I am so glad it's the weekend so I can finally sit down and update on some new discoveries and current events that have occurred in the last few weeks.  There is some interesting stuff here, hopefully some of it will interest you enough to inspire some new lesson plans for your children:

New Game Builds Vocabulary for Kids - and Adults:  There is a new game in town for your Nintendo DS, it is called "My Word Coach", and it is getting great reviews. It was inspired by a college professor and has six different vocabulary games that also tracks your progress, read about it here:
My Word Coach

Indoor Gardening: Growing your own Vegetables and Herbs Indoors durinig the Winter: This is a fantastic and informative article about how to grow vegetables inside your house during the winter.  It is written with clear direction and really shows you how to get started with little cost. This would make a great home-school family project! (Not to mention fresh vegetables around the house year-long)
Indoor Gardening

Scottish Water Plant Dig reveals ancient Roman Fort:  This is a cool story! When construction workers in Scotland were readying a site for a new treatment plant, they came upon an ancient Roman fort, which is dated 2000 years old. To read about the discovery:
Ancient Roman Fort

Puzzle Pouch and Free Patterns:  If you have a student who likes to sew and if looking for some easy patterns, don't miss this article. The sewing blog at About.com has found some terrific free patterns for a Puzzle Pouch, and don't worry about not having a sewing machine, these can all be done by hand:
Puzzle Pouch and Free Patterns

Fortune Cookie - Made in Japan?:  This is a fun story, it has been discovered that fortune cookies are not Chinese at all, they are Japanese!  Read the story of how one history graduate in Japan discovered this shocking fact:
Fortune Cookies: Made in Japan?

U.S. Scientists Create beating Hearts in Lab:  This was a huge story in the science and medicine world.  A group of scientists created beating hearts in aging rats, they feel that this could lead to some mighty new changes in health-care in the future. Read about the discovery and story:
Beating Hearts in Lab

Sir Edmund Hillary, who first climbed atop Mt. Everest, has died:  Yes, Sir Edmund Hillary died at the age of 88 on January 11, 2008.  This story made me put a note to myself about future lesson plans on Sir Hillary and Mt. Everest in general.  Children will find his story exciting, and his life even more so:
Sir Edmund Hillary dies

On-Line Tangram Puzzle Games:  If your student is into puzzles of any kind, then your student is going to love Tangrams.  Dave at About.com has put together a few sites for you involving Tangrams. Tangrams may look simple enough, but believe me it is not, some of these are wonderfully challenging:
On-Line Tangram Puzzle Games

Tornado Handbook, an Interactive Guide:  You have to love the people over at the Discovery Channel, they are always coming up with some unique learning tools! This is a interactive Tornado handbook, that allows your student to participate in making a tornado, while learning step by step along the way how tornadoes form, you are going to love this!:
Tornado Handbook

New Solar System could Breed Life:  Astronomers are very excited about this one.  The beginning stages of a new solar system have been discovered, and scientists believe that this new solar system could breed life. To read more on this discovery:
New Solar System

Time-Line Greenland:  This is just a great time-line for Greenland that will enhance any study or lesson plan you may be doing on Greenland. Done in chronological order and stacked full of information:
Time-Line Greenland

Civil War Detective Solves Grave Mix-Up:  Imagine that you really really really don't like the neighbors down the street "The Smiths", you are feuding constantly. But then you die and for some strange reason, end up buried in the Smith family plot! Read the story of the Civil War soldier, who really wound up buried in the wrong place, and the person who solved it:
Civil War Grave Mix-Up

Make your own Sock Puppets:  Finally, some hands-on fun for the little ones.  Very good article on making your own sock puppets and a list of materials that you will need to get the project done:
Sock Puppets

Going High-Tech: Geo-caching in the Classroom:  This is one gold-mine of a find for classroom fun with GPS.  This site will help inspire hours of learning and fun using a GPS for your older or advanced students. The blog has several ideas to get you started:
Geo-caching in the Classroom

Volunteers needed to join International Bird-Feeding Study!:  Be part of an international study on bird-feeding.  There are two different programs to choose from. This would be an ideal on-going lesson plan for the entire family, and a chance to be part of something very special and important:
Volunteer for Bird-Feeding Study

That is it for this week, hope you found something new for your home-school curriculum planning!

Building your child's vocabulary is essential in each year of his education because the older your child gets the bigger his vocabulary should become.  The more vocabulary your child understands the better his reading comprehension becomes, and the better your child is able to communicate with those around him.

Generally vocabulary building activities are found within a language arts curriculum, so often times we don't put too much emphasis on extra vocabulary lessons or take the time to generate vocabulary-specific lesson plans.  But, if you know your child is struggling with vocabulary, here are some great ideas to help him build his vocabulary in a fun and interactive way.  Keep in mind that you can adapt these activities to the grade that your child is in at present.

Word Association through Pictures

Materials:  Poster board, magazines, scissors, glue, dictionay, pencil, paper

Create a poster board that has pictures you cut from a magazine.  Each picture should represent a new vocabulary word that you want to introduce.  An example would be a picture of a popular restaurant, such as "McDonald's" with the word franchise below it.  Have your child look up the word franchise in the dictionary and write out its definition under the picture.

Vocabulary Matching Game

Materials:  Poster board, magazine(s), scissors, glue, dictionary, pencil, paper

Preparation:  Look through the magazine for vocabulary words.  Use only one magazine for elementary and middle school children and two or three magazines for high school students.  Next, write the vocabulary word on an index card.  Make an individual index card for each word you want your child to learn.

Create a poster board that has clues (definitions of words) on it, such as "object used to flip pancakes."  Leave enough space for your child to find the picture in the magazine, cut it out, and glue it under the clue.  Now have your child look through the vocabulary words that you created on index cards and have them match the vocabulary word to the clue/picture that they have already completed.  Let your child use a dictionary to look about the vocabulary words on the index cards to be sure they are matching the right words.

Vocabulary Jigsaw Puzzle

Create a worksheet that looks like a puzzle.  You can also buy cut blank puzzles from a local craft store, if you wish.  Write a new vocabulary word on each puzzle piece.  Have your child either cut apart the pieces or break apart the puzzle, if using a pre-made puzzle, and mix them up.  Now you call out definitions of these words, and your child puts the puzzle back together.

Vocabulary BINGO

Most every child likes to play this popular game.  Turn it into a vocabulary lesson plan by filling in the spaces with vocabulary words.  Call out the definitions and have your child fill a space if they have the matching word.  Give out candy or a small prize to your child, when he wins!  You can even make your own BINGO cards.

   As the old year will soon be over and a bright, new year quickly approaches I am busy attempting to get the curriculum set for the return to homeschool on January 3. I like to plan ahead and have all of the work set up ahead of time and entered into the planner (Homeschool Tracker is my favorite www.homeschooltracker.com) and then all I need to do is assign the days work, grade and then plug the scores in when they are finished.
   This year we are studying algebra, chemistry, spelling, reading/literature and geography/history. I like to add a few "extra' fun classes each quarter that focus on art and music just to keep them using both sides of their brains and experiencing different forms of both. During December the boys had a great time doing hidden pictures everyday, even though this is a project often used in elementary school art they found it a lot of fun trying to guess what the picture was before coloring it.
   Once a month I schedule a "Fun Friday" where if we have completed the weeks work and chores then we plan for a road trip. This is especially exciting since I am usually the only one that knows where we are going until we get there.  It might be to the local bowling alley to bowl a few frames, or special museum exhibit, or maybe even the local water park (in the summer) or "The Fridge" when the winter weather allows for bobsledding along a long and winding course of frozen tubes. These adventures usually provide us with an inexpensive way to have fun, learn and attending during the weekday offers the benefit of less crowded facilities.
      
  

The New York Times on the Web Learning Network is Top-Notch!

This is aimed towards students and educators grades 3 - 12, and is updated daily.  There is so much here, I will try to break it down for you:

News Summaries - Short summaries of the daily events throughout the world, you can turn on the vocabulary keys and geography keys to help you along the way.

Daily News Quiz - My favorite!  Your student hunts through the various news stories to find the answers that are missing in the story, all answers can be found in the news for that day. You submit your answers, and it will let you know how well you did.

Word of the Day - Great way to build vocabulary.  It offers a daily word, tells you how many times in the last year the word has appeared in print in the N.Y. Times, and lists the articles, and gives an example on how the word is used. You can also HEAR the word pronounced through the Visual Thesaurus.

Test Prep Question of the Day - Gives a paragraph with a missing word, the student is to choose the word that fits best and then explain why it was chosen. This page also offers strategies for answering the question.

Also on the main page are feature articles, with links for related lesson plans, you can find activities and articles by subject, American History, Civics, Math and Economics, Fine Arts, Geography, Global History, Language Arts, Science and Health, Social Studies and Technology are all available from the front page.

Take a look and see what is offered, I hope you are inspired!

Right before Halloween, our local Middle School had a "dress up" day.  Whoever wished to could  wear costumes to school that day.  The majority of the boys, chose to opt out, the girls, well they chose to dress as Britney Spears,  Paris Hilton, and Pamela Anderson. Only fitting since these seem to be the "heroes" of the  times for young girls.

My heroes?  Well of course, Meg, Jo, Amy and Beth!  When I was a young girl, I couldn't read "Little Women" without being drawn into their lives.  I wanted their story to continue forever, while I waited nearby watching their every move. 

Lesson plans for "Little Women" are vast, I am going to attempt here to point you to a few of the good ones.  First of all, owning the book is a plus.  Every book store and library in the country carries "Little Women".  If for some reason though, you cannot get the book, it is published online, chapter by chapter:

Online Literature

Read Print 

The Literature Page 

Background and Key facts before reading:

SparkNotes 

Online Field Trip to the Alcott Home 

Fun Facts on Little Women 

My daughter struggled a bit with the vocabulary, here are a few of the vocabulary words you may want to conquer before beginning:

Acquiesce

Adorn

Amicable

Anoint

Ardent

Bequeath

Beseech

Blight

Blithe

Bounden

Candor

Capricious

Cherub

Copious

Demeanor

Cultivate

Emaciate

Expatiate

Frolic

Gallant

Obscure

Pettish

Propitiate

Reverie

Remonstrate

Peremptorily

Irascible

Peruse

Obstinate

Exult

My daughter was a little ticked off at Louise Alcott for her strange use of words.  I told her, "Wait until you get a load of Shakespeare!"

Online quizzes and lesson plans:

Quia quiz 

Advance Infoplease Quiz 

This site has excellent ideas for lesson plans, but it is geared towards the classroom.  Some of them could easily be adapted into a home-school lesson plan:

Cheerful Hearts and Willing Feet 

Sharing this book with your daughter will bring on its own lessons, and create in her wonderful memories of her own.  I have to admit, that once the fear of the vocabulary was diminished, this was one of the best home-school lessons we have had.

Enjoy! 

 

If you are a homeschooling parent, there are two comments that you have most likely heard from non-homeschooling people...

1.) What about socialization?

2.) I knew a homeschooler once, and he was sooo strange

Hmmm....let's talk about strange shall we?

The middle school my daughter left was chock full of your non-strange people, let me introduce them to you:

Brianna and her Mom: Mom works for Hooters, so sees nothing wrong with her daughter wearing her Hooter t-shirts to school, when Brianna explains to her Mother that she was made to turn her t-shirt inside-out for the day, Mom responds with a loud rambling of four letter words.

Michael: Michael is a boy with a lengthy history of emotional problems. Michael twice this past year stood up in class and threatened to "blow everyone away", he has not been removed from the school....and by the way, Michael's brother is already in prison serving time for murder.

Band Teacher: Band teacher constantly warning children that lying about having gum in their mouths will send them to hell........yet.....she has no problem yelling "YOU SUCK, YOU SUCK, YOU SUCK" to her students after hearing them play.

Britney: Britney is the self-proclaimed queen of fashion, who gathers her gaggle of girls together to torture others to tears over what kind of shoes they are wearing. She also has the unique talent of teaching other girls how to pole dance around the flagpole.

Lexi: The young lady who is constantly talking about spirits, ghosts, spells and potions, holds impromptu seances whenever anyone shows an interest.

and last but not least....

Sean: A 13 year old boy who talks sexually to your children. Encourages two girls standing together to "make out", and uses language you have probably never used.

And you knew a homeschooler once that was strange?? Big deal, I knew a school full of nut-cases that would take decades for psychologists to figure out.

If it is hard to picture, do yourself a favor. Go to your local Junior high and just stand there outside for a few minutes before or after school. Within five minutes you will wish that you had a shower nearby. Believe me, most parents don't have a clue what their children's environment is like.

I call it "sending your child into a enemy zone". You couldn't pay me for my child to "socialize" with these people. My daughter does not suffer, she benefits from not being bonded with such characters. She has no lack of socialization, she belongs to her teen group at church, and we belong to 3 homeschooling groups that ice-skate, roller-skate, laser tag and toboggan with. Children of ALL ages, and (gasp!) their parents too! I have not heard one offending word, no one breaks out Ouija boards, and there is plenty of hugging that goes on. (Which by the way was banned in our local schools). There is plenty of encouragement to go around and plenty of room to grow. The truth we have found is Quality parents and Quality kids in homeschooling, not a bit strange, but wonderfully unique!

Education without values, as useful as it is, seems rather to make man a more clever devil.

C.S. Lewis