Spring Break!!

It is Spring Break here for my daughter, niece and nephew. So...it's Spring Break for my son too! I am going to slip some education in this week though. The "pink moon" or "blood moon" is at about 2am tonight (tomorrow, I guess since it's after midnight!) and we are going to look at it and take some pictures. I'll teach Hayden about the lunar eclipse and why it turns the moon red, etc. I'm so sneaky with teaching!! LOL

Weekly Folder

We have started trying a little something new for us. It gives my son a bit more accountability and it gives me a little bit of free time!

On Sundays, I prepare all of his work for the week as well as a list of his assignments. On Monday morning, I give him his folder and it all has to be done by Friday. If he does it all on Monday, then he can relax for the rest of the week! (That has not happened yet!) The deal is, though, that he can't do nothing all week and try to scramble on Friday. He has to work on his folder each day until it is all finished.

This is only the third week of doing this and I'm not sure yet how well it is going to work. The first week went well, the second week didn't go so well and this week is going really well so far (and it's only Monday!!), so the results are not quite clear just yet.

One clear benefit so far is that he is really getting into writing! We are doing a section on novel writing. Everything is broken down into parts (ie. character development, setting, etc). I got the idea from the site One Year Adventure Novel and I've taken the free sample pages from there and another site (I'll have to find that one again). He is also enrolled in a free online class from Future Learn called Start Writing Fiction that will begin on April 28.

We shall see how this system works as the weeks go on!!

Open Office

Does everyone know about Open Office? I had heard of it before, but just assumed that it couldn't be nearly as good as Microsoft Office since it is free. I was wrong! I recently downloaded it for the gradebook/transcript program I use. It has all of the same programs as Microsoft, but it's FREE!! I know that you can open Microsoft Office documents with Open Office, but I don't know if the reverse is true. If it doesn't work that way, you could easily convert to pdf if you needed to send a document. The small amount of extra work that it might require is definitely worth the money you will be saving!!

Resources

I realize that I've only been adding resources as I blog about them...that's no good for someone who needs resources NOW!! I'm going to take some time this Sunday to fill up the resources list. As I find more, I'll add more. If you have any questions about any of them, feel free to message me!

One In Homeschool, One In Traditional School

Does anyone else have one or some children that also go to traditional school? My daughter does and she thrives there. The problem I'm having is that she is a Junior, which is right on track for her, and my son is a Sophomore, which is two years ahead for him. It frustrates her, and she is always saying that she doesn't think he is "really" in 10th grade because he hasn't taken some class that she feels he should have to be a Sophomore. When I try to explain that homeschool requirements are a little different and that the same school board that oversees her public school education also oversees his homeschool education, she just gets more frustrated. Any ideas on what I can do to help her understand better?

Printable Maths Worksheets

It's fairly easy to find free resources for maths. Over the years, I've used a few different ones (I'll see if I can find the links and list them on the resourses page) but the one I'm using now is Kuta Software. It's specifically made for teachers. From Pre-Algebra to Calculus, you can find worksheets for all at Kuta Software. The worksheets are free, which I love, but they also offer a for fee service that starts with a free trial. I haven't used the service that costs, so I can't really speak to that, but the worksheets are great. My son loves them because they are straight to the point.

Have You Tried CrashCourse?

Let's face it, textbooks and printables get boring. Some kids will say that all learning is boring!!

I've found some wonderful resources on youtube (if you haven't yet, you should take a minute to look around) that my son loves. One of the best is called CrashCourse. They are animated videos that provide a "crash course" on different subjects. There is Psychology, Biology, US History, World History, and more! They were done by author John Green and are really entertaining as well as educational (entertaining is ALWAYS a plus!!). Click here to check it out!

Community Service

In Maryland, all high school students are required to have a certain amount of community service hours to graduate. I think it might be 80, I'm not completely sure, my daughter has 360 and my son has over 100. Regardless of whether or not it is required for your student, it is a great thing to learn the amazing benefits for the community and the giver's soul when you give your time to others.

We've done some really fun things like volunteering at a therapeutic horse farm and coaching cheer for the optimist's club and we've also done some really meaningful things (not that the fun things aren't meaningful, too!) like feeding the homeless and cleaning up the playground.

This is a great link to a list of some ways to get started in your community!! It's on Scholastic's site, so you know it has to be good!! Get started!

Transcripts

So, it has come to my attention that my son will need an amazing high school transcript if he wants to go to a good college. I found a wonderful gradebook program that puts everything into a transcript form that works great for yearly reviews and will be great for college applications. It was free, which makes it all the better!! It's called Gradebook + and I found it on FiveJs.com , a site with a ton of free homeschool resources. These are the features as listed on the site:

• Summary Overview: lists credits and current grades in all courses as well as overall grade (according to weight and credits); includes customizable grading scale
• Attendance Record: not year-specific, so it does not have to be altered from year to year
• Course Sheets: up to 12 courses; includes space for up to five different types of grades (daily, quizzes, tests, etc.); includes an area to record a course description and a listing of all curriculum/resources used in each course
• Reading Book List: printable record of all books read throughout the year
• Extra-Curricular Activities Record: printable record of all extra activities
• Field Trip List: printable record of all field trips
• Grade Report: automatically generated final report card, formatted for printing
• Course List: lists all courses, course descriptions, and curriculum/resources used; automatically generated from the Course sheets
• Detailed directions about how to use the spreadsheet template

Advertisements Disguised As Free Resources?

**Disclaimer: This post is whining and complaining!**

Every so often...more often than I'd like, really...I visit websites for resources that I've already decided against because they cost A LOT or they are uber religious. Today was one of those times.

I went to a site called The Institute For Excellence In Writing, iew.com if you want to check it out. I was excited to check it out because we are working on story writing. The section for free items is called "Freebies & Promos", which I thought possibly meant that it included promotional items (free for a limited time in the hopes that you will make a purchase). However, it seemed to be a section for people to promote their cost based items. I didn't see a free item during the quick scan of the list.

It's very frustrating to me that those items would be grouped together. It's as if people who can't afford to spend a ton of money on materials should have to weed through advertisements. Maybe the hope is that people will click the link hoping for free materials, see the advertisements and buy them. Either way, I think the title should be changed to just Promos...if you aren't going to list free resources, don't call it that.