Handwriting Worksheet Generators

Today I’ve spent the day trying to reprioritize my schedule and goals. It always happens during the year that shifts in the books we are using and in chores and other routines ends up throwing us off our daily schedule which makes for just more than a little bit of chaos in the house.

After another morning of pandamonious schooling –the toddler being into everything, nursing the baby, answering questions on three different subjects going on at the time and the five year old whining that he was bored — I realized my schedule had been undermined and compromised. During lunch we had a board meeting pointing out the haphazard way our days were going and I pointed us all back to the schedule of peace and happy days.

This required me to be more diligent in finding preschool worksheets for my five year old. Since part of his boredom is waiting on his teacher to create worksheets for him (like writing his name) then I decided I need to find something to make that tedious task much more enjoyable. After doing a search and trying out several handwriting worksheet generators I settled on this one from Softschools.com as producing the most professional worksheet with multiple lines, ability to choose font size, page orientation, and more.

Ambleside Online

For those of us who use the Charlotte Mason approach I was introduced to this website last week by a good friend. I’m really excited about it! Here is the introduction from their website, it says it all.

Welcome to Ambleside Online, a free homeschool curriculum designed to be as close as possible to the curriculum that Charlotte Mason used in her own private and correspondence schools. Our goal is to be true to Charlotte Mason’s high literary standards. Ambleside Online uses the highest quality books and costs no more than the cost of texts. The curriculum uses as many free online books as possible, and there is no cost to use this information or join the support group.

Announcing the 50 States Scrapbook

For those of you looking for a place to scrapbook everything you will learn about the 50 states this is the place to put it. Each scrapbook pages contains a place to:

1. Place the name of the state at the top of the page.
2. Draw the state or paste a picture of the state, the bird, the flower, and the flag.  (Amazon.com carries a  50 State Cartridge for the Cricut)
3. A place to write down facts such as the type of agriculture, famous American, state motto, capital, and main industry.
4. A place to write a small paragraph of interesting facts about the state that were learned.

Keeping Multiplication Straight…

Practicing arithmetic can be pretty frustrating at times for student and teacher. It is especially frustrating to know how to do something and repeatedly come up with wrong answers due to sloppy writing techniques.  The best tip I have received over the years was to use graph paper for multiplication and division.  (see example at the right)  This practice increased legability, technique, gradibility(?), and decreased frustration by 98%.  Each number had a spot and each column was clear for student and teacher.  Simple techniques like this can make the difference between a peaceful and stressful day of homeschooling.  

Math U See: A Review

Primer, Alpha, Beta, Gamma,Delta, Epsilon…What does the Greek alphabet have to do with arithmetic?  Everything when you are using Math U See! Four years ago frustrated with my inability to be a great math teacher I began researching math curriculum. I had used A Beka, Modern Curriculum Press Math, a few small workbooks but we were really struggling to find a current we could swim in and build up our strength.  

We found our current the year I bought Math U See for the first time. It came with a teaching dvd that you could watch as a parent and teach or watch together with your child. For me — a military brat who moved enough to have learning gaps in math — this was a great asset! Another asset was Steve Demme’s awesome teaching style. My children feel like they know him personally. My husband has noticed MY improvement in math as well. Math U See has received several awards through the years and they deserve each one. And as if great curriculum with a teaching DVD wasn’t enough – Steve Demme has the cheapest math on the market that includes video school teaching (to my knowledge).  Just take a look at the prices.

If you are struggling for an easy to use math curriculum I urge you to head over to Math U See and ask for their free demo video.

Creative Writing Prompts

Sometimes creative writing can be a crisis when you are all out of ideas.  Until recently that is the slump we had found ourselves in.   Being a blog writer however; I am also a blog reader.  One particular blog has caught my attention is past weeks, not only for its written content but because of the excellent photography.  

On a particular day several of the photos caught my whimsy.  I loved them and I made one my desktop wallpaper.  After several days of staring at this particular picture I couldn’t help but make up imaginary stories in my mind. The geese in the picture kept coming to life and I found that my children where just as captivated by the photo as I was. 

That was when it hit me!  Here was our writing prompt we had been waiting for. Delighted with the prospect of being able to find inspiration anywhere on the web during the dreary winter weather I have begun collecting pictures for dull days.  My seven year old tells his story orally to all of us; while my older children write in their notebooks.  Here we have covered language for the day in one session for all age groups.  

Our Mother Tongue: A Review

Grammar workbooks are my bane.  Somewhere out there I am sure exists a grammar book that isn’t going to bring  frustration and a bunch of  busywork that leaves teachers wondering what sadistic person thought to put 50 sentences to diagram on each page and then have you spend valuable time grading those same sentences.  I’ve never like diagraming sentences and I’ve NEVER liked grammar workbooks. 

Easy Grammar – tried it, started to like it, hated it.  

A Beka Grammar – well laid out year after year after year the same old, same old thing.  Do you get the idea that it is repetitively redundant???

Winston Grammar – Scared of it simply by the looks.

Jensen’s Grammar – Teacher sleeps through book.

Bob Jones Grammar – Easier version of  A Beka.

But finally I think I have found something that makes grammar an interesting subject to pursue.  Our Mother Tongue by Nancy Wilson is a brilliantly simple approach to understanding grammar “without bringing your soul down to Sheol.”  I have thoroughly looked it over and found simple explanations for higher grammar that even my fifth grader can handle while being able to catch myself up on things I must have *hmhmmm” missed in public school.

What is a Unit Study?

A few years back I got all excited about Unit Studies.  A unit study is essentially where you leave the textbooks behind in search of living books that cover the same materials.  You can do a unit study about trains, bugs, trees, people, nations, etc.  Every bit of learning is drawn from the unit study subject.  For instance:

Bugs are my unit study…………

For Reading – Read The Hungry Caterpillar, Vocabulary is bug terms.

For Language Arts – write a creative story about a Lady Bug’s life & grammar is conducted using bug words.

For Math – bug word problems in addition to regular math

For Science – Bug Anatomy

For History/Social Studies - How about studying the war between man and grasshoppers.  (just saw an excellent documentary on this somewhere in a waiting room)

Okay – you get the point.  Here is a unit study in a basic breakdown.  They are fun but they really require a tremendous amount of planning if you are going to do it for more than one day.  If you are going to carry your unit study throughout the semester than you can plan on spending more time than you originally bargained for in the planning stage.  When I first planned a Unit Study I got exhausted trying to track down all the books I planned to use.  Having three children at the time that meant finding an age appropriate book for each one.  What I couldn’t find at the library (here in little ol’ Ripley County)  I ended up having to purchase (which was not cost effective).  Even if you buy a preplanned unit study you will run into buying a ton of books to go with it.   Near the middle of our unit study  I was completely frustrated trying to gather my materials and complained out loud, “I wish I could just find all this stuff in ONE book!!!!”  Suddenly the silliness of my struggles slapped me in the face as I realized “DUH!, its called a textbook!”

Weigh your options carefully and try not to fall for fads in education.  If you find a unit study that works and your excited about it don’t hesitate, go for it.  I just wanted to warn you it takes more time and more money (that is if you don’t have an awesome local library).  I just don’t want you to end up frustrated like I was wishing for a text book after all.