Trigger Memory System, the author of Times Tales (which I be reviewing soon, one thing at a time…) has also put together probably my absolutely favourite parenting tool EVER -  Clean n’ Flip Charts!!  Now, these charts are a meager $7,95 (or if you want not the whole set of Clean n’ Flip charts with a wipe off marker and everything it’s only $29.99) but believe me… they are worth their weight it GOLD!  Anyone who knows FlyLady (and I do, and had to unsub because I just couldn’t keep up with her incredibly organized email reminders) knows that the key to an organized house is A SYSTEM.  THIS is the System of Systems to bring peace to our homes…

Okay.  Background.  Right now our house has three bedrooms.  I have four children… two boys (almost-15 and 6) and two girls (13 and 3), and since Tony and I would like to have a bedroom too (we pay the mortgage after all, I think we’re entitled!) that leaves our children to share rooms.  And even though the Littles might not mind sharing a room, I think the Bigs might. *wink*

Well, I’m big on mentoring and all that jazz, and my older daughter is definately “getting” the whole “encourage your little helper” thing… my older son is not (sheesh, men, even young ones!).  So… we have battles, almost daily, over “the mess G made of my room!” (uh, OUR room?).  So… we’re planning on splitting the rooms into four rooms… but that’s not going to happen this year (2008)… so we need to find a system to make this bedroom-sharing thing work and brotherly love to not fall by the wayside. 

And along comes Clean n’ Flip!

Now, I didn’t want to “dictate” so I sinply handed the chart to my oldest son and whispered to him, “here, this might help.. why not get him into this treasure map/adventure thing…” (it’s not really - but it did lead them to a special treasure… keep reading!).  So, well-armed, my soon-to-be-15 year old called his little brother and said, “LOOK WHAT I HAVE! (excited tone) Let’s go follow the directions and see what happens!”.  G came running… “What?! What?!” and off they went on their adventure…

I wish I had a “before” picture to show you… I was too ashamed to take one… but here is Greyson doing “Step 4″ (he told me proudly as I dashed for the camera…). 

And here is Ev and G putting away the books in the pile…

Both boys were working together - AS A TEAM!  It was incredible to see… no fights, no “MOM.. G is not cleaning!!!” or “MOMMY!  Ev is yelling at me!!!!!”… instead, for that short time… there was brotherly love, team work, and LAUGHTER.. yes!!! Laughing… they thought it was FUN! 

When they were done Ev and G did find a wonderful treasure…

A Clean Room!

Have a blessed (and hopefully peaceful) day!

Have you ever heard of Motherboard Books?  So many homeschool parents (heck, even school parents!) are trying to figure out how to teach their children USEFUL computer skills (yes, we all know they mastered the computer games while still in their diapers, ugh!) - and Phyllis Wheeler over at Motherboard Books has written some wonderful step by step books to teach kids just that!  She has a fabulous course on basic computer science, and also a book called Let’s Make a Webpage!  That’s what Everett used today (yes, you read that right, TODAY… meaning, in ONE DAY… not only did he create ONE page, but he made another I just haven’t had a chance to post online yet!). 

Wanna see it???  Huh? Huh? 

Okay… it’s basic, but it’s a WEBPAGE done by MY SON!!!! (okay, you seein’ the beamin’ with pride Mama yet?? *grin*) www.ratcliffeblessings.com/everett/codeindex.html.  

(I’ll wait while you go look…)

(fingers drumming on desk… hmmm hmmm hmmm….)

OH!  You’re back! :o)  See?? Isn’t it a nice page?  I love it… I love that my son learned to do it all on his own with Phyllis’ very excellent step-by-step teaching.  Ev also said to me that, even though he chose not to add in certain elements that Mrs. Wheeler explained, he feels that he could do so much more now himself just from the confidence he has built by playing with the program.  He says that he also loves that he understands what the code means (he’s always wondered how I make heads or tails of the code I work with). 

I wish you could’ve seen how proud he was to show his Dad what he’d done today in school.  Even my husband was impressed!  Maybe this is going to end up being his “Work.. er Hobby” thing just like dear ol’ Mom!

Let’s Make a Webpage is available at Currclick (it’s an ebook, so your child can even read it on the computer screen as he works… no costs for printing!!) for only $19.99!  Absolutely worth every single cent when you consider it might be a good start in a Kid Business… why not?  The course is designed for kids aged 8-12, but Ev is 14 and got so much out of it (enough to be ambitious enough to be planning several more webpages!)… it’s… well, it’s FANTASTIC!

Blessings!

After checking out the site to the best of my abilities (I”m on dial-up and there are a lot of videos that took forever to play, but I did download a and read a lot of the literature available to members)earlier this week, I made a date to head over to my sister’s yesterday, who is also (very newly) homeschooling my neice. My sister has a educational background of “Educational Resources and Special Needs”.  She is VERY crafty and imaginative on things like that, and even has a “clown ministry”… SO, ya, right up her alley.

I explained what I understood (from watching all that I COULD watch and reading as many pdfs as I could find on the site)… and we set up little tables, and made puppets with a 3.5 year old, an almost 6 year old and a 7.5 year old.  They liked it, I guess.. but it was my neice (at 7.5) that got really into it.  They played with them for about 15 minutes afterwards before heading off to play with other things.  Hmm, it didn’t mesmerize them as much as I initially thought.  I started to wonder about maybe the age range and application of this tool, so…

I made a puppet too!  Yup, UNcrafty me made François la grenouille (Frances the Frog - in french… sorry, bad pun, but I like it.. French Quebeckers are often called “frogs” .. not sure why, but when I was thinking of making a tool to encourage the Littles to try to speak french, a French Frog was what popped into my head.. hehe).  ANYHOW… *ahem*

The kids responded well to him (well, my 3.5 and almost 6 year old, this was after I left my sister’s house)… actually trying to answer François’ questions in french and in learning to introduce themselves in french… but there were a few things I noticed:

1. If you make a body, it will flap and rustle when you operate the “mouth hinge”… kind of annoying, I might cut François down to his face only… not decided yet.

2. Paper quality COUNTS… seriously!  The kids made theirs with construction paper I bought for them to play with (read: not the most expensive kind) and within minutes we had small rips and tears.. (tears as in crying… and tears as in paper.. two birds, one rip.. sorry, stone! LOL!).  We reinforced the hand places with duct tape… which I love, but still, it does make things a little more complicated.  François was made with top quality construction paper.. quite pricey… but he is A LOT more solid and durable… The difference doesn’t show well in pictures, but believe me, it will make ALL the difference in your puppets.

3. Seeing as my sister has highspeed and I don’t… I decided to check out the site at her end to see if I got “more” from it there than I could here… I’m sorry to say that I wasn’t overly impressed with the qualities of the videos available (guess I wasn’t missing much after all! LOL!).  But I did find one audio/video (not sure if it was the video that had a problem or if it was designed to just be stills to background the audio file… it’s the Grade 5 Part 1 file… not only was the teacher enthusiastic, but gave some really great insights into how this could work in a classroom of older children.  And although there is a recommendation to “watch the kids” - I got nothing from that video, which was poorly shot and didn’t even have an audio track (on either of our computers). 

4. Jeffrey Peyton, the man who is behind this patented hinge, and who is featured in many of the videos and audios on the site, can be rather dry to listen to - which is unfortunate as he is quite knowledgeable and concerned with the eduction of children.  I know that he’s capable of more enthusiasm, as I heard a spark at the end of one of the audios encouraging us to EXAGERATE! *grin* 

5.  As for the website itself, I wish he’d spice it up a bit more, make some better videos… it would be SO easy to do, even just a burst of COLOUR would improve the site dramatically.  I also found the site a little less than user friendly in it’s layout, but I’m pretty picky, since being on dialup means searching more pages means a lot more time wasted.  However, as an educational resource, the site has a wealth of information that would best suited to a classroom teacher, but might not be as useful to a homeschooler.  I guess I shouldn’t predict that, though since every homeschool family is different. 

Wow… I sound like I’m complaining… but I’m not.  Really!  I did learn something about myself and my kids yesterday.. they do respond to puppets, and although I made François out of paper, I’m thinking a fabric puppet of a frog might serve me longer and better… so now I’m on the lookout for this.  I can’t see using this tool all too often, maybe as a literature aid… like having the kids make puppets of the main characters and being able to “play” the story over and over… but it would definately take me leading them in it… and I’m not sure I’m “that kind of Mom” - You know?

So, all that to say, if you are like me and are “creatively challenged”, www.puppetools.com might be just the place to spark you full of ideas, but at .. this isn’t much more than a paper bag puppet using construction paper as a base instead of a paper bag (which gives you a neater and less obvious base, as well as seems just a little “higher end” crafty than a paperbag as well - you know, for the older kids who are very “looks” oriented *grin*). 

However, I think if you are limited to discount materials, for something as flimsy as a paper puppet, I’d probably suggest you to just go to the dollar store, pick up a hundred paper bags for a buck and use that as  a base.  It’d be easier for small hands to do the sticking and glueing and is far more cost effective for me since I wouldn’t need to invest in the expensive construction paper.

And although the site has hundreds of “teacher submitted” images, “student submitted”, and even some printable templates -  I bet my frugally minded friends could google “PUPPET+CRAFTS” and get a million hits full of ideas FOR FREE… but if search engines aren’t your thing (as you know they are mine, grin… ) or you are interested in the “educational philosophy of puppets in the classroom” www.puppetools.com would be a great site to check out.  A trial membership (60 days of access) is only $20 US… or you could get a full year membership (why not go in as a group with your homeschool support group?) for only $99. 

Blessings!

I spent yesterday at the Grace Talk Soup Birthday Bash (they are 7 years old yesterday!!) and we played games, laughed and most of all, learned valuble communication skills and lessons.  We even had our Littles playing the “um game” together from all around North America!!  The Um Game is where you have to talk about something for as long as  you can, without saying the word “um” - and well, let me tell ya, Chaeli lost miserably.  LOL!  “Ummmmmmmmmmmmm the cat jumped up on the bookshelf?”  *sigh*  Ah well, she’s cute in otherways - grin!

So, what is Grace Talk Soup?  Well, that’s where you’ll find my friend JoJo Tabares, author of the excellent communication book series “Say What You Mean“, each Thursday morning: Boldly serving up God’s Word with a side order of Grace and Humor!

Grace Talk Soup is her humor-filled, weekly one-hour commentary on news that affects all Christians with tips and instruction for better communication when sharing and defending the faith in grace. Guests share their inspiring testimony, their ministry and their miracles!

Every episode is recorded live, and is interactive through the Talk Shoe Pod Casting service - which means all the listeners can chat together in the Talk Shoe Chat room (just the people on the call, so it’s pretty safe, but as with all things internet, use your own judgement when sharing personal information).  It’s really not as techy as it sounds - even I could do it! 

So… write it on your calendar… 11AM EST (yes, it stays 11 even in daylight savings) and come join me in the fun at the Grace Talk Soup!!!  Hope to see you there! :o)

Blessings!

heehee…

Homeschool Library Builder has this fantastic promotion for my American friends… Free Shipping!!  The rest of us get 10% off our orders (depending on the size of your order, that could be an even better deal! LOL!).  But wait!  Who are these people??

Homeschool Library Builder is basically a couple of  homeschool moms who thought it would be a neat thing if homeschool moms like them didn’t have to wade through all the “garbage” books out there on every other site, just to find the gems that most of us are looking for in a book.  So they keep their eagle eyes peeled for “common” books in homeschooling circles, snatch them up at a deal, and then resell them on their site to you.  One stop homeschool book shopping!   

Many of the books on HSLB are priced similarly to what you could find by scouring the net.. but Time is Money too… so this way you have one place to go to look first, and when you can sort by CURRICULUM (yes, you read that right… if you use Tapestry of Grace, just use the simple filters to sort out books that are used in that program…same goes for Sonlight, Ambleside Online, and many more!).  Now THAT is a useful tool!!!

Anyhow, this promotion only lasts till November 6th.. so I hope you take advantage of it!  And if not, these crazy ladies always have something exciting going on to “enable” the book-a-holic in us homeschool moms…. *grin* 

Oh, our poor husbands… *wink*

Blessings!

Life of Fred is a terrific math program.  the program is laid out like a story, but by the time you get to the very few and easy questions, you will undestand more about the subject.  The books are based on a 5 1/2 year old named Fred Gauss, who teaches at KITTENS University.  He’s really short and really smart.

I’m not a math fan myself, but right now math is my favourite subject!  Life of Fred is much more personal than any math curriculum I have ever seen.  There is even times in the lessons when you, the Reader, are having an imaginary conversation with him, the Author!  Try finding that in something like Saxon!!

Now back to pracical Mom… to fill in the details.  LOL! 

Life of Fred math texts are written by Stanley Schmidt, a retired math teacher down in Reno, Nevada - with a fantastic sense of humour and a love of teaching that is unparalleled.  When a college level Statistics textbook starts out with the word “Tink!” you KNOW it’s gonna be a good ride! LOL!

Reasonably priced between $19 (for Fractions) and $39 (Calculus), each book takes you on an adventure slice in the life of Fred Gauss, whom Everett has already introduced to you.  Each chapter covers oh-so-much-more than simply math… I’ve seen (in the Fractions book) the importance of thankfulness, organizing thoughts on paper (list writing), measurements and conversions, and even “the rules for writing in books”!  and of course, there is Fred… the most endearing math character in the world! :o)

This set of math books is like nothing else out there for homeschoolers.  Even a reluctant reader would most likely be engaged enough to enjoy these books.  So, I encourage you… if the “textbook” approach is not working, if filling in mindless blanks in workbooks is not working… take a look at Life of Fred!!  And tell Stan that I sent you! :o)

Now,  when my oldest was learning to read, we had this cute little set of books called Bob Books.  Ever heard of them?  They are small for small hands, simple stories based on “word families” (see more in a minute…).  They were easy enough to offer success, and they progressed nicely to keep him learning.  Problem was?  They got loved to death… Ev slept with his Bob Books… and well, they were not the better for it.  LOL!

Now, along comes this site Rime to Read.  Yup, that’s no typo!  RIMES are words that not only sound alike, they LOOK alike… another word for “word families”.  Word families are simple groups of sounds that work together in many words when just the first consonant is changed.  (you know this already, I know… but humour me).  Such as:

CAT

MAT

FAT

SAT

HAT

BAT

RAT

SLAT

(etc….)

Well, Lynn Klaiman and Dr. Sara Hines, PhD, over at Rime to Read have developed an interactive, DIGITAL reader system similar to the beloved Bob Books that allow children to experience the same fun and excitement over reading success, and use the computer at the same time!  (kids love that kind of stuff! *grin*)   

The best thing about this is that you can also chose to print out the books if you like… so once your child masters the book on the screen, go ahead, print them out a copy that they can “love to death” if they like.  My younger son is so thrilled when I print out the book he knows how to read and he can show off to Daddy what he did “in homeschool” that day.  He loves writing his name on it and feeling like he owns that reading… and I’m not worried about the costs, because he can always go back and read it again on the computer if his copy gets mucked up of forgotten at Gramma’s house.  Best of both worlds! :o)

Currently, Rime to Read has 20 books available to purchase.  Each package of 4 books costs only $9.99 or you can choose to buy access to all 20 for $44.99.  Now, for me this seemed at first like a high cost (oh, btw… Bob Books cost $16.95 for a set of 12 - or a whopping 23.95 here in Canada - and that is just for the basic books, no bells and whistles, and when they get loved to death, that’s it, that’s all!) but when you consider that  you can read Rime to Read’s books unlimited number of times online (with their nifty, engaging page flip technology), and that you can print the books out as many times as you need for personal use (yes, several children in the same family counts as personal use.  No, every child in the whole town does not. *grin*)… it’s worth the money and then some.  Another way to use them as well might be to print out the pages as review/colouring pages (since the drawings are simple line type drawings) for your child’s notebook.  A wonderful record of their learning progress!

As you can see, there are many ways to use this program.  And the Book Team is working with the Web Team to get SOUND into the books too!  Infact, the mechanism is in place now, but of course, as with anything new, it’s in the “testing” stages.  So if you child is stumbling on a word, there is an option to click the word to hear the “rime” read aloud to him/her.  This would be fantastic for independent review… and allowed your beginning reader to feel in control of their learning - even if it is a little thing.  (little kids love “I can do it myself” moments *grin*)

If you choose to read the books online, you should know that the loading time is amazing… even on dialup, the pages only took a few seconds each.  That’s simply fantastic for those of us who are still livin’ in the dark ages.  The page design (online) makes it obvious, even a three year old, what they have to do to turn the page of the story – so they are learning to become independent readers.  There are also even more books in the works, and this company’s customer service cannot be beat!  All very good reasons to check out Rime to Read to get your homeschooler reading!

Blessings!

PS.  I posted this under Mondays are for Mom because these books brought back such sweet “Mom and Child” memories for me… and now I’m enjoying curling up on the couch listening to my younger son reading these words and beaming with pride at his accomplishment (with plenty of High Fives – as is his thing).

Okay, You all know how the Old Schoolhouse Magazine has an e-store, right?  They also have a Planner, right?  Well, they ALSO have these monthly supplements to their planner that only cost a mere $5.00!  Next month’s (okay, THIS month as of tomorrow… but this is fantastic, so I have to tell you about it today *grin*) Module is all about Amusing Mathematics (no, not Amazing… AMUSING). 

So, why do I think this is so fantastic?  Oooooo I was hoping you’d ask!!! :o)

1. It’s got RECIPES!  And not just ANY recipes, but a CHILI recipe… and anyone who knows me knows that chili is my chocolate!  I LOVE chili… and I really love NEW chili recipes (btw, that is also a subtle hint, if you have a great recipe for chili PLEASE leave a comment with it by clicking “comment” below!  PLEASE!
2. There is a simple Sudoku to start the kids off on a lifelong addition of what has got to be one of the best solitaire type games on the planet!
3. There are cool copywork pages with Very Handy little rhymes for things like “30 days hath September” and “Monday’s child is fair of face” (although, I learned that one slightly differently than what is on that page, but same idea… very cute!). 
4. There are copywork sheets to give kids little remembering rhymes for things like the value of a quarter, the hands of the clock, and even which numbers are even and which are odd. (oh, and cool little penmanship rhymes for writing numbers out neatly!)
5. They introduce Tangrams, Telling Time, and even teach the kids some funny math jokes!

All in all, 5 very good reasons to spend 5 bucks showing your kids that math can be Amusing and Not A Bore. All found in the Amusing Mathematics Module from The Old Schoolhouse Magazine.

I’ll leave you with a quote (it’s up to you to find it in the module! *grin*)  Oh, and an added incentive:  there are MORE modules when you are finished this one… check em out!

“Mathematics is the alphabet with which God has written the Universe” ~ Galileo Galilei

Blessings!

A friend of mine who had moved here from The South, always got things going for Christmas at the traditional Thanksgiving Dinner… she shopped Christmas, she talked Christmas, heck - she even had her Christmas tree up before *I* did!!! Now that is an accomplishment!  (We have a tradition of getting ours up the first Sunday afternoon in Advent).

I’m also all about getting things done ahead of time (you see, we also have three birthday’s immediately preceding Christmas, so from the 3rd of November on, it can be touch and go on time and resources available *grin*).  SO, in the spirit of Getting Ready for Christmas I am pleased to announce that The Old Schoolhouse Magazine has put together a wonderful new resource they are giving away FREE with new subscriptions!  Subscribe between Oct 18 and Oct 31, 2008 and you’ll receive a free TOS Homespun Holidays E-Book!  Do you like to create holiday memories? The brand new TOS holiday E-Book is all about the fall and winter holidays - mainly Thanksgiving and Christmas. But it’s not even for sale yet. This is your chance to get it first - for FREE ($12.45 value)!

Normally when a person subscribes, their subscription starts with the upcoming issue which can take a while. But, TOS thought about that when they planned their Fall Special.

If you subscribe now with their Fall Special, you’ll get:

Almost 50% off the cover price for 2 years The current Fall issue as soon as it is ready

6 Bonus gifts

12 months of Teacher’s Toolbox, which contains a FREE E-Book every month PLUS, the new E-Book, Homespun Holidays for FREE!

This is over $250 worth of product for only $39!!

You don’t want to miss out on this one for sure!

Blessings!

PS. Did you ever dream of getting a horse for Christmas? You can get a sneak peek of our Fall issue and see Nancy Carter’s first horse! Oh, and she’s not the only one sharing her childhood pictures. You’ll see photos from the 50’s through the 80’s.

But, you’ll need the Fall issue of The Old Schoolhouse Magazine to go on this walk down memory lane!

Seriously though.  Help Me 2 Teach is a real website!!  Elaine, over at www.helpme2teach.com is a woman on a mission.  Her goal is to make a perfect “teachers” search engine.  She hand picks sites (and right now has over 2300 of ‘em!) that she feels are valuble and appropriate in content -  and loads them in, one by one, into her website search engine, so that no educator is ever stuck wading through the zillions of pages a popular search engine might send their way. 

There is a small fee for this service, though… ranging from $4.95 for 3 days access (got a big project due? This might be a great choice for the frazzled parent of a school child who only announced their project due monday on saturday morning! *lol*) to $29.95  for a full year’s membership (but if you sign up before December 2008, you can get a second year FREE with the purchse of a one year membership - What a deal!!!)

The best part of www.helpme2teach.com, besides the thousands of links to wonderful places and resources?  Elaine.  I have rarely come across someone  so willing to learn and grow.  To show you what I mean; one concern plaguing the TOS Reviewers was that there were no links to any Christian sites when we were first asked to take a look at www.helpme2teach.com.  Some of us made inquiries, and Elaine heard our concerns and IMMEDIATELY worked to rectify the situation - making this site a far improved version, imho.  I love that she was humble enough to accept our constructive “concerns” and to grow in it… and she’s always willing to take a look at a link - so if there is something you’d like to see, PASS IT ON!  She’s very nice to deal with, and responds to email inquiries promptly.

The cons… well, yes, in my opinion, I guess there are at least a couple. 

First, I, personally, LOVE search engines (almost as much as books!!! *grin*).  I’m Good at them and I have a hard time validating paying for something (even something sorted for me as Elaine’s site is) if I can find it myself. 

But understand something, I LOVE rabbit trails!  I find most of the fun of search engines is the filtering and the totally-not-what-I-was-looking-for-but-wow-that’s-super-cool-too stuff of the big name search engines (google being my current favourite).  I like the excitement of the hunt… and that might just be me.  But I also know that many of my friends find search engines their internet nemesis (es?  how do you pluralize nemesis?  nemesi? *rofl*).  I get calls EVERY DAY from one friend or another who needs me to “look something up for them”.  (HA!  Maybe I’ll take stocks out in www.helpme2teach.com and then send my friends Elaine’s way… LOL!)

Second, even though there have been over 2300 links added in BY HAND… somehow the searching mechanism seems rather hit and miss.  For example; I typed in “Canada”.   These were the top three results I got:

1. Goverment of Canada www.canada.gc.ca/main_e.html - okay, this makes sense to me… “Head Office” of Canada.
2. An interactive teaching map www.yourchildlearns.com/canada_map.htm - alrighty… not bad so far, after all geography is good.
3. Find your name in Latin www.latin.org/english/name-lookup.html - HUH?  Not only that, but the site didn’t even work… gave me an “oops” message every time I tried it.  I’m not exactly sure what my Latin name has to do with Canada… but ??

The other thing was, when I typed in “new france” *yes, even in quotes to isolate that word combination* - I got Mardi Gras and everything in old France’s history.  When I typed in “upper canada” I got only math links (for upper elementary! ROFL!). 

So, I guess what I can say is, that this is a site truly in it’s infancy, and has great potential (with Elaine willing to listen and grow with her supporters) to become something quite useful… but for me, for now?  Well,  I will definately be suggesting her site to my most frequent callers… but I know I’ll keep myself  busy chasin’ my rabbits trails! :o)

Blessings!

PS. the HM2T system is set up to “lock” any account accessed by more than 3 IPs (so if you have dialup, you may find yourself not able to get access after the third use) but if you contact Elaine, and explain the situation, she will permanently “unlock” your access (for the duration of your membership).