fun freebies... don't miss out! click on any place the description is to go to the site!

for all educatiors: dvd's, posters, books and stickers. this site has a peta-type flavor. but, if you homeschool like me, we're open to learning the pros and cons of everything.

from subways: a free fitness kit.

little samples of taster's choice coffee... you know, for "those" homeschool days, when you need a little kick!

on saturday, tommie took his homemade rocket to a boy scout rocket launch event. it was one of the requirements for the space exploration merit badge. which, wow... although there's a lot to it... i've woven the requirements into our homeschooling. works out nicely. it was a chilly, damp, windy and rainy afternoon... but that didn't stop the boys and their dads from jumping around with excitement, each time the rockets were launched. even though i'm not into how the rockets work... it was pretty exciting to see them soar up until you couldn't see them again. this experience has peaked tommie's interest in "setting things off with lighter fluid." he insisted we go to home depot and buy pvc pipes... he built some sort of launcher... used lighter fluid and cheap hair spray and set something flying. i think it was a tennis ball... i'm not sure. i am sure however, that he tied his cousins barbie doll to one rocket and tried to launch that through the pvc pipe. it didn't go very far, but it was pretty funny! did i just say that?

today in science, he'll be building an orange smoke bomb. something weird about building bombs in "school" and having your mom encourage it. well, i'm just saying.......

my boy and i are still in the middle of our homemade unit study: the 21 balloons. it is SUCH a good book! without giving too much details away.... let me just share something that we... yes, "we" did... we lettered a sheet of paper a thru z.... then with our big floor map spread out on the living room floor, we both had to come up with ethnic restaurants: a-american, b-british, c-chinese, d-denmarkian (i made the suffix up!) and so on. fun? yep. and covered social studies and geography, too. try it.... it's a fun way to school!

quality or quantity?

is it quality or quantity for your style of home-education? for us, it's not about how many subjects we can squeeze into the day. it's not how many workbook pages that can be filled in correctly. or endless lessons of cause and effect... which by the way, you can teach in the car. nor is it about grades or testing.

it's about the quality of education. it's about offering things that public school kids cannot get. or, if they do... it may be taught by a secular educator that doesn't have my family values.

that said, i rented a wonderful dvd from our library about mother teresa. i knew bits and pieces about her life. my husband knew very little. and my son, knew nothing. after watching the dvd by myself on saturday and again monday night with the boys... i thought, how can one not go through life without knowing about hers? what she sacrificed, what the white and blue signify on her robe, her missions, etc. want to give your children quality education? rent this or read about her! i love her. and happily, my son learned really wonderful things about this beautiful person by laying on the floor with a popcorn bowl. i'm glad we have this freedom...away from the public system.

we've also turned the corner from "history." there is so much we need to cover... yet so much we've already covered. so, for awhile... we're covering "current events." since, he is "growing up in history and this era will no doubt go down in history, as a really tough time." we've been using this site:

http://www.izzit.org/events/index.php

some topics are just way over tommie's head (and mine, too), but i pick and choose... print off and discuss and work on.

quality or quantity?

today, we did a fun little science project... comparing phophates. we took three different kinds of detergent. filled glass jars with lids with one cup of water and one teaspoon of detergent. shook the jars for one minute. and measured the bubbles at 1, 5 and 20 minutes. dove shampoo has the most phosphates. which, we learned when washed into the enviornment.... causes algae to flourish, hence killing living things in streams, lakes and oceans. never knew any of this.

i'm finding a lot of really excellent rabbit trails in our homemade unit study with the 21 balloons. one day last week, our entire home lessons were centered around my favorite newspaper, usa today. let me back up a bit... in the first chapter, the story focus' on newspapers. so, i thought to myself... i'll make another newspaper treasure hunt up! i had no idea how much can be learned and taught from a newspaper. the stock market and how to read it, the international weather section, politics, entertainment (tommie learned who the rock group kiss was), and even how to read and find the top 10 songs of the week. i also took this time to explain how advertising works and where the most costly ads are located and why. our morning was also spend figuring and learning how to calculate percentages in our head. something i do all the time in real life, when i'm shopping. the real estate section was a very fun part of our morning... reading all the different offers and prices. we wrapped up the day with tommie writing a nice letter to his cousin in college.

monday, was the kick-off of our unit study, the twenty-one balloons! i've been wanting to dive into this book for some time, now. i'm creating the unit study myself. if you've used five in a row and beyond... your sort of trained to easily create your own. that said... in just the introduction section alone... we've spent two days delving into new territory. India, the great volcano explosion in Krakatow in Indonisia, and most fun... the history of balloons... more on that later.

i have to say good-bye for today.... we're heading to a couple garage sales.