Doodle Draw Art...Love!

If you're looking for a nice easy way to help your kids learn to draw, then have I got the website for you!

 DoodleDrawArt is a Youtube channel and blog that teaches children to draw cartoon style animals, vehicles, seasonal themes and characters all using simple lines and basic materials.  The videos are all nice and short, and include narration.  And if you can't find what you're looking for, they even take requests!

Have a look - and maybe you'll even enjoy trying out the drawings yourself!

• YouTube:  http://www.youtube.com/user/DoodleDrawArt
• Instagram:  http://instagram.com/doodledrawart
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DoodleDrawArt
• Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/doodledrawart
• Blog: http://doodledrawart.blogspot.ca/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/DoodleDrawArt

The instagram portion of this Online Art Class makes it most engaging, as she encourages her online students to post their pictures of her lessons and tag her in them, making it an easy way to show off your work!  How cool is that? 

Why not give her a boost and share the YouTube channel with your friends?  Oh, and I almost forgot to mention, she's a fellow homeschooler!

World History With Wit

Are you looking for a quick, witty and amusing history video series to supplement your studies, or to refresh your own memory of world history?

Well, here's just the series for you!




"Mr Green will this be on the test?"

"Yeah, about the test...the test will measure whether you are an informed, engaged, and productive citizen of the world; and it will take place in schools, and bars, and hospitals, and in dorm rooms, and in places of worship. You will be tested on first dates, in job interviews, while watching football and while scrolling through your twitter feed. The test will judge your ability to think about things other than celebrity marriages, whether you'll be easily persuaded by empty policital rhetoric and whether you'll be able to place your life in your community in a broader context. The test will last your entire life and it will be comprised of the millions of decisions that when taken together make your life yours. And everything....everything, will be on it"

This video has some very entertaining humor and gets right to the point. It's a quick survey of the concept of the rise of farming. Great for middle schoolers or as a refresher course for anyone!

MLA format for Citing Reference Works

This is a great guide to citing your references using MLA format:

MLA format is a scholarly publication format first used by Modern Language Association of America.  This is why it is called MLA format.  It gives guidelines for properly formatting a paper including citation of works used for research or discussed in the paper.

It is the standard used my most universities  and by most academic publications.

Building and Writing an Essay

Getting organized to build an essay can be a daunting task.
For me, the best way to do it is to write all of my concepts on post-it notes and then lay them out in the order I would like to discuss them.



This takes the clutter out of my brain and allows me to work it around until it is organized.
Laying the post-its out on a white board is helpful since you can use your marker to add notes or arrows to help your essay flow.

It's also a great way to find holes or see where you've got overlapping or extra material.

Writing your first draft becomes effortless, just grab the first post-it and write.  Then move on to the second one!  Repeat until you get to the final one.

If you've got a word count target, this is also a great way to determine before you begin if you've got enough content to work with.  If you can write 100 words about 10 ideas, you've got a 1000 word essay, and slightly more with an introductory and summarizing paragraph!

Literary Approach Paper Format

Another key paper used in Excellence in Literature is the Literary Approach Paper.  If you're looking for a framework and example of this type of paper, here's a source for reference.

Historical Approach Paper Format Framework

If your students are with Excellence In Literature this year, you might find this framework for historical approach paper helpful. 

Historical Approach Paper by Brenda Sain

Multiplication Online Drill

Just a quick note today to mention a super effective online drill for math facts. My 9-year old is using it for multiplication these days. It's one of the Math-U-See online resources.

It's super easy to use and can be calibrated to drill only the required facts, or do the whole shabang!

Each drill does 20 questions, and times the student.  I have my 9-year old do the drill 5 times before he starts his math for the day.  He records his score and time.