FREE in March: Economics has Consequences

I was very excited to see this announcement in my email box.  We've enjoyed using products from The Compass Store before.  Now they're generously streaming their film "Economics Has Consequences" on YouTube and Vimeo for FREE! during the month of March.

I've seen the first episode, and I think it's great information to share with the family.

Go HERE for YouTube or HERE for Vimeo.

Catherine

Symphony Under the Stars 2013

What a wonderful evening to go out and listen to classical music in the gardens!  Not a whisper of wind, no clouds above, and perfectly mild temperature.

So we packed some chicken salad sandwiches, fruit and drinks, then grabbed our picnic chairs, and drove down toward the city to enjoy another year of "Symphony Under the Stars".

I know I've mentioned this event before, as we usually go every year.  This year was special, though ...  it's their 30th anniversary!  They had a beautiful selection of pieces, most of which we already knew.

Prokofiev Romeo and Juliet: Suite No.2. op.64. 1. 'The Montagues and Capulets'.

A great 'wake up the audience' piece!!

J. Strauss Jr. Die Fledermaus: Overture

All the little dancers were out the front for this piece.  Nothing like young audience participation from the best view possible!

Mendlessohn Symphony No.5, op. 107, D major (Reformation): 3rd movement
I wasn't familiar with this piece at all, but it was very pretty.

Tchaikovsky Swan Lake, op.20, Act III No.20a 'Russian Dance'

Mussorgsky (arr. Rimsky-Korsakov) Night on Bald Mountain

Bizet Carmen: excerpts from Suite No.1 and Suite No.2
Les Toreadors, Aragonaise, Seguedill, Intermezzo, Habanera, Danse boheme

INTERVAL

Mozart The Magic Flute: Overture

Rebecca Barnard (arr. Adam Starr) ... guest performer
Keen Smiling
Everlasting
You I Loved

Williams Star Wars: Suite for Orchestra, 2. "Princess Leia's Theme" and Main Theme

Tchaikovsky Symphony No.6, op.74, B minor (Pathetique): 3rd movement


As usual, I'm so glad we went.  We've arrived home nice and relaxed.  It was a perfect way to finish off a lovely summer's day.

Until next time,
Catherine

Read TOS's Summer magazine for FREE!

The Old Schoolhouse Magazine's Summer issue is currently available, and everyone has an opportunity to view the digital version for FREE! If you have ever been interested in this magazine, here's your opportunity to have a sneak preview.

Head on over the special offer page via the picture link above, or click HERE.

Music sites for children

Have you heard about the site Clickschooling? Diane Flinn Keith hosts the site, providing a library source of all sorts of educational sites. If you subscribe to daily curriculum ideas, you'll receive daily emails, with a given subject each day of the week.

This weekend I received an email about a music site that looks great! Play Music directs you to various other musical sites, including Carnegie Hall's Resource Centre, various games, an interview with a conductor, creating your own music and more.

I've just checked out the "Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra" via the Carnegie Hall site. The interactive videos are very informative. A parent may be needed to help read the information written on the screen, but there is also enough dialogue given to not make this necessary.

If your children enjoy learning online, you may want to have a look.  There are LOTS of bunny trails via Play Music, so go through them and bookmark your favourites.

TOS freebie directory

The Old Schoolhouse has just released it's 2010 Freebie Directory.  Jump on over there and have a look at what's on offer.  There are no obligations with any of these samples, and the page is available for a whole year.

Click here: The Old Schoolhouse Magazine's 2010 Freebie Directory

Personalise your math tutoring with ALEKS

In my experience, most math products start you off with a placement test. This will tell you the book or books you should purchase to start your child at the right level. As they then work through these books, there are fluctuations in known and unknown work, resulting in time spent doing exercises of review which could probably be skipped over in favour of those areas that still need actual learning. Or, there may be areas of learning that you'd prefer to have more problems to practice.

What if you could go through those math books and cross out all the known questions, or just leave a couple of those questions in as a refresher? What if you could 'double' the practice questions for areas that require more training? What would you do if your child then learnt a new concept, but understood it quickly and just wanted to move on instead of spending 1/2 hr doing practice examples? How would you feel if I told you there IS a program that can be tailored to exactly what your child needs and all it takes is a quick 15 minutes online assessment before they can dive right in and complete those lessons?

Okay, I'm a bit excited as I have just finished having a play with this program from ALEKS and the potential to help your child grasp math concepts in a fun, motivating way is very exciting.  Maestro had a go at it also; Mariposa hasn't as yet.  We had a time limit of a month's free trial, but it happened to fall in our busiest time, so the playing was pretty much left to me during the quiet hours of the night ... and even I learnt a number of things! (smiles!)

So, exactly what is ALEKS? Assessment and LEarning in Knowledge Spaces:

a Web-based, artificially intelligent assessment and learning system that uses adaptive questioning to quickly and accurately determine exactly what a student knows and doesn't know in a course. ALEKS offers truly individualized instruction that meets the student at her learning level and instructs her on the exact topics that she is most ready to learn. As a result, no two students will experience the same learning path while working in ALEKS.

ALEKS is designed for grades 3-12. It targets the student's current learning after the initial assessment.  The highly-intelligent system can see information already known and where the student should move to next. I did find that some of the 'required to learn' areas after my assessment were review, but that was probably as I'd answered some of the questions incorrectly, or a misunderstanding with terminology, therefore the review didn't hurt at all.

Example of assessment page

The assessment will produce a pie graph with all the course parts.  Hover your mouse over each coloured piece of the pie and a list of topics the student is ready to learn next appears in a pop-up box with active headings.  As each part is completed, the pie section is coloured in more with the darker shade.  This 'filling in the pie chart' is very motivating!

If using this with more than one child, the direction they each take is very individual.  This is something that math books cannot do.  The program acts as your child's personal tutor, taking the time to work through questions in a particular area as long as required until mastered.  These are examples of a pages showing "Learning Mode" (click to enlarge) :

Measurement questions are asked in both metric and imperial.

Extra practice sheets may also be printed off by students, each uniquely generated for their current knowledge.

When a topic is mastered, you don't have pages of problems to keep working through, either.  No, you just have to prove you can answer a minimum number of questions correctly and then move on.  Should a question be answered incorrectly, immediate feedback will be given. The student can then select "Explain" for all the details right there on the screen.  Attempt some more questions and then keep on moving along!

 

Immediate feedback.

Explanation with practice as long as needed.

Another fun feature is the mastery program for multiplication, division, addition and subtraction. This is called Quicktables and involves some fun games with built-in rewards.

When you open an account with ALEKS, you will also have a Master Account. The parent / teacher using this can easily access the student's account to see the level of progress and print off reports. You can track how often each of them are using the program and the areas on which they're working. Quizzes are also available, and you can print these off as assessment records. Automatic reports are also sent to you via email.

  

Please click on these if you'd like to see enlarged.

I recommend reading the 12 page pdf report on 

"Getting the Most Out of Your Master Account" 

for more information.

The quickest way to introduce this to you properly is with this 2 minute video, so I hope you'll feel free to have a look at it.  A comprehensive course library is viewable, showing all the learning areas incorporated into this product, right through to Pre-Calculus, as well as some of the Higher Education subjects.

If you're looking for a personal tutor, for a month, 6 months or a year, there are a variety of payment plan options.

• $19.95US per student per month
• $99.95US per student per 6 months
• $179.95US per student per year

 Family discount options are also available.

This product is available for a free trial over 48hrs via the site, but I am honoured to be able to share an extended trial period to my blog readers! Click the button below and you have an opportunity to trial it for ONE WHOLE MONTH just as I did (that's $19.95US value for FREE!)





Use this trial at a time when you know you'll have time to benefit from it, and I hope you'll find this product as well designed and fun as we have!

NB - I received this product from TOS for the purpose of review. There is no other compensation and the opinions are my own. Thank you to TOS and ALEKS for the use of this product. If you'd like to read further reviews on this product, please click HERE.

KB Teacher - TOS Review

Most homeschoolers find that they have some theme of interest developing that they'd like to explore or exploit for learning purposes. You know what I mean, such as when your 4 year old son is enthralled with dinosaurs. Or your 9 year old decides that she'd like to be like those she saw cooking on Junior MasterChef.

All of the sudden you're faced with a great learning curve opportunity. You'd like to build up a Unit Study and incorporate the theme into other parts of learning. The next step is to find resources, and then keep them engaged with some activity sheets. But it does take time to make up these activity sheets. If you can use what others have already created, you'd have the job done.

Well, there is such a bank of printable resources. It resides over at KBTeachers.  Your young man can have dinosaur colouring pages with some facts included. Your budding chef can learn about where our food comes from and how to plan restaurant menus.

KBTeachers have a whole array of worksheets, suitable for K - 12. Some of these pages are available for FREE, but most are through a Premium membership. Here are some examples of the excellent resources set up:

• Graphical Alphabet - What makes these graphical alphabet activity pages so special is that you can customize them: you choose the fonts, the case (upper, lower or title) and can even choose from coloured printable pages or black and white alphabet coloring pages.
• Personalised Writing Worksheets - You can type words, names, numbers and instructions.
• Math Worksheet Generators - to save time on printing up practice sheets.  Choose "click here to generate a new set" and a new set of images and numbers appear, giving you a variety.  Then answers are visible when actually printing out the set.
• Telling the Time - (perfect what we're using NOW with Mariposa!) Create a new set in seconds.

Keeping this site alive and fresh is a regularly updated section called "News for the Week". Here activity pages relevant to special calendar events and seasons are added.  There may also be a theme explored, such as Rainforests were in October, or Monet in November (with active reference links).

Premium membership gives unlimited access to all pages without the watermarks. If you're looking for something in particular, the team at KBTeachers are available for 24hr contact.

You may choose a one month FREE membership trial through PayPal. Membership is $29 for 12 months, or $49 for 2 years. Expect a vibrant, growing site that can serve you with quality worksheets that will encourage self-directed and directed learning.

NB - I received this product from TOS for the purpose of review. There is no other compensation and the opinions are my own. Thank you to TOS and KBTeachers for the use of this product. If you'd like to read further reviews on this product, please click HERE.

Encourage your budding writers

It's National Novel Writing Month at NaNoWriMo's Young Writers Program. If you want to encourage your children with their writing, then this is a great online resource to check out, with FREE workbooks and resources.

I've only just looked at this site, so haven't really prepared my children to do this challenge just yet. However, I will be keeping it in mind for the future!! I'm actually reviewing another product to do with writing at the moment, so we'll finish that first and then schedule this challenge for a future date.

So, just spreading the word! Check it out HERE.

Weighing in the costs of homeschooling, literally

I admit, I haven't been asked this question too often lately: "Doesn't homeschooling cost more money than sending (junior) to public school?" It certainly was a topic discussed with friends in our early homeschooling years, so I must have answered it pretty well to not warrant any further investigations.

Actually, how DO you answer that question? There are so many choices as to how you homeschool that will determine where the literal dollar is invested. Most homeschooling families are only on one wage, so a careful analysis of the home budget is something that will need your time.

All government subsides aside, lets take a raw look at those things that you need to consider. What are the basics you are going to need?

I think it would be pretty obvious that a basic set of stationery would be a need. The items you choose can be as simple as a pencil case with a couple of lead pencils, a pen, eraser, sharpener, ruler, and coloured pencils should get you started. Then there would be the paper, lined and/or unlined, coloured project paper, maybe an exercise book, or a binder for the loose pages.

I kept our earliest stationery costs to a minimum by purchasing a craft pack from Homeschooling Supplies. It was designed to have all the required bits and bobs a 4-7yr old would need to get the phonic craft projects done, with some to spare. Purchasing a pack like this was certainly a lot cheaper than having to buy bulk packs of paper, glitter, special cards, etc. In fact, I've gone back and purchased those packs independently of the phonics books so that we had that 'minimum' array of stationery and craft materials on a rainy day. (Look up "Phonics - Kit Parts" and you'll see two art packs available.)

Our stationery 'wants' have also played a part in our expenses, especially as the children grew older. Some of these items were small whiteboards per child, with the accompanying markers. I also bought a comb binder for our book making. It's been very handy for me in binding up all those free books I get online, too. Finally, I also bought a laminator.  From this I've made up my own flashcards, calendar for the children to practice 'making' the date, protected reusable pages such as the handwriting guide and number board (yes .. a future post here), and some games I've made up.

Okay, so we're set up with stationery, but we still need to teach our children. From what do we teach? "Well, books!" I hear most of you say. Choosing a curriculum can be daunting when you start out, so just start slowly. I think if you can get hold of some good fiction and junior non-fiction from the library, you can have literacy, copywork/handwriting if you take sections of what you or the child is reading each day. Better still, you can use that selected piece for copywork to highlight some pointers on grammar too.

Maths is one subject that will most likely be a first priority as far as looking for a text, unless this is a talent you have and you can adequately break the learning into smaller steps quite easily. Don't underestimate the library again, here. For the junior years, there are copious books written on counting, sorting, ordering, etc. If living books are your choice, then don't overlook the Living Math site for lesson plan ideas and their wonderful list of books per learning area.

Math manipulatives can be quite simple in the beginning. I kept small tubs of bottle tops, pegs, buttons and a number board I printed off showing the groupings in tens (from 0-99). A set of cuisenaire rods and base ten blocks weren't purchased until we were doing groupings (around grade 2).

The other subject areas could be done through library books also, that is to select a theme and then write up some of the highlights learnt, in the form of a unit study. Science, history and geography can all be done that way.

But what if you are looking for an actual curriculum? Why do people like myself choose a more expensive program like Sonlight?

Well, for starters we homeschooled with the basics as I've described above. Unfortunately I didn't blog about our homeschool happenings then, but yes, that's what we did. Then I purchased some very basic books from Homeschooling Supplies. These assured me that we were 'covering our bases' and it was my real first point of contact with another homeschooling family (yes, we started out not knowing any other homeschoolers, but that's another story.)

As my circle of homeschooling friends and knowledge increased, we began to realise there was a whole other world out there. There actually were books for homeschoolers, and in many different flavours for learning styles. Okay, I'm going on a bit of a tangent here, but that really was a factor that began to influence where the money got spent. This was where we had to do some serious budgeting, because over the course of the next few years the question WE were having to ask ourselves really was "Will homeschooling now become the more expensive option?"

We liked the literature that Sonlight offered, but knew that most of the books weren't available in our Australian libraries. We'd have to buy them, somehow. We had to budget carefully after doing research on purchasing and resale values.

I highly recommend the following points in planning your homeschool budget:

- Keep a list of books or courses that you find may be of interest.

- If you can arrange it, meet with others who can show you some of what they are using. The homeschool forums are great for this. Ask questions! Meet new people and you'll most likely find that many will be most willing to share.

- When you're quite adamant about the books you'd like to use, shop around. I keep an Excel spreadsheet of suppliers and do cost comparisons. Some places I like to check out regularly are Book Depository and Christianbook (check their 'Homeschooling' page often for weekly or monthly specials). If you're after a really good price comparison on new books, then Booko is worth checking out (for those buying in Australia primarily). It compares Fishpond, Amazon and many others. Realise, though, that it's not an exhaustive list of suppliers.

- Then contemplate how many of those things can you source secondhand, on loan from a friend, or even better, for free? Op shops often have a very high turnover of educational books, so ask if they can hold an encyclopedia set, or music books, for you. Libraries usually need to turn over their stock, too, and we've acquired many free books from the librarian who is looking to give them a new home. Again, too, don't overlook asking for "Wanted to Buy/Borrow" through the TRP homeschool forum, or check the list of classifieds on AHS Classifieds. You may also choose to sell on any books you've already decided you no longer need, for no advertising cost on either of these sites.

In my left sidebar there are lists with links to homeschooling forums, homeschooling links and sites offering teachers helps and ideas (many of which are free). I update this if anything in particular does grab my attention (remember ... I use my blog as a bit of a reference tool too, so if I want to find something later, it'll be there!)

One thing I haven't yet mentioned are those 'extra curricula' activities. We have dancing and music lessons. I know this an extra expense, but I've put the income I receive from helping to make the dance costumes and my singing students into the picture here. If your family does do a sport or another hobby, this needs to be considered also.

Well, I don't know if I answered the question of price comparisons, really. I don't know if I can give a blunt 'yes' or 'no' as there are so many factors involved. To do an absolute comparison, you would need to find out the fees a school is charging, the number of excursions in which they participate/cost, uniforms and shoes, and any other supplies that may be needed for your child.  You won't need to sell your books for each child so as to acquire the latest edition, either. What I can say is that homeschooling can be tailored to fit into your budget quite well. It doesn't NOT have to cost that much, without compromising on what you will help your child learn. Making use of the free resources around you first is a good way to start, especially if you're trying to find your feet. It's most likely that you'll be investing time researching either way, which is absolutely the best way to go before spending.

If you'd like to read input from others who are sharing their advice on the cost of homeschooling, jump on over to the Homeschool Blog Cruise.

Free Music Warehouse

Freely Educate has posted about a site that is offering a 'warehouse' of music that is in the public domain.
Anybody doing music studies should visit MusOpen.

When you get to the opening page, select the buttons "Music", "Sheet Music" or "Shuffle".

• MUSIC - Select recordings by composer, performer, instrument, period or form.

• SHEET MUSIC - Look up sheet music by composer, instrument, period or form.  

• SHUFFLE - will randomly select a composer, with a brief biography and selected work.

Craft giveaway through "The Handmaden"

The Handmaden is celebrating her 400th post. She very graciously is offering a gift voucher give-away for $35 to spend at Crafty Mamas.

Visit The Handmaden's blog post HERE to enter.

Interactive music site

Have you heard of Clickschooling? It's a fabulous resource! If you're a parent or teacher, then a visit to Clickschooling will open up a library of the evergrowing internet resources. Better still, sign up to their regular emails so you'll never miss a free curriculum idea! Just go here: http://clickschooling.com/ and enter your details in the blue box at the top right of the screen.

This weekend, my email contained a wonderful site about music. Well, most of you know that music is a bit of a passion in this family. This site has information on composers, instruments, the orchestra and games, plus a whole lot more. Head on over to Clickschooling's page HERE to see a fuller outline of the site and the site link. Recommended for primary aged children, but I think that some in junior high school would benefit from some of the pages here too.

(Permission has been given to use the above icon.)

Free audio from G.A.Henty.

Have you discovered Homeschool Freebie of the Day?

This is a great site if you're looking for free materials to add to your homeschool, or even to supplement your children's learning in general.

Well, I have to tell you about this special offer coming up on the 24th March ONLY!
(Now, it will be released U.S. time, so if you're in Australia, check back tonight and tomorrow).

They are offering G.A.Henty's unabridged By Pike and Dyke.  This is based on the rise of the Dutch republic.  You can go here, too, for a free download of the ebook.

CERES

The last couple of days have been unbearably hot here, but today we welcomed a cool day and overcast skies, hoping there just may be a little rain too. Whatever the outcome, we weren't going to be staying indoors. We were off to explore a permaculture garden called CERES.

Before entering, we were greeted with these lovely mosaics all on the entrance wall. 

At the cafe, the mosiac tables were further examples of their stunning work.

The children had a ball playing whilst we enjoyed a cuppa and chat.

Next time I'm going to spend a little longer looking at their gardens. Creative little rooms like this for individual community gardening were great.  I also have an old metal door frame like this, so I took this photo for inspiration.

By the creek:

Wednesday is organic market day, so next time we come I'll be better prepared, maybe even enquire about the seed swapping.

Narration bookmark prompts

Still sewing here. I'll get some photos up after our concert this weekend .. yay!! Meanwhile, in my 'downtime', I've caught up on some forum conversations and reading a couple of other blog articles.

Here's an idea that is so simple, and a great prompt: make your own narration bookmarks!

And .. a fabulous resource blog full of free ideas: Freely Educate. I'm looking forward to having some time to listen to these free Charlotte Mason seminars. :)

Take this as my 'to do' list, most likely in the next couple of weeks. In the meantime, I've got plenty to keep me busy, but trying very hard to not neglect giving the children the time they need for their education.
Oh my! Maestro's finished another math book today, so now we can actually seriously start Life of Fred and Speed Maths!

Free science channel: Pacific Star Navigation

Thank you to Homehandymum for her recommendation of this site: HotScience.
We've found a very interesting clip on Navigating the Pacific Ocean, which fits so very nicely with our current studies.

A cardigan jacket for Mariposa

Back in May, I was contemplating a knitting project to start for Mariposa. She needed a cardigan and a friend had told me about a free pattern from Garnstudio.



Well, I ended up finding some lovely 4ply wool, knitted it up and now it's all finished. I was going to embroider some rosebud bullion stitches on the lapels, but Mariposa likes it as it is. I'm quite happy with how it's all turned out, too.

Spanish freebies

If you're looking for resources to teach Spanish as your LOTE component, jump on over to Homeschool Freebie of the Day. They have this featured for today (and probably through the weekend).

Baby Snooks

Homeschool Radio Freebies introduced us to Baby Snooks a couple of years ago. Fanny Brice is very clever and funny; my children have been thoroughly enjoying these old radio shows. We even found a few sites today with episodes we hadn't yet heard: RadioLovers, OldTimeRadioFans and FreeOTRShows.

Maestro has been enjoying writing out the scripts (self-imposed dictation!) to re-enact the plays with Mariposa. This may even lead to them becoming playwrites themselves (or am I just being hopeful?)
☺

Geometry with paper construction

Some may already know about the Erskine family's freebie site. They regularly offer links to free information on activities, stories and other homeschooling resources. You can sign up for their free newsletters to get the 'Heads Up' through Homeschool Freebie of the Day .

The recent newsletter listed a page for making geometric paper constructions. It looks like a lot of fun and reminded me of the origami geometry we did earlier in the year, however these paper constructions don't involve folding, but rather cutting individual pieces and sliding them together.

So, we may just have to set up another geometry 'hands-on' lesson again next term.