I don't have all of them, or prolly even enough to keep this batch alive, but I found a cool kid friendly site with all sorts of information about worms and worm binds

worm fun

Along with cool games there is the 'how to'

how to

Course it suggests screens to keep the worms in...which we don't have...and I so am not letting them in the house!

And there is a cool part by part picto-screen-thing, with all sorts of technical words...clitellum

I have high hopes the screens are not that necessary....

I am a teacher, so my skills are not getting rusty sitting here at home! In fact my skills are being honed as each child calls for different teaching methods, and my google search skills are getting awesome as I hunt up free rescources!

See one more financial reason to home school . For non teachers I bet you use many skills teaching that you would in the workforce ...heh and if I expand on that, I have a 'how to topic'.....

And the other reason, isn't very financial, sorry. It came to me from my pastor as he was holding a class to help parents decide when communion should begin for their own children and how to teach just what it is (not that he or anyone I know had all the answers about that amazing gift) If you take out the 'faith like' words, and change them to education words you have why we home school, we live a life of learning, not outsourcing solely to professionals, though we do seek them out when needed)

I got permission to quote my Pastor here, though I can't recall his exact wording in class, so he kindly rewrote it:

For the last 50 years or so, we have been outsourcing large portions of our lives to “the professionals.” We have taken responsibility and expectation away parents and grandparents and put it in the hands of someone else. Scholastic tutors, tax preparers, oil change shops, coaches, pre-schools, after-school care programs, etc. Even matters of faith have, over time, become things that are handled by “the professionals” at the local church. Need to hear about Jesus? Go and listen to the pastor or Sunday School teacher (but not mom or dad). Want to know what “we” believe? Ask your Confirmation teacher or, again, the pastor (but not your parents or grandparents) and they’ll fill you in.
Our congregation and many others are working to swing the pendulum back the other direction, where families and congregations share a partnership that brings faith home where it can grow amongst the most important relationships in our life. Grace, love, compassion, faithfulness are all learned about and preached about on Sundays, but if they are not live about throughout the week, we’re all heading down a dead end street. Churches can and should empower parents to be faithful parents, passing along the faith to the next generations in the context of life. You shouldn’t have to step outside of your normal life to have a ‘faith experience.’ We know that when faith is a part of life within the home and family, it becomes a deeper and richer thing.

If you want faithful children, you have to have faithful adults to guide them. Since parents don’t have ‘the skills’ or the confidence to do ‘church stuff’ at home, we need to give them both permission and the education to do so well and faithfully. Faith in God is a matter of relationship – what better place to strengthen that faith than within the relationships of the family, supported and enriched by the relationships we share as the family of God?

I don't want to take away from my Pastors original message, I do believe that a strong faith is better supported when taught by family in family settings (with some church experts when needed) but I ALSO believe a strong life of education is better supported when taught by family in family settings (with some professional support as needed).

So since I don't know how we are financially, I am hunting up worksheets again, I found two useful sites

tlsbooks.com with many pages levels ranging from pre to 5, with most being a bit easy for end year students, but nice for mid or early. (and for late move up a level .)

and tutorial.com with several for each level pre-6 only trouble is th3ey don't fit all on one page without heavy editing.

Now all I have to do is solve my 'low ink' problem (and as you can see I got my printer back .)

Somehow it seems Ironic to me that the month of love is also the month to celebrate presidents, but then I am libertarian.

Regardless I got some stuff for

DimeEd.com I also figured out my problem. I write what I am doing, and I am doing more medical, than educational. It still results in learning for my children, just not to much useful to share.

Check it out if you like games:
post on February (there are many for adults all they way down to toddlers, plus some information if you want it.)

Well not really, but I did decide to splurge yesterday and we all went to the discovery place.

We have a membership so the only cost was food.

While we were there at the end of the day we watched them set up some tables. They do this everynight or at least everynight we are there, so I sent my husband to ask what was up. He discovered a members only event. Did I mention we were members? So we stayed, and got to eat free, candy cookies and icecream, watch them destroy peeps via liquid nitrogen, a vacum, and somehow blow one up..I missed the explination, but I was there for the fire .

Then we got a first look at the new exhibit. All kinds of cool info on sugar (it is in concrete!) and taste buds (loved JC's face when the grape jelly bean turned to strawberry as she stopped holding her nose!)

There was more but we had to leave, it was past the kids bedtime, we rarely do that at all, but oh it was a great day.

total cost....16$ for dinner for 5 of us, plus the gas to drive there, not to shabby for a very full day

On a side note today we went grocery shopping and we are under budget to close out the month, and the rest of the loot burning a hole in my pocket I will call the car company today...if they arn't there i will call Monday to get it to them. applied to principle, not prepayment!

I love the fact that my kids think of each other.

Yesterday my son went to the music thing at church, they had a mini party to celebrate the end of the year, their was a present pile. My son chose a bouncy ball and a mini maze. He chose the ball for himself, and then he chose the maze because his sister had one and it broke, he got her a new one, with his present he chose one for her..that is soooo adorable!

Then today while we were coloring he found one of the scrap papers that had a picture of a picnic basket on it complete with utensils for a meal, he immediatly told me that JC would like it....I asked if he thought he could find something for his daddy, he pulled up a case of money . Then I asked the tough one, something for UE, he found several things UE would like, but we owned them or a version of them already!

I decided to ask if my daughter could do the same, and thought it was an adorable learning experience, and any good grandparent/parent would love a 'gift' from a child, even if it wasn't real, the thought from a heart of a child was there..and cute!

Oh yeah and my 'writing challenged' son, GMC, had to make thank you notes today..he wrote out the whole thing, not just 'thank you' but 'Thank you for the new game' without me asking him to! I love when they show you they mastered a skill (at /ew/ in new he asked "is that 'oo' or 'ew' or 'ui'"? and I thought he would never spell!

I was reading up on education today:

anti system

rather harsh view..though I do not agree everything, I feel this kind of reading is very important.

underacheivement
sad but humerous in a ironic way.....prolly not meant as funny as it comes off...

So, they ask you at Christmas time whether your grades are going to be better this term. What are you supposed to say? If you say "No, Mom, actually, they're about the same as usual,"
heh...honesty is so not encouraged in youth of public schools!

real learning

Children have very little need for all of the forced memorization and rote learning of traditional schooling, and so our journey is about learning what we actually need to know . . . and memorizing those things which prove necessary or entertaining.

actually need to know...I keep comming back to that.....

essay on swings

so there you have a day in the websearch of me (blogs used to be just that..lists of websites to go to..so here is mine)

"I didn't teach my 2.5 year old to read, I spent 2.5 years teaching my kid to read...."

No I didn't drill either kid daily, I simply included all sorts of reading useful information for 2.5 years...when they were ready they put all the information together and tried to read..then they tried again..and again..and one day..it clicked..both my older two were about 2.5 when it clicked, and I get asked about both at various times 'how did you teach your child to read so young.."

I didn't, like I said, I spent 2.5 years teaching them!"

But while I look at my finances did it really take 20 some years for me to learn how to balance a checkbook? Err no, I havn't really done much on checkbooks with my kids, and while I do remember some lessons on checks/budgets with my mother (I was mostly homeschooled) I honestly had to try it to learn it, so it took me 10ish years to learn..Ok that is still a bit long, but hey sounds better than 20 something!

Looking at the numbers I want to make sure start some finance lessons with my kids now..so that they can take 10 years to learn and yet still be in their teens when they get it straightened out. (BTW national average age of the finance savvy is much older than 20 something, so moms checkbook lessons helped cut my curve down, I just hope more lessons will help even more)

I mostly do what I want, but I don't seem to have time for all I want..maybe I want to much. If it were money I would say really you can't have it all...and if you did, you wouldn't appriciate it.

in the morning I want to make 'real' breakfast and eat it with the kids, I want to

figure out the day with them I want to keep the bathroom clean (though flylady's idea of 2 minutes is a far cry form a bathroom with 5, one of whom is a boy who still has lousy aim! but still 15 minutes usually suffices)

I want a made bed (or 4) I want clean floors and clean dishes, and clean laundry.

I also want to do crafts and games.

I want to read with them, I want to read to them. I want to play on the computer with them.

I want to bake, and cook a healthy dinner (lunch was leftovers, I have my limits ont he amoutn of cooking I want to do .)

I want to take walks with them and I want to play more games with them.

I fit all those wants in, yet I still complain about wanting to do more..really every day is pretty full. but so long as I can squeeze out my 'complaining' time, I can fit an awful lot of wants in my day......now I shou;d stop complaining and go study flash

speaking of flash, I found a boook, and I made a button that works

You have to be able to retrieve it...if anyone is to find a website of information useful it has to be searchable and organized, even if the main headings are just simple enough to search by hand, there has to be some way to find what you are looking for. And it has to be in a format you are most confortable with.

Like shopping, many people find that online shopping is easier..I don't, I hate most of the search engines, though I have been able to adapt to some.

Or take investing, I cannot for the life of me get into investing information, I am sure many of the good websites people recomend are great, and maybe even have good search abilities, but I have no basis for starting, for understanding you have to start somewhere....

That is the problem with

DimeEd.com, aside from dumping some cool printables I am trying to answer the questions people ask me. I am by no means an expert in education, I do know a good deal, I have a good bit of experience, and I have a natural talent, while this still leaves me gropping around to find lots of answers, I have already answered others, and I am lazy....I don't want to keep doing it .

So, why can't I organize my site nicely, and why can't I find a common ground for all the questions......dunno, guess organizing information is not my talent...

I am hungover....and your tax dollars paid for me to get this way!

Think of it, for free they hand over this drug to anyone who signs their name! And you can do it over and over again!

Rediculous!

I had been doing so good, been dry for almost 3 weeks, then this hits.

It started as a perfectly normal day, but after dinner we headed out together as a family. GMC found a dozen he wanted, JC found another half dozen, I grabbed a couple 'for the kids' and UE got a couple So far so good, none for me.

Then it happened..I peeked over the nearest shelf... the other side was Sci-fi, so close......right there, only one small shelf of scifi, but oh what a shelf!

Of course you know I succombed and grabbed a book. And of course you know I gave in and read the book all night.....and of course I am paying for it today.....

I try so hard to be good and stay on the wagon, but oh what a pleasure to sink into the world of elves, and faries, and mystery, and adventure!

The worst part is this particualar book uses hystory! now I HAVE to go find out if Henry the VIII had a son Harry, and just how he died....Sadly my memory of history is failing, I do know Anne Bolyn was beheaded..I think for adultry, but Cathrines ties to Rome are iffy, plus the Spanish threat..wonder if he had a son and if said son had a couple threats on his life recorded......

Honestly I know more of history from fiction than from the history I was supposed to memorize!

GRR! I have to go do something useful..not search out English history!

How can you write a tutorial about making a button but leave out the imporant fact that buttons must be enabled in order to test them!!!!

I think I finally learned how to make one! I have been at this way to long though, but at least the sample one will go jump to frame 15. It is a start!

I sent an update regardig the website, I was stuck on sending a mass email, I set up the group, added the members requesting updates, and then..nothing I couldn't find a button to email them all..and each night I said I would ask my husband who has used the php thing before, and each night I forgot (gonna blame it on my lousy sleeper UE)

Finally tonight I remembered to ask, it is a big blatant button on the main admin page, DUH!

I wonder if I had just kept looking would I have found it last week myself? Instead of waiting for someone else to fix it for me.....

I recieved an email from someone interested in stories regarding how children learn to read.

link to full email

After seeing my two daughters learn to read in dramatically different ways, I have been intrigued by the question of how homeschooling children learn to read. I am feeling led to research how other homeschooling children are learning to read by non-traditional means. I am not sure exactly where my research will lead. At this time, I am just collecting stories from homeschooling parents. .........


Lessee, I know contrary1 did some, and luxliving, not sure of the names of who else though, so rather than miss anyone, I figured I would just post it here.

'course thats cause I am a lousy writer...ever notice I am also always down on myself?

Anyway very interesting post from a wonderful writer (she knits too .)

"I am angry. The government has just intruded itself upon my notice again, with threats of taking more of my family’s hard-earned living, of taking away even more private property rights, and sucking into its vortex hours and hours of my precious time as it does so.....................................
Decades have gone by, the same tunes are being played now as always. The average citizen on the street knows, instinctively, that it’s bad to give a junkie more of the drug he craves. Why, then, don’t the adults far older than I (and that bear more sway in the system than I) seem to have the least idea that continuing to pour money into the school system is a lousy idea?".............

read more of her thoughts

here

I haven't read 'teach your own' but I have read other John Holt books, I highly recomend his work.

I made a bird! I got the idea that an online flash 'how to draw' would be cool. I have some paper versions that the kids love to follow and I thought a computer would make it real simple....I thought wrong!

Here is what I made after well, really not to terribly long:



But the trouble is..it isn't worth copying! Who would want to learn to draw that! Ah well. I think I have an idea how to break it down into steps, but I need an actual artist to draw the bird..not me!

And yes, all that was me avoiding buttons, I still can't get them to work, so I keep assuaging (is that the word?) my ego by learning something else.

When I debated about what to do with my kid information, I debated doing a blog, after all I do teach everyday..but I hate blogger, and I have no idea how to do myown, so I thought about putting it here, but..this is a finance site, about finances, whihc is cool I need htat to help keep me motivated.

And as far as teaching goes, it is a whole lot of NOT spending! I can't remember the last time I spent a single dime on teaching....Oh sure we go places (local science center) but we went there for fun, not my fault they learned stuff!

So while I have a topic here for frugal home ducation, it is rather full of notes, and err brags ...cause the money spent is nil, and I like it that way. I don't even think of it as in 'I saved X by doing it my way' it is automatic. I hope someday I will find cooking a bit more automatically frugal, and maybe even more of my entertainment.

So I am now set on a website.

Thanks to all who offered ideas .

Now I remember...it isn't that easy to get a website set up! Links that don't work, frames that drift, text that is corked...it ain't that easy..

remind me to tell Nate and Jeffrey what a great job they are doing

I have signs in my house saying 'you are a failure' I have lots of them!

I have one in the kids room, it is a stack of books that the kids took out of the bookcase, not one or two but, like ALL of them (and as a recovering bookaholic, that makes for a lot of books)

This morning as I dreaded trying to resolve some problems and turn some signs around I discovered my two kids sitting..with books....reading..or rather looking anyway (GMC can read, but JC cannot)

It seems those signs that said 'failure' to me said 'common over and check me out' to the kids...maybe I should get my eyes checked...

I decided that I wanted to have an issue out Friday night, DH needs the computer Saturday and it was tough fighting him for it last week. (I wanted to take a copy to show some friends at church) so this week here it is already.

I was able to put more work into it (less work debating on weather I wanted to do it or not!) and i managed to get my printer to print black and white copy! I may have to change the whole thing to black and white, but for now I like color. It isn't like I am paying for it color or black and white it is free to put it on a pdf!


front page for you

unfortunatly turning a pdf into a jpg is beyond me, so I did screen shots and my editing skills are lacking, so that takes almost as loing as making the origional work!

And I can't get the pdf to upload, so if you want a full copy email me at something.educational@gmail.com

I created it just for this, cause I figure a blog is a unsafe place to put an email! dunno how else to offer it to you though....

Kimmie gave us

this link and I think JC would love them..I do not teach sight reading as a rule, but she would rather be a sight reader..so finding books that are mainly phonetic but have lots of simple repeating words can get tricky.

I decided not to let myself perfect the first issue. I just sort of wanted it done so I could share it..but then I discovered my printer wasn't going to print anything..

Oh well, I threw it on a pdf and am trying to put it here so you all can see it if you want. I figure I will put the next ideas into another issue (hopefully a more refined one) but at least I get to say I did one.

Don't expect too much... I enjoyed putting it together, but I am by no means a proffessional!

You can

click here to download the pdf and print it yourself if you like (I will work on printing to mail later)

or I tried to make em pictures for here...we shall see how well that goes.

page one or the cover


inside spread. or page two and three


back page or page 4

I have lots of other things I want to do for a different issue..hopefully a but less last minute..

I needed some this site seemed free, I might use more later

http://www.theteacherspot.com/school_clipart1.htm

Anywhere from 4$ a copy to .50 a copy....I could do the 50 cents, except that is for a bazzillion copies.....no way I can afford that...

And I remember why I stopped printing my family paper and went to the web only...my printer always screwed up and printed half a page, or the wrong back to a front.

I thnk I will look again for cheaper printing...but even if I find it, I still have to pay 40cents for postage...

And so far like I said only family and friends (and bean .) wants one...I just don't think it is in the bank right now.....

I dunno, the kids and I are having tons of fun doing little things for it...but....All the stuff we have done is not work..it is play..to actually compile and print it would be work (for me, they are too young to use the comuter mostly)...and I am hesitant to work on it...it seems like a waste...the kids wont be getting too much more out of printing than they did out of dictating stuff and making a game. and all...I mean made is made....I guess GMC would love to see the game printed...but I dunno...it just seems like a waste of ink..the 4 of us are prolly the only ones intersted...oh and grandmas and stuff...but really they can look at the rough draft and go 'oooh awww' just as easily.....

Did I mention my husband isn't too keen on it either? prolly due to printing and costs and such, but I dunno it is hard to tell, in many way she is the most wonderful man in the world, but not when it comes to figuring out why he is not 100% for something....

I have lots of ideas, articles written, games and such...I need to put it all together but..

It needs a name..
I was debating on 'Something Educational' But I don't really want people thinking it is all education stuff (though I can't think of much I do that isn't educational.....

I also was debating on printing...my printer is half out of ink.... and I don't really want to spend money..but then I also don't really want it to be web only, I want something you can sit down with your kid in your lap and read....

Ever since my other post on

what I am peparing my kids for I have been thinking more on it, and while I am daunted by the task of preparing them ofr a career, any career. I am hopefull that I can prepare them for the garanteed neccessary skills.

I can practically (mostly) gurantee that my children will need the following skills:

1. cooking, might be over an open flame in Africa, might be gormet, might be just nuke it and go. but I can practically gurantee they will do some cooking. Along with that is....

2. nutrition Very few people have a nutritionalist picking out their meals, instead we choose our own prefferences, and hopefully at least some of them are in the relm of healthy.

3. finances I might not be able to hand over millions and some stock investments, but I can help them learn how to manage what they have (so that they always have something to manage)

4. negotiation/comprimise all relationships take comprimise, sharing toys or couchspace, or work. It all takes effrt.

5. work ethic whatever the job, my children will need to chose to do it well.

6. reading Not just "read this cause I said so", but the voluntary reading to learn somthing desired.

7. housekeeping getting all the work done in a house requires comprimise and planning, plus some prioritizing.

None of this is well taught in a classroom setting, but all of it is used near daily with my children. We negotiate when toys sqabbles come up, or when work must mix with fun. We read to find answers to many questions, we also read just because. We discuss why we eat what we eat and why we seek variety. We talk about why the lights don't need to be on when not in a room, or why we use fans not the AC for so long. We talk about what work around the house must get done every day and what can wait a bit. We talk about dillegence, and completing tasks that we start. And much more.

And yet in the midst of all this we pick up trivia, it isn't really a life skill to know that 'school' used to mean 'free time' in the origional Greek, but it is fun to know. I doubt any of my kids will need the information that ancient Egypt used a wooden right angle to make proper corners. I actually doubt that all three will need to know what all the angles are (according to JC when you have two sticks to make an acute angle it is an A..A for acute!), but hey we read about it we talked about it, and today we are playing with bread (cut off crust, eat, then cut off to make a pentagon, or hexagon or whatever... octagon sandwhiches anyone? maybe topped with 8 different toppings! hmmm maybe it would be easier to stick with a triangle!)

Hours of fun,plus some science lessons

Supplies:
1 white sock
1 black sock

Directions
1. Hand over to baby
2. Watch and learn

You might find the socks are teethers,soothing the oft painful gums of toddlerhood. Often combined with studying the limitations of a slightly stretchy sock. (bite, pull away, how long till it snaps back out of the mouth?)

Or instruments to observe gravity (yep you drop it, it goes down.. again.. again.. again...)

Or maybe the test is physics and levers as your little one trys to pull up a sock they are sitting on (this often requires adult help to solve)

Or it might be a cloth to cover a toe, a hand or a face. If mom gets involved a full fledged game of peek a boo can get underway.

Unschooling is the most common term for 'desire led leaning' or 'child directed learning' or 'unstructured learning'
And it goes totally against what most of us were indoctrinated to believe.

Unschooling mainly means, not forcing a child to learn. Not sitting them down for X number of hours (and not finding extra work to fill said hours) Not having a predetermined timeline set by average kids.

Bit different from the 6 hours mandatory for learning, the rest for fun. But in fact it is more like the origional word 'school' it meant free time in Greek, and apparently lots used their free time to learn. Unfortunatly now free time is for TV or playstation while school means work... I think we messed up in translation.

But how do you know they are learning? What if they learn the worng things? What if they don't learn anything? What are they doing if you are not making them sit for schoolwork?

Those are all the questions I still have about it. I don't have a lot of answers but the more I look into unschooling the more I reinforce two lessons.

lesson one: Unschooling can be used as an excuse to not teach period, or even worse as an excuse to not parent. I hate this lesson, every time I see unschooling used I cringe in fear that it will be another bad example of not parenting or not teaching.

Lesson two: I am an unschooler! I like this lesson. While I hate being lumped in with the first type of parent, I love being lumped in with the actual desire led learners.

I love seeing new ways my children learn without busy work. And an added bonus, it is cheaper..well not really. It is cheaper on busy work (why buy it if you don't want to use it) but more expensive in that your children have time to check out everything and anything, and we want them too! So we buy the violin weather or not our kid will complete training and be a master, we just want them to check it out. We buy the paint set weather or not our kid will be the next Da Vinci, we just want them to check it out. The hard part is being frugal while providing all the opportunity. The easy part is finding interest and time.

I read this blog,

Renaissance Mom about preparing kids/kittens.

"They need to do THE ACTUAL THING in youth that they’ll be doing as adults."

Err the actual things thay will be doing? A kitten has limited options...1. hunt or 2. be cute and get fed.

My kids on the other hand have many many options. From Dr to accountant, to farmer, or lawyer, or, or, or.... My kids can do anything (of course!) yet none of it is at all like school...

"They don’t need to learn how to survive emotionally and psychologically in a group of 30+ peers within 12 months of their own age. ....... Nor will they ever need most of the things that they’d be force-fed in traditional “school”. None of these things will prepare them to be “good grown-up cats”. "

Preparing my chilfren instead needs to be a mix of real world oportunity (politics at the pool, math while cooking, mix of ages at a party, calm reading at a library, running a house, etc.) With a bit of 'playing the game' for good measure.

I am not so naive to think that no one judges me by my clothes, but I don't really care, I don't have to. My husband on the other hand,'buisness casual' is required to work. So long as my kids can dress the part when needed, they never need to know a single 'in' style. Nor do they need to know the 'right shoe'. (right hair, right brand...)

No I will spend my time teaching my kids anything they want to know, and I will continue to expose them to all different types of people, backgrounds, walks of life, and incomes. I will not require them to do more than behave, but I will invite them and nyone around me to grow, learn, and live.

So whats that got to do with money? Everything, my kids are here when I spend it, they are here when I balance it, budget it, and waste it. They wont be wondering to SA at 20 learning how to budget 'now that your an adult' they will be using those skills NOW to prepare for being 'all grown up'. (and comming to SA for support/sense of community .)