

Use Ray's Arithmetic and Math Worksheet Generators to Teach Homesschool Math for Free

The very first public domain math book that I ever heard of was Ray’s New Primary Arithmetic for Young Readers. And after skimming the book it quickly became evident that this is an excellent resource for teaching addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. I suspect that the book could be used as the sole means of teaching arithmetic. But I use it along with a few other free resources available online to help my kids become proficient in basic math.


Flash Cards are Your (and Your Kids) Friends
Flash cards are my favorite way to have children memorize math facts. I know it’s old school. But it worked way back when and it still works today. I printed off addition flash cards for numbers 1 - 9 from Apples4theTeacher.com. And I found 10 through 12 on another site, the name escapes me right now. But there are numerous free printable flash cards available online; they’re just a search away.

I printed them out, cut them all to roughly the same size, and laminated them. Yes, it was time consuming. But I invested some time and now I have cards that are already being used by 2 of my students and will be able to be passed down to my youngest when the time comes.

Once the children have their addition facts memorized then I will go through the same process for subtraction, multiplication, and division. I teach in the same order as Ray’s Arithemetic does. 


Math Worksheet Generator
To reinforce the math facts I print out math worksheets from Super Kids. You can customize the sheets to be exactly what you need. For example, if my daughter has half of the 3s addition facts memorized then I generate a worksheet with a minimum number of “0” and a maximum number of “6” and all of the numbers are added to 3. Take a look at the generator and you’ll see what I mean. 


What’s 3 + 5?
I also quiz the children randomly throughout the day to see if they are truly memorizing their work. It’s not unusual for me to ask them a few facts at the kitchen table or while they’re playing with toys or whatever. I also sometimes make a game out of the flash cards. I quiz the child and if she gets the answer right then she gets to keep the card, if not I keep the card. Whoever has the most cards at the end of the game wins. This was my husband’s idea and the children actually started learning their facts quite quickly once there was some competition involved.


As you can see, it’s not that difficult to use public domain books in combination with other free online resources and come up with a very effective way of teaching arithmetic in your homeschool.

Free Thanksgiving Notebooking Pages, Printables, and Videos

I have been interested in notebooking with the children for a few years now. I even did a bit of it with my oldest for his science class when he was in the 6th grade. But he had just come out of public school and it didn't provide the structure that he was used to (and liked to some degree).

But now that I am homeschooling 3 little ones close in age the notebooking concept has become appealing again. So I figured, why not start with a subject that should be easy enough to find materials for? And sure enough, there is a plethora of printable Thanksgiving sheets available online.

This is the material I have come up with so far.

Free Thanksgiving Notebooking Pages

Homeschool Notebooking has a free Thanksgiving notebooking set that contains pages with both primary and regular lines. There are numerous other free notebooking pages at this site as well.

Super Teacher Worksheets has several Thanksgiving themed math sheets. I printed out the basic addition mystery picture for the children to complete and add to their books.

TLS Books has a Thanksgiving fun mini packet with a few useful pages for my youngest.

Thanksgiving Printables

The Indian Years coloring book - for beginner readers
Learn About Texas Indians activity book- for middle school and up

Thanksgiving Videos

Day of Thanksgiving


History of Thanksgivng


We Shall Remain is an award winning PBS series that tells the Native Americans side of the first Thanksgiving and beyond. I will probably let my children view this when they are older. My 13 year old already knows about how terribly Native Americans were treated. But, everyone else would be very saddened by it. I'll save these truths for a few Thanksgivings down the road.

Interesting Thanksgiving Facts

I was surprised to find out what was probably really on the plates of the Pilgrims and Native Americans that first Thanksgiving. History.com gives a list of what may of have been eaten and what probably was not. History also gives some interesting myths about Thanksgiving as well.

Interactive Site

I am really looking forward to going through the Voyage of the Mayflower with the children. This definitely looks like a resource to take your time with.

Thanksgiving Projects I Plan on Doing with the Children

You may have to scroll down to get to some of the crafts.
Corn project -
Native American headband
Boy and girl pilgrim hats
Teepee centerpiece

Free Online Educational Games for Kids

Educational games keeps homeschool fun. It doesn't really matter to me how the children learn, as long as they are learning. So, if a game, a video, or a comic will deliver the information in a way that will help the children remember - then I'm all for it. So, below, I have listed a few sites.


ABCYa - games sorted by grade level
Funbrain
Funschool
Gudli - free sign up required
Kinderweb
Knowledge Adventure
Learning Games for Kids
Play Kids Games
Primary Games
Prongo

Water Cycle Unit Study

The Water Cycle Poster the Children Made

Questions about water have come up more than once by 2 of my children. So, I am putting together some links so that we can study that some time in the near future.

For starters, here is a great resource for learning about the water cycle for kindergarten through the 9th grade. The Bundaberg Regional Council  Water Council, in Australia, has put together an activity book, coloring book, and water cycle chart for each of those grades.

More Water Cycle Activity Books
Every Drop Counts - K-6
My Water Activity Book - Pre-k - K
Rivers are Fun - grades 1-3
Thirstin's Wacky Water Adventure - grades k-3
Water Conservation Activity Book
Water Cycle Activity Book - for fluent readers, or can be read to younger children
Water Cycle Video Activity Packet - K-3 and 4-6

Water Cycle Activities
Set up a rain machine - page 8
Water Cycle Activities - says grade 4 but there are several activities for various elementary grade levels

Water Cycle Copy Work
Amos 9:6

Water Cycle Videos
The Water Cycle with Molecule Max


Water Cycle Jump (Bill Nye)

Water Cycle Song

Animal Habitats for Kids Study

On Tuesdays we study Science or Social Studies. Right now we are focusing on Science and I plan on introducing animal habitats to the children next week. To know what I will be doing on Tuesday a few days in advance is a first for this school year. Since school started it has been a bit "hit or miss"  because I was winging it quite a bit on this day.


When we had cable,  I used to let the children watch Sid the Science Kid as the science portion of the day. That was also when I was trying to cover every subject, every day. Thank God for some insight on that, courtesy of the Holy Spirit. We know focus on one subject a day and just make sure to incorporate writing and reading into that day's plans, along with daily math drills. 

But today I thought about Sid the Science Kid again and remembered that some of the shows are on Netflix. Today we watched the first episode in the backyard science cycle(I know it's not Tuesday) since the children finished up all of their work very early; and, I was out of ideas of what to do for the day. But watching that gave me the idea to show one episode each Wednesday and then plan the rest of the day around the topic that's covered.

The next episode we will watch is titled Home Tweet Home and is all about animals and their habitats. The description on Netflix says:

Sid wonders why there aren't any birds living in the birdhouse he made with his father. Sid and his friends later discover that many animals build and live in their own homes, including beehives, anthills and birds' nests.

The Super Fab Lab

The Super Fab Lab Investigation that goes along with this episode is The Big Bird Nest. And below are several resources that will, hopefully, help the children learn about animal homes in a fun way.

Lots of Great Info
The first site that I came across looks like a great starting point. The Utah Education Network has a page dedicated to animal habitats. The page looks very basic. But it links to almost 60 sites that go into detail about how various animals live. Some of the sites linked to are zoos, aquariums and National Geographic.

Animal Habitats Worksheets

Kids Zone has a match the animal to its habitat worksheet that I know my youngest will enjoy doing. Also, I plan on  using the "Where Do Animals Live?"  page from Boggles World as a handwriting worksheet. I might also use the Biome word search that is found there as well.

Animal Habitat Lesson Plans

Homes and Habitats is intended for children in grades 3 - 5 to use in conjunction with their trip to the Cosley Zoo in Illinois. But I think it will work just fine without the zoo trip.

PPPST is one of my favorite sites! I have used their resources a lot over the past few years. They have already done a great job of compiling lesson plans about ecosystems. So, I don't have to. :) National Geographic also has a plethora (I like using that word) of lesson plans as well.

Animal Habitat Games

Despite the grade range, I know that my children will enjoy playing the Bingo game found in the zoo handout. Or, the kids can play the Great Habitat Match-Up online. In Animal Homes, your little one has to help several animals reach their correct home. The kids can also play Animal Inn to learn about forest animals. And in Design a Habitat,  you make a home for the black footed ferret.

Animal Habitat Projects for Kids

I'm sure that there are many crafts relating to animals and their homes. But I plan on helping the children make a habitat diorama. I will let each child pick out which animal they want to focus on. Since this will be time consuming with 3 children, my plan is to do the projects on Thursday. Since, that is our arts and crafts day.

There are probably enough resources here to study habitats on more than one Tuesday. But, more than likely we will just pick a few activities that seem interesting and keep the lesson to one day. That way we can move on to the next video the following week.