Teaching Government in a New Way!

There's a giveaway going on RIGHT now that might teach your children Government and even a little American History in a slightly new way. I really like it and I think it would even FINALLY catch our 10 year old's attention finally! I'm hoping we'll win a set because I'm not sure I would be able to afford it myself but who knows, if we don't win it I may see if we could swing picking up a set some way. If I have your attention, I guess it's time I tell you about the set and give you a link to take a look yourself.
The set is about Dubs, a golden retriever who loses his tennis ball and visits Washington, D. C. while looking for it in the first book. While there, he visits the country's great memorial sites--Lincoln, Jefferson, FDR, Reagan, Martin Luther King Jr., Air and Space, etc.--and learns something new about America and its greatness.
In the second book, Dubs actually runs for President against Felix the Cat. lol A fun, charming story  presents a cute, non-partisan look at how party politics and presidential elections work in America--and lets kids hunt for the missing ball along the way.
In the last book, Dubs and his friend Daisy go to Philadelphia to see the birthplace of the nation's Constitution. They visit the Liberty Bell, Ben Franklin's home, Congress Hall and other fun places where our great nation wrote its charter and built the foundations of freedom for all. As usual, they also play with their tennis ball along the way.
All three books also come with  a plush Dubs in the giveaway. Are you ready to find out where it is
now? Well, here's the link: http://hedua.com/dubs-giveaway/

The set is actually designed for children ages 4-8 but I think our autistic son would enjoy reading them and may even interest him to learn more about each topic although I'm pretty sure he won't be interested in the plush. Yes, he's older than the target range but sometimes children with autism tend to like things designed for children younger than they are. Besides, I'm pretty sure our grand daughter would love the plush! lol 

Are you ready for Easter?

     Good question, isn't it? There are so many ways this question can be taken. Are you teaching your child about Easter? Is it more than white bunny rabbits and eggs? If you are teaching your children about what Easter is really about, I'm in the same boat. I've found some really fantastic resources to do it with too! All of them are absolutely free also which for me helps an awful lot. You just have to pay for the printing if it's needed. Some of them are going to take you a little extra time to prepare but I think they will really help your child understand what you are teaching them.
     One site I really love for downloading free materials that I usually send to an office supply store and have them printed is http://jacques-mylittlehouse.blogspot.com/ the parent site or http://www.mylittlehouse.org/ the newer site. You may want to take a peek at both sites because the publisher hasn't moved everything from his original, parent site to his newer site.  They are really great sites for 3D manipulatives. I've downloaded some dinosaur paper dinosaur toys for our son from the site. Our son LOVES them! Also, I've downloaded an entire set of 3D paper toys that you can put together to create an entire town of Bethlehem for the Christmas season. I've also downloaded a really cute 3D paper model of the rock room where the body of Jesus was placed after he was crucified. There's also a 3D picture you can put together and put on the wall.
     Now, for my favorite site for homeschooling materials... Currclick.com! Right now, the site is offering ten freebies to teach our son about Easter. The thing is, they are all hidden throughout the site as an Easter Egg Hunt for adults. lol Sometimes it can be pretty interesting and sometimes it can be pretty challenging. All the eggs have a link on Pintrest but a lot of people end up having to log on every time they use the link from Pintrest so that can be quite a hassle so I'm going to post the directions for each of the "eggs" here on my blog. I put the exact area on the site where you can find the egg link for the freebie. Next, in parenthesis I give directions where to find the exact area, then the title of the freebie, finally the publisher of the freebie. Here's the list:
 1. "About Currclick" (Main Page at bottom) for The Death and Resurrection of a King Lapbook with Study Guide by A Journey Through Learning
2. "About CurrClick Live" (Main Pate at bottom) for An Easter Adventure by Scripture Adventures
3. "Free Clubs" (left margin, Quick links, Main Page) for Simply Spring by Rainbow Horizons Publishing
4. "Live Classess" (left margin, main page) for Easter Skip Counting Cards by Eastern Wind Academy
5. "Hybrid Live classes" (left margin, under browse, live classes) for Anti-Coloring Book of Red-Letter Days by Anticoloring Books
6. "Publisher, Progeny Press" (left margin, under browse, click publishers then click Progeny Press) for Pockets of Time for Junie B Jones, First Grader: Dumb Bunny from Fortunately for You Books
7. Teachable Moments (left margin, main page) for A Roman Centurion's Story by Brandenburg Studies
8. Updated Products (Account tab at top of page) for Happy Easter Activity Booklet by Roots and Wings Homeschool
9. All products awaiting my review (Account tab at top of page) for Resurrection Copywork Project Lapbook by The Whole Word Publishing
10. My Library (My Library tab at top of page) for Stories from the Life of Christ Told to the Children by Heritage History
Now, not all of these freebies deal with what Easter is really about so once you download them, you will have to decide whether or not you are going to actually use all of them! Of course, there is  enough information that Easter will be taken care of for a couple years unless you cover material quickly with your children.
Also, on the main page, every week Currclick offers a product to download for free. This week, you can get Early Elementary Fractions WorkText (Textbook and Workbook) by A+Tutorsoft although the Easter freebies will be available until the first of April. By then, the freebie on the main page will change. Now this freebie has absolutely nothing to do with Easter but it's still nice to get free materials to help homeschool our children.

Having Fun with Science

I was looking for something to teach our son that was both fun and had something to do with science a while ago and went looking on the internet when I remembered reading about slime. Having three older sons, I remembered how much fun they had when they were younger playing with the stuff! I found several sites with how tos, instructions, and suggestions to the point that I was almost overwhelmed. I finally got it down to three sets of instructions that had the basics in common but with amounts differing. I then got busy and found all the materials needed to make slime, borax being the most difficult ingredient. Although the directions sound a little difficult to follow, it's really pretty easy to make slime. Since it's so easy, I thought I would share how to make it, whether you need a science lesson or just want to have a little fun with your children.

SLIME

 Materials:

Glue (white clue is cheaper but clear glue will make a clear slime. I even used some glitter glue)

Borax

Water (broke open a couple highlighters and soaked wick inside in water for a couple days)

Food Color is optional

Instructions:

You will be making two solutions and combining the two to make the slime. In a bowl, pour your glue out of the bottle and refill with either clear or colored water and add to the glue in the bowl. I used a combination of glitter glue and clear glue. About one ounce of glitter glue and about four ounces of the other. If you want to use food color to color your slime, add three or four drops at this point. I used water that I had soaked the insides of a couple highlighters for a couple days, one blue and one yellow. Stir until the glue and water are combined. In another container, measure one cup of warm water and add one Tablespoon of Borax. Stir until the Borax is dissolved. Now, using a spoon slowly add the Borax solution to the glue solution while stirring. You will almost immediately feel the slime starting to form! You may not want to add all the borax solution depending on how firm you want your slime. Once your slime is too firm to stir, you can take out the spoon and continue mixing with your hands.

 

Explanation:
The borax is acting as the crosslinking agent or "connector" for the glue (polyvinyl acetate) molecules. Once the glue molecules join together to form even larger molecules called polymers, you get a thickened gel very similar to slime. If you have access to a chemical supply house, try a 4% solution of polyvinyl alcohol instead of the glue for a less rubbery polymer and one that is transparent showing off the color better. Another way to explain the science is to take a necklace and explain that the glue solution is like a pile of links, not connected. Once you add the borax solution, it's like having the links connect into a necklace.

I hope you enjoy making slime as much as our son and I did if you decide to give it a try. I know that not only did our nine year old son enjoy playing with it, so did our four your old grandson, my twenty four year old son, and our son's entire Cub Scout Pack at our recent Blue and Gold Banquet had a blast with it.

Teaching Our Special Needs Child to Read

     Homeschooling a special needs child can be so challenging but also so rewarding sometimes. I used to tutor children when I was in school. I usually helped those that were younger than me but were also among the worst readers in their class or grade. A lot of times, they were children who just didn't catch on how to read with the rest of their class and ended up having to just go along with each reading assignment. I found the easiest way to help them learn to read was to teach them basic phonics skills. Our youngest son has been diagnosed with autism and reading delay. When it was time to start teaching him to read, I tried phonics since it had been so successful in the past. Well, guess what? Each and every time we worked on reading both of us were near tears! After trying phonics for a couple weeks, I went on the internet and searched for something that was designed to teach reading to special needs children. The program wasn't cheap but we found a way to get it. Once we got the program, I spent about a week reading over how to use it. For a couple months, we were doing fine but by the time we got to a certain point we came to a screeching halt. I called the company to see if they had any suggestions on how to continue going forward but pretty much everything they suggested, I had already tried. After trying and trying and trying to work through the step that had us stumped for more than a month. I finally remembered my mom showing me a copy of my grandmother's McGuffey Reader years before. I did a search to see if they were still available and was lucky to come across a wonderful site that posts books whose copyright has expired. I was able to download the entire collection for free!
     We've been using McGuffey Readers for about a year and a half. We took a summer off but when we started back at the end of the vacation, our son had forgotten just about every lesson he had heard so we had to start over again from nearly the beginning of the book. I believe our son is a kinetic learner, he does best when he has things like manipulative to work with. I designed my own flashcards with a word processing program that allows me to make a flashcard for each new word that is introduced in each lesson. I have our son do various activities like putting words in alphabetical order, using a word in a sentence, and matching the words to definitions.
     The good news is that after about a year now, our son is almost finished with the first reader. He's still not confident with his reading abilities. He's actually much better at reading than he thinks he is. We're trying to encourage him to read on his own. One thing we're doing is giving him extra time to play on his Wii for every book he reads. Another thing we're doing is having him read every other sentence at night instead of reading his books to him.

Learning Tree Games

I thought it might be interesting to talk about my "other" blog today although it really isn't so much a blog about me or my family or what we are currently doing in homeschooling. It's a blog about products my partner and I create and sell on Currclick.com. It's called "Learning Tree Games" and can be found at: http://learning-tree-games.blogspot.com/. Although I probably need to go on the blog and see if all the products we currently have for sale on Currclick have been included on the blog. We also have a Facebook page where we post about any sales we are participating in and also about new products we are introducing.
You see, my partner and I started creating and making learning games for subjects our sons were needing a little extra help with. It all started with our game, "The Great Space Race" after I had made a gameboard to help our nine year old autistic son with multiplication. After I created the game using a dinosaur themed board, my partner loved the idea and thought we could take the idea and create a game that just about any child would enjoy playing. I ended up thinking of ways the game could be used to practice addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division skills but that was pretty easy.  We ended up changing the theme but that worked pretty well in the long run. We have created some decks of cards that can be used with the basic game board but the basic game is designed to be used with dice too. We have even created a deck of cards about the solar system that can also be used with the board so, it's not just a math game!
One thing my partner and I decided up front was that we wanted to keep all our products at a reasonable price since so much in homeschooling seems to cost not only an arm but also a leg! lol Most of our games are $5.00 or less and the decks are a buck or two. We even try to offer our products on sale as oftern as possible. In fact, we are planning to discount them after Christmas, some time in January.
Right now, we are working on our next game that should be available pretty soon. We thought a game to practice about US Geography would be helpful. The deck for the game has been created but when I had it printed, I found a minor problem that I should be able to fix fairly soon. My partner is working on the board now so we should be able to offer the game sometime between now and the end of January.
Well, that tells you about Learning Tree Games. Drop into the blog or our Facebook page to check us out or take a look at some of our games on Currclick.com

Great Lapbook Deals

There are some really great deals being offered by Knowledge Box Central and Hands of a Child for a limited time.  Anyway, in case anyone is interested in learning more about the deasl, here is everything I know about them:

Holiday 2012 Package

$55.00 regular price $20.00 sale price!
Save: 64% off

This Holiday Package includes 11 products and 567 pages!  
It is available for a LIMITED time ONLY and in EBOOK format ONLY.  This package includes all of the following ebooks in one file:
To view sample pages of each Activity Book or Lapbook, please vist the links by clicking on the book title. 

*New Year’s Around the World Lapbook
*New Year’s Fun & Coloring Activity Book
*Valentine’s Day Lapbook
*Labor Day Lapbook
*History of Halloween Lapbook
*Halloween Activity Book
*Thanksgiving Lapbook
*Turkey Talk Activity Book
*Christmas Fun & Coloring Activity Book
*Christmas Symbols Lapbook
*Kwanzaa Lapbook 

I would really like to get it although I don't know what I would do with one of the lapbooks that's included in the package. What is Kawanzaa all about anyway? lol I never even heard about it at all until maybe ten years ago but I did a little research and found it was first celebrated around 1966.

Another lapbook pack Knowledge Box Central is also offering is one about Ancient History. It's more within my price range right now so I might be able to swing getting it but I really wanted to let people know about it as soon as possible! Here's the information in case you would like to know more:

Regular Price: $40.00 

Sale price: $10.00

save 75%

This 287 PAGE Package includes:

3 Lapbooks, 3 Mini-Lapbooks, and 2 Notebooking Pages Packs

Included in this package:

Ancient Egypt Lapbook
Ancient Egypt Mini-Lapbook
Ancient Egypt Notebooking Pages
Ancient Greece Lapbook
Ancient Greece Mini-Lapbook
Ancient Rome Lapbook
Ancient Rome Mini-Lapbook

Ancient Rome Notebooking Pages

Lastly, right now Hands of a Child is having a sale on their products they are selling through Currclick.com. A majority of them are half off while a few of them are a little better price and a few are a little less. I have been having my eye on a couple World History lapbooks and would love to be able to pick them up right now while they are on sale. We'll see!

Great Homeschooling Internet Sites

Since my husband and I are both disabled veterans, it also means that we are also on a tight budget too. That also means that I need to keep my eye out for things I can find to use while homeschooling our nine year old autistic son. Along the five year old road of homeschooling, I've found a lot of really great sites that I've either used or plan to use while homeschooling him. I thought it might be useful if I posted my list to my blog in case someone else could possibly use any of them. If you find out that any of them don't work, I would really like to hear about it. If you want to pass the list along to others, great! If you have  a favorite site or two that might be useful, drop me an email at Familytreeclimber@Yahoo.com. I know, I know where's the list already? If there are asterisks (*) before the link, that means it's a site that I really like! Well, here it is:

General sites for homeschooling Resources
 http://www.tes.co.uk/ lessons on various subjects
 http://www.enchantedlearning.com/Home.html coloring pages & etc
 www.homeschoolfreebie.wholesomechildhood.com
 www.schoolexpress.com
*Currclick.com (some free stuff, some low cost, some expensive!)
 http://www.newbeehomeschooler.com/
 http://www.learningtoday.com/corporate/curriculum.asp
 http://teachers.net/gazette/AUG03/printable.html#moose Teachers Net PreK-12
 http://www.teacherspayteachers.com Over 5,000 freebies but you have to sign up, products created by teachers
*http://www.amblesideonline.org/ free entire homeschool curriculum like Charlotte Mason K-12
*ww.brillkids.com resources for special needs, gifted and talented
 http://www.senteacher.org/Files/ Downloadable pages for Math, using computers, science, communication, the Arts, and other areas.
 http://www.melissaforney.com/blog/the-scoop Teacher blog
*http://allinonehomeschool.wordpress.com/ Entire Free Homeschool Program!
*http://oldfashionededucation.com/index.html Free Homeschool Curiculum, liturature and text books

Books
Audiobooks http://www.allyoucanbooks.com/
***ebooks http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Main_Page Great site for classic books like Tom Sawyer, Alice in Wonderland, & Treasure Island!
ebooks (read on site) http://www.wegivebooks.org/books
http://www.read.gov/books/

Math
www.homeschoolmath.net/worksheets
http://www.meetpenny.com/2012/03/free-multiplication-worksheets-fact-cards-with-visual-cues/ multiplication worksheets
http://www.math-drills.com/
http://www.mathfreebies.com
http://www.sheppardsoftware.com/math.htm Basic math concepts to pre-algebra games
http://myteacherpages.com/webpages/jgriffin/job.cfm Math Task Cards
http://www.makingmathmorefun.com/news.htm some free some have fee!
http://www.321know.com/g8-int-eval-exp.htm#section1

English
http://www.mcguffeysonlinetutor.com/ McGuffey Reader Weekly Newsletter
http://www.homeschoolcreations.com/preschoolalphabet.html PreK Learning Alphabet

Reading
carlscorner.us.com
readingteacher.com

Writing
hubbardscupboard.org

Penmanship
http://www.handwritingworksheets.com/

History
http://mappinghistory.uoregon.edu/english/index.html
http://www.besthistorysites.net/
http://www.historyplace.com/worldhistory/famine/ Limited, but good history link for making Power Point
http://www.historicaltruth101.com Great to bring history alive through interviews
http://www.mrdonn.org/index.html
another
http://ancientweb.org/
middle ages
http://www.abookintime.com/crafts/projectsmidages.html#knights
Romans
http://www.brims.co.uk/romans/towns.html
gladiator,mummy, exploring,whaling
http://www.salariya.com/web_books/gladiator/index.html
ancient rome
http://www.mce.k12tn.net/ancient_rome/rome.htm
pics for ancient Greece and Rome
http://wings.buffalo.edu/AandL/Maecenas/
kings,queens and castles
http://happyhomeschool.familyclassroom.net/Archives/History/KingQueens.shtml
history and science
http://www.prontolessons.com/lessons.html


US History
http://jobehistory.blogspot.com/2010_08_01_archive.html
http://thomaslegion.net/intro.html
Founding Fathers http://colonialhall.com/biodoi.php
www.AmericanHeritage.org (great curriculum for all grades from elementary through high school)
http://www.scholastic.com/ellisisland a vertual exploration of Ellis Island
www.youtube.com/watch?v=u4wzVuXPznk
Links for Presidents of US: http://www.socialstudiesforkids.com/subjects/uspresidents.htm

Native Americans
*** http://www.ri.net/schools/Glocester/WGES/Rsrcpgs/NA/page22.htm
*** http://www.ahsd25.k12.il.us/curriculum/nativeamericans/index.html
2nd Grade Lesson Plan http://aam.govst.edu/projects/kyoung/index.htm
    Native American Pictures: http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/browse/ListSome.php?category=Native%20American%20History
7th Grade Lesson Plan http://www.wmsrivera.com/americans/native/americans.html
http://webs.rps205.com/curriculum/ssandvoc/NA.html

Government
http://publications .usa.gov/ USAPubs.php? PubID=6099 - free poster showing how to
get to be the president
iCivics.org - several games to play to understand
government/laws/ bills/courtrooms
Kids.gov - several games and other links to help them understand more how things work
http://www.unitstud y.com/Elections_ Study.html

Geography
http://theopenmindacademy.weebly.com US geography work pages

Maps
http://education.nationalgeographic.com/education/mapping/outline-map/?map=The_World&ar_a=1
http://www.wdl.org/en/
http://geography.about.com/library/blank/blxusx.htm Blank US maps
http://education.nationalgeographic.com/education/mapping/outline-map/?ar_a=1 Map Blank Maker
http://www.socialstudiesforkids.com/subjects/mapsofcontinents.htm Continent Maps
Outline Map links
http://www.eduplace.com/ss/maps/
http://geography.about.com/cs/blankoutlinemaps/ (many links listed)
http://www.50states.com/maps/ (one for each state)
http://www.nationalgeographic.com/xpeditions/atlas/
http://www.worldatlas.com/webimage/testmaps/maps.htm

Worksheets
 www.education.com  I don't know how good this one is but it has been suggested to check it out.
www.spellingcity.com      "          "          "          "

Posters
http://www.values.com/media_requests

Free Homeschool Materials (Notebook, lapbook, etc)
http://notebookingnook.blogspot.com/2009/10/freebies-organized-by.html
http://www.homeschoolshare.com/
http://dynamic2moms.webs.com/ Lapbooks
http://yeeshallknow.com
http://www.staidenshomeschool.com/ Unit Studies
http://notebookingfairy.com/ Notebooking how tos

Science
https://www.msu.edu/~carusosa/rainforest.htm Rainforest
http://msnucleus.org/membership/html/k-6/uc/index.html
http://www.neok12.com/    this site has science videos and games all free
http://www.starfall.com/   great site for beginning readers.
http://www.superchargedscience.com/lnc512-7.htm e-Science Activities & Experiments available for limited time!
      Astronomy
http://www.kidsastronomy.com/ Great kids science site and astronomy
In spite of the "kids", there's stuff here for upper levels too - if you go
to Free Online Classes, there is a track for 12 and up.

Classical Music & Art
http://www.blockmrecords.org/bach/download.htm
Biography of Beethoven: www.lvbeethoven.com/Bio/BiographyLudwig.html
Site dedicated to Beethoven: www.lucare.com/immortal
Free listening, videos, concerts: www.last.fm/music/Ludwig+van+Beethoven
Beethoven videos: http://video.search.yahoo.com/
Johannes Brahms free notebook store.confessionsofahomeschooler.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=70_76_77&products_id=258
world's greatest artists: Pablo Picasso, Vincent Van Gogh, Jackson Pollock, Claude Monet, Henry Matisse, Georgia O’keefe, Michelangelo, and Leonardo Da Vinci. If you are interested in this, follow this link:
http://store.confessionsofahomeschooler.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=70_76_78&products_id=194 may or may not be free!
http://www.naxos.com/qcomp.htm
http://www.classicalarchives.com/
http://www.composers.net/ A Music Glossary
http://WWW.thekidswindow.co.uk/homework_help

Religion
http://www.lds.org/bible-videos/videos?lang=eng Bible videos
http://www.lds.org/media-library/video/new-testament-stories?lang=eng Children's New Testament Stories
http://www.lds.org/media-library/video/old-testament-stories?lang=eng Children's Old Testament Stories

Games
http://www.childrensmuseum.org/themuseum/fireworks_ofglass/games_k2.htm#
http://www.filefolderfun.com/index.html
http://www.currclick.com/index.php?manufacturers_id=624 Low cost learning games

Flashcards
http://www.myfreeflashcards.com

Paper Crafts
http://jacques-mylittlehouse.blogspot.com/search
http://www.korthalsaltes.com/
http://marilee.us/paperdolls.html Paper Dolls

Cooking

http://www.childrensrecipes.com/how_to_make_homemade_marshmallows.htm Homemade Marshmallows

Low Cost Homeschooling materials
*Currclick.com
www.confessionsofahomeschooler.com
http://edhelper.com/    some free stuff, but only costs $20 a year for full access. worth the money for K thru 8
*schoolexpress.com Unit Studies

Lapbook companies
ajourneythroughlearning.com       sign up for newsletter and get free lapbook of their choice
HandsofaChild.com                      free quarterly lapbook and weekly $5 lapbooks
KnowledgeBoxCentral.com          sign up for newsletter and get coupon good for $5 off purchase which means either your first one free or half off! All their lapbooks are either $5 or $10 each!


I know the list is pretty long, sorry about that but some of them I found and others have been passed on to me. After five years, you kind of end up finding a lot of sites if you are looking for things that can be helpful to you! I do hope it is helpful to you though. If anything, take a look at the sites with an *.