January 29, 2009

Thank you for visiting HomeschoolBytes again! Feel free to contact me with questions or suggestions. Make sure to subscribe to my RSS feed or get email updates any time I post new content.

Here’s the latest Homeschool Carnival article hosted by Life on the Road, who puts an adventure spin on the articles this edition.

If you’ve never read a ‘carnival’ blog post, it’s basically a collection of links and descriptions of lots of interesting blog posts with a fun theme.  So, you can browse through the links, kind of like browsing through the booths at a carnival, and pick and choose what you like.

I find it a fun read every week to get a look at lots of different homeschool lives and ideas out there.

Enjoy!

Enjoy

Posted under Blog Carnivals, Homeschool Life

January 28, 2009

Isn’t this a beautiful puzzle?  It’s eye-catching enough to stop even my hyper toddler for a second look.

I was looking for a blank puzzle to print and found this Photoshop puzzle tutorial on how to design an entertaining triangle brainteasing puzzle. The trick is to arrange the triangle-shaped puzzle pieces so that the bug bodies all line up. It’s not as easy as it looks!

You may not know much Photoshop, but the author, Enrique Flouret, is nice enough to let us download the final products which are easy to print on sticker paper or simply glue to cardboard or cardstock, and cut out for a fun activity:

• Grass-Themed Bugzzle Triangle Puzzle
• Sky-Themed Buggzle Triangle Puzzle

If you make one of these, would you mind commenting and let us know what materials you used and how it turned out?

Posted under Homeschool Crafts, Toddler Tips

January 27, 2009

Writing is an everyday part of a young homeschooler’s life: 

• Writing ‘I love you’ notes to Mom (or ‘I hate extremely dislike you’ on a bad day)

• Drawing scribble landcapes as seen out the window. . . on the wall . . . in marker.
• Adding emebelishments to older brother’s math workbook so it looks much prettier
• Drawing a mustache . . . on my face . . . with marker (the cheap non-washable kind) . . . oh, and perfect circles . . . around my eyes.
• Writing my name . . . in pen . . . all over my arms and legs.

You can see why I’m always on the look-out for APPROPRIATE writing exercises.

While searching for printables I found another very generous homeschooler:

I loved the comprehensive set of homeschool handwriting lessons she designed and offers free for personal use.  She includes a whole set of printable handwriting paper, along with 6 handwriting fonts she uses, so you can design your own worksheets.

Also on her website, she offers the following to homeschoolers:

• free homeschool planners
• school calendars
• household planners
• art lessons
• lots more!

Thank you!  And enjoy!

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Posted under General Homeschool Curriculum, Language Art Websites, Writing Curriculum

January 26, 2009

Last month, we found the Iditarod Project (thanks, Beth!), and the kids have been having a blast working on it - always a great time in homeschool life.

The first activity is to make a map of Alaska and the Iditarod Trail.  After considering the daily danger to all fragile items in our boy and toddler-heavy household, I wasn’t so excited about making a large paper map.  It didn’t take much imagination to see ripped map pieces, corners disolved by drool, and chunks of paint being pulled off the wall by tape gone crazy.

Good thing someone more creative than I suggested using a bedsheet to make the map. 

Whalah!  We did a quick math lesson on scale, made 8 x 8 inch squares out of cardstock, and the kids got busy marking a grid on the map in pencil.  (Hey, that laundry in the background is clean, at least)

The next day, we transfered the outline of Alaska, the rivers, the Iditarod Trail, and the cities.  After a discussion of map legends, my oldest designed a cool symbol for the cities, including one with a star in the middle for the capital.  (Since everyone has to be involved at our house, the 3-year-old made his own unsupervised permanent marker line across the scale line – at least he didn’t get the carpet!)

We outlined everything in permanent marker.  To remove the pencil marks, we washed the sheet with the regular mountains of laundry.  And finally, we hung the map proudly on the banister in our entryway.  (Who needs interior decorators when you homeschool?)

We’re also reading Dogsong by Gary Paulsen together to get more of a feel for Alaska and some of her culture.

We’ll keep you posted on our progress. 

Meanwhile, check out these other homeschoolers who have also done/are doing the Iditarod project:

• Go Alongs Homeschool Blog
• Delighting in His Richness Homeschool Blog
• Chai School Homeschool Blog
• Green Timber School Blog

If you’re also joining in, post a comment and link about your progress and experiences!

Posted under Geography Websites, Homeschool Activities, Social Studies Websites

January 23, 2009

Looking for fun science experiments?

Check out Weird Science, a website that offers a nice list of science experiments you can try at home, along with videos you can watch before you try the experiment yourself.  The videos are great, too, if you just want to avoid another messy science kitchen day.  Now if I could just find a science experiment that magically cleaned the kitchen table, counter, and sink full of dirty dishes

Have you found a fun science site for homeschooling?  You’re welcome to post a link in the comment section to share with us!

Posted under Science Curriculum, Science Websites

January 22, 2009

I like to be efficient – Hey, I have 5 little kiddoes. I’ve been known to talk on the phone, slice homemade bread for lunch, use my foot on a towel to wipe up a juice spill, all while using facial expressions to tell my kids to, “Stop arguing, RIGHT NOW! Can’t you see I’m on the phone?”

So, I just discovered the Homeschool Blog Carnival – a great way to quickly peruse an entertaining assortment of homeschool blog articles all in one place. A lot of homeschool bloggers submit their favorite articles, and then a new person each week compiles them all together, usually with a fun theme, so you can take a virtual carnival walk-though, (eating our virtual zero-calorie cotton candy), and pick and choose what articles you’ll stop in and take a look at.

It’s a fun way to take a look at what’s being written out there by a whole assortment of homeschoolers. Enjoy!

Posted under Blog Carnivals, Homeschool Life

January 21, 2009

I admit, among the awesome curriculum and school material gathering dust on my storage shelves in the basement are a couple reams of handwriting paper – in all the various sizes for progressive ages of students.

Why is it gathering dust and turning that nice shade of yellow that old paper turns? Because it’s easier to use online tools and print exactly what I want.

Here is my favorite writing website called Handwriting Worksheets.  What’s great about this site, is you can type in any copy work you’d like, poetry, scripture verses, famous quotes, or names, and print a sheet with the text dotted on the first line, and then the following lines will print typical handwriting lines (top and bottom solid, center dotted) with a nice little dot to show where to start each letter.

Even better, you can choose between basic print, D’Nealian style, cursive, and large and medium styles.

Also, if you have a pre-writing child who needs help, check out this great blog review by Jolanthe of a program called Peterson Directed Handwriting.

Posted under Language Art Websites, Writing Curriculum

January 20, 2009

Take a look at this cute video encouraging homeschoolers everywhere to enjoy ‘surviving’ homeschooling (Thanks Nan for the link!):

(I’m pretty sure my kids and I couldn’t survive public school for 6 hours every weekday – well, maybe we could survive, but not thrive as much as we do:-)

Posted under Homeschool Life

January 19, 2009

Timez Attack

To go along with my previous post on using fun memory techniques to learn the multiplication tables, we found an awesome game called Timez Attack that does wonders for practicing the 2 through 12 multiplication facts.  Here’s a review of the pros, cons, and our own family’s experiences.  (my kids loved the free version of Timez Attack enough to fork over their own money for the upgrade.)

There aren’t many things more boring than doing times table flash cards over and over.  The designers of Timez Attack wanted to make math practice more fun, so they designed a real video game with a great environment, graphics, and monsters you defeat by knowing your multiplication facts. 

And as their service to kids everywhere, the full functioning base version of the game can be downloaded for free.  If you want to upgrade to the full version, you get extra graphics and worlds to practice your facts. 

Free Version Pros and Cons:

• Pro:  It’s FREE!
• Pro:  The math is complete = ALL the math facts from 2 to 12.
• Pro:  Shows the concept of multiplication lots of different ways:  a matching number of creatures appear when the fact is presented, a matching number of dice-like dots appear on the door, and the multiplicands appear on the belly of the monster.
• Pro:  There is ‘exciting’ time pressure to get the answer right.  The monster will ‘bonk’ you if you take too long.
• Pro:  Children learn where the number keys are on the keyboard, and how to use them quickly.
• Con:  You only have access to the dungeon level, so each time you complete a set of math facts, you start over in the same dungeon with the same monsters behind the same doors.  It can get a bit boring.

Paid Version Pros and Cons:

• Pro:  All the great benefits of the free version.
• Pro:  Two additional levels with MANY more graphics and interactions for the kiddoes while they are practicing.
• Pro:  The game play is more ‘video-game’ like, ie. lava to dodge and rivers of fire to cross on the dragon level, moving platforms and crawling spiders to catch on the robot level, etc.
• Cons:  It’s not free – the full version costs $39.99 – (However, this is similar to costs for a Wii, Playstation, or XBox Game)

Our family’s experiences:

• Kids loved it:  My 9-, 7-, and 5-year-olds all loved the free version and got the rest of their school done so they could play “that cool math game.”
• Played with friends: My 7-year-old daughter had two freinds over to play and dragged them over to play Timez Attack.  The three girls played for half an hour, cheering each other on and racing to yell out the answers in time.  The same girls asked could they please play Timez Attack the next time they came over.
• Spent their own money: After a month of the free version my children began begging asking politely for the paid version.  I refused, for a while (after all, the math is the same), but then made them a deal.  Any child who put $5 of their own money towards the upgrade could play it, and I would pay the rest.  All three of the older kids gave me $5 from their own savings. 
• Times tables before addition: My 5-year-old completed the 12th level and is probably one of the few in the world who knows his multiplications facts to 12 . . . but not his addition. 
• Just the facts: The only downside is the lack of real world application or word problem type practice, but I figure that comes in the regular math curriculum.  This game is to make the repetitive practice of the times table fun and addictive until you know them backwards and forwards.  Timez Attack does that better than any game or flashcard system we’ve tried yet.

Having my kids ask to practice math . . . it’s as gratifying as having your kids ask for seconds of broccoli

Posted under Math Curriculum, Math Websites

January 16, 2009

Photo by Zsuzsanna Kilian

If you’ve noticed, I’ve been writing a few memory-themed posts lately.  By the time I finished medical school, I’d probably memorized and then forgotten enough information to fill shelves and shelves of books. 

My two main memory techniques in school were:

• Repeat over and over and over and over and . . .
• Cram like crazy the day or two before the test and hope it sticks.  I was an expert crammer!

It was only when I started teaching my own kids that I thought there had to be a better way.  I found this book at the library and groaned when I realized how much it could have helped me: The Memory Book

It’s a $7 book and one that should be on every school shelf.  Click on the book to get a copy from Amazon, or check it out at your local library and let me know what you think.  To read more posts about memorizing, check out everything I’ve written in this category.

Posted under Books to Read, Memorizing Facts