I Need Your Help

What would you consider to be an essential homeschool book for the library? Maybe it is not an actual homeschool book, but something else. If your librarian asked you for a list of books that you would like as a homeschooler what books would be on your list?

Why do I ask? My librarian asked me yesterday after I asked for some updated books. My library is very homeschool friendly. They want homeschoolers to come in more and take advantage of them. Both the children's librarian and the head of the library are very homeschool friendly. When I have had ideas for classes or something along that line their only comment is when do you need me?

Please any suggestions would be great. Thank you.

Clip art courtesy of #1 Free Clip Art

things that make you go hmmm

Learning is not a spectator sport.
-- Anonymous

The secret of education is respecting the pupil.
Ralph Waldo Emerson

The true teacher defends his pupils against his own personal influences...
Amos Alcott

Never, never, never, never give up.
Winston Churchill

One must learn by doing the thing; for though you think you know it, you have no certainty, until you try.
Sophocles

We think too much about effective methods of teaching and not enough about effective methods of learning.
John Carolus S.J.

Once children learn how to learn, nothing is going to narrow their mind.The essence of teaching is to make learning contagious, To have one idea spark another.
Marva Collins

The whole art of teaching is only the art of awakening the natural curiosity of young minds for the purpose of satisfying it afterwards.
Anatole France

Learning is never done without errors and defeat.
Vladimir Lenin

The secret of education is respecting the pupil.
Ralph Waldo Emerson

It's okay to make mistakes. Mistakes are our teachers -- they help us to learn.
John Bradshaw

Homeschool Helps

I thought that I would pass along some helpful things for the planning of next year.

Typical Course of Study

Various Reading Lists:
BookSpot
Reading Lists
Children's Book Central
Hoagies' Gifted

Planners:
Homeschool Planners and Organizers
Homeschool Lesson Planner Forms
Homeschool Planner Links

ABC's of Me!

Since I am in planning mode, I thought that I would share a meme that I saw on Throwing Marshmallows.

A - Age: 34

B - Bed size: Queen

C - Chore you hate: Doing the dishes (no dishwasher) and the toilet.

D - Dog’s name: We do not have any dogs at the moment. Our last dogs were Little Boy & Cookie.

E - Essential start your day item: 30 minutes of reading and no noise.

F - Favorite color: blue

G - Gold or Silver: Gold

H - Height: 5’5”

I - Instruments you play: the radio

J - Job title: Mom, Fire fighter's wife & Founding Mom of local homeschool support group

K - Kid(s): Dragon - 11, Tracker(in 2 weeks) -10, Squirrel 7

L - Living arrangements: Single family home on the coast of South Carolina

M - Mom’s name: Linda

N - Nicknames: Toot(I use to go Toot Toot every time I saw the train on Soul Train)

O - Overnight hospital stay other than birth: I slept in my Dragon's bed when he had his tonsils taken out.

P - Pet Peeve: not putting the silverware in the drawer properly

Q - Quote from a movie: Carpe Diem

R - Right or left handed: Right

S - Siblings: 2 brothers & 2 sisters

T - Time you wake up: 6 am

U- Underwear: Boy shorts

V - Vegetable you dislike: beets

W - Ways you run late: waiting on the kids to find their shoes

X - X-rays you’ve had: Teeth, both wrists, both ankles, both knees, thumb, elbow, cat scan

Y - Yummy food you make: Pan seared black bean dumplings

Z - Favorite zoo animal: Panda

Under the Weather

My kiddos are loving life....mom has lost her voice. They have decided that they needed to share their germs. We spent the day at the doctor for Dragon(sinus infections) and Squirrel(ear infection) and Fire Rat(sinus infection). The good news is Mom does not have to cook as long as she is sick. Hmm, I might not get my voice back anytime soon.

Image courtesy of google images.

We are back....

We were all excited to go camping for the Fourth of July. We have always enjoyed going to Wilmington for the Battleship Blast. I is something that we look forward to all year long. When we arrived at the campground, we were very disappointed that they did not have a site quite big enough for our cabin tent. Before I made the reservation, I called and specifically asked if they had a site big enough for us. They said that they did, but they didn't. We ended up finding a spot that was ok. The main problem was the bugs. They were horrible. I understand that when you go camping that you have to put up with bugs, but these bugs were something else. We had to reapply bug spray every hour. You could not put any food down without at least 10 flies landing on it. We ended up spending the entire first night in our tent. The next day we spent the morning playing in the pool. We went to downtown Wilmington after having pb&js for lunch. We spent part of the day walking around all the stores. We ate at the most amazing place.. Front Street Brewery! It was $25 for a family of 5 to eat dinner. It was the best shrimp that I have ever tasted. The fireworks display was spectacular. I would have to say that it was the perfect end to the day.

I just had to try...

Last night I was reading Deep Space Sparkle and I just had to try her Line Drawing Part I: Turtles. I had so much fun. I cannot wait to do it with the children. I just tried to do the fish in her next section, but my paper was too small. I will have to wait until I get a bigger piece of paper. I am going to take her advice and have many examples of different patterns on the board before doing this with the children.

It's Official

The 2008-2009 school year is complete. The paperwork has been signed and is ready to be mailed.

Now to plan 2009-2010.