Notebooking Pages 7th Birthday Sale-a-Bration

Notebooking Pages is at it again! Look at all the great things happening now until the end of May! You don’t want to miss out!

Become a Notebooking Pages LIFETIME Member during their NotebookingPages.com 7th Birthday Sale-a-Bration Event:

May 8th – May 31st:

• Save $25 on Notebooking Pages LIFETIME Membership (two-payment plan available)
  ...one time payment of $74.95 or two monthly payments ($50.00/$24.95).

• New members receive up to 2 Years FREE Access to The Notebooking Publisher^(TM) notebooking (& copywork) web-application
  … the sooner you purchase, the more free access time you receive.
• All LIFETIME members (new and current) will receive a $100 Bonus E-Gift Homeschool Package from our participating NotebookingPages.com Sponsors
  …to be delivered to their Member Download Center by May 31st.
• All LIFETIME members (new and current) may enter a prize drawing for:
  *an iPad mini (1 winner)
  *$100 Amazon.com Gift Card (2 winners)
  *LIFETIME access to The Notebooking Publisher^(TM) (3 winners)
  *LIFETIME membership to MomsToolBelt.com (5 winners)
  …details for the drawing will be found in their Member Download Center.
• New (& improved) features of The Notebooking Publisher^(TM) web-app
  *Copywork feature … create your own custom copywork pages (print/cursive, regular/primary).
  *Ability to create templates -and- save your work-in-progress to the web.
  *Ability to edit selected portions of text within a text frame.
  *Separate user accounts for mom and kids … password protection coming very soon.
  …new demo videos will be added to the site each week of the sale.

Slideshow Overview of our new Charlotte Mason Audio Seminar Set

Have you ever wanted to learn more about Charlotte Mason methods and how to use them in a practical manner in your homeschool? Have you been attracted to the idea of unit studies, but don’t know how to get started planning your own unit study around a topic of your choosing? Do you like the idea of following a unit study, but wish to combine Charlotte Mason methods like using “living books”, “narration”, “dictation”, and “copywork”? This training will help you accomplish all of this!

Here’s what you get in the Audio Seminar Set! 3 Workshops in 1!

• 10 MP3 Audio files (approximately 30 minutes each)
• Handouts and Notes to accompany each workshop session
• Sample and Blank Unit Study Brainstorming sheets, Subject Area and Goal Planning sheets, and Lesson Planning forms
• Powerpoint slide shows to accompany workshop sessions to highlight the main points discussed in each session.

Take a look at our Slideshow overview of our new Audio Seminar set!

You Can Make Your Own Unit Study Using Charlotte Mason Methods Course Overview Session 1

You can make your purchase at Currclick here: You Can Make Your Own Unit Study Using Charlotte Mason Methods Audio Seminar Workshop Set

Our New Audio Seminar Set – Making Your Own Unit Study using Charlotte Mason Methods

We’ve just completed a full audio workshop with detailed steps in making your own unit study using Charlotte Mason methods! It’s like having 3 workshops in 1!

You Can Make Your Own Unit Study Using Charlotte Mason Methods Audio Seminar Workshop Set on sale at Currclick!

 

Have you ever wanted to learn more about Charlotte Mason methods and how to use them in a practical manner in your homeschool? Have you been attracted to the idea of unit studies, but don’t know how to get started planning your own unit study around a topic of your choosing? Do you like the idea of following a unit study, but wish to combine Charlotte Mason methods like using “living books”, “narration”, “dictation”, and “copywork”? This training will help you accomplish all of this!

Here’s what you get in the Audio Seminar Set!

• 10 MP3 Audio files (approximately 30 minutes each)
• Handouts and Notes to accompany each workshop session
• Sample and Blank Unit Study Brainstorming sheets, Subject Area and Goal Planning sheets, and Lesson Planning forms
• Powerpoint slide shows to accompany workshop sessions to highlight the main points discussed in each session.

Here is what you will be learning and doing during this comprehensive seminar -

I.   Introduction to Your Course – You Can Make Your Own Unit Study Using Charlotte Mason Methods – Session 1

II. What is the Charlotte Mason Method Part 1 – Session 2
An overview of Charlotte Mason and her philosophy and methods inluding using “living books”.

III. What is the Charlotte Mason Method Part 2 – Session 3
Using narration, copywork, and dictation.

IV. What is the Charlotte Mason Method Part 3 – Session 4
Handwriting, grammar study, lessons and habit training, history, and nature studies.

V. What is the Charlotte Mason Method Part 4 – Session 5
Poetry, Bible, Shakespeare and Plutarch, foreign Language, mathematics, music, art, and handicrafts.

VI.What is a Unit Study – Session 6
Overview of what constitutes a unit study, benefits of a unit study, different foundations for a unit study on which to build.

VII.Brainstorming a Unit Study Using Charlotte Mason Methods Part 1 – Session 7
Beginning the process of unit study planning and brainstorming.

VIII.Brainstorming A Unit Study Using Charlotte Mason Methods Part 2 – Session 8
Brainstorming Sheet and Subject Area Planning Sheets for a sample step by step unit study.

IX.Brainstorming A Unit Study Using Charlotte Mason Methods Part 3 – Session 9
Brainstorming Sheet and Subject Area Planning Sheets for sample unit study continued.

X. Lesson Planning and Unit Study Culmination Activity Ideas – Session 10
Taking the goal planning sheets and filling out a lesson planning sheet to develop loose lesson plans to follow. Unit Study Culmination Ideas – Fun ideas to tie
all of your information learned and projects from the unit study together and ways to share this with others.

All of these sessions include discussion of resources for more information and helpful ideas, and practical ideas to use in your own homeschool for an effective education and fun for everyone!

Purchase your set now at Currclick for $29.95! You won’t find this much information and helpful guidance and forms for this price anywhere!

You Can Make Your Own Unit Study Using Charlotte Mason Methods Audio Seminar Workshop Set

Free Geography Notebooking Pages, Coupon, and a Giveaway

Debbie at Notebooking Pages has a new freebie and I encourage you all to take a look at it. I have purchased and have repeatedly used her geography sets for the United States and the Countries around the World as well as pages for state birds, flowers, etc. They are so well done, extremely useful, and right now – a great bargain!

Take a look at what Debbie is offering at the moment:

Notebooking with Geography – Free Country Outline Maps

Sign up for her Free Notebooking Resources and receive a free country outline map from each of our Country & Province Study Notebooking Pages sets. Over 60 maps so far!

Notebooking with Geography – 50% Coupon

View ALL Geography Notebooking Sets

Check out her NEW
[BUNDLED] Country Study Notebooking Pages … just $14.98 with coupon!!!

ALL sets below 50% off with your coupon!

Everything from the 13 Colonies to individual and bundled states to individual and bundled countries to contintents to national parks and monuments to state birds etc, from $2.95-$29.95.

Also a big giveaway:

We have a variety of ways to enter this week’s giveaway drawing and (3) prizes to give away.

Drawing ends this Friday, March 15, 2013.

Enter below!

Prize #1 Value=$124.95	Prize #2 Value=$84.90	Prize #3 Value=$84.90
Winners may alternatively “gift” these prizes to a friend. So check out all of this great stuff now at Notebooking Pages!

Thanksgiving Studies and Activity Ideas

Thanksgiving is one week away. Are you planning any special studies leading up to Thanksgiving or special activities to keep your children occupied while getting the house ready for guests? What about some special activities to make memories together the day of Thanksgiving, maybe ones that include members of your whole family and guests spending this special with you?

We have a special ABC book that your children can create by writing something about Thanksgiving that starts with each letter of the alphabet with different pages to choose from for each letter of the alphabet. It also includes some websites with resources to help you get your creative juices soaring! See our side bar on the right for our special Make Your Own ABC Book About … Thanksgiving.

Also, I thought I’d share some ideas to get you and your family started.

Craft Ideas -

http://www.amazingmoms.com/holidays-seasons/thanksgiving/thanksgiving-crafts/

http://spoonful.com/thanksgiving/thanksgiving-craft-decorations

http://holidays.kaboose.com/thanksgiving/

http://www.dltk-holidays.com/thanksgiving/index.html

http://suite101.com/article/childrens-thanksgiving-activities-a35063

http://www.tipjunkie.com/holiday-crafts/thanksgiving-for-kids/

http://www.tipjunkie.com/holiday-crafts/thanksgiving-day-activities/

Learning Websites

http://www.scholastic.com/scholastic_thanksgiving/

http://www.plimoth.org/learn/

http://webtech.kennesaw.edu/jcheek3/thanksgiving.htm

http://www.cumbavac.org/Thanksgiving.htm

Movies

http://www.history.com/topics/thanksgiving

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wFDSobNnfQs The First Thanksgiving

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c2iv7QufAn0&feature=related A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2lJ70k-P4rw&feature=related This is America, Charlie Brown, The Mayflower Voyagers Part I

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KryDna7I990&feature=relmfu This is America, Charlie Brown, The Mayflower Voyagers Part II

Hope you enjoy! Have a blessed Thanksgiving!

Two Homeschooling Articles with History and Perspective

I’ve just finished reading two interesting articles about the history and philosophical perspectives on homeschooling I thought I’d share with you. One is from the National Review http://www.nationalreview.com/blogs/print/328699  entitled “The Last Radicals” and the other is from a website – “The Market Oracle” based in the UK http://www.marketoracle.co.uk/Article37073.html entitled “Homeschooling, The Most Radical Social Movement in America, Terrifies the Establishment“.

I found some new interesting tidbits and perspectives behind the history of homeschooling that I had never read before. And being the homeschooling proponent that I am, I enjoyed reading the philosophical perspective as well, in not allowing my child to be the guinea pig in the classroom to help elevate the rest of the class to a higher level. I have discussed this viewpoint many times and try to avoid feeling guilty with that thought. But my obligations and loyalty are first to my child, not the public education system or other people’s children or for the good of our society and economy. Been there, tried that, even was part of it as a teacher, but now over it. After I am done homeschooling our children, I’ll probably volunteer at the local school and offer my assistance tutoring or wherever they may need some extra assistance. Not to assuade any feelings of guilt or obligation, but I do want to see the public education system do better and I want all children to have the opportunity to succeed and receive a good education. And, I know that won’t happen through the efforts of some volunteers. We need to radically change the system and get rid of unions that protect teachers’ jobs despite poor teacher performance (I’m a former teacher saying this who went into corporate America where I had to have quarterly reviews on job performance where my job retention and pay were contingent upon my results).

The system where the money follows the child and the child/parent has the choice of schools promotes competition among the schools, administrators, and teachers if they want to remain “in business” and “keep their jobs.” Good teachers would having nothing to fear from this system. It’s the ones only looking for the job security and pension biding their time within the system that should fear this idea. Of course, teachers’ job performance cannot totally be directly tied to the student standardized test performance, because a teacher can only accomplish so much with children in the classroom. The child’s effort and willingness to learn as well as parent participation and cooperation play a big role in the child’s success and the teacher does not have direct control over these things. There used to be an evaluation instrument that an administrator was required to carry into each classroom at least twice per year and observe and evaluate specific teaching behaviors and techniques. These evaluations were then presented to each teacher at the end of the year by the administrator. I don’t know if these evaluations are even done any more and they are pointless if the administrator’s hands are tied and he/she cannot use them to influence the teacher’s pay or retention at the school. Pay raises are automatically added each year to a teacher’s paycheck based on the teacher being employed another year. Yes, something has to change before our education system will be fixed. And in the meantime, parents are taking the matter into their own hands because the government is having a hard time coming up with a solution and one that will bring quantifiable and timely effects.

Enjoy the articles and happy homeschooling!

Discount and Review of Inclusive Math Program – Mathletics

http://www.mathletics.com/

This is the third and final installment of a series of posts I have been writing about Mathletics.com. This post centers around the curriculum portion of the website and many features it offers. I have also included a discount just for my readers that Mathletics has allowed me to share with you for reviewing their site.

Other than the “Live Mathletics” I have already discussed with its timed online live races for computation practice, Mathletics offers a whole lot more for your math instruction and practice of math concepts.

The first time your child signs into his account, he can create an avatar with different facial features and some accessories. After that, the “Student Centre” appears from which he can choose to play within the “Live Mathletics” or he “search for a concept” to practice or click on a choice from a list of items including “activities”, problem solving”, or “ebooks”.

If he chooses activities, he can select from a list of concepts that appear that are geared to the math level you select when you register your child (you can change this up to 6 times during your subscription to the site). Within the list of concepts are skills that relate to the chosen concept. (There are “easier” and “harder” buttons your child can click on when looking at the skills listed within each concept.) Your student clicks on the skill he wishes to practice. A screen appears with a practice problem for you child to solve and submit his answer. If he has a question as to how to solve the problem, he can click on the question mark and a series of instruction screens appear to show step by step directions in solving that type of problem. Your child can click on options for “easier”, “medium”, or “harder” types of problems for this instruction. Once the instruction is over, he can go back to the practice problems and complete them. Feedback on his answers is immediate and he can always access the question mark if he feels the need to watch how to do the problems again. Once your child feels he has mastered that skill, he can take a test on that particular skill.

I think this is a great feature! You can use these problems for practice or if your child needs instruction about that skill. Your child also receives points depending on his score to add to the total number of points he earns for his avatar with which he can purchase items to accessorize. Everytime your child has mastered an activity with a specific score, he earns a gold bar toward completing the entire course. These points also accumulate to earn certain titles and certificates. The graphics to show points earned and gold bar status are on the main student centre screen and are very appealing to children. Up to certain grade levels, a game is unlocked to play for every gold bar earned.

Other features of the student center include the “problem solving” concepts that your child can select. These type of problems include practice with word problems, tables and charts, and practice with numbers, data, and tables. They all containing entertaining graphics to capture your child’s interest.

The other feature available is the “ebooks” option.  Here, you can download practice worksheet workbooks for each concept for additional practice.

Other activity options available to Kindergarten through 6/7th grade levels include “Times Table Toons” with songs about the times tables and “Rainforest Maths” that include activities for practice with general mathematical concepts. These both include interesting and entertaining graphics to keep your child involved.

A separate section, available with a separate parent login, is the Parent Centre where there is a Parent Toolkit, Instant Workbook, or Child Account Information option that the parent can view.

The Parent Toolkit is akin to a table of contents, which allows the parent to navigate multiple areas of the site. For instance, the toolkit connects to activity guides for all of the activities on the site, a dictionary connecting the parent to the terms found in the concept search, and includes access to the EBooks, and educational videos (toons times tables).

The Instant Workbook contains workbooks that are the same as the E-books which the student sees in their Student Center, except that instead of only having a few books, this section includes all of the workbooks for K-12 with answers.

The Student Account Information includes the following: a weekly report with points earned from the “live mathletics” and from the curriculum activities your child completes, any certificates earned, Student Centre access, and a “check up” section where the parent can look at analysis of student strength and weaknesses on the skill sets in the curriculum activities and accuracy and answer information from the “live mathletics” activity.

The site supplies you with a document on how to navigate and use the site effectively. We are using this program for the timed computation practive with the “live mathletics” portion and using the curriculum portion as a supplement to our regular math curriculum for extra instruction and practice.

At the discount price for a year’s subscription, I really feel it is a bargain with all that this site offers!

Here’s the discount code just for my readers – Home2012 – to be entered into the shopping cart at the time of purchase. This discount for the purchase price of $49 is only available until the end of October! So grab it while you can! Tell them Katie from Katie’s Homeschool Cottage sent you!

http://www.mathletics.com/

 

The American Math Challenge

Mathletics.com is hosting The American Math Challenge October 16 and 17 for free to anyone who would like to participate. What is the American Math Challenge? It is a two day online mathematics competition. Day 1 on October 16 will present challenges of 50 different math concepts to be completed online. Day 2 on October 17 will present challenges using mental mathematical skills to complete 100 live mathematical challenges.

Children from across the nation will compete against another to have fun, shoot for the top scores, and win prizes!

This competition is the warm up for the competition on World Maths Day!

Registration is now open to register to participate in the American Math Challenge and the American Math Challenge website opens to all registered participants on October 8th, so that they may practice and become familiar with the concepts and using the online format.

Click here to register your child to participate and find additional information http://www.mathletics.com/americanmathchallenge/.

See you online! I’m looking forward to it, and I won’t even be competing!

Combining Unit Studies with Charlotte Mason Methods

Does your family enjoy using unit studies where you try to include most academic subject areas centered around one topic? Do you wish to include some of those neat ideas you hear about like “living books”, “narration”, “dictation”, “copywork”, or “notebooking”?

Combining these two teaching and learning styles can be easy! You want to start by choosing what topic you will focus on in your studies. Will it be a book you all have been reading together? A person from history or a historical period or event? What about a topic in science or a value you wish to instill in your home?

Or, you can take a different kind of approach and choose an interest of one or more of your children and follow that interest through history. For example, the history of dogs or horses. When in history do we seen mention of horses or dogs as a part of a specific culture? Were they looked at as contributing something important to the culture? How did the horse or dog continue to contribute something to that particular culture, other cultures, and other periods in history?

Once you’ve picked the central topic of your study, you’ll want to list what academic areas and the skills and concepts that can be covered in those academic areas. If it’s a piece of literature, what subject areas are covered in the book? Is it a story that includes a famous person or historical period, or geographical area that you can study along side the literary elements in the story? Does it include any scientific or mathematical concepts that can be researched?

If your family is crazy about history, it will be easy to pick a time period you all enjoy and tie in everything that was happening at that time including science, math, literature, art and culture, and the geography.

After you’ve listed what subtopics from different academic areas you want to include in your study, you can decide what “living books” you want to read for your narration (oral and written), dictation, and copywork. From there, you can decide what notebooking pages you want to complete when completing your written narration.

There are other methods that Charlotte Mason used in her teaching that you can incorporate as well. For instance, your children can make what she referred to as a “Book of Centuries”, a timeline of sorts in a notebook. Art, music, and handicraft studies can also be tied into your unit study topic, especially when focusing on a historical period.

This is just the beginning in including Charlotte Mason methods in a unit study, because there are many other aspects to using Charlotte Mason’s methods. But this is a good start!

Katie’s Homeschool Cottage has published a new audio seminar set with ten workshop sessions to bring you through the process of developing your own unit study, step by step, using an example topic to follow and examples of unit study planning forms you can use when developing your own unit study! It can be found at here at Currclick at http://www.currclick.com/product/73286/Audio-Workshop-Set%3A-You-Can-Make-Your-Own-Unit-Study-Using-Charlotte-Mason-Metho

To view a slide show and learn more detailed information about the contents of our audio workshop set visit Katie’s Homeschool Cottage at http://charlottemasonhomeschooling.wordpress.com/2012/09/16/slideshow-overview-of-our-new-charlotte-mason-audio-seminar-set/. For a detailed outline of all of the workshop sessions visit http://charlottemasonhomeschooling.wordpress.com/2012/08/04/our-new-audio-seminar-set-making-your-own-unit-study-using-charlotte-mason-methods/.

We hope that this workshop will help all those families who would like to combine the use of a unit study with Charlotte Mason’s methods.