3 Classic Reads for Animal Lovers

I find myself coming back again and again to read classic books, books I read many years ago. Below are three books I highly recommend for the animal-lover in you, or the animal-lover in your life.

#1 - My Family and Other Animals
Reading Gerald Durrell's classic book as a teen had me longing for a life far from school with the freedom to explore island nature. Gerald's family are hilarious eccentrics who leave a dreary life in England to escape to Corfu. The descriptions of all the characters in this book and the events brought on by the animals in Gerald's little zoo never fail to make me smile. I'm pretty fond of The Maggenpies, the puppies called Widdle and Puke, and the mother scorpion who one day escapes onto the lunch table to cause mayhem amongst family and dinner guests. It's a great read for anyone with a love of animals and a taste for human eccentricities.
Find My Family and Other Animals at Amazon.com.

#2 - All Creatures Great and Small
James Herriot was a young, unsuspecting and inexperienced vet who arrived one day in Yorkshire, England ready to be interviewed for his first position, only to discover that his eccentric future-boss Siegfried wasn't even at home. Despite the hardships of being a farm vet in the Yorkshire Dales, James finds that there are many compensations, including the wonderful people and the fresh open aired countryside. As in the previous book, you really feel like you are visiting the author's place and seeing things through his eyes. Look out though, the Yorkshire Dales might capture your heart, like they did mine!
Find All Creatures Great and Small at Amazon.com

#3 - Your Recommendation
Try as I might, I couldn't think of just one more book to recommend. I have memories of many more wonderful reads, but the above two are the only animal books which have remained in my book collection for several decades. I'm always open to discover a new favorite book. What is your favorite nature or animal read? Which book do you come back to?

If you liked this you might like:

• Kids Science books for Spring.
• Natural Science Foundation.
• Five lazy ways to compost - part 2 - worms.
  

Around the Blogosphere

A few tidbits for you to enjoy:

• Darren at Problogger wants to know what you recommend for getting a blog started in terms of writing a reserve of posts. You want to create a good impression and grow your readership right away! Great tips. Now, if I'd only ever read a blog before I started I might have been ready on Day 1. Oops, I'm letting out my secrets :-)
  
• Lori has started a club for kids at Campcreek blog. If you are not familiar with what Lori does she has a great open thread today (Friday) and tomorrow (Saturday). The discussions are always interesting and I love to read Lori's insights and ideas. She also launched a new blog this year which I already love at Heywood's Meadow. This blog is brand new but it already has a ton of wonderfully illustrated nature themed posts up. I guess Lori had the same idea as Darren at Problogger, either that or she's not slept for a week!
• Scribbit would like to invite you to be a tour guide to your local area and guest write on her blog. I've signed up to write about the Kansas City area, which is now my backyard (or frontyard maybe).
• Holly has posted her favorite math and science resources and math encouragement for unschoolers. Apparently Chemistry is Holly's friend too.
• I was over at Kayla's Webitect blog today and I found an intereresting link about The Principles of Design.
• I just came across Zazzle today. I knew there were other services similar to Cafe Press out there, but I didn't know how to find them. Artist Girl has her own store at Cafe Press. Right now she has a laughing dog, hippocampus and a seahorse picture on products. Maybe I should ask her to add her Waterdragon. It would absolutely make her day if someone bought one of her products!
  

Have you found a great new blog, or an article you really like this week?

Learning Stuff From My Firefox Tabs

There is so much stuff to learn out there in the Webiverse; it's hard to see how a person could get any sleep! Somehow as I wander around researching this and that I end up with a strange mixture of open Firefox tabs. Here are a few bits and bobs from my current collection of open links. I hope you, my fellow learner, learn something from them.

• Are you celebrating the 10 days of Newton?
• Jodi made a wonderful new friend when she was out visiting the veterans on Christmas day. I wonder, who was it that received the gift?
• Susan has some words of wisdom for those of us mixing home business and home schooling. I will be back to read her blog again.
• Heidi has written very detailed reviews of products of interest to homeschoolers and those who want an afterschool supplement to their child's education.
• I gather that graphic novels are continuing to increase in popularity. Would you, or your kids, like to join the graphic novels challenge?

Enjoy the links, there's lots more where they came from...

Three Favorite Homeschool Bloggers

Here's what my 3 favorite homeschool bloggers have to say:

1. Julie at Homeschooling-Ideas.com has written a comprehensive article about Homeschool Burnout. With all of the extra things to take care of at this time of year, burnout is a risk. Julie is offering advice and a free newsletter to help us.
2. Jugglingpaynes has been experiencing the joy and challenge of tree decorating with a little one and a cat helping out!
3. Lori over at Camp Creek Blog has an open thread this Saturday and Sunday. I find that Lori has a lot of wisdom to share. This is a good time to visit her blog, see the very cute red cardinal photo, and post your questions in her comments section.

I hope you have some calm time this weekend and time to recharge your energy for the week and holidays ahead.

Free Math Learning Links and Stuff

There are many wonderful websites with free math activities for you to use with your kids. Some of the links are also great if you need, or want, to brush up on, or advance, yourself in math, or maths (as it is called in the UK). All of the links below were sitting in my bookmarks folder - the result of many years of gathering resources for homeschooling. Masses of free math stuff, in no particular order:

• HomeschoolMath.net has a host of free worksheets, interactive tutorials and quizzes, curriculum guides, help on teaching, and links for online games. The site owner Maria also runs the Homeschool Math blog.
• Try Cool Math 4 Kids for a host of very colorful, free, interactive math games. Their companion Cool Math site has activities for the age 13 and up crowd.
  
• At Multiplication.com you can: download flashcards, worksheets and quizzes; find oodles of free resources for teaching the times tables; and find fun, free, colorful math games for kids.
• On the much less colorful front, download a variety of free online graph and grid papers. The variety of papers here is quite surprising - includes celtic knot paper, perspective paper, triangle paper, axonometric paper and tumbling block paper. I'm not sure what you do with all these, but I'm sure your kids will have some creative ideas!
• Personally I enjoy the patterns in mathematics. Boys are often fascinated by codes and ciphers and the accompanying spy stories. Here are some teaching resources for codes and ciphers, or visit Bletchley Park, the home of secret British codebreaking activities during World War II.
• Moving into more advance mathematical concepts, you can find a free online geometry textbook at Learner.org. Mathematics and art are very related. Learn about Fibonacci numbers and the golden section in art, music and architecture, or study geometry in art and architecture.
• Hippocampus has free Algebra courses.
• This Statistics site is not for the faint of heart - see the best and worst of statistical graphics. It's free and you just might learn something. What more could you want?
• Or maybe you'd prefer a little, light, free Calculus. Something new, or indepth and old is good for the brain cells :-)
  
• Last, but not least, Math Forum - dedicated to the teaching of mathematics.

I hope you find something of interest among these free math resources. Of course I do know of a few more links, which I will have to save for later.

Got a favorite free math resource link? Please let me know.

Find math stuff and homeschool math stuff at Amazon.com.
See the award winning Usborne Illustrated Dictionary of Math, multiplication wrap ups, learning palette 1st grade math manipulative center. Please ask if you need help or advice on something I've mentioned here.

Homeschooling Thankfulness

I am very thankful for all the wonderful things in my life: my health; my family; friends both near and far; the opportunity to homeschool my children; my adopted country and the country of my birth; this wonderful Earth we live on; good food and clean water; heat and light; books and learning; a comfortable bed to snuggle in at night; safe soil to grow food in; trees to shade me from the summer sun... you get the picture.

Whatever I may feel is lacking in my life, or myself, today I push that aside and realize all the wonderful things I have to be thankful for. Thank you for reading.

Book Sales on Black Friday

Black Friday book sales have now ended. I will bring you details of any December book sales I hear of later.

Related post: Black Friday Books

A Holiday Survival System

My holiday gift to you is a system that can help you to survive the holidays, and also survive homeschooling, and indeed life, for the rest of the year. It's a simple system which I will call the ABC system, though it is nothing to do with the alphabet. However, it is as simple to understand as the alphabet and perhaps just as useful. I don't take credit for this system as I obtained it some years ago from another homeschooler through an e-mail list. The origins are perhaps lost in time, but I've found it very helpful and I'm grateful to the unknown inventor. Now I get to share it with you.

All you need for this system is a piece of paper and a pencil - an eraser might be handy! Mark 3 columns on your piece of paper with the headings A, B, and C. The hardest part about this is the explanation. The columns are used as follows:

• A - everything you would do without anyone prompting you, things that are easy and on which you are self-motivated.
• B - things you need to help to do from a schedule, plan, or person.
• C - things you are putting aside for now.

So under A you might have things like: pleasure reading, watch TV, chat with friends. If you have good habits and are self-disciplined you might also have things like: clean the house, do the laundry, and take care of pets.

Under B you might have things like: wash the windows, get check-ups at the doctor, and practice piano.

Be honest now about what goes under column C. It can be an eye-opener. Maybe your teen is putting aside personal hygiene for instance, or maybe you are putting aside exercise, or time with your partner.

It gets interesting when you realize the balance between the different columns. For instance if you have a lot of items in column A, or a few items that you are very highly self-motivated to spend hours and hours on, it will be hard to accomplish the items in column B. If you have everyday stuff like washing the dishes under B, you are probably struggling with routines and expending a lot of energy on making sure you do things that really need to be good habits. Things in column B take energy and we can only have a certain number of things there. If your teen needs someone to get them out of bed in the morning, or your 6 year old argues about brushing their teeth every day, there is going to be no energy left over for other stuff in column B.

The most effective way to use this system I have found is to make sure you put the highest priority items that are not currently being done the way they need to in column B. The goal is to establish a habit for some of these items and thus make them easy so that they move to column A. If necessary, deliberately put some tasks aside in column C for now. For instance, if you have a sick family member, or a lot of visitors for the holidays, some items may be moved to column C temporarily. You might put cooking in column C while someone is sick and needs extra care (just eat easy food for a few days), or put laundry and cleaning in C while relatives are visiting. If you are feeding your family a lot of prepared 'junk' food it could be because you've put cooking in column C. Do you want to leave it there or move it to column B? Are there some things in column B that another family member could take care of and free you up to put more things in your B column? Could a family member who is relying on you to prompt and enforce them doing things in column B manage without your input if they had a schedule or plan?

Don't let time with your partner stay in column C if that is where it currently is, move this to column B by making a plan. Good habits can reduce stress for everybody. Have fun with the ABC survival system, or if you don't need this right now please let me know your secret!

Brought to you by UsborneKC.com - meeting your Usborne Books needs in Kansas City and beyond (Johnson County, Kansas; Wichita, Kansas; Independence, Lee's Summit, North and South Kansas City, Pleasant Valley and Liberty, Missouri; Virginia and New Jersey).

Carnival of Homeschooling

Fellow bibliophile Tami has done a great job of the 51st Carnival of Homeschooling. Tami chose a cooking theme and even managed to fit my submission on The Birds and Bees into that theme, which I am impressed about!

My favorites from today's carnival:

• An illustrated water garden project - it turned out beautifully!
• Alasandra has some carefully crafted words to say about who chooses what Americans read. Thanks Alasandra, I'm with you on this one!

more later...

Brought to you by UsborneKC.com - meeting your Usborne Books needs in Kansas City and beyond (Johnson County, Kansas; Wichita, Kansas; Independence, Lee's Summit, North and South Kansas City and Pleasant Valley, Missouri; Virginia and New Jersey).

Artist Girl on Homeschooling

I thought it would be fun to ask Artist Girl for her take on homeschooling. I made up some questions for her, which she has answered for us below. If you are curious, and have another question to ask of a homeschool teen, feel free to post it in the comments.

Q. What is the best thing about homeschooling?
A: I would have to say the ability to plan your own schedule, whatever works for you. Of course, sleeping in is nice too!

Q. How do you imagine your life would be different if you didn’t homeschool?
A: Definitely a lot more stressful. I also wouldn’t have as much time or energy for my hobbies, like art and pets.

Q. What would you say to a parent who is thinking of homeschooling, but is worried they can’t do it?
A: I think they should try it before they give up, even if it’s just for a few days during summer break. Believe it or not, I hated the idea of homeschooling when it was first suggested to me.

Q. What is the worst thing about homeschooling?
A: It’s harder to see your friends that are still in school.

Q. What is the most interesting thing you’ve learned this year?
A: I’m not sure I could answer that question, as I learn plenty interesting things every day. However, I really enjoy learning how chemistry affects our everyday lives on the atomic level.

Q. Do you think everyone should homeschool?
A: Some people aren’t home enough to homeschool, through no fault of theirs. I’m certain there are also kids that enjoy school. Homeschooling isn’t for everybody, although there are probably a great many people who would do better if they were homeschooled.

Q. Which subject do you enjoy the most?
A: I enjoy all my subjects in different ways; but if I have to pick favorites, currently I like Math, Japanese, and Biology. Not necessarily in that order.

Q. Do you think there is a limit to what can be done with homeschooling, or with what you can teach yourself? Is there anything you are missing out on by homeschooling?
A: Sometimes it’s hard to tell if I’m behind where I should be (to prepare for college). That’s why I rely on my parents to keep me on track.

Q. What is your favorite learning resource (software, book, textbook, video series, website etc)?
A: I am pleased with the methods I chose for learning my different subjects. I have to say though, the cake goes to Teaching Textbooks. I think I’ve come further in math with them this in-complete school year than all the rest of my life put together.

There you have it, a teen take on homeschooling. It's nice to have confirmation that the benefits of homeschooling are not just a fantasy of mine! Now, what is your kid's take on homeschooling?

Here's another homeschooled kid interview - a interview with a homeschooled 11 year old.

Aesop's Fables

Aesop's Fable print at Amazon.com
This week's Carnival of Homeschooling follows an Aesop's Fables theme. What a fun way to organize the entries :-)

I'm rather fond of Aesop's Fables and apparently I'm not the only one! I've recently been writing about leveled reading books over at UsborneReading. Coincidentally several of Usborne's early level reading books feature beautiful adaptations of Aesop's Fables, including The Fox and the Crow, The Fox and the Stork, and The Goose That Laid the Golden Eggs. Usborne also publishes an attractive gift hardback Aesop's Fables book which is perfect for bedtime story reading or for reading at grandma and grandad's house.

If you want to read Aesop's Fables without illustrations they, and many more classic folk tales, are available for free at AesopFables.com. Enjoy!

Homeschooling Elementary

Nebel's Elementary Education at Amazon.com
If you were to ask me to recommend just one reference book to guide you through homeschooling the elementary years I'd recommend Nebel's Elementary Education. Keep reading and I'll tell you why.

I started out homeschooling when my daughter was due to enter 5th grade and I bought "What Your 5th Grader Needs to Know". However, I could not read that book without feeling overwhelmed and questioning the way it dictates what a child at a certain age should be learning. That approach makes no sense to me - kids are not all ready for the same facts at the same age, never mind the fact that in my mind homeschooling, especially in the elementary years, is really not about learning facts! Needless to say at that point I just headed off from books that attempted to explain what I should do educationally with my daughter and made my own path.

A couple of years later an experienced homeschool parent recommended Nebel's Elementary Education to me. She told me that it contains everything you need to know to homeschool your kids through the elementary years. Well, that sounded like a bit of a stretch, but I was intrigued enough and the price was right enough for me to get myself a copy.

So what exactly is in this book? Here is a quote from the introduction, "Nebel's Elementary Education's beginning lessons in all subject areas are designed to tie into" a child's existing knowledge or experience "and build on it incrementally and systematically. All lessons begin by first drawing students' attention to be cognizant of what they already know or have experienced and then guiding them to make further observations through demonstrations , hands-on activities, or real-life explorations. Finally they are drawn, through interactive discussion, to integrate the new lesson with the prior knowledge or experience and thus expand their structure or understanding." In other words we're helping kids to learn and build on their knowledge through observing and interacting with the world around them!

Well, I could write all morning about this book and barely cover a fraction of it. However, it's time to get to homeschooling for the day. If you are curious be sure to leave me a comment or question. You can also read a review at About.com and see more of what it's about at Castlemoyle.com.

Homeschoolers' Guide to the Galaxy is an Amazon.com associate site. See more books on homeschooling elementary at Amazon.com.

Homeschool Resources

Teach Your Own - The John Holt Book of Homeschooling at Amazon.com

Find links to a variety of homeschool resources on the left menu item titled Homeschool Resources. I've grouped items in the order:

- homeschool specific resources
- general educational resources - multi-subject and not homeschool specific
- resources with a specific educational focus eg literature, art, science

The list is already getting to be pretty extensive so I may have to come back and make separate lists - I'm not even anywhere near done with going through my currently-loaded Firefox tabs. I also have a bunch of resources bookmarked on my StumbleUpon account and I have hundreds of links bookmarked on Firefox. They go back years!

I mainly tend to bookmark quality, informative resources that are reasonably easy to navigate and which are free. Google searches tend to turn up a just a few sites that are actually free to use - I've had more success finding new sites through StumbleUpon. There are a huge number of organizations who provide information which we as homeschoolers can use. The trouble is that categorizing and being selective is a major task. For this reason I may remove links from time to time.

Please, if you have any good suggestions on how to organize all these links I'd really appreciate them! Also, if you have favorite sites that you think should be on any comprehensive site list, or if you've taken a good look at any links I've provided and found them to be lacking in some way, please let me know.

Are We There Yet?

Are We There Yet at Amazon.com
Have you ever heard one of your children say, "Are we there yet?" Now that most kids are back in school I keep hearing about homeschoolers who're heading out to travel. What a great time of year to be on the road. Gas prices have dropped back down, many attractions are still open, the summer crowds are gone, and you can enjoy freedom from the worry of heatstroke!

Personally I'm determined to stay home. Maybe it's old age creeping up on me? Not long ago the idea of travel made my ears perk up, got my blood going, and had me rushing off to pack. My heart filled with the pulse of mountains and oceans and my brain zinged with the excitement of new horizons. Today I'd rather explore the world from my own couch. Could it be anything at all to do with the hours I drove this weekend? It's amazing what we'll do for our kids. While I'd have been happy curled up on the sofa at home Artist Girl had other ideas. Thus an adventure began. I don't have anything too exciting to share - mostly it was me saying, "Are we there yet?", from the driver's seat!

Sometimes we need to reflect back to fully appreciate either the past or the present. So, as we settle into our fall holiday season, looking back on your spring and summer what stories do you have to share? Did you go on an adventure, enjoy traveling, have a travel disaster, visit somewhere exciting, or boring, shed tears, laugh together, or just get grumpy? Did you discover something great to prevent the Are We There Yets?

Leave me a comment for a link. Humor is always welcome!

Do you need to be certified?

I'm not talking here about being certifiably mentally ill, though some days homeschooling might make us feel that way! Have you joined the Costco debate about whether parents should be certified to homeschool? You might be interested to hear that so far the consensus is "yes". Want to get over there and vote? Here's the link. BTW you'll need to enable scripts.

The best-laid schemes o' mice and men...

"Gang aft agley." - go often astray, or off-track... better make that women too!

How true is that? Here I sit with all these great ideas on how I'd like to change my little corner of the globe, but they're just that, ideas!

Achievements to date:

• Laundry, occasional - a good proportion of it air dried but I've not done any at all for at least 4 days.
• Permaculture planning - stuck - I just can't get my mind around the landscaping part of what I want to do. Handyman hubby can do that 3-D stuff but he has other priorities and interests.
  
• Wood stove - stuck - put on the back-burner!
  
• Homeschooling - going well but leaving me brain dead this week. I also keep seeing so much MORE we could do if there was the time and energy!
  
• Winter veggies - coming along nicely, but I'm impatient to get eating them. At least we had sun today.
  
• Writing - how did I end up with two websites and three blogs to maintain? These things must be self-replicating!
  
• Business phone calls - far behind. I have to get some daytime energy to devote to these.

Time to cook dinner!

Blog Roundup #1

I've found so many great blogs in the last week that I just can't keep up with writing articles that touch on each topic so that I can showcase them. I have so many tabs open on Firefox that I'll likely have to reboot soon. It's time to have a clear-up and share what I've found. In the order I found them, here goes:

• Random Jottings - taking a fresh look at life from San Francisco
• Homemakers Guide to the Galaxy - homeschooling while loving henna
• Fireflies, Frogs and Mosquitos - Oh My! - adventures with the Condie family (I like the title)
• Eco-savvy Kid - a 10 year old school kid who cares about our planet
• A Spot of Sun - writing by a mom of five
• Biking for Breast Cancer - two lads cycling from John O' Groats to Lands End - follow their adventure
• Vinderama - a personal tour of the Olympics
• Bitterroot and Bergamot - a log of pristine places
• B J Parady - Fiber art and other things of note from along the Mississippi River
• Adora's Blog - from a 10 year old writer in Redmond, WA
• Armadillo's Book Blog - book reviews and rants (mostly book reviews) from a homeschooling family
• Help! My Kids are Smarter than Me - I know the feeling - from a homeschooling mom of two
• Guy Steven Mountain Leader - photo rich commentary from a guy who hikes the mountains of Scotland and beyond
• Basado En Una Historia Irreal - I've no idea what it means (I just speak English) but the photos paint a thousand words - very nice photography!
• Planeto Postal - again I've no clue about the writing, but the photos are intriguing

Well, that got rid of a few tabs I had open! I hope you found something worth browsing in that list. Let me know what you think :-)