Homeschool Campfire

Mine are too old for this now, but I sure wish I knew about these when they were younger. These sites have great handwriting pages you can print out to use.

http://donnayoung.org/penmanship/index.htm

(http://www.writingwizard.longcountdown.com/handwriting_practice_worksheet_maker\
.html)

http://www.handwritingforkids.com/handwrite/

http://www.kidzone.ws/tracers/

http://worksheetworks.com/

http://www.handwritingworksheets.com/

We are getting ready to journey to Kennedy Space Center and want to take you along.  I am going to have lesson plans and worksheets set up for you so you can learn right along with us.  I am going to post our pictures too!  This is going to be fun!  Help to get the word out to anyone who would like to come along with us!  I will start posting information and links this week.  We will bring each of you along with us next week!  We can’t wait!

Thanks to someone posting a message on another homeschool group, I have been introduced to lap books. They are great and I can’t wait to start working on one tomorrow. Basically, you start with 3 manilla folders and build out a book with it. Then, you glue your daily lessons into the book - kindda like a scrapbook, but so much better. The 2 main sites that I highly recommend are: www.liveandlearnpress.com and www.homeschoolinthewoods.com. At www.liveandlearnpress.com, they offer 3 free downloadable lapbooks. You have to join their yahoo group first to gain access, but the yahoo group is slamful of lots of ideas. At www.homeschoolinthewoods.com, they offer the BEST old testament lap book. I ordered it instantly and I can’t wait til it gets here. They also offer what looks like a GREAT time-line kits. I was so excited that I wanted to order it all. Enjoy and have fun! Let me know if you like them as much as I do!!

I found a great website with lots of wonderful ideas: GreatSchools.net. If you click on the Back to School link, you will see a section on the right-hand side about newsletter subscriptions. These are great for keeping track of what your child should be learning from kindergarten up to the fifth grade. I subscribed to them last year and have been rather impressed with the newsletter. It is written from a view point of the public schools to the parents. For example, the one I received today was titled, “What Will My Fifth-Grader Learn in Writing?” I used the newsletters as a gauge to make sure I covered what needed to be taught during the school year. The rest of the website is full of lots of great tips and ideas too.

If you are teaching astronomy to your kids this year, here are two free tools that might help:

Google Earth makes use of satellite imagery, maps, terrain and 3D buildings to create a virtual Earth that you can explore. The latest version adds imagery from the Hubble telescope, allowing you to sightsee through the galaxy.

Stellarium is a free planetarium for your computer. This is the software used to create projections in many planetariums. Just set your coordinates and go. This software is truly beautiful, utilizing “as if you were there” graphics. Many advanced features are available through an easy-to-use on-screen menu.