Homeschooling Books/ Sets for sale

Math U See 

Gamma Teacher Manual and DVD info  $35

Math U See 

Epsilon 

DVD, Teacher Manual, Test Booklet, Student Text Fraction Overlays $100

info about this level

Math U See

Pre-Algebra  info $65 , 

Algebra 1  info $65,

 RESERVED Geometry info $65, 

SOLD: Algebra 2 info  $85

or $180 for all 3

each set includes DVD, Text Book, Test Booklet, Student Manual. 

Student did all work on looseleaf paper, no work done in student manual or test papers

I also have a set of Algebra 1 DVD and Text book (Teacher Pack) not shown in photo,  for $35

Life of Fred 

Fractions Info about this book here. $15

Decimals and Percents (info about this book here.) $15

SOLD: Beginning Algebra Expanded Edition info about this book here $25

SOLD: Elementary Physics info about this book, it has been re-titled. $25

 


SOLD ITEMS:



SOLD Coles Notes High School Subjects
Each book has succinct instruction and end of unit questions with answers.
Physics $5
Chemistry $5
Statistics $5
Algebra $5
Geometry $5
Trigonometry $5
or all 6 for $25

SOLD Math U See 

Starter Pack  (no poster.)

$40

SOLD  Story of the World 

Book and Activity Guide Sets 

Volume 1 $30

Volume 2 $30

Volume 3 $30

Volume 4 $30

All 8 books:  $100

SOLD  Story of the Word Volume 1 Audio CDs

6 CD's $20

 

SOLD Growing With Grammar: 

Grades 3,4,5,6 and 7.  Student Manual and Answer Key

$10 per set, or $40 for all 5. (You would need to purchase the Student Workbook for each level at approx $15 each.)

(info about this series here: )

Number Bonds Game with Manipulatives

Here's a quick way to work with young math students using manipulatives and make a little game out of adding and subtracting small numbers.

Quick Doodle it's a Poodle! no it's not....

Here's a super fast cartoon dog to draw.  This video will show you how to draw an easy cartoon step by step!

What would you name your dog?

Lots of Fun Things to Draw for Halloween!

Halloween is just around the corner and if your kids are anything like mine that means their creative spirit is on fire!

Here are some great video tutorials for kids showing them how to draw things for Halloween.

How to Draw a Jack-o-lantern:

How to draw a Witches Hat:

How to Draw Franskenstein's Monster:

 How to Draw a Haunted House:

 And there are so many more at DoodleDrawArt's channel on YouTube!  Check it out!

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.  

Multiplication Fun

There's nothing like a little fun inserted into your school day.  I have found that without question, anything that requires drill and retention is easily and best accomplished in a game setting.

My boys enjoy using the computer for their school work when they get the opportunity, and for my 4th Grader, Timez Attack is just the answer!

There are "skins" available to change the game setting, and they do add some special fun to the game.  The free version uses a dungeon setting and that might be just fine for your student.

Personally, I recommend the "Rental" of the Standard game, unless you have younger children that you plan to use it with, in which case go for the "Buy" version so you can use it forever.

It's $25 for the year to rent the standard edition, but after a year, your child will be a whiz at Math facts!  You can also use it for more than one child concurrently.  We tried the free version, but one thing for sure, kids love variety and so for me, it was well worth the cost for the extra levels.   And, the Retention feature is more fully developed in the rental version, from a teaching perspective, that's always a bonus.

This game is highly entertaining, and in our house you can frequently find another child watching over the shoulder of the student who is playing.  This has the side benefit of having older children refresh their facts or giving younger children a "leg up" on math facts for when their turn comes!

Art Class - 3D Hand

 source: https://www.facebook.com/different.solutions.page

So you want to write the next Hunger Games? Elements of Fiction Writing

Have you ever started to write a story that you couldn't seem to finish?  Have you had a great idea for a story, know how it was going to start and end but ran out of steam just before writing the middle?

Maybe it's because you were writing from the seat of your pants; believing that you have the ability to write a good story because you love to read and you've read so many good stories.

It's possible to write a very good story on instinct alone. But it might be the case that you need a little help to really craft a compelling and satisfying story for your reader.

Let's take a minute and think about some of the elements that make a story compelling, and see where you might have gone astray.

A work of fiction has Characters, Theme, Setting, Plot, Conflict, and Voice.

All of these areas require careful attention in order to create a cohesive story that creates a new reality for the reader -- no matter how fantastic the characters and events may be.

Today, let's examine the Voice of your story.  

To understand voice, do the following:

• Consider The Hunger Games, Harry Potter (book 1) and The Fellowship of the Ring.   
• If I were to present you with a paragraph from each of these books with all the names and places changed, 
• would you be able to state exactly which book those 3 passages came from just by the voice the author uses?

Want to try?  I'm going to flip to a random page in each of these books and quote a small section with the names all changed.  I'm going to use Sesame Street character names and use He for all of the pronouns.

Example 1:

'I think you should still follow that plan,' said Grover, 'I do not think the road will prove too hard for your courage.   But if you require clearer counsel, you should ask Oscar.  I do not know the reason for your flight and therefore I do not know by what means your pursuers will assail you.  These things Oscar must know.  I suppose you will see him before you leave..." 

Example 2:

I whip around. It's come from the left, so I can't pick it up very well. And the voice was hoarse and weak. Still, it must have been Ernie. My eyes peruse the bank, but there is nothing. Just mud, the plants the base of the rocks.

Example 3:

All the same, it wasn't what you'd call the perfect end to the day Kermit thought, as he lay awake much later listening to Fozzy and Beaker falling asleep.  There was a very good chance they were going to get caught by Miss Piggy or Animal,and yet Kermit felt he was pushing his luck.  The Count's face kept looming up out of the darkness -  this was his big chance to beat Big Bird face to face.  He wasn't going to miss it.  

Have you got your guesses ready?

I'll give you the answer.


The first example was from The Fellowship of The Ring, the last example was from Harry Potter and the middle one was from The Hunger Games.

I'm going to bet you got all 3 of them right (if you've read the books.)

The reason you could tell which was which was because of the writers Voice.  It's not what the author is saying but how she says it.  The way she puts words together. The detail. The imagery. Even the attitude or the personality of the story itself.  All of this together is the Voice, and it helps the reader identify with a story in the same way we identify with a good friend.

Evaluating Writing for the Home Educator - Free Rubric

Every writer has their own style, their own way of saying things, their own flavour.  When I'm writing for a blog, I use a somewhat conversational tone.  This helps the reader feel personally involved in my writing.  Right?

Stay objective while marking your child's writing.
Use a rubric

Writing a press release, an obituary, or a report require different stylistic elements.  But the bottom line is that no matter what we are writing there are certain areas that are un-bending.  

• Writing must be organized. 
• Ideas must be clear. 
• Word choice must enhance the readers experience. 
• The writing must be fluid, and well-presented.  
• The mechanics of the language must work.

As a home schooling parent/teacher, we are called upon to grade our child's writing.  And we must do this objectively. Grading Math, Science, or Geography can be cut and dried, since it's usually got a clear right or wrong answer. Grading Writing has more leeway, and more room for subjectivity. So we must purposely take a step back from our feelings about the piece or the author,

Enter the Writing Rubric.  If you've not heard the word before, a rubric is set of criteria with a scale of observations you can use to assign partial marks for each category in an assignment. It gives you a more objective way to assign points, and gives students specific feedback on areas they have done well, or could work to improve.

A good writing rubric will give you general areas of consideration for evaluation, and a gauge to measure them by.  Everyday Education offers a free writing rubric for use by home educators, taken from Evaluating Writing the Easy Way. by Janice Campbell author of Excellence in Writing and Transcripts Made Easy. 

The free rubric focuses on essay format, but if you're crafty you could adapt it to any style.  

History Blank Timeline

For those of you who might be interested in a blank timeline for use with Modern History, I've posted one on my StoryOfTheWorldBlog.

 The timeline was created for use with Volume 4 of Story of the World. And it's actually from 1700-2000 - in case we might like to note earlier events which influenced or led into events of volume 4.

 Anyway, if you're looking for a simple blank timeline, check it out!

Writers Inc Arrives!!

Our copy of Writers Inc. came in the mail today, and we couldn't be more pleased with our selection!

 Writers Inc. is an absolutely beautiful book.

Books should be beautiful, shouldn't they?  Writers Inc has a glossy black cover with gleaming shiny multi-colored foil sections that photos on the internet could never covey.  It has durable quality paper and feels like something you would like to clutch close to your heart, and keep well into your senior years (senior citizen not just senior in high school!)

The publisher recommends it for grades 8-12, and I'd say it's spot on.

So far, my review is 5 stars!.

Quotes from the Kitchen Table Reviews include:  

• "Cool, look at this, Mom! ”   and   
• "Wouldn't it be neat to become a famous writer, and write for a living someday?"

These words came from my 12-year-old reluctant writer.  This book is a keeper!!

Favourite Crochet Supplies

I have to admit to loving to make homespun gifts.
Here are some of my favorite Crochet Resources:

Books and Hooks:

Crochet Patterns:

These patterns are all visual tutorials. They write the pattern out with pictures of the steps, no abbreviations or complicated instruction!

   

Videos:

Awesome selection of video tutorials on how to make beautiful crochet stitches and projects!

Blogs:

Three Crochet Chicks

Kids and Technology - Email: 4 Tips for Parents

In this age of technology, parents are faced with decisions about allowing (or denying) things like cell phones, ipads, facebook and email accounts.

These forms of technology can enhance or diminish productivity and lifestyle.

Facebook can create social problems and hurt feelings; and it encourages children to divulge personal information on the internet.  iPads give children the ability to access internet in unsupervised areas of the home.  Cell phones are a whole topic onto themselves!

A good way to ease in, is with email.  

Allowing your child to have their own email account is a priviledge.  If done properly it's a good way for them to learn communication skills and typing skills while staying in touch with friends -   in a way that is convenient for homeschoolers.

If you decide to allow them to set up an email account here are a few tips:

1.  Don't let them use their name as the address.  This can lead to privacy issues that a child is not prepared to deal with.  John.Smith@yahoo.com can be an easy mark for predators, knowing their name gets them a foot in the door.

2. Maintain a rule that you must always have the password to the account so that you can check on it whenever you like.  And, do this - randomly.

3. Have the incoming mail to your child's account forward to your own email.  This way, you have your finger on the pulse of what's arriving in their inbox.  You won't know what's going out the outbox, but at least you'll know if there are any topics or issues which require discussion.

4.  Don't allow them to use their email address on websites, etc.  They should only give it to friends they know in real life.  This will eliminate Spam, Junk mail and other unwanted solicitation.  If you opt for Gmail, it has a pretty good junk filter.  I use it as my primary email account and all of the viagra, and make money/send money emails completely skip my inbox.

Personally, I think a good age to allow children to begin with email is around 12.  You may differ on this idea.  In my home this is an age where children are expected to do more around the house, take more ownership of their schoolwork and chores, and are generally interested in contact with people outside the home. (And I use it to remind them about school assignments, using my GoogleCalendar!)

What are your thoughts on this issue?

Related Posts:

Assignment Deadlines - Using Google Calendar       
Using Google for Writing Assignments               
Using Google Docs in Your Home School

Since you Asked - A Little Bit About Me.

I've had a few readers ask me about my background or my motivation for Blogging for home schoolers.  The two questions are actually quite closely related.

My background goes back to when I was 12 and I started teaching my best friend to play piano.  And then when I was in 9th grade and essentially taught 9th grade Math by something like the Socratic Method, though I'd never heard of Socrates.

No, I was not a child prodigy hired by a forward thinking school to teach my peers.

When I was in 9th grade, our school guidance counsellor was assigned to teach 9th grade Math. We would arrive in the class to copy questions and examples from the board. The teacher would read what he had written, ask us to write it down and complete the questions.  When anyone would ask a question, he would just find the appropriate notes on the board and re-read them to the questioner

As you can guess, he had no idea how to teach Math.  It led to many frustrated students who wanted to understand.  Repeating the words he already said didn't help the student who didn't understand the concept, and he clearly had no way of explaining the concepts himself.

Everyone was frustrated.  And I understood the Math.

The Teacher in me couldn't resist facilitating.  And so, in an effort not to undermine his teaching or authority, I would, upon seeing those puzzled and frustrated expressions, raise my hand and say, "so do you mean...,"  and explain the underlying tidbit that was not on the board and clearly was needed to answer the student's question.

At first he didn't know how to handle my, um, assistance.  But after the first Math Test when I got 105% (there was a bonus question,) and the average mark on the test was 65%, with many students failing.  He changed his view of me.  After that, he would actually look my way when he was at a loss and I would politely raise my hand and explain the concept, usually by using some form of question. (Afterall, that's why you raise your hand!)

This was when I discovered that I could "teach."

So, 10 years; a teachers degree; and 5 years of school teaching later I finally left school and became a full time private piano teacher.  I had been teaching piano students during the time I taught public school.  And so, I knew how to use all the teaching theory while working with students one-on-one.

Teaching a classroom full of students of differing abilities is a demanding part-art part-magic vocation  And it didn't feel at all to me like why I had wanted to become a teacher.  It was when I left the system myself (almost 20 years ago, and before having children of my own) that I decided I would home school any children I might be blessed with.

So, today I teach piano and teach my children at home.  In both cases I feel like I make a difference.  My Purpose is to guide and motivate students to want to learn and to take ownership of their learning.  I don't "teach to the test"  I "teach students to teach themselves." In fact, I don't even like to use the word teach...because it implies I am doing something to you.  I am a motivator, coach, cheerleader, tutor, mentor, counsellor - any of those words work.

My aim is to work myself out of a job.  And the funny thing is, professionally, I keep most of my piano students through their teen years (and through high school) and some even on into university. (If they don't move away, they often don't quit!)

Why is this?  I believe it's because I make learning personal for them.  I don't just turn the page and teach the next song...well sometimes I do, but that's not usually the plan!

So, although I digress, the reason for the Blog, is that I believe that we all have the will and the ability to motivate and inspire students.  As home educators we come from varying backgrounds.  Some of us have Education Degrees, and some of us have a GED, some of use are simply Parents with no recognized certificate of learning.  My blog is my way of prompting others to think about different aspects of home education.

I write about the things I'm thinking about at the time, and you can take them or leave them.  It comes down to personal taste.  And I want it to be personal!  So, by all means take from me what you will and toss the rest!