High School and Beyond by Ruth Martin

Who: RUTH MARTIN with you

What: High School Home Education Seminar (info whether your child has yet to begun high school, will this fall or is almost done!)

When: 2/16/13, 9am - 1pm

Where: The Praise Center, 1857 Hwy 78, Monroe
Sorry, but no childcare provided (although nursing babies allowed)

Cost: $20/family early bird registration (by 2/11/13) and $25/family after that

Some topics you'll hear:
* You CAN do this! Encouragement for the long haul
* Record Keeping/Transcripts /Portfolios
* Dual Enrollment
* Accreditation
There will be a *67 page High School and Beyond workbook available at the seminar for $15.

TO REGISTER: Please make your check out to Ruth Martin and mail it to:
(Contact me for mailing address)

Contact info:
Vicki or Mary Ellen
(Contact me for email address)

"The Boy of Mount Rhigi" Dramatic Audio by Lamplighter Theatre

We listened to, The Boy of Mount Rhigi by Lamplighter Theatre, and we absolutely loved it and were hanging on every word. It's a great story for everyone, but especially boys as the two main characters are boys. 

Here is a summary from the Lamplighter website:

"Clapham has an unusual father - a father who forces him to steal. He also has an uncommon friend named Harry, whose friendship meets the ultimate test when Clapham is forced to steal from Harry's family. Now Clapham must confront his father - and his own sin - and come face to face with an amazing past he never knew existed. You'll experience never-ending drama in this story of heartbreaking betrayal, a friend's loyalty, and God's ultimate redemption in The Boy of Mount Rhigi."

I'd say this is for 10 years old and up because it's a drama that deals with some serious issues such as alcohol abuse, stealing, etc.

It's approximately 2 hours long.

Our Solar System!

I added Christmas lights to our solar system. They're supposed to represent stars. I also added a big question mark next to Pluto! I turn the lights on every morning before school starts. I love it! The glistening stars seem to add a special touch and uniqueness to the homeschool room making it more inviting and even cozy.

 

Transcripts: Samples and Services

Sample Transcripts

• Download: Homeschool High School Transcript Template
• Transcript by Grade (HSLDA)
• Transcript by Subject (HSLDA)
• Transcript by Subject (The HomeScholar)
• Transcript by Year (HSLDA)
• Transcript by Year (The HomeScholar)

Covenant College Transcript Info.

• 1. Transcript Primer (Memo)
• 2. Sample Transcript: Printable Version
• 3. Blank Transcript: Printable Version
• 4. Editable Transcript (scroll down for link)

Transcript Services

• Martin Educational Services
• Teascript (Debra Bell recommends)
• The HomeScholar
• Transcripts Made Easy (Debra Bell recommends)

The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster

The Phantom Tollbooth took us on an extraordinary adventure!

Here are a couple of quotes from Wikipedia:
"...It tells the story of a bored young boy named Milo who unexpectedly receives a magic tollbooth one afternoon and, having nothing better to do, decides to drive through it in his toy car. The tollbooth transports him to a land called the Kingdom of Wisdom. There he acquires two faithful companions, has many adventures, and goes on a quest to rescue the princesses of the kingdom--Princess Rhyme and Princess Reason--from the castle of air. The text is full of puns, and many events, such as Milo's jump to the Island of Conclusions, exemplify literal meanings of English language idioms."

"Critics have acknowledged that the book is advanced for most children, who would not understand all the wordplay or the framing metaphor of the achievement of wisdom."

I can definitely recommend this book! Some homeschoolers have warned against this book because of it's magic and because one of the characters is a witch. The "magic" to me is more like a child's wild imagination, and the "witch" is not actually a witch at all. She is simply a woman in charge of "which" words to choose from, so she is called "Which." We listened to it on audio as we flipped the pages, so we had all the whimsical illustrations from the print book plus all the sound effects of an audio book engaging us!

Sight Words

I teach sight words by combining different reading specialists' advice into one method, and so far it's working like a charm! It's fairly standard for reading and spelling curriculum to teach with BLUE CONSONANTS and RED VOWELS. Therefore many of our resources are already color coded that way, and I decided to stay consistent with that by writing our sight words this way. I write them on a LARGE index card. I position the cards in such a way that the child has to look UP and TO THE LEFT with his eyes while keeping his head facing straight ahead. This causes the child to "cross the mid-line" of his brain, so he's utilizing his right and left brain at the same time. The children REVIEW THEIR SIGHT WORDS DAILY until they prove mastery. Then we pick four more sight words to learn. Here is an example:

Three of these four sight words were picked as words to learn after an evaluation was given. I use a "Most Common Words" list from our reading and spelling curriculum. My children have to be able to 1) read the sight word, 2) orally spell the sight word correctly and 4) write the sight word correctly. (Just because a child can spell a word orally does not mean he can spell it correctly on paper. These are two different brain processes, and children need to be able to do both correctly.) If they cannot do all three of those things with a word, the word becomes a word we focus on. The fourth word was chosen because my child asked to add it out of a desire to be able to spell it correctly while writing which I thought was super cool because that means there is a desire to do well and spell correctly.

All of the cards are stored in an index card box and filed alphabetically. Each child gets their own box and their own set of cards.

This is what works for us!

Geography: Map Skills

In the summer of 2012, while planning our upcoming school year, I decided it was time to change the direction of our geography studies and switch gears! Over the years, we've completed some fantastic geography unit studies as well as studied various places based on our history studies, but we had never focused solely on basic map skills. While at The School Box store, I found a book titled Daily Geography Practice and decided to give it a try. I'm so glad I did, because we are learning more geography than ever and having a terrific time doing it!

Even though this is a workbook, it's a hands-on approach to learning! The way the book is laid out, the teacher teaches the lesson on Monday with the lesson book in hand and usually a globe and/or a map, and the children answer 2 questions every day of the week for a total of 10 answered questions. Every Friday there is a "Challenge." All of the questions and challenges require the children to refer back to the map. At the end of each week, the children have learned A LOT about the particular mapping skill, learned several new vocabulary words, answered two pages of questions, completed a challenge and produced a colorful map in the process. Here are a few samples of our work:

This has been a favorite for all of us this homeschool year! We are always eager to do Geography!

The contents for the Grade 5 book include:

Week 1 Parts of a Map

Week 2 Globe Lines

Week 3 The Four Hemishpheres

Week 4 A Map Grid

Week 5 Lines of Latitude and Longitude

Week 6 Map Coordinates

Week 7 A Robinson Projection Map

Week 8 A Mercator Projection Map

Week 9 Picturing North America

Week 10 Picturing the World

Week 11 A Road Map: Montana

Week 12 The Saint lawrence Seaway

Week 13 A Physical Map: Washington

Week 14 Mountains and Desserts of the United States

Week 15 Waterways of the United States

Week 16 A Physical Map: Canada

Week 17 A Physical Map: Mexico

Week 18 A Physical Map: South America

Week 19 Regions of the United States

Week 20 Regions of Canada

Week 21 The Region of Central America

Week 22 Regions of the United Kingdom

Week 23 A National Symbol: Washington, D.C.

Week 24 A Cultural Landmark: Yellowstone National Park

Week 25 Climate Zones of the United States

Week 26 The Arctic Tundra

Week 27 Twenty Largest Cities in the United States

Weel 28 A Cultural  Map: National Football League

Week 29 A Product Map: Nebraska

Week 30 Boroughs of New York City

Week 31 Time Zones of the United States

Week 32 Sharing the Colorado River

Week 33 A Tourist Map: Florida

Week 34 The Top Oil-Producing States

Week 35 A History ap: The United States in 1861

Week 36 A City Plan

The standard book is $29.99. Evan-Moor has several options (EBooks, Student Editions for $7.99, etc.) on their website, so you can figure out what works best for you. 

Here is a link to get you started:

Daily Geography Practice, Grade 5