Design Squad Nation - New Educators Resource and Guide!

New Online Resource and Guide for Educators! Blast off into space with Mission: Solar System, the latest resources from Design Squad! Inspired by NASA's Year of the Solar System, Mission: Solar System brings kids fun, hands-on ways to think like NASA engineers. Designed for kids in school and afterschool programs, Mission: Solar System's resources bring to life NASA's Year of the Solar System. You'll find:  * 5 new hands-on engineering activities. Each challenge provides an engaging way to integrate science and engineering into your science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) program. * 5 Do-It-Yourself videos. Each activity has its own three-minute DIY video featuring kids doing the activity and talking about its science and engineering and its connection to NASA missions. * 5 video profiles of NASA engineers. These three-minute videos feature young, dynamic engineers who tackle interesting problems related to NASA's solar system missions. Each profile also comes with discussion questions and follow up ideas to help kids make connections. * Wall poster. This full-color poster gives kids a dramatic visual guide to NASA's Year of the Solar System missions with fun mission facts, solar system destinations and images of spacecraft. * The guide also contains leader notes, kids' handouts, standards alignments, assessment rubrics and more Find the Mission: Solar System resources on the Design Squad Nation website.     Click here to forward this message to a friend.

Doodle Dice - Review ~~~ Recycled Post

I have decided to recycle some of my reviews in order to help out those that are looking for resources and information for the upcoming "academic year".

KM loves any kind of game! Card games, board games, Wii Games, etc.... whatever it is wants to play! So I saw Doodle Dice when I was randomly browsing through Rainbow Resource before the Holidays and thought - "Hey that looks kinda cool!" BOY WAS I RIGHT!

SEE WHAT YOUR DICE CAN DOODLE!™

Create a ‘doodle’ with a few rolls of the DOODLE DICE™. There's a different doodle pictured on each card in the deck. When you build a doodle that matches one of the cards , you take that card. Block an opponent's turn or take one of their cards away. Collect one card of each color and you win! It's the fun challenging way for everyone in your family to a be a ‘doodle artist’!

This game is so much fun. We spent hours playing it the day we opened it and then on New Year's Eve the adults and the kids were arguing over who was going to get to play it first!

The coolest thing about this game is the different chance factors that go along with the strategy! The rules are fairly easy to remember and it is just FUN. It is fast paced, so that no one loses interest and you never know what is going to happen next.

Here are some pics -

KM liked that as a bonus she got to practice her Spanish!

Beyond Unschooling -The John Holt Legacy: Interview with Pat Farenga - Unplugged Mom 2.0

If you haven't had the chance to listen to Unplugged Mom 2.0 THIS is the episode that you CAN'T MISS -
Beyond Unschooling -The John Holt Legacy: Interview with Pat Farenga

Ken Robinson: How to escape education's death valley - TED Talk

Sir Ken Robinson outlines 3 principles crucial for the human mind to flourish -- and how current education culture works against them. In a funny, stirring talk he tells us how to get out of the educational "death valley" we now face, and how to nurture our youngest generations with a climate of possibility.

Creativity expert Sir Ken Robinson challenges the way we're educating our children. He champions a radical rethink of our school systems, to cultivate creativity and acknowledge multiple types of intelligence. Full bio »

Janice VanCleave’s Presents Science Projects that Really WORK!!! – Official UM Review -- Recycled Post

I have decided to recycle some of my reviews in order to help out those that are looking for resources and information for the upcoming "academic year".

Science was always my worry area. I didn't enjoy it in school and feared havingto take the responsibility of ensuring that my VERY science minded daughter was going to get all that she wanted out of our science education at home. I bought all sorts of kits and checked out every project book I could find at the library until I came across Janice VanCleave. If you have never heard of her, then you have never read some of the most concisely written science experiment books I have ever encountered and you and your kids are truly missing out!

Although I have enjoyed each of her books that I have read The Science For Every Kid series is a favorite in our household. In this series she covers everything fromChemistry to Food and Nutrition to Geometry, cohesively covering topics so that the kids can clearly grasp the material. This series could easily be used as a spine to jump off from, as a full science curriculum or a supplement for labs and projects. For example in Food and Nutrition for Every Kid VanCleave has each chapter set up as follows:

• What You Need to Know - here terms are explained and background information is given
  
• Exercises - the learner is presented with questions to be answered or situations that need to be resolved utilizing the information they read in the previous section.
• Activity - a project to allow the application of the skills in a real world situation.
• Solutions to Exercises - she not only gives the answers but lays out step-by-step instructions for solving each exercise.

With over 50 best-selling science experiment books that span an audience from toddler to mature adolescents, this is one author you will want to remember. Not only have I never had a single failed experiment from her books, she gives explanations that make sense. Though we have come across a few materials that we had to do a bit of digging around for the majority of materials you will need can be found in your home or in a quick trip to the local grocery or hardware store, making it convenient on a rainy day or spur of the moment. I can't say enough about these fabulous resources.

To see some more of our successful science experiments from Biology for Every Kid check out my blogposts - HERE and HERE.

You can learn more about Janice VanCleave as well as take a look through the plethora of tips, ideas and projects at her site - JVC's Science Fair Projects.

Join the Atlas Shrugged Summer Reading Program

The Ayn Rand Institute is offering a fantastic summer reading program and if you order soon, you can get a free copy of Atlas Shrugged to use during the program. There are also a number of other free resources to do in depth studies of her work.
Enjoy!!! 

Welcome to the Atlas Shrugged Summer Reading Program The Ayn Rand Institute would like to invite you and your students to participate in a new Atlas Shrugged Summer Reading campaign. While Atlas Shrugged is widely recognized as Ayn Rand's must-read masterpiece, it's often overlooked in the classroom, in part because not all teachers have the time to teach it. To help encourage its reading, we are offering a 10-week guided reading beginning on June 12. Each week, we will assign the next reading schedule, provide some study questions to focus thinking, recap the previous week's reading, and present a featured resource to highlight some relevant aspect of Atlas Shrugged. It is our hope that this reading program will help further cultivate an interest among your students in Ayn Rand's novels that you have already begun developing. With your students in mind, some featured resources will be designed to help assist them in preparation for the 2013 Atlas Shrugged Essay Contest. The reading will conclude in August, which will give students one month to write an essay by September 17, the deadline for the contest. Finally, we hope that you will consider participating in this, too! We are offering a free copy of Atlas Shrugged to all educators with an interest in participating. To participate, please sign up at aynrandeducation.org. We hope you will share this opportunity to read Atlas Shrugged with your students. Should some of them be interested, please have them sign up at aynrandnovels.org. Sincerely, Matthew Morgen Teacher Outreach

Professor Noggin's Card Games - Official Review ~~~~ Recycled Post

I have decided to recycle some of my reviews in order to help out those that are looking for resources and information for the upcoming "academic year".

Our family has been using these games for years and they are a fun, entertaining and exciting way to learn a number of subjects in numerous categories from Science to History to Art to Geography. These fun games can take your family to the far corners of Outer Space and deep into the Ocean. You can find a complete list of titles - HERE

Each game comes with 30 cards and 1 three numbered dice - meaning a six sided die that has 1, 2, & 3 on two sides each. Each card has 6 questions - 3 easy and 3 hard - which makes it fantastic to play with the whole family regardless of the amount of knowledge individuals may have in each area. Questions come in the form of true or false, multiple choice or trivia. I truly can not say enough about these fantastic product!

Here are the titles we have on our bookshelf -

  

Six Effective Video Game Tips for Mothers

Six Effective Video Game Tips for Mothers - GREAT POST I thought would be useful to many of my readers!

Where There is a Will There is a Way - Home Education is NOT Just for the Rich!

One of the most common questions that I get about home education - second only to the "S" question - is "How can you afford to home educate?" Of course people don't usually come out with it that clearly, they generally start out by asking what CJ does for a living, what kinds of curriculum we use, if I work and then finally their inquisition becomes clear. This misconception that families with minimal incomes can't home educate couldn't be farther from the truth. In this day and age with a world of knowledge LITERALLY at your fingertips, there is very little reason to think that any family on nearly any income would be unable to home educated their children.

It may take a bit of creativity, some leg work and ingenuity, but it can be done! You might have to cut some corners, make some sacrifices and really figure out what is important to your family. Connect with other home educators in your area, work together, make a community that can help each other make the most of the resources in your area. Many museums have free days throughout the year and give group discounts - sometimes for as small as groups of 10! Community centers and libraries offer free and low cost classes, lectures, reading groups, chess clubs and so much more. If you can't find something that you think your kids would like build it and they will come! You have to be willing to put yourself out there and connect! 

I have yet to google a topic with the word FREE and been let down by the number of results that appear - in fact I am often overwhelmed with the number of choices! I have compiled an incredible list of completely free resources on nearly every topic you can think of - HERE - but to get you started here are my TOP go to sites for 100% FREE resources! 

• YOUR LOCAL LIBRARY!!! NEVER EVER BUY CURRICULUM without having checked to see if you can get it through your library - or interlibrary loan or national library network first! Even if you can't find it in the system's database ask your librarian to try to track it down. I have not been able to stump mine yet! 
• Khan Academy - This ever growing collection of tutorials and lectures is at the top of our list for almost all educational categories. They cover everything from computer science to math to finance and capital markets to art history and loads of things in between! 
• YouTube - here you have to be a bit careful, but with some good digging you can find out how to do just about anything and there are plenty of people who are willing to show you just how to do it! Within YouTube there are also a lot of education specific areas like - 
• Crash Course - Six awesome courses in one awesome channel: John Green teaches you US History and Hank Green teaches you Chemistry. Check out the playlists for past courses in World History, Biology, Literature, and Ecology.
• YouTube EDU - YouTube EDU brings learners and educators together in a global video classroom. On YouTube EDU, you have access to a broad set of educational videos that range from academic lectures to inspirational speeches and everything in between.
• MinutePhysics - Simply put: cool physics and other sweet science. "If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough."~Rutherford via Einstein? (wikiquote) Created by Henry Reich 
• WatchKnowLearn - The Vision behind WatchKnowLearn is simple: To provide a world-class, online domain on which educators can store, categorize, and rate the best, K – 12 educational videos on the Internet today. And to make this service FREE so teachers, parents and students everywhere may have access to those videos.  ~~~ We love this site because you can filter for content & age groups to get the most appropriate videos!
• TED Talks - Ideas worth spreading - if you haven't heard of this one it should be your first stop
• Freely Educate - At FreelyEducate.com the blogger focuses on 100% free educational finds. She specifically focuses on removing the financial obstacle for those who think they they can't afford a good education for their families.
• Clickschooling - Get 1 FREE, Web-Based Curriculum Idea Every Day — Monday Through Saturday! ClickSchooling brings you daily recommendations by email for entertaining websites that help your kids learn. 
• National Gallery of Art - Borrow free-loan teaching packets and DVDs or access online lessons, activities, and interactives to bring art to your classroom, home, or other learning setting. All materials are free.
• OpenCourseWare Consortium - The OpenCourseWare Consortium is a worldwide community of hundreds of higher education institutions and associated organizations committed to advancing OpenCourseWare and its impact on global education.  Learn more here. 
• Currclick - Although this site is not 100% free, I am adding it because they offer a lot of freebies, including weekly freebies, trial classes and a number of free online clubs. It is also the best collection of affordable curricula and classes on the web!

With these resources and the many more you can find within them, any family can get a superior education for little to NO cost! If in your heart you know that home education is the right choose for your family, there is a way! You may have to think really far outside of the box, you may have to reach out to find a community of people who are willing to help, you may have to cut back on extras, but where there is a will, there is ALWAYS a way!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Additionally I wanted to mention two sites that have a lot of FREE information and links to help you understand the legalities of home educating in your own state. 

• HomeschoolingLegal.com Links to Homeschooling Legal Informational Sites for United States and Canada
• Homeschooling is Legal - The purpose of this website is to inform and educate homeschoolers about their legal rights and risks.

Help your students pass the 2002 Series GED Math Test

Free resources to help your students pass the 2002 Series GED® Math Test Math may be the only thing standing between your adult learner and a diploma. GED Testing Service has partnered with Pearson Learning Solutions to create a series of instructional videos that help adult learners understand key concepts on the GED® Math Test. You can use these videos during math classes, or give the link to your students so they can self-study and strengthen their knowledge of basic concepts and make them more effective in your class. More than 20 math concepts videos are available online for free. Visit GEDmathstrategies.com to begin. In addition, KET and Kentucky Adult Education have launched a free adult education resource for instructors preparing students for the GED® Math test. The collection of lessons plans are aligned to specific targets on the Math test and include video segments and practice worksheets. To access this Targeted Math Instruction resource, visit PBS Learning Media. Sincerely, GED Testing Service GED® and GED Testing Service® are registered trademarks of the American Council on Education (ACE). They may not be used or reproduced without the express written permission of ACE or GED Testing Service. The GED® and GED Testing Service® brands are administered by GED Testing Service LLC under license from the American Council on Education.

An Afternoon in the City - WE LOVE BOSTON!

We are so fortunate to be able to attend the BLO dress rehearsals, as part of their educational outreach program, and when we do we always like to head in a bit early to hang out in the city. It was such a gorgeous day, after a number of drizzly cold ones, so we decided to take a stroll through the public gardens.

The gardens were abuzz with people and animals, beautiful foliage and pleasant melodies wafting through the air. We have always loved Boston, but this visit was a bit different and we were so glad that the city seemed utterly unchanged!

Immense Praise for Joy Hakim’s A History of US ~~~ Recycled Post

I have decided to recycle some of my reviews in order to help out those that are looking for resources and information for the upcoming "academic year".

I have previously reviewed Joy Hakim's Story of Science series and since I was so enamored by her writing, I bit the bullet and bought the 11 volume set A History of US for KM to use for her U.S. History studies. AM I EVER GLAD I DID!!! I had planned on glossing over the content so that I could figure out when I would need to order additional reading material and movies from our local library to supplement and ended up not being able to put the book down! I am no history buff, but this book captured my attention and I literally couldn't put it down.

I love that she points out what our family calls "duh" moments, things that when you are reading you think why doesn't every textbook take this approach. "When Leaders say something is all right, most people agree, without thinking for themselves." p.113

Hakim has a way of writing that just captivates and inspires you to want to keep reading. The story unfolds as if you are in a time machine looking down on what is going on. Her writing flows in an engaging and thought provoking way, as she constantly asks you to analyze and question what is being said in a conversational manner. She manages to cover even some of the more gruesome facts without getting graphic, which makes this a perfect multi-age resource.

Hakim challenges the reader to question history and emphasizes that "No one knows what happened in the past - at least we don't know the whole story"..."You gather pieces of information and try to discover how they fit." p. 9 

When I was in school I was never taught about anything before the Jamestown Settlement. Sure we were taught about Christopher Columbus sailing across the ocean blue in 1492, but they never mentioned all that went on from one point to the next, it was basically as if they left out the 16th century all together! In Hakim's text she is truly telling the story of US, beyond the United States, in direct relation to how the Americas were formed. Begining back with Beringia she has the audacity to discuss how there are actually no "NATIVE" Americans as we all came from somewhere else. She delves into the formation of settlements in the Central American islands, the Spanish conquests of Mexico and also defends the Indians, repeatedly making note of the "arrogant European" behaviors.

My favorite quote has to be - Looking back, today, it seems as if people and nations were acting just like silly little kids. Each one saying "My religion is better than yours." p. 139

I have only read the first volume, but I have already absorbed more information from this book than I did in my entire college semester of U.S. History. I highly recommend this series as a first rate, informative, intelligent text that will surely make a history lover out of the most resistant person.

I will be getting Volume 2 off the shelf as soon as I finish typing this!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~UPDATE --- We are nearly done with Book 5 at this point. KM and I are still totally engaged in this series. I love how every angle and point of view is touched on, so that you can get a feel for what life was really like for not just the rich, but the poor and the inbetweeners as well!!!

Intellego Unit Studies - Product Review ~~~ Recycled Post

I have decided to recycle some of my reviews in order to help out those that are looking for resources and information for the upcoming "academic year".

Unit studies and downloadable curriculum are all over the place these days, but Intellego Unit Studies are not designed like any other product I have seen around the webisphere! Created by a home educator for home educators these PDF formatted units contain interactive internet links for ease of access. Instead of trying to reinvent the wheel this publisher has used what is readily available on-line to create customizable, easily adaptable, engaging guides that have something for every type of learner. Other unit guides that I have seen simply have text that is read to or by the child with some worksheets here and there, but these guides include a plethora of internet links that lead the learner to text, video, games, projects and worksheets. The links that are kept up to date using Intellego's database to ensure that the links are current and working.


Each unit has a standard layout which includes clearly outlined objectives, KWL charts, material lists, content specific info and extension activities. Before you begin you are presented with a clearly outlined list of what your child will be learning about during this unit. This can be a great tool to take to the library with you if you would like supplement with living books or plan field trips. The KWL charts are great tools to help organize and focus learning, before starting each unit the child lists the things they already KNOW about a topic, then move on to what they WANT to know and at the end of the unit they recap the things that they have LEARNED. The units include materials lists in two areas, a master list at the beginning of the unit and then a specific list for each chapter and lesson, which is a great way to ensure you haven't missed anything - nothing is worse than getting an experiment underway only to find out that you don't have everything you need!!! The content specific information in each area is broken down into bite-size sections to clearly cover all areas of a topic with an array of multi-media resources.  The key to any great unit study program is the ability to create continuity in cross-curricular skills and Intellego has done so by including extension activities that help solidify the information the learner has gained by showing how it can be used in the real world.


Of course no product is going to be a perfect fit for every family and there were a few drawbacks to this one, which included some dialogue being presented to the teacher and the inconsistency in the resources. For me having the units written to the teacher rather than to the student is a bit of an issue as I have a child who is a very independent learner. Of the three that I reviewed both of the ones that were for grades 6-8 were written this way KM found it a bit difficult, but not impossible, to follow along and this was more of an issue when she got to an external website that was directed to a teacher rather a student. The Health Unit was written directly to the student, but some of the resources were still written directly to the teacher and expected to be used by a class of students rather than a single learner The variance in resources was also a problem when some of the links had higher expectations of prior knowledge in both the middle grades and high school levels.

Overall I am very impressed with the format of these units. As someone who NEVER used a curriculum the way that is was meant to be used, Intellego has cut down my search time and gather a myriad of sources for me all in one clearly laid out unit. I look forward to using more in the future.




~~~Disclaimer: I was given these materials to review, but was not compensated in any other way for this review. I clearly stated to the publisher prior to downloading items that complimentary receipt did not guarantee a favorable review. 

Lemmings Law Revisited

During a recent email conversation I was reminded of this post that I originally wrote 3/20/11 in response to some difficult interactions with public school parents. I have added an addendum to the end of it to make it clear as to why it is such a relevant post for my feelings this week. 

Original post 3/20/11 - Lemmings Law

I am finding it harder and harder to appease people. While I think that people should respect each other's choices, I know that is never going to happen 100% of the time. People assume that you are attacking their decisions - or really their conformity - if you make a choice other than the one that is in line with theirs. If you are making a choice that is better for YOUR family, why wouldn't you automatically assume that the decision would be better for EVERY family? It is the lemmings law - follow, follow, follow, don't get out of line - if someone else gets out of line ATTACK!!!

Those of us who tend to make choices that are off the trodden path are often far more understanding, open minded and accepting of choices. We see the great joy that options can bring. We realize the importance of individual preferences. We accept that customization is KEY! We need to stop coddling these parents. I don't think the public schools are okay for anyone, they aren't! They can't be FIXED! Charter schools and privates are just as bad in most cases. We ALL need to learn to respectfully stand our ground and disregard the falsified counterattacks that are based on the insecurities of those shouting the loudest!

As I have seen these debates getting more and more ferocious with the ease of social networking sites in cyberspace, the anonymity of yahoo groups and the ability to hit send before you reread things or without thinking about the consequences. This is just another reason I DON'T have a facebook account!

 I reread this several times and STAND behind every word!

Addendum --- I reread this again over two years later and I STILL stand 100% behind every word.
My energy this time though is directed to many of those within the home ed community. Those who feel like there way is the only way. Those who think they should be followed and asked for advice about children they have never met. And ESPECIALLY to those that blindly follow someone else's dogma, quickly jumping to plug in to another set of regulations. There is no one RIGHT answer to any parenting question. There is no one size fits all routine, scenario, or prescription that can simply solve an issue that arises in a family. Go with your gut. Do what you feel is right.
I am not saying that you shouldn't ask for people's opinions or consult those around you who may have had situations akin to yours, but advice should be taken with a grain of salt, realizing that the child in the other situation is not your child. No matter HOW similar they may seem - they are not one in the same. When someone gives you advice that doesn't feel right listen, reject it and move on to the next. I don't think that these omnipresent guides are intending to be hurtful or condescending, but they are and until people realize that jumping from one box to another is not going to solve the problem they will continue to do so.
No boxes, no crazy criteria, no coercion. Just follow the path that works for your family. 

And for the record - I STILL don't have a facebook! 

How to Talk WIth Children About Boston Marathon Bombing

Police clear the area at the finish line of the 2013 Boston Marathon
as medical workers help injured following the explosions.

It’s getting to the hateful point that it feels like a fill-in-the-blank: How to talk with children about 9/11. About Newtown. And now, about the Boston Marathon bombs. But still, it never hurts to be reminded of what’s normal and what helps most. Dr. Gene Beresin, a child psychiatrist and director of the Massachusetts General Hospital Center for Mental Health and Media, offers the following helpful guide - How to Talk With Children About Boston Marathon Bombing