Please forgive my outdated links. I am currently updating them and will be adding new ones. So for those of you who haven't been here in awhile be sure to come soon to check it out. Hey I may even get ambitious and change the background.
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Tuesday, June 12, 2012
Inspired.
As a child I was spoiled with a natural fairy garden. We didn't have to invite the fairies we were already living amongst them. We lived in a house back in the woods. A few feet from our door was a dense mixed forest. We created a few main paths into the woods to play and explore. A trickling stream ran amongst the trees and an old elms roots grew out of a moss covered embankment over the stream. Playing there we could sense the fairies watching us. It was magical.
With this in mind and seeing some really lovely little creations online, I decided to make a fairy garden with my daughter. We had our base, half a fifty gallon drum. Not pretty, nor inspiring, but a definite start. We nestled it in amongst the perwinkle in our front yard in the hopes the vines will cover the ugliness of the drum.
Filling it with soil was easy. After a trip to our local greenhouse my daughter selected some wonderful plant additions. Another trip to our dollar store for some base pieces found, a horse, some blue beads for water, small butterflies, a bird statue, and of course it wouldn't be complete without a house. Finding the ideal place to place the items was a bit of work. My daughters artistic eye helped to make the scene quite quaint. But still it was lacking some more greenery. We decided that we would find some more mosses and other goodies on a nature trip to the woods.
Now all that was left to do was sit back and wait for our fairy visitors. Although we may add some other items over the summer months for fun. I have been told by passerby's that they like to look at it. So what a fun way to entertain us, the neighbour's, and hopefully a fairy or two.
Read More
With this in mind and seeing some really lovely little creations online, I decided to make a fairy garden with my daughter. We had our base, half a fifty gallon drum. Not pretty, nor inspiring, but a definite start. We nestled it in amongst the perwinkle in our front yard in the hopes the vines will cover the ugliness of the drum.
Filling it with soil was easy. After a trip to our local greenhouse my daughter selected some wonderful plant additions. Another trip to our dollar store for some base pieces found, a horse, some blue beads for water, small butterflies, a bird statue, and of course it wouldn't be complete without a house. Finding the ideal place to place the items was a bit of work. My daughters artistic eye helped to make the scene quite quaint. But still it was lacking some more greenery. We decided that we would find some more mosses and other goodies on a nature trip to the woods.
Thursday, June 7, 2012
PINTEREST!
Okay so you have heard the name. You may have been invited to the site, gotten there and were completely lost. This article is for you!
I was you. I was you two months ago. Now I am addicted to going to see what new item I can scrounge up to craft with the kids, teach the kids, make for the home, etc...Also great to find recipes that are new. We all need new recipes to get out of our food ruts we get into.
Anyway once you are there and have your profile page. The site has already given you some 'boards' to 'pin' to.
What are the boards? The boards are where you organize you finds.
What are 'pins'? Pins are anything you 'pin' to your boards.
You can rename your boards, edit, delete, make more...the uses are endless.
If you are like I was you likely have a favorites folder that is chalk a block full of links. Links have no pictures. You can hover over those links and get a small sense of what it was you saved there four years ago. Generally I found myself clicking on the links to go to the pages to refresh my memory about why I saved it.
So boards on Pinterest are like a favorite folder only it is visual. You can save most any website you like by clicking on the 'pin' button your saved to your browser bar when you were prompted. Now if you didn't save that button its ok. Once on Pinterest you can search other peoples boards. If you find a kindred collector of pins you can 'follow' that board.
What does 'following' mean? No you aren't stalking them. What it means is their images or boards will be shown on your search page more often. That way you may see more images/sites that interest you.
Now the downside to all this pinning? It will take time. It can be addictive. The worst downside though is sometimes a pin is just that nothing more beyond the image shown.
Well how do you know what you are pinning will lead to another website like a link would?
Well you click on the image you are interested in. It will bring a new page up showing a larger version of the small image you clicked on. Click on that again. It should open a window to the original place the pin was grabbed from. That way you can look to see if it is something you would truly want to pin.
I have found like I said sometimes a pin isn't anything more then an image. Other times you will hit the jackpot in learning sites, cooking websites, etc..
How do you pin from the boards. There are two buttons on the top of all the images on the boards. One clearly says pin. When you click that it will open a pop up window which will ask you where you want to pin to.
Here is where you can easily title your own boards by scrolling down to the bottom of the drop down menu.
Hey you just pinned something! Congratulations! You are now off to the races.
Oh and if you are looking for something there is a search box in the upper left of your screen!
Note: Dial up users are likely to be highly frustrated by this site due to the amount of images and length of time to download them.
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I was you. I was you two months ago. Now I am addicted to going to see what new item I can scrounge up to craft with the kids, teach the kids, make for the home, etc...Also great to find recipes that are new. We all need new recipes to get out of our food ruts we get into.
Anyway once you are there and have your profile page. The site has already given you some 'boards' to 'pin' to.
What are the boards? The boards are where you organize you finds.
What are 'pins'? Pins are anything you 'pin' to your boards.
You can rename your boards, edit, delete, make more...the uses are endless.
If you are like I was you likely have a favorites folder that is chalk a block full of links. Links have no pictures. You can hover over those links and get a small sense of what it was you saved there four years ago. Generally I found myself clicking on the links to go to the pages to refresh my memory about why I saved it.
So boards on Pinterest are like a favorite folder only it is visual. You can save most any website you like by clicking on the 'pin' button your saved to your browser bar when you were prompted. Now if you didn't save that button its ok. Once on Pinterest you can search other peoples boards. If you find a kindred collector of pins you can 'follow' that board.
What does 'following' mean? No you aren't stalking them. What it means is their images or boards will be shown on your search page more often. That way you may see more images/sites that interest you.
Now the downside to all this pinning? It will take time. It can be addictive. The worst downside though is sometimes a pin is just that nothing more beyond the image shown.
Well how do you know what you are pinning will lead to another website like a link would?
Well you click on the image you are interested in. It will bring a new page up showing a larger version of the small image you clicked on. Click on that again. It should open a window to the original place the pin was grabbed from. That way you can look to see if it is something you would truly want to pin.
I have found like I said sometimes a pin isn't anything more then an image. Other times you will hit the jackpot in learning sites, cooking websites, etc..
How do you pin from the boards. There are two buttons on the top of all the images on the boards. One clearly says pin. When you click that it will open a pop up window which will ask you where you want to pin to.
Here is where you can easily title your own boards by scrolling down to the bottom of the drop down menu.
Hey you just pinned something! Congratulations! You are now off to the races.
Oh and if you are looking for something there is a search box in the upper left of your screen!
Note: Dial up users are likely to be highly frustrated by this site due to the amount of images and length of time to download them.
What a printer/scanner can do for you!
If you haven't invested in a printer/scanner for your homeschool then please do! Why?
It is an invaluable tool for printing out free resources.
Even if you use boxed curriculum it is super handy to be able to scan and print out your lessons instead of writing in the books you purchased. You can print for multiple students. Of course you should check with the curriculum company to make sure it is ok with their copyrights.
Other sites like Scribd, which is free, offer books to download that are printable.
Is your child bored? Search in your browser box for anything under the sun and add the words coloring page. Click on images and you will find coloring pages to print. Its that easy. Or search for paper crafts printables, before you know it you will be gluing a colesseum or civil war army together.
Do you have family faraway and don't want to mail original artworks? Scan them and email the pictures. Its a great way to stay connected.
The scanners are also great for scanning family photos for kids scrapbooking. No need to fight over the same images.
The uses for the printer/scanner will more then make up for the money it costs to have them over their lifetime.
Read More
It is an invaluable tool for printing out free resources.
Even if you use boxed curriculum it is super handy to be able to scan and print out your lessons instead of writing in the books you purchased. You can print for multiple students. Of course you should check with the curriculum company to make sure it is ok with their copyrights.
Other sites like Scribd, which is free, offer books to download that are printable.
Is your child bored? Search in your browser box for anything under the sun and add the words coloring page. Click on images and you will find coloring pages to print. Its that easy. Or search for paper crafts printables, before you know it you will be gluing a colesseum or civil war army together.
Do you have family faraway and don't want to mail original artworks? Scan them and email the pictures. Its a great way to stay connected.
The scanners are also great for scanning family photos for kids scrapbooking. No need to fight over the same images.
The uses for the printer/scanner will more then make up for the money it costs to have them over their lifetime.
OH! WoW!
I can't believe I have been so long away from my blog! I knew it had been awhile just not so many months. I do apologize for that. I think things have been so busy. I created and with help pulled off the Northern Ontario Homeschool Convention. We are working on planning for our second convention next year.
I started a new homeschool group in our city for social activities. I am up to my elbows in planning to return to a more eclectic homeschool approach. Which translates into my making up all of our curriculum.
My dd finished two years of math in one this year. I found them a little too simple. So I bought the same curriculum for her since my son was doing so well with it. WRONG! My son is a completely different learner. He voraciously, gobbles information. I can give him one lesson and in a matter of ten minutes and he has twigged on, mathmatically. DD needs a whole lot more review and one on one. I am going to use it for her as more of guide then a sole curriculum. Her visual learning style is something new for me to figure out. I have to be a whole lot more creative to make learning easier. On top of that my son has decided he needs more one on one. So I spend alot of the school time bouncing from one of my students to the other. I can't imagine how some of you moms with more then two do it. Further it makes me moderately envious, I know not a Christian feeling, of my sister who only has one student to teach.
My brain feels swamped. I don't take summer vacation because too much information is lost in their learning. I am feeling my way through this with the support of my DH.
Last year we did 'boxed' curriculum for most things. We were bored. We want to find that fun, learning groove we had before the boxed curriculum came along. I am keenly aware of what is needed. I feel an inordinate amount of pressure to make sure they perform up to or above their peers. With that pressure, my brain feels swamped. LOL did I say that twice?? I think there is a point to this. The point is, I can and will make this year more fun as well as full of learning activities.
I downloaded a book called 'Kitchen Chemistry' so I have decided for science we will notebook all of the experiments in it. I have focused alot on earth science, biology, and need to branch into chemistry. Also we are going to create reading journals, an idea off of Pinterest. Now for those of you who don't use Pinterest I can't recommend it enough as a way to find easily homeschool activities, ideas, lessons, charts, etc.. But thats another subject best talked about later.
Anyway I have plans to make this year a whopper of a good one. I just need a mini vacation in there somewhere to take the burden off my brain. I told my husband I need at least a week to organize my school year. So..we may take some summer holiday afterall.
Read More
I started a new homeschool group in our city for social activities. I am up to my elbows in planning to return to a more eclectic homeschool approach. Which translates into my making up all of our curriculum.
My dd finished two years of math in one this year. I found them a little too simple. So I bought the same curriculum for her since my son was doing so well with it. WRONG! My son is a completely different learner. He voraciously, gobbles information. I can give him one lesson and in a matter of ten minutes and he has twigged on, mathmatically. DD needs a whole lot more review and one on one. I am going to use it for her as more of guide then a sole curriculum. Her visual learning style is something new for me to figure out. I have to be a whole lot more creative to make learning easier. On top of that my son has decided he needs more one on one. So I spend alot of the school time bouncing from one of my students to the other. I can't imagine how some of you moms with more then two do it. Further it makes me moderately envious, I know not a Christian feeling, of my sister who only has one student to teach.
My brain feels swamped. I don't take summer vacation because too much information is lost in their learning. I am feeling my way through this with the support of my DH.
Last year we did 'boxed' curriculum for most things. We were bored. We want to find that fun, learning groove we had before the boxed curriculum came along. I am keenly aware of what is needed. I feel an inordinate amount of pressure to make sure they perform up to or above their peers. With that pressure, my brain feels swamped. LOL did I say that twice?? I think there is a point to this. The point is, I can and will make this year more fun as well as full of learning activities.
I downloaded a book called 'Kitchen Chemistry' so I have decided for science we will notebook all of the experiments in it. I have focused alot on earth science, biology, and need to branch into chemistry. Also we are going to create reading journals, an idea off of Pinterest. Now for those of you who don't use Pinterest I can't recommend it enough as a way to find easily homeschool activities, ideas, lessons, charts, etc.. But thats another subject best talked about later.
Anyway I have plans to make this year a whopper of a good one. I just need a mini vacation in there somewhere to take the burden off my brain. I told my husband I need at least a week to organize my school year. So..we may take some summer holiday afterall.
Sunday, January 29, 2012
Things...
This year has been super busy. I had an operation before Christmas which really slowed my computer time down. We are in the depths of our Canadian winter and I have switched our homeschool focus back onto the books more. I really have neglected this blog and I want to change that. So I am going to start by sharing some photos of this years projects.
I now find myself in the depths of an even bigger project. Pulling off a new homeschool convention www.northernontariohsconvention.com is a labour of love. I want it to succeed and grow into a yearly event. It is shaping up nicely thanks mainly to the volunteers who are helping to nuture this endeavour.
As part of the convention we have decided to add a display area to showcase family projects of what homeschooling means to their families. Our family's submission is currently being worked on by myself while the kids work on lessons. When I finish my part they get to take over to see it through to completion. It has been a major distraction in the classroom as of late to see the next part I add to it. I can't share specifics just yet but will later on. Needless to say between housekeeping, project making, convention responsibilities, and life in general there is never a dull moment.
Ah yes also I have decided to start a special project with my daughter. Many years ago I found a blog post by another mom called 'Year of the Dollhouse'. In the post she described how she came up with the idea to spend the year working on a homemade dollhouse out of recycled goods with her daughter. Now she went on to say she made something new everyday. I am not sure how practical that will be for us in our daily shedule. But I would think we can attempt weekly at least. And I intend to include a mother/daughter journal in which I will write an account of the work done on it. On the opposing page my daughter can design aspects or keep her own notes of our progress. Which reminds me I am supposed to be getting my hands on cardboard for starting it this week. So I must away and get that done.
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| Kids made arrows for history using purchased arrowheads and crafting feathers. Not as historically accurate as a real arrow I know but I didn't want the kids to hurt themselves chipping arrowheads from rocks. |
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| For a fun quick craft the kids collaborated and made a teepee using craft sticks, brown paper and tape. Can kids ever get through a craft without tape? |
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| They decorated the outside of the teepee with drawings. |
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| Craft idea for a viking ship found on a website www.looledo.com I made my own templates for the heads and tails so they were more original. |
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| The kids had great fun decorating the shields and playing 'Berserkers' afterward. |
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| Viking family paperdolls added to our unit on Vikings. |
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| In science we coloured the Cornell Lab of Ornithology's coloring book on birds. I will say the book was extensive and we still need to finish the additonal work but after two months on birds we all needed to move on. Bird study can become very addictive. |
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| While studying our birds we made trace maps of their ranges in North America on clear overlays. |
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| Using Crayola's coloring pages helped us to study the provinces in Canada. We are still studying the provinces until such time as I feel they can recall them all. It is part of a year long study on Canada. |
I now find myself in the depths of an even bigger project. Pulling off a new homeschool convention www.northernontariohsconvention.com is a labour of love. I want it to succeed and grow into a yearly event. It is shaping up nicely thanks mainly to the volunteers who are helping to nuture this endeavour.
As part of the convention we have decided to add a display area to showcase family projects of what homeschooling means to their families. Our family's submission is currently being worked on by myself while the kids work on lessons. When I finish my part they get to take over to see it through to completion. It has been a major distraction in the classroom as of late to see the next part I add to it. I can't share specifics just yet but will later on. Needless to say between housekeeping, project making, convention responsibilities, and life in general there is never a dull moment.
Ah yes also I have decided to start a special project with my daughter. Many years ago I found a blog post by another mom called 'Year of the Dollhouse'. In the post she described how she came up with the idea to spend the year working on a homemade dollhouse out of recycled goods with her daughter. Now she went on to say she made something new everyday. I am not sure how practical that will be for us in our daily shedule. But I would think we can attempt weekly at least. And I intend to include a mother/daughter journal in which I will write an account of the work done on it. On the opposing page my daughter can design aspects or keep her own notes of our progress. Which reminds me I am supposed to be getting my hands on cardboard for starting it this week. So I must away and get that done.
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