13. August 2008 by Shannon.

(heehee, I can hear everyone saying “Huh?”)

Livemocha is a language learning website.  We all know how desireable it is in today’s markets to be comfortable in more that one language… well, Livemocha provides support for six popular languages (English, Spanish, French, Hindi, German and Mandarin Chinese) and offers impressive and comprehensive lesson plans for each, including a full range of practical reading, listening, writing and speaking exercises.

The best part is that Livemocha makes it easy for you to learn on your own (and at your own pace) and connects you with a huge network of other students and native speakers to help you master your new language.

Now, understand, I am a BIG fan of Rosetta Stone language learning software… BUT I do realise that the cost can be very limiting for homeschoolers who are often making ends meet with only one income… so, here comes Livemocha… for FREE!  I can’t say it’s EXACTLY the same thing, but where the they meet is in immersion and where Livemocha excells is in the practical conversation with others working towards the same goal… sometimes company makes the journey more pleasant.

SO, if you have been panicking over your teen’s “foreign language credit” - panic no more!  Hop on over to Livemocha and set them up and let the learning begin!  There - that’s one less thing on your planning To Do list!  You’re welcome! *grin*

Blessings!

Posted in Curriculum Choices, Great Finds | Print | 5 Comments »

12. August 2008 by Shannon.

I have a confession.  I think one of my primary reasons for homeschooling my kids is that I am a closet book-a-holic.  Well, it’s really anything with words in it actually… I was the kid reading the cereal boxes over breakfast trying to sound out the names of the interesting ingredients (which leads me to the question “why are we eating something that we can’t pronounce??” … but I digress.)

You see, I love books, magazines, newpapers, anything with words… BUT… my Darling Husband does NOT like the clutter of more than a few book cases in any given room.  SO, I had to be creative… we spread the bookcases out around the house, never giving any room more than their “permitted” two bookcases (okay, I’ll admit, my dining room has three… but shhhh.. he hasn’t really noticed yet!).  And even then my printed word habit was bulging at the seams… but then a glorious day!  I was introduced to the E-Book!!!!! (there are not enough exclamation points in the world to express my joy! *wink*)… I could hide a whole LIBRARY in my computer… or collected on a few little, non-intrusive CDs… life was grand. 

I never thought it could get better… but it DID - Now there are looks-like-the-real-thing eMagazines!   And of course, my favourite kind of magazines are homeschooling related (duh!)… so you can imagine my delight to hear that The Old SchoolHouse Magazine was now being published in digital format… and not just a simple PDF file either… this was a whole new magazine reading experience!

To start with, there is a “pages” option which lays out the entire magazine in clickable thumbnails, just how I can imagine the editors would lay out the mock-up for the real magazine.  It is so convenient to browse and click on whatever article (or advertisement!) catches your attention and *FLIP!* a digital page turns and there you are at that article, in full size and colour, ready to enjoy. 

And if it wasn’t enough to browse the thumbnails of the articles, there is also a Search option which allows you to type in a keyword and it pops up a list of all the titles, pages and even a little “sample” of the article it’s refering you to… it’s like searching on a real search engine!  Talk about your incredible time saver when you are trying to find that one article that you just had to show a friend… very helpful!

On the technical end (as if just being an interactive eMagazine wasn’t enough to impress my socks off), there is a “settings” option where you can choose how you would like to view your magazine (one page at a time, two page spread, fit to width, fit to height, zoomed in close *for those of us with reaaaallly bad eyesight?*) and…. here’s the kicker… it REMEMBERS your settings!!!  How cool is that?  One of my pet peeves is PDFs who hijack my other PDF settings by opening things not the way I want, and I am forced to WORK (okay, click one little button, but still.. my button-clicking time is precious to me! LOL!) to fix it.

Can you tell how impressed I am? 

Okay, onto the content side… because, although I am a card-carrying member of the cereal box readers club, I know that even the “neatest” of eMagazines isn’t worth a thing unless there is something worth reading in it.  Well, rest easy… there are LOTS of facinating articles, ranging from schooling styles, learning styles, teaching tots to teaching teens… and LINKS GALORE!  That’s another nice thing about the eMagazine -  where there is a referral to a site, there is a clickable link… no more typing it in to your browser window only to find out you left out one obscure letter… this is an instant link.  AND if you view the magazine online (I did, but it was slow loading on my dial-up connection, so I ended up downloading it to my computer) and like an article, you can even click a button and SHARE the article with your friends!   Now that’s a community builder.  Picture reading a fantastic article - passing it on to a couple of your best “over a cuppa tea” Homeschool Mommy friends - and *Voilà!*  you have an instant conversation starter for the next time you all get together… (you know, in case you DON’T have something to talk about already…. grin!)

So… as you’ve probably gathered, I’m pretty excited about this new way to squeeze more words into my life (and these are those little ones I can hide away on a CD for safe keeping… so, my Sweet Man is happy - less bookcases - and *I* am happy - more words!).  I wish ALL magazines offered this option…

… and one more thought:  The Old SchoolHouse Magazine DIGITAL version is also a VERY environmentally friendly option - no trees were harmed during the downloading of the magazine! *big wink*

Blessings!

Posted in Great Finds | Print | 1 Comment »

7. August 2008 by Shannon.

We all know there are a gazillion planners out there, from buying a standard bound one at the local copy shop or Walmart to customized HOMESCHOOL planners available from many different sources (each with their own particular angle).  As school is FAST approaching (for those of us who follow the typical school year) I thought it might be a good time to do some planning (not a bad idea, eh? *grin*) and so I spent some time looking through the many planners I have here on my computer and at my fingertips… yes, I have several.  I’m kind of a Planner Junkie.. always looking for the “perfect” organizing tool.  Just like I believe that the real reason I’m disorganized is because I don’t have the right planner yet.. LOL!  Okay, that’s  my excuse, and I’m stickin’ to it! *wink*

Please note that although I have to list the planners in SOME KIND of order… as we are trapped in a linear world, I am not putting them in any particular order… just as I locate them on my hard-drive and refresh my memory (and take notes of my own of which sheets to use from which planners - yes, you read that right, I MIX-AND-MATCH! *gasp!*).   

1. One of my FAVOURITE planner for this upcoming year is more than just a planner, really, it’s a whole HOW to plan planner.  Not only does it include all the forms necessary to plan out your school year by the month, week and even day, it also includes an innovative way of planning your curriculum and how to figure out (legally) what resources you need to have to homeschool in confidence that you are meeting all state/provincial requirements.  It walks you through VERY THOROUGHLY a whole planning project, including taking a break because you deserve it!  I like a planner that remembers that planning is had work! *grin*  SO, my FIRST PLACE goes to the Simply Charlotte Mason’s “Planning your Charlotte Mason Education in 5 Easy Steps” planner (can I recommend the “printed book and DVD” option as it cost me a LOT to have this book printed and bound at the local copy shop, and you really do need to have a printed copy of it to be effective - just my .02).  It is just so much more than just a collection of fill-in-the-blanks homeschool forms, it encourages and inspires… and dispite the name, it works very well for whatever “methodology” of school you use, including unschooling and strict school-at-home styles… just make it work for you. 

2. The Ultimate Homeschooling Mom’s Planner has some exceptionally refreshing forms such as a completely new (and imho, more in line with what we SHOULD be concerned about in our children’s education) twist on a “Yearly Evaluation” of our children, including such areas as “organization” (hahaha!) and “individual expression” and “character maturity”.  Yes, they include all the “standards” like yearly, monthly, and even Family Fitness (there’s a thought!) as well.  The pages are delightfully decorated, but for those on a budget all that colour might be restrictive (*hint* set your printer settings to “print images in greyscale” or something along those lines… that will keep your colour ink for more important printing projects).  You can find the Ultimate Planner at www.homeschool-curriculum-for-life.com .

3. The Old Schoolhouse Magazine has come out with a planner that certainly has you covered, not only in an extensive forms section (covering everything from educational objectives to end of year evaluations and report cards) but it is also FILLED with facinating articles, important (US) lists and official documents (no more hunting around to find a copy of the Louisiana Purchase - I can hear the sighs of relief from across the border! *grin*).  Some of the neater forms are things like craft logs (including place to paste a photo - no more cluttered fridge or boxes of dusty kindergarten crafts filling up your storage space!), curriculum purchases organizer (not the kind where you list what you have, but rather list what you need and the cost involved - very handy!, and even (and this is the coolest!) a begining/end of year form… where you list such things like your child’s height/weight and get a copy of their signature… what a great way to remind you and your child how much they’ve GROWN this past year!  Of course there’s room for a picture from both the start and finish of the school year.  One really nice feature of this planner is that it includes the very convenient “Type-It-In” option.  You can type (AND SAVE) your information into the file, so  you can print off very professional looking forms later on, and earn organizational brownie points with The Powers That Be.  All in all a very thorough planner.  You can get the Schoolhouse Planner at www.theoldschoolhousestore.com .

4.  Cindy Rushton’s “Brain in a Binder” planner is the most spiritual homeschool planner out there.  She has all the standard forms for planning your school year, but she includes MANY forms you don’t really find anywhere else, such as pages from her Discipleship Notebook, Bible Study Logs, and Discipleship Goals planning sheets.  Everything is in Cindy’s signature country style, clean and simple, with just a touch of southern charm.  The Discipleship Notebook pages are probably worthwhile getting, even if you are using a different Homeschool Planner.  I can’t believe how they have helped me in my study of God’s word, and Ev, my 14 year old son really loves them as he seeks to be a “man after God’s own heart”.  You can pick up the Brain-in-a-Binder OR just the Discipleship Notebook from www.cindyrushton.com .

5.  The Master Planner from Westvon Publishing is a VERY complete planner.  I like that all the pages on the CD come as separate files, so in my computer I put my settings to “view thumbnail” and can QUICKLY find the form I was looking for… a little thing, but a nice thing.  They’ve also labeled their forms very well, so even if you can’t “see” it, you can still “read” it and aren’t obliged to flip through pages and pages of a file to find the One Form that will change your life.  LOL!  They include all the basics, of course, but also many little tools to encourage your student to set goals and meet them.. like their acheivement certificates and Reading Goals sheets.  They include many notebooking pages in their planner as well, for things like weather recording, timelines and venn diagram sheets.  One of our favourite sheets is the Babysitter Information sheet, which my daughter brings to all new babysitting jobs and fills out with the parents and files in a binder of her own… and this upcoming year I plan to extensively use the “Monthly (something)” charts.  They have a Monthly Bird, Animal, Fish, Planet, Dinosaur, Biography, etc… all set up nice and simply to print off and embark on a little learning adventure with your child.  This is a really exceptional product… some of my most used forms come from this planner.  Find Westvon’s Master Planner and also their FABULOUS History Scribe series of notebooking pages at CurrClick .

6.  My dear friend, Heidi Jo, has some really useful household planners, which most of the time (when planning such things as menus and to do lists) are the first thing I print off.  She also has a Lesson Planner which although is not as fancy as some, is very simple to navigate and probably the most effective one to have printed up at a local copyshop and bound.  Although Heidi Jo says she uses one for all her children, I think for myself (being as OCD as I am) I would want one for each child.  It is clean, clear and very Charlotte Mason in it’s layout… so maybe that will be my choice for my weekly planning for the Littles which I want to start on a personalized CM Education this upcoming year.  Heidi Jo lives in the BREATHTAKING Bahamas (lucky duck!) and you can find her planning forms at CurrClick .

7. Knowledge Box Central also has a Charlotte Mason Planner (are you getting the impression I might be a closet Charlotte Mason Fan? LOL!) called The Image Bearer (the name implying our children are bearers of the image of Christ).   This Planner also has the desireable Type-It-In feature, making it another one of my favourites for presenting a professional image to the World.  One of the nicest things that I find different from this planner and most of the others is the inclusion of a “Term Planner” (the other one that has it is the Simply Charlotte Mason planner at the top of this list)… another neat thing is the Field Trip AND Evaluation guide, a handy way to not only record where and when you went, but what everyone thought of the trip and whether it was worth repeating (and unfortunately some are not).  As with the bigger KBC documents (like the Ages and Stages Timeline Notebook, the best out there) there is a easy reference bookmark list on the side, which acts similarly to the way the Master Planner does in letting you find the page you are looking for easily.  You can also find The Image Bearer at CurrClick (one of my favourite one stop shopping spots for all things homeschool, can you tell?! *grin*).

and last but in no way least (at least for today because I think this is one of the longest blog posts in history! LOL!):

8. The Homeschool Tracker is a software planner… meaning you enter in the lesson plans and the software does the sorting for you.  You can create and print whatever “reports” you want (reports are anything you’ve entered, really).  The nice thing about this is that when you enter in the “grades” your child gets, the software keeps track (hence the name Tracker?) and you can print out VERY professional looking report cards at the end of the year, as well as book used lists, assignment lists, field trip logs, etc.  VERY versatile, but has a bit of a learning curve to get the hang of it.  *hint* use “copy assignment” freely, you can always delete it later if you’ve put too much! LOL!  Find it at www.homeschooltracker.com .

So, I guess instead of babbling about planners, maybe I should start actually PLANNING, eh?

Blessings!

Posted in Curriculum Choices, General Homeschool | Print | 2 Comments »

4. August 2008 by Shannon.

Well, my Bigs have headed off for Cadet Camp… Ev in Introduction to Leadership and Kenz in Basic.  It’s very strange being at home with just the Littles.  I find myself having a lot more time for reading stories, playing games, enjoying funny play.  I’m kept laughing at their funny understanding of the world.  Greys informed me today that he’s the “betht bathkitball player in the whole backyard”  (he was alone in the backyard at the time - and told me this through the back window).  Chae is so impatient… she wants to eat the apples on the trees.. and will not hear me that they are NOT READY yet.. and that worms live in them (Kenz told her that hoping to make her stop picking them).  So, she went on a tangent telling me it is “not fair that worms are in my apple acuz those are MY apples on MY tree and those worms aren’t aposed to eat apples - they are aposed to eat dirt!” (she’s really mad!).  She’s also adopted a pet slug.  I have a feeling she’s finding a new one every day and thinking it is the same one, but who knows… she also brought an inchworm in the house - then promptly LOST it… so now SOMEWHERE in my house there is a confused (or possibly dead) inchworm… Lovely.

My Square Foot Gardening adventure has kind of taken on a life of it’s own… I’m almost scared to go out there each morning as these tomatoes and beans and zuchinis are trying to take over the lawn!!!  The “Beans” and “Tomatoes” are two BIG gangs having a turf war in my garden… everyday it would seem one or the other has been “knocked out” (read: laying on the ground under) by the other.  But my tomatoes are prolific just the same… and my beans, well… with all the foliage, I’m not sure I’m ever going to see a bean on the thing.  Oh well, it’s been so much fun!  I also have some eggplants coming along nicely.. small, but at least they are finally there!!!  Eggplants are so pretty, even their flower is so pretty… I’d almost grow them anyhow just for decoration! :o)

So, All’s Quiet on the Home Front with only half our offspring makin’ noise… I never realised how much noise my “quiet” Bigs generate!   But I have to admit… I do miss them!

Blessings (and peace!)

Posted in Gardening, Chaeli, Greyson, Kenzi, Everett | Print | 1 Comment »