Notebooking and a Great Sale at NotebookingPages.com

One of the methods of reinforcing what is being covered is if you decide to have your children use the learning method of "Notebooking".  Notebooking means creating a notebook for each subject or topic, and having the child fill out a page for different specific elements within that topic.

For example, my son and I spent several years expanding his knowledge of the birds that live in our area. So, we created a Bird Notebook (this can be a 3-ring binder, or it can be a composition notebook, a homemade book... whatever format you decide upon).  Each page in the book focused on a particular book. One page is the robin redbreast, with a color picture we printed out from a computer image from someone's website, etc. We didn't go into too much depth with this, because he was first grade, but you could go into depth. The page could include the geographic area this bird is found, what the bird eats, whether the bird migrates in winter, any predators, etc.

The Homeschooling Times has a great introduction to Notebooking, and Cindy Rushton's Notebooking ABC's is even better! Or you can do an internet search on the topic and see what you can find.  I have learned a lot about Notebooking from a blog I love called Harmony Art Mom.  Barb, the author, uses Charlotte Mason methods combined with Tapestry of Grace, and shows examples of how she has her sons use notebook pages to record and reinforce what they are learning.

Debra Reed, a homeschool mom out there has created her own small business with Notebooking. She creates templates for Notebooking for various subjects. Her business is NotebookingPages.com.  In addition to the fact that she has a lot free templates for various subjects, she has a membership page where you can access all her oodles and oodles of templates. The Notebooking Treasury is currently available at an amazing discount price! Please go take a  look and consider subscribing to her Notebooking Treasury page.

Here is a blurb from her email telling about the sale:

"We've teamed up with some of our old partners and have also added quite a few new ones too! They are offering fabulous gifts & prizes . . . I'm so excited to be able to bring these to you for our 5th Birthday Sale-a-Bration! You have got to go see what they're offering . . . amazing.

"All new members AND all renewing members will receive an e-gift package worth over $80 when purchasing between May 9th-May 27th. Check out the details:

Notebooking Treasury

I am a subscriber to the treasury, and I just love it. Thanks for considering!

D

Happy Mother's Day!

I just wanted to wish everyone a wonderful Mother's Day! Hope you have a wonderful day.

D

Listen to Audio Books for Free

Did you know that you can listen to audio books for free? I don't mean just from your library; I mean there are resources on the internet.

You can download or listen to free audio books online at OnlineAudioStories.com, Librivox.org, Storynory.com, AudioBooksForFree.com, and TheStoryHome.com .

There is also a weekly online storytime at BarnesandNoble.com. These are apparently picture book level, and are read showing the pictures, with music playing in the background. Very captivating for the little ones.  This month, the story is Charlie the Ranch Dog, read by the author and featuring the illustrations from the book.

Aren't these links amazing? My kudos go out to Molly Green (of The Old Schoolhouse Magazine) and her Econobusters blog  for her tip and her Freebie Friday entries each week (on Friday, of course). I love her blog!

Diana

Experiments in Atmospheric Pressure

From the Bizarre Labs website:

Collapsing a can with air pressure

Atmospheric pressure is strong enough to crumple a metal can. This can also be done using an aluminum soda (pop) can. Put a little water in it (app. 3cm) and heat on a hot plate until it begins to steam. If you must do this over a gas or other flame, don’t use a very high flame or an empty can; the paint may burn or, worse, the aluminum may melt. Using tongs, quickly flip it upside down into a small tray of ice water, which should be 6 or so inches (15cm) deep. The water will prevent the outside air from entering. A little of the ice water will be drawn up into the can, but not enough to equalize the pressure, and the can will crush.

Egg in a bottle

There are plenty of things to do with eggs, one being the egg in the bottle trick. Use a shelled, hard-boiled egg. The egg needs to be free from cracks in the white and smooth. Find a bottle with a neck just small enough that the egg won’t fall in (a carafe, milk bottle, or some baby bottles–possibly an ice tea bottle). Wad up a little piece of paper and drop it in the bottle (you can also use 2 or 3 wooden matches). Light the paper or matches, allow to burn out, and immediately put the egg in the bottleneck, where it should be sucked in (making a very interesting sound in the process). Actually, the egg isn’t sucked in, it’s pushed. The fire heats the air, causing it to become less dense and to rise out of the bottle. This causes a decrease in air pressure inside the bottle. The higher pressure outside the bottle pushes the egg in.



A reader recently reminded me that you can easily get the egg out again by turning the bottle upside down and blowing into it very hard. When you take your mouth away, the egg should pop out due to the increased air pressure in the bottle.

Free Ideas for "Bible Time"

Okay, I’m going to put together ideas for Bible time for your free homeschooling.

Ambleside Online format of daily time, that I have been using for many years, constitutes (1) Bible reading (you could consider Penny Gardner’s scripture highlights from Old or New Testament, or Bible Gateway); (2) Bible Memory, and (3) Hymn.

I just found a great Bible reading plan that is entirely free, where you go through the Bible in four years. It comes with discussion questions and periodic tests. My hyperlinks aren’t working in this post… Go to the AnchorCross website (http://anchorcross.org/books.shtml) and scroll down to "Through the Bible with my Child". Paragraph 3 says “The entire content of Through the Bible with My Child can be downloaded and read from this website free of charge. To view the book in pdf format, click here.” Click on the word “here” on that web page and a pdf document will download for you to use for your daily Bible time.

Today I also got a really great suggestion from a blog of doing the daily Keys for Kids each day, to keep it fun for the kids. I don’t know how that will work with my ten-year-old (going on 30 in his head), but I might give it a try.

Free English Grammar Curriculum

Okay, I know I had seen this site previously, but for some reason I never made a blog entry about free grammar resources. I'm sure this is not the only one out there (in fact, I KNOW of another one too, but don't have the website handy...). But I was looking at this one today, and it looks quite good!

This site is made in a way that an established student, say... beyond elementary, maybe... could work through the lessons alone, daily, and progress at his/her own speed.   However, in my opinion it could also be adapted to use with younger ones, with mom at the side, reading to the little'un, and asking questions, then filling in the provided (by young'un) answers.

This is intended to be used, used, and re-used forever, to completely cement all the correct grammar issues into the student's brain. It could be all you ever need for grammar. It even has tests.

It also has a "Premium" selection (a.k.a. you must pay something) that also looks great, like it gives immediate feedback and probably grades tests, etc. for $40/year, which is incredibly reasonable. I don't think I'll use that this year, cause the free stuff alone is amazing enough for me. But I might consider it for next year. (My kiddo is 5th, btw, with a reading level of reading whatever he wants and refusing to read what he doesn't want... So I'll sit with him on this one.)

So, give it a look-see. That web-address again is:
http://www.englishgrammar101.com/

[Disclaimer: I am listing all sites for my own and other homeschoolers' benefit. I get NO kick-back, nor affiliate privileges.]

A New Puppy in the House

Didn’t know how long we would wait to get a new dog, but some of the family were really wanting/needing a new furbaby to love.

We searched long and hard. Didn’t know for sure what we wanted. Didn’t want a pit bull, which our local shelter is full of.

Did want a yellow labrador puppy; one didn’t come along at the right time. Looked at one black dog, one year old; too much dog for us, and probably part pit bull.
Finally settled on one whose papers say they think he is 1/2 chocolate lab and 1/2 German Shorthaired Pointer.

I want my friends to tell me what they think.
Here are photos of the puppy we brought:

Our Beloved Bailey, 1999-2010

We said good-bye to our beloved furbaby, Bailey, today.
For several months he had been plagued by stomach issues that we could not determine the cause of... vomiting, and more recently refusing to eat, followed by temperature, dehydration... We had tested and tested, and could not find out what was wrong.
Well, last night he had a bad night, with non-productive vomiting, water, bile... and this morning the weather was nice, so I let him sit out in the cool on the deck to enjoy the morning.� After I saw him change spots and lie down by the sliding screen (he seemed to be unusually shakey in his movements...)... after a bit I went out to check on him, and he had passed on.� Very quietly, in a happy place, he passed away.
On taking his body to the vet, after examination, it was determined that his passing away was not caused by the long-term issues that we had been battling (which were probably intestional cancer which had probably spread to his lungs, guessed at due to his recent development of a cough and a spot on his lung noted on a recent x-ray)... Apparently during the night he had developed a twist in his stomach, which was evidenced by abdominal bloating. This cut off the blood circulation through the vena cava to his upper extremities, resulting very quickly in death (like in 1/2 hour from when it occurred). This is like in the movie Marley and Me.
So, we say good-bye to our wonderful yellow lab, who we adopted when he was about 2 years old, so long ago that my son remembers him always being here.
Our Bailey:

We love you, Bailey, and hope we see you on the other side.

I Blink, and Tomorrow becomes Last Week!

It is unbelieveable how quickly time flies sometimes!  I can’t believe how long ago my last entry already is!

Anyway, we aren’t starting our school year until the day after Labor Day. You would think I would use this time to be preparing for start day, but….. Nah…..  I am actually catching up on some housework (which we know, actually, IS preparing for the first day of school), and have been trying to finish some last UFOs (crafting term for (U)n(F)inished (O)bjects).  I finished knitting a baby sweater (need to sew on buttons), matching booties (need to finish sewing the 2nd one), and want to make a matching hat (a set for a charity).  I also made a nice tote, and hope to get a pair of pajamas and a pair of pants made for my ds.

We have a little local fair that I am planning to add these to; entry day is next week, so that’s what I’ve actually been preparing for!

I’ll try to post some photos to show these items, but not today. I need to go get going with my day!

My FlyLady Days

Summer is coming to a close, and some of my responsibilities that have been distriacting me outside of my home as well.  My (deceased) mom’s house is finally fixed, cleaned, and on the market. Renovations to my own house are (almost) finished. Time to et back into the swing of things.
Trying to work towards a more normal working schedule for my home and homeschool.
Flylady Mondays include:

• dust all surfaces
• sweep/mop/vacuum
• empty all trashes;
• change sheets
• clean mirrors, sliding door, major windows,
• declutter weekly periodicals

…need to check and see if that is all.  Then there are the Flylady "daily"s. 
Morning routine:

• make bed(s)
• morning shower and such; swish and swipe bathroom;
• feed the critturs;
• start the coffee; make the breakfast;
• unload dishwasher, breakfast, vitamins. Check calendar;
• eat the breakfast; quiet time; then rouse, feed, and do Bible time with my boy;
• a load of laundry started;

Later in the day routine:

• Look at or create "To Do" list;
• homeschool;
• hit the hot spots (load the breakfast dishes; clear "hot spot" surfaces;
• lunch and recess break/ email, phone calls;
• homeschool in afternoon/ any appointments for the day

After homeschool:

• Clean up school area;
• make sure everything’s on hand for dinner;
• some mom "craft time"
• start dinner

Bedtime routine:

• Leave kitchen clean with dishes loaded, dwasher running, coffee set up, counters wiped, sink shined;
• brush teeth, get dressed for bed;
• snuggle in and read, or do computer or watch movie while knitting or crocheting.

So, anyway, I got the sheets changed. I had to major clean my bathroom, because it had been ages… I pretty much have to dry mop the hardwood every day because of the dogs. I’ve been able to keep up with the dishwasher and coffee every night, but still need to remember to wipe down surfaces.

Majorly, I have boxes to unpack and declutter.  We had hardwood put in last week, and everthing was boxed and removed from the rooms. Now the boxes need to be unpacked. Realistically, a lot of the stuff that got packed needs to be thrown away, given away, or put away. In other words, when we packed up there were piles that should have been dealt with that were just packed. Now they need to be dealt with.

Anyway, time to get on with my day. I got the breakfast/coffee part done, but not the bed made part, nor the shower, nor the quiet time, nor the dishwasher, etc. Gotta get moving.
~D