Fun Educational Magazines

Below are a few magazines I've received information about that you may find helpful in you daily teaching.

www.LearningThroughHistory.com Ages 10 & up

www.CreationIllustrated.com The Christian answer to National Geographic

www.NatureFriendMagazine.com Helping Children explore the wonders of God's creation; also looking for your stories, art, photos, puzzles, and poems.

www.UnlessTheLordMagazine.com Practical advice, encouragement, family health, home crafts, and much more

Work At Home Ideas

Below are some sites that I've received information about that many of you may want to look into if you are looking for ways to make money. Good luck!

www.dutchmillbulbs.com
No cash up front, fall & spring selling seasons, Sales brochures, 50% profit on every sale.

www.wreathsofmaine.com
Earn $6 for every wreath you sell, show brochures to family, friends, and neighbors, take the orders, Wreaths of Maine ships directly to the customer. Sales kit is needed to begin selling; $10 or free options.

www.RadaCutlery.com Helping with Fundraisers since 1948.

www.morriscookbooks.com Publish your cookbook or other book.

Spotlight on Online Schools & Accreditations

I was thumbing through some of the correspondence that I've received through the mail lately and thought many of these might be of interest to some of you who are looking for teaching help or other resource (grade placement,diploma) for your homeschooled child.

www.edanywhere.com - Instructors are fully approved in all 50 states; testing for assessment to gain credits as a homeschooler, for grade level evaluation, vocational assessment; GED prep; high school diplomas and so much more!

www.libertyonlineacademy.com - Evangelical university with the world's largest Christian distance learning program for 3rd through 12th grade with emphasis on individual learning. 11th and 12th graders can earn college credit.

www.k12.com - classes, curriculum only, you choose

www.familychristianacademy.com/onlineacademy - 3rd through 12th grade, student-customized program, online records and report cards and more.

www.heritagehomeschool.com - offers web based and traditional curriculum.

Waiting on Our Last Book Order

We're still waiting on the last order of books that we purchased from ABC Teacher's Outlet. Today we'll be halfway through our second week of school which happens to be our slowest weeks of the school year thank goodness. It looks as though we'll have to go through the third week without science and social studies books as well. By week 4, we should have these books and we'll be in full swing.

In the meantime, I'm also considering a subscription to Learning Through History Magazine from www.LearningThroughHistory.com to enhance the history that we need to study this 6th grade year.

Back To School

Yesterday went off without a hitch. We did extremely well on our first day "back to school". The plan is to move along much faster this year. Many who are reading along are aware that our homeschooler had to take the state achievement tests at the end of last school year - 5th grade. He did very well considering I covered most of his content about 2 weeks before he took those tests. Yikes! He scored above expectatations in the English testing and was painfully close to the expectations in the other subjects. I've posted our state's expectations below and, if I read the graphs on the test report correctly, he wasn't a full year below expectations. I was missing the page that was supposed to report his grade level.

So....I told him if I'd known that he could learn that much in such a brief amount of time, that we would have went along at a much faster pace to begin with. Thus the pace is set for his 6th grade year.

State Testing Expectations in our State
1 year or more below grade level for 2 years in a row, superintendent MAY req. parents to enroll child in public or private school (unless child is learning disabled).

School Begins Today

With most of our books here and most of my morning work accomplished (I work as a virtual assistant), I will begin this year's lessons with my son this morning. Including the 2 years I homeschooled our older son, this is my 8th year of homeschooling altogether. Each year, I learn a little more and each year I'm more excited about starting the school year. This year, I plan to let my son help me prepare his lessons for the week so that he's more involved and knows what to expect during the week.

Good luck to everyone who is taking this adventure this year.

Ordered More Books

We have received all of our books that we purchased from Learning Things and Teach Children. I did find a Spectrum Science book after several days of searching. I have included the site I found it at below - I will let you know if it has all the necessary curriculum after we receive it. I also ordered the Spectrum World Geography book and a U.S. Government book while I was there. It is more difficult to find all the information in one book than I realized. The World Geography is supposed to cover the history I was looking for also. Again, I'll post it here when I find out. After this last (and hopefully final) order arrives, we'll have 10 books for our lessons this year and only about $100 invested. So far, we've spent half that for our older son's public school fees for his FIRST SEMESTER and haven't gotten all of the supplies he needs yet.

http://www.abcteacher.com/

New Teaching Tips for the New School Year

Here are a few tips I've begun practicing with my daily business routines as I was finding myself sitting at the sewing machine or at my computer for hours on end. The health risk assessment that I completed for my hubby's insurance gave me the first bit of advice. Kim, one of my co-workers gave me the second bit of advice. Both are working great to help me feel relaxed, less irritable, and with mind clarity. I'm going to incorporate these tips into the daily homeschool routine for our son in hopes that he will experience the same positive effects that I have had. Of course, use your own judgement and consider your personal health before engaging in any type of exercise routine. Ask your doctor if in doubt.

1. After 30 to 60 minutes of continuous sitting, studying, desk/computer work, take at least a 5 minute break to do some stretches such as toe touches, reaching for the ceiling, side stretches, etc. These don't have to be strenuous. Slow and easy should be fine; you're just circulating blood throughout your body. Who knows? Maybe you'll obtain some weight management from these types of low-impact exercises as well.

2. Take long, deep breaths for mind clarity - breathe in through the nose and out through the mouth. Kim pointed out to me that many of us take short, shallow breaths and are totally unaware of it. This deep breathing technique generates better blood flow to the brain therefore helping you to think more clearly and hopefully make better decisions. Great for studying for tests, or learning in general. I have also done this when experiencing migraines. Usually after about 10 minutes, the headache either becomes bearable to completely better!

Another Curriculum Supplier

Here is another great site to find curriculum and more. http://www.teachchildren.com/index.html

I just placed an order with them Friday afternoon along with my Learning Things order. I'm having an extremely difficult time finding science and social studies books that include all of the year's curriculum. Everyone wants to sell a different book for different lessons. For example, a book for life science, another book for earth science, etc. then history, government, geography, etc. are all separate books. When I stumble upon those, I'll post it here.