Category Archives: Homeschooling

Homeschooling, Homeschoooling, Resources, science, Science

Science Reference Books to Have on Hand

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sciencebooks

 

I am a big believer in having lots of engaging reference books around. Then kids can read them for fun, to answer their questions or to actually help with homework. We have a fun collection of science books that we highly recommend for everyone to have on hand! (At 1 very short point in time I sold Usborne just to receive a discount on their reference books.)

The Usborne Illustrated Dictionary of Science: This covers Chemistry, Physics and Biology in one volume but I believe that they are available individually. The colors are vibrant and the definitions are clear and specific. Great for any level, even up to high school.

The Usborne Internet-Linked Science Encyclopedia: This is a super fun encyclopedia. It covers facts across the board in science from mixtures & compounds to plants to the human body to energy. It isn’t written in a long a boring form but littered with graphics and bullet point facts. It also has a quick link compliment that has websites that can take the learning further!

Usborne Mysteries and Marvels of Science: This isn’t an encyclopedia or dictionary but I still consider it a reference book. It has a bunch of mysteries and marvels that kids always wonder about. It has things like force and color and even silicon. This is also an internet linked volume so it has complimentary websites that can take their investigation further.

First Encyclopedia of Science: I really believe in young elementary reference books. It is great fun for the kids to look up interesting subjects and it gets them used to using things like encyclopedias. This is a super colorful volume  and has a great variety of of subjects. This is also an internet linked book so there are a variety of complimentary links that are age appropriate!

100 Science Experiments: This is a volume of easy science experiments that kids can easily do, almost completely alone. These aren’t high level science fair projects but projects that actually teach great concepts. There are lots of illustrations for the young scientist to actually see what they should be doing.

730 Easy Science Experiments: This book is aimed at students any where from 4th grade all the way up through high school. All the experiments are conducted with every day materials. Some are high level like testing ph levels. Some are super simple like using the gluten in bread as an eraser. The experiments are laid out well but don’t explain everything about the results so students can actually research the why’s and do reports!

giveaway, Homeschooling, Homeschoooling

Get Equipped Homeschool Giveaway!!!

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I have been blessed to be included in this awesome giveaway! Make sure to enter!!!
Attention homeschoolers! Looking for resources, encouragement, and training for next school year? This giveaway has some great resources to get you started. We’re giving away $600 in prizes.

Get Equipped! Homeschool Giveaway - 10 winners, $600+ in prizes. Ends 4/19/14

8 Winners Will Get…

  • A live stream pass to the Family Discipleship and Homeschooling Conference (worth $29.95)
  • Two year-long handwriting workbooks—print and cursive—that help kids memorize a long text of Scripture, and a 30-day family Bible study that delves deeply into that same passage (worth $17.50)

2 Grand Prize Winners Will Get…

  • All the prizes mentioned above
  • A year-long subscription to Lessontrek’s lesson planning app (worth $60).

 

Prizes.

One-year subscription of Lessontrek’s lesson planning app (2 Winners)

Sponsor: Lessontrek

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Lessontrek is a better and modern web application for online lesson planning for the homeschool, private, and public school teacher. Lessontrek helps parents create lesson plans quickly and easily. In just a few minutes you can setup your school year and subjects, create lessons and assignments, record grades, and more. Their handy drag-and-drop system makes reordering lessons easy.

“I like how you can organize the subjects, set up the school based on whenever you start and take breaks. I also like how easy it is to use and create the subjects, assignments and color code everything.” – Gretchen (Colorado)

Lesson trek is giving two Grand Prize winners a year subscription ($60 value for each).

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Livestream Pass to the 2014 Family Discipleship and Homeschool Conference (10 Winners)

Sponsor: Christian Heritage

Live Stream Main Prize Image

Live stream Ken Ham to your living room! Enter to win a Live Stream Pass to 2014. Family Discipleship & Homeschooling Conference. 10 WINNERS!

Watch the preview video at http://bit.ly/1hea4QB

From the comfort of your own home, join thousands of other homeschoolers for two full days of hope, encouragement and inspiration. The live stream of the 2014 Family Discipleship and Homeschooling Conference will present something for every member of your family:

  • Fathers will be called to loving, servant leadership and faithful discipleship in the home by looking to their heavenly Father for the perfect example of fatherhood they never had.
  • Mothers will be encouraged with a fresh perspective on the big-picture “why” behind the daily routine of motherhood, as well as practical tips for keeping the “homeschool routine” from turning into the “homeschooling rat-race.”
  • Young adults and children will be prepared to engage the culture for Christ with a biblical view of history, science and defending the faith.

Through the lineup of dynamic speakers and practical sessions, you will be equipped to fulfill your great calling in life: making disciples of Jesus Christ – one child at a time.

One-year handwriting curriculum and accompanying family Bible study (10 Winners)

Sponsor: Intoxicated On Life

Philippians ESV Family Bundle

This bundle of resources is aimed at helping kids memorize and understand a longer text of Scripture—in this case, Philippians 2:1-18, the Apostle Paul’s great hymn to Christ celebrating his incarnation, death, and exaltation. The bundle comes with two handwriting workbooks—print and cursive—which provide a year’s worth of handwriting practice, vocabulary words, and dictation practice. The bundle also comes with a 30-day family Bible study and Scripture memory cards. All of these resources are centered on Philippians 2.

Intoxicated On Life is giving 10 winners this family bundle, each one priced at $17.50.

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Enter the giveaway below!

Giveaway runs from April 10 to 19. Enter below and don’t forget to share this great opportunity with your friends!

Homeschooling, Homeschoooling, Science

Discovery Education 3M Young Scientist Challenge

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SOEL_Logo_FinalYou all know that I love science and innovation so I am beyond excited to share a fabulous science competition with you all! This isn’t a normal “science fair” competition but a competition that focuses purely on innovation and ideas.

The Discovery Education 3M Young Scientist Challenge is obviously sponsored by 3M, a company that knows about innovation. It is for students that are in 5th to 8th grade. Basically students create a 1-2 minute video that are all about new innovative solution for an every day project. (You can get all the entry details here)

The prize is $25,000 and a trip to Costa Rica but that isn’t what excited me the most. The top 10 finalists receive $1000 and the get to participate in a summer mentorship with a scientist where they will try to take the students idea into reality. I wish I could enter;).

I love the angle of this competition! It isn’t limited by the student’s current science knowledge but their imagination! And that is a big part of what science is but isn’t really taught in school. The goal of many scientists is to implement an idea that they had. You can start with a spark, then learn all the specific science and technology information to implement.

In this competition the research is done to see the scope of the problems and current attempted solutions that aren’t fully successful. They can focus on the need and holes in the current markets to find what is truly missing. Then come up with an idea. The finalists will have time with scientists to refine it and look at the more technical side.

This realization (dream it then learn to make it) is the reason apps and app development has sky rocketed but I don’t think people realize that the same model can be taken into a more hard science and mechanics world. I wish this was an aspect of science that was presented to students more! I thought you had to know all the science in a field before you could start innovating. Which also explains the boring nature of my childhood science fair projects;).

I also love that it isn’t tied to a school so it makes it easy for homeschoolers to enter;). But entries have to be in by April 22, 2014 so don’t wait!  And make sure you join us for #STEMchat on Twitter April 8 from 9 – 10 PM Eastern as we talk about How to Raise America’s Top Young Scientist!

(Disclosure: This is a sponsored post for the competition by Discovery Education 3M Young Scientist Challenge. But all opinions are mine! So go do some science!)

Holidays, Homeschooling, Homeschoooling

6 Pi Day Fun & Learning Resources

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PiDayResources

I love it when the silly holiday is a nerd holiday. And what gets nerdier than celebrating Pi Day? Of course we are going to be doing some Pi themed school and fun.

So you all can have a fun Pi day too here are great resources!

1. The official Pi Day site has all kinds of great information all about Pi!

2.The Exploratorium has a bunch of activities all working with Pi in simple and really fun ways! (Throwing toothpicks anyone?)

3. Math Goodies has a unit on Circles and Area (along with some other great things like crosswords)

4. A generic page out of the UK has a phenomenal history to Pi that is simple and easy to follow!

5. Did you know that there are Pi Day songs? Math Forum has some and while they are super corny they seem fun!

And last but not least…..


The Pi Episode of Math Bites with Danica McKellar! There is even a fabulous Sugar Pi Fairy song!

As Seen on TV, Educational, Homeschooling, Homeschoooling, tech

Finding Free Ebooks

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finding freee books

Ebooks are awesome! They are great ways to read on the go and to keep a lot of books at your fingertips. While they will never replace paper books, ebooks are becoming more and more common place. But did you know that there are many, many ebooks that are out there for free? Some are classics but some are quite new and even best sellers! You can find them too but it is all about where to look!

My favorite hub is BooksShouldBeFree.com! They don’t provide any ebooks themselves but link you straight to the sources for many! They also have audio books in addition! They show links to a lot of the big sites but not everything.

Another hub for many is your local library’s website! Here in Fresno the Fresno County Library’s page has tons of ebook resources! Our library (and many others) have free magazines through Zinio that download and are yours. There are also lending agreements with OverDrive, 3M Cloud Library, Bookflix and OneClickdigital. Many of the books provided through these services are a lot of bestsellers and popular books.

I also like going straight to Amazon! They have free collections and often have many sales. I am currently reading  Pinterest Savvy: How I Got 1 Million+ Followers (Strategies, Plans, and Tips to Grow Your Business with Pinterest) that I picked up when it was free!

We are also very fond of the Gutenberg Project! They really are the originator of the free ebook. It was the original place for all the copyright free material. BooksShouldBeFree links to them a lot!

So in this day of ebooks, do you currently read them? What is your favorite kind of book to read on a device?

 

 

As Seen on TV, Crafting, Homeschooling, Homeschoooling, Smart Living Strategies

Preschool and Kindergarten Valentine’s Day Crafts

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prekkvalentine's

Kids like crafts! And I like kids being busy with crafts;). Valentine’s Day is the perfect time for little kid crafts because they can help create some seasonal decor and use their crafts as gifts!

The first one is a super simple heart wreath!
To prep for the kids you can take cheap paper plates and cut the center out of them. I picked up a great heart punch and had my son punch a bunch of hearts out of 2 sheets of cardstock but I could have used old magazines too! Then just place glue all over the paper plate ring and let them go crazy arranging them!!! If you want to get fancy they can draw faces on the hearts first;).

The second one is a super cute butterfly!
Take toilet paper roll and cover it in a rectangle of colored paper by placing glue on both ends of one side and then roll the paper roll in it. Then glue 2 hearts on the back for wings. You can put a hole punch in the top of the toilet paper roll in between the wings. Then have them place a colored pipe cleaner in the hole for antennae! Then just add googly eyes and draw a face! You could write to & froms on the wings and make sweet little gifts!

These aren’t complicated but they are fun!

Homeschooling, Homeschoooling, STEM

Kids, Engineering, and DiscoverE

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DE_logo_Tag_Horizontal_ShineEngineers make the world go round! It sounds like a broad statement but I believe it is true. If we want to be competitive with the world as far as technology and innovation, we need more students to go into engineering in college. But engineering isn’t a single, isolated subject per se but a way of thinking and a ton of different fields! The challenge exists of how to introduce kids to engineering and the very many fields that encompasses! So I was really excited to hear about DiscoverE and what it is doing to introduced people to engineering!

With many kids the idea or concept of engineering as a field (or fields) much less the idea it is something for them, never crosses their mind. And even those kids who have some idea of engineering have no idea of the expanse of engineering. I was just talking to my 10 year old daughter today about engineering. She said that she didn’t want to be an engineer because she doesn’t really want to just program. Like that is her only engineering option! That is why hearing about the things that DiscoverE is doing  and the awesome activity ideas they have on their site is so exciting to me!!!

They have things like the Future City competition where middle school students create solutions to modern problems with city model (think Stark expo in Iron Man;). And to make it fully relevant they have a Facebook page tied to the competition!

elogoGIRLdVDiscoverE also sponsors Girl Day on February 20, 2014! While we don’t have enough students going into engineering overall, the amount of girls who going into engineering is abysmal! Girl Day is an opportunity to have events that are aimed at girls to show them what all engineering can be to them. And this is one of the few times they won’t have to swim through a sea of boys to experience it all! It kicks off with #GirlDay2014 #STEMchat on February 19 at 9 PM Eastern in honor of  Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day

DE_logo_Eweek_horizontalBut I have to say my favorite thing that DiscoverE is Engineers Week!! DiscoverE actually use to be the Engineers Week organization. This year Engineers Week is February 16-22, 2014. This holds a special place in my nerdy heart. It is Engineers Week activities that introduced me to the computers that would become my passion!

By high school I knew I didn’t want to go to law school and I loved math but I didn’t want to teach. So I was looking at engineering but the only form of engineering I was familiar with was civil engineering and that just didn’t grab me. I had friends whose parents were civil engineers and buildings was just not my passion. So I was contemplating politics or engineering and I went to the engineering open house at Fresno State  for Engineers Week. I saw the concrete canoe project and the solar car and they were cool. As I was standing outside looking at the solar car the Dean of Engineering (Dr. Shaw) came up to me and asked me what interested me. And we talked for a bit and I talked about how much I loved planes and he asked how much computer experience I had. Well, I had been exposed to computers but not really allowed to mess around on them much. He urged me to explore them and told me how integral computers are not only to life but also designing things, like planes. Seeing some of them at work convinced me and I never looked back!

I ended up at Fresno State majoring in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. I even did grant research for Dean Shaw 1 semester;).  I served in the Society of  Women Engineers and helped in 3 different years of Engineering at the Mall. I loved showing the kids what all engineering could be! We would have tin foil boat competitions and clay towers every year. They would see the mouse that was programmed to find its way through a maze. Sometimes they would even go for a ride in the solar car. It is a great event that can make kids see the endless possibilities of engineering, math and science.

While I never finished my degree I still love computers and engineering! And I can say, being exposed to what all engineering could be while I was in grade school has changed my life for ever.

So do your kids know what all engineering is or could be? Be honest, do you? Check out DiscoverE and their Facebook page. Check out the activities you can do with your kids and take your kids to some activities. Expose your kids and they may find their passion and their future!

(This post has been sponsored but trust me, these words and this passion is all mine)

carnivals, Homeschooling, Homeschoooling

Christmas Eve Edition of the Carnival of Homeschooling

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Carnival of Homeschooling It may be Christmas Eve but it is still Tuesday and Tuesdays are the Carnival of Homeschooling! I am blessed to be hosting this week and we have a few great blog posts. So lets jump right in!

Time for Learning reminds us that Nutrition is a Worthy Elective. So if you have been thinking about making some life changes this might fit right in!

Jeanine at Why Homeschool found her self a very interesting Homeschool Debate through debate.org.

To the Moon and Back talks about homeschooling When You’re Pregnant. I so remember those days!!

For the Display of His Splendor talks about why they started homeschooling.

Write Bonnie Rose wrote Creating Copywork 1-2-3 and that can be so timely!

Future.Flying.Saucers talks about the group with all are familiar with… the Homeschooling Gestapo!

Intoxicated on Life gives us 100+ Memory Tools for Homeschoolers! Maybe some of them will work for me too!

Consider me Krysten says Hello Traditional Thanksgiving, Good-bye Traditional School!

The Dyslexic Homeschooler has been making the most out of the season and learning with Measuring Snow Fun!

Healthy Homeschool Family talks about Christmas Memories! Isn’t that what all the dinners and fuss is kind of about?

As Christmas winds up Homemaking with Heart blogs about Methods, Goals and Structure for Planning Your Homeschool Year.

 

And that brings this week’s Carnival of Homeschooling! Next week will be hosted by Our Curious Home. Make sure you submit your pieces and here are all the details on how! Make sure to check out all these great articles and make sure to comment!!!

child rearing, Geeky, Homeschooling

How You Know You are Raising Whovians

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CaptainJack
I know that NerdFamilyDad and I are raising our children different than many people but it is shocking some times to see it come out;)! We aren’t trying to raise Whovians per se but it is great that they are!!! And so much fun seeing my kids viewing the world through geeky child eyes!

The final Jeopardy question was read by Alex: “The hero of this 1993 comedy says he’s “been stabbed, shot, poisoned, frozen, hung, electrocuted and burned””

The NerdPie yells out, “Captain Jack Harkness!”

Also my kids are sure that Christina Perri’s A Thousand Years is all about Rory Williams waiting for Amy Pond. They don’t even know what Twilight is much less that the song was on its soundtrack;).

I declaring a parenting win;).