The time has come...

Like the dear lady in the cartoon my life is a wild jumble of many things and most of them being pretty terrific. A wonderful family, great kids, dear friends and a growing and thriving business. But with that comes a whole bunch of other obligations that now mean I have to say goodbye to this blog and consulting as part of my life. I do so enjoy sharing tips and tricks and by no means am I ditching homeschooling.. just the blog and my ability to keep taking on homeschool consults.

I began consulting last year in a effort to gain more time by being able to charge for it.. well as it would happen this did not give me more time.. I became more busy with the needs of the growing number of homeschoolers who are seeking support. Alas while I was more busy and making money the time it takes to consult is interfering with my obligations with my children and my other work as embroidery designer. So as with all difficult things I have had to make some tough choices. Since my embroidery work can be done during hours when decent folk are sleeping it is the more flexible path for me to take at this time. This saddens me but it is what is right for my family right now. (* Please note that I do love my embroidery work and you can find that here at Fresh Thread. )

But take heart!.. it's not that I am not going to be writing about homeschooling or the cool stuff we find our do.. I am just moving it over to my main personal blog Domestic Anarchy .

I hope you will join me over there and Happy Schooling! -- Maddie

(This blog will remain open but unattended for about a month at which time I will take it down, if there are links you need please capture them now. )

I am back and just in time for Banned Books Week. Each year we celebrate the right to read as we choose and the right to make those choices. This year we stitched out this very cool design that I created just for the occasion! We made book weights to give to our favorite librarians.

We have been doing BBW for a lot of years now and some how I had missed all the fuss about it.. but if you are interested do a Google search about the opposition to literary freedom. Now mind you while I do support out libraries and books stores to carry whatever books they desire I still believe that each parent has a duty to look over what their child is reading since what I consider in line with our personal values might not be the same as yours. Way to many parents have abdicated that responsibility to the schools and other organizations and then demand that the stock the shelves in accordance with their personal beliefs.. that is not how a free society works. We must all do our part and a huge part of that is being an active part of your child's education.

And if you just happen to want to read one of the most banned books of the last three years you only have to go as far as your local children's book shop and pick up a copy of perhaps the most adorable book I have seen in a long time... And Tango Makes Three the story of two male penguins who coupled up out of their own will for a good long time and at one point were given the opportunity to raise an egg... so sweet.. So go give it a read and celebrate your right to do so!

Schooling with little ones around

One of the most frequent questions I get asked is how to keep younger children happy while you have time to pay attention and school older children. Depending on the age spread of children this can be a very difficult topic or one that is more simple than you would think. If you are talking about about schooling with a newborn around.. this is easy. Nurse the baby while you read to the kids, walk baby around the room as the kids read their lessons to you and save one on one work for times when baby is sleeping.

If you are talking toddlers then you have to get a bit more creative. Toys that can only be played with during school time. Water play in the sink, playclay and other distractions while sitting in the highchair where you can keep an eye on them while you do lessons with the older kids.

If you have a LOT of kids give the older kids 30 minute segments when they are responsible for caring for the younger kids while you work with the kids who need your help. Let the older kids teach the little ones a lesson or read to them. Or let the little ones watch an educational video with the older kids...make it a privilege!

But maybe you have older kid(s) and new schooler.. one who needs help but also bops from thing to thing faster than you can keep up with constantly asking... what's next?? While it's great to see their little mind eager for more this can be really stressful if you have just sat down to teach fractions to your older one! In this case I have a few suggestions. 1) Starfall - it's an online FREE learning and reading environment that will keep kids happy for a good long time. But to make it special limit time to 15 minute segments ( use a timer!) 2) Puzzle Table - Have a weekly or daily puzzle out that the children can go to between sessions.. make it easy enough so that they can fit in some pieces.. but hard enough that they are not done in a flash! I know that this can be a real space hog.. so if space is an issue think of using a card table and a roll up puzzle mat if you are doing a week long puzzle. Once again set a timer.. time limits make things more desirable!

Just pretend you never saw me...

Just poping in to post up a printable " Workbox" card for those who are workboxing it this year. Click on THIS link and you can download the PDF image that you can print and laminate to use as a Workbox reward!

Now.. once again pretend you never saw me....

Blogcation

Getting our schooling year under way... see you soon!

Creating a Unit Study

For the parent who is ready to step out of the boxed-curriculum mode creating your own unit study can be a real step forward into even more dynamic learning. With the step does come more time but it can be worth it when you actually are able to put together things the way you want and in a way that hi lights the learning style of your child. There are a whole bunch of sites out there that go into laborious detail on how to do this... But here I am going to give you my down a dirty version. ( if you want or need more feel free to contact me and book some session time!)

1 Know what you want to study, brain storm the topic and sub topics
2) Gather materials, look on your own homeschooling shelves, hit the library and pull books and videos on the subject.

3) If there is a directly topical book on the subject that you want to study ( let say insects).. look at the index of the book for your " cheat sheet" of sub topics. List these out and then look through the other books and videos you have pulled to find the best examples of each topic. Make copies of these pages ( please refer to the Fair Use policy in regard to education ).

4) Hit the local teachers store and Internet sites to purchase or download worksheets and add on materials to round out the study. Make copies of these as you need for multiple children.

5) With all copies and products at hand sit down and see what you have. Figure out how many days you plan to cover the given topic and divide your topic by that number of days. ( I paper clip my stuff in batches since I am visual and it helps me sort out my thoughts.

6) On the computer or just a piece of paper layout the days and what you want to do to make sure it all works. ( see example screen shot from our unit for this Fall) Make sure to add in those videos and fun things to make it all exciting and fun to learn. As far as videos/dvds go.. I pull them in from the library.. make copies and then after we have finished the unit I destroy the videos. This is much easier than trying to get what you need the day you need it since our library only allows dvd rentals for 1 week at a time.

7) Put info all together into a homemade book with a card stock cover and back. I personally have invested in a comb binding machine since my local kinkos charges 2 cents per page to punch the sheets and $3 to add the binding... at that price it adds an extra $5 per unit study per book! To make things easier you can buy pre punched paper and this can save some time when it comes to getting things together.

And there you go... One Unit study ready to go. Typically this take me about 3 hours to do.. and we do each month as a topic unit when it come to Science and history.

Boomerang... do it!

You know the day... it's the one when you planned a million cool homeschooling things and then one kid has a fever, you have to go back into the dentist to get your filling re-filled and on top of that you have 6 errands that have to get done or the world will slip out of planetary alignment. Another lost day of schooling? No way! At least not it you know what I know!


What if I told you that there was an audio show made just for kids that in each and every episode covers a time or famous person from history, social studies, literature, not to mention had cool jokes and a fresh and enjoyable tone to each and every segment? Well it's true and it's called BOOMERANG . We are now on our 15th year of "boom-ing" it and my young kids never fail to get excited when it's time for a new episode. While I think the target auidence for boom is 6-13ish I still enjoy listening to the segments and never fail to learn something good from each new episode.

Boom has been around since 1990 and has produced some of the best content for kids each in and every one of those years. With 9-12 episodes per year and archives that stretch back as far as the ear can hear you can be set but not only for homeschool days gone a-kilter but for car trips, sick days or just afternoon rest time ( this is how we used them for years!)

These days Boomerang is delivered by subscription download that you can burn to cd or transfer to an MP3 player of your choice. You can listen to them over and over again gaining something new each time from the savvy content and cool kids who deliver the news. But don't just take my word for it.. pop on over their website and check out a free sample. Single topical issues can be purchased as well as subscriptions and ... this is so cool.. turn other people onto boom by giving them as gifts ( you can odrer them on CD!) or request them as gifts when all those relatives ask what they can get for your kids this years... it's all brilliant. Yeh.. did I mention that I really love this company? But better than that.. you will too. So go check them out.. tell them Maddie sent you.