Learning Links

Web page tabs are stacking up fast again and it's time to share learning links. Here are some great links that are laying around unused by me and you might as well have them :-)

• Cornell Lab of Ornithology has a vast collection of information on their website. Your family might like to join in with Project Feederwatch. Check out their wonderful Homeschoolers Guide to Project Feederwatch. I love our little feathered friends; anyone else wish they could fly?
• My bloggy friend Janet at Adventures in the 32-Aker Wood pointed me to I Love Mountains. Janet lives right next to a place where a mountain top is being removed for coal mining. Understandably she has had quite a lot to say about this recently. I'm still trying to process all of it. The I Love Mountains website allows you to track companies who are cutting off mountain tops and see whether the coal from these mines is being used by your local electricity supplier. Personally I do love mountains and I'd like to do something to help... still thinking about what that should be.
• If you want to find bloggers who live close to you, http://feedjit.com/ is a great resource. I guess they know from your ISP address where you are located and they serve you up local blogs with the highest rated at the top. What a useful little tool if you want to locate others nearby who share your interests.
• Watch out for the computer virus that comes in an e-mail and pretends to be UPS or FedEx trying to deliver a package to you. Read about the UPS/FedEx Delivery Failure Virus at Snopes.com. Actually my computer virus checker detected this on an e-mail I received this morning. If you've not received it yet it's likely only a matter of time!
• A week or so ago I somehow managed to discover something called Reborn Baby Dolls. These are baby dolls that ladies spend hours hand painting and crafting so that they are VERY realistic baby look-alikes. Although some of them are almost freaky, I can't help but admire the craftsmanship and patience that goes into these. Not only does the skin look very realistic, but they are weighted to resemble real newborn babies. You can read about reborn baby dolls and there are plenty of websites to browse, including DollsRealistic.com, WhoopsyDaisyBabies, and ButterflyBabiesbyBecky. If you were just wondering what to do with your spare time, take a little crawl around these sites, or look on e-bay for reborn dolls. Let me know what you think.

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Learning Links

Formerly called Bits and Bobs, Learning Links is my new title for the chaos brought to my computer by manic web surfing. It's happened again, those Firefox tabs have multiplied and I now have 23 windows open, each with at least 5 tabs - that is an estimated 200 or so websites up. It's time to pass along some great learning links, in no particular order, below:

• Fish school - lesson plans for goldfish. Watch Comet the goldfish make goals, swim the slalom, and do the limbo. What a cute, little, well trained guy!
• Do a college search at CollegeBoard.com - I've looked for college information before and this is the nicest site I've seen for finding information. It's very comprehensive, readable and nicely organized, with information that includes majors available, fees, and scholarships.
• British citizens may want to know about the petition to stop Sharia law (Islamic/Koranic law that dictates women cover their faces and that a hand is removed for certain crimes) from being legal under arbitration. I know, it sounds very highly surprising that there could be a loophole to allow this to happen in England (I'm not clear on whether this is just England, but Scotland has it's own law system so I'm guessing that it does not apply to Scotland), but I have checked it out and it's no joke. Read more about it at The Times Online.
• A topic worth a whole post, which I don't have time to write about today, but luckily another homeschooling mom did (she did a muuuuch better job than I would)! Resistance: a communication tool. Every parent and homeschooler has encountered resistance in their kid/spouse etc. This is an extremely thorough and thoughtful article that I think every parent needs to read. Really, make sure you check it out, your stress level will thank you!
  
• How your categories and tags help or hurt your blog. I searched around and this is the best of the articles I found on effectively using tags/labels. "A great blogger will take the time up front to plan out the blog's categories..." Ummm... I'm not a great blogger yet I guess. I'll work on it!
• Blogcarnival.com - the place to find and submit to carnivals. Think outside the box - you might find a whole new set of readers.
• EyewitnesstoHistory.com Wow, this site is beautifully laid out and jam-packed with links to help bring history alive! Check out George Washington's Rules of Good Behaviour, Writing the Declaration of Independence, and, for my British friends, The Execution of Mary Queen of Scots. I must add this site to my right-hand homeschooling links menu!
  
• Take a look at the wonderful, homemade, books, and more from a homeschooling family working with autism, visual-spatial learners, unschooling and foster/adoption. I love how they made books where the child is the star and somehow pasted amongst bison, bears and wolves.

There are many more learning links for me to post. Later... Do let me know your favorite!

Bits and Bobs

Handyman Hubby, my computer, and the internet won - tonight I had to go through all 48 or so of the Firefox windows (that's about 400 websites) I had open and either save or close them. My disk drive update is overdue and it's going to be installed for me while I'm out and about tomorrow. How nice is it to have someone to take care of that stuff for me :-)

• Some interesting free downloadable games at Ellen McHenry's site.
• Blog contests and give aways.
• A really nice, free, SAT, ACT, GRE preparation and tutoring site.
• Need a hand in making a family emergency plan and stocking a pantry? Cook'n Preparadness for Life software might be worth taking a look at.
• Living with Asperger Syndrome and My Aspergers Child.

Enjoy and have a good Saturday :-)

Bits and Bobs

Those firefox windows and tabs are multiplying on me again! Here are some bits and bobs - some homeschool, some just life.

• Living with Bugs - a nice looking site that outlines common bugs and the least toxic methods of controlling. It even talks about the different methods of flea control. Sarah, I'm not sure that it will tell you anything you don't already know, but I thought it did a nice job of explaining the options and their effectiveness.
• Got a bug enthusiast or budding entomologist? Learn about insect orders and families.
• Usborne have brought out some great new reading sets - these are nice collections of hardback books (the size of your usual paperback) and perfect for every level from very early reading to age 10-12yrs. I'm not sure why they put the ugly red savings stars over the pictures of the books, but these are definately nice book sets.
• Even our very own US government is blogging these days. The government blog looks pretty nice and it might be a much more friendly way to find your way around the tons of information out there which I'm sure we're funding through our taxes!
• Just in case you're not done with the election: Time for Kids; America.gov on the candidates and potential first ladies; and Melissa over at Sweet Serendipity has a few more links, including one on Duck for President and old campaign ads. I want to take a look at the old ads - Artist Girl and Game Boy love ads!
• Various lesson plans related to Japan.

Good, I'm down to just 46 windows now, so I only have about 300 tabs open. I'm working on it...

Bits and Bobs

Election resources for teaching at nationalmockelection.org. Their website contains a variety of teaching resources and you can register to set up your own mock election. I'm probably being "thick" here, but I'm not quite sure how we register as homeschoolers. It does look as though we have the option to register a homeschool group, or just as a parent. If you've figured it out already do let me know.

Apparently children learn from praise while adults learn from mistakes. You can check this out at the Eide Neurolearning blog. Kind of explains a lot!

I keep reading about FreeRice.com and I thought I should check it out. What a great way to contribute while testing and growing your general knowledge. They currently have quizzes on Art History, Geography, Chemistry, English, French, German, Italian, Spanish and Math on there - see the list of subjects. Since the questions come from Harvard I'm guessing it's worth working on a few. Watch out though, I can see how this could get addictive, at least for me (my two favorite things to do - learn and help others)!

How engineers fold t-shirts at YouTube. I love it!

Fantastic Contraption - a physics game. The music is a bit irritating though so you might click the speaker symbol to put it off.

Seven days left to register for my CutePiXelArt giveaway. Currently there are only 4 entrants and the prize is a really cute piece of customized graphic art. Check it out and leave a comment to enter.