Carschooling

I was reading about Carschooling this weekend and wanted to share some information and sites. On the go homeeschoolers can convert their cars or mini vans into a mobile classroom to make the most out of their homeschool mile. You can find teaching moments by just being aware of what is in your environment...while traveling in your car.
Carschooling goes way beyond the familiar car bingo when it comes to activities, like memorizing multiplication tables to exploring flattened fauna.....

Language Arts:
Here are a few ideas to improve reading, writing, spelling and grammar skills while traveling in the car....
Billboard ABCs- pick a letter of the alphabet and ask your young carschoolers to look for that letter or words that start with the letter on billboards. Or make the sound of a letter of the alphabet and ask them to find pictures of things with names that begin with that sound.
Drive-By Dictionary Defintions- search for new vocabualry words on billboards that carschoolers don't know. Say the word out loud and use it in a sentence or guess the meaning of the word.
Story telling- it develops listening skills.

Math:
Choose a catagory such as things that are yellow or round and see how many you can count out the window.

Look up latin names in the English-Latin dictionary and discover how to prounounce it correctly. By the way if you have a laptop with internet access you can find a online field guid at http://www.enature.com
History:
Your tax dollars supply exceptional roadside history textbooks called "History markers". Don't pass them by. Stop and read them and learn.
Road Trip Picture Time Line:
You will need a Polaroid camera; a notebook; glue or scotch tape and a pen. Tell your carschoolers that they are going to make a pictorial history line of your road trip. There is much , much more you can read about Carschooling at www.carschooling.com and they also have a lott of printables and information there.

Happy Birthdy to my little man...

Happy Birthday to my little man, Im sorry I couldn't get this on sooner but I have been sick with an upper respiratory infection since last Sunday. Noah turned 10 on Saturday, he is such a handsome guy- looks a lott like my Dad :0) !!! We love you!

Reptile Wrangler

Today the children and I went to the last Reading Program for the summer, we really had a good time. I met Ken and his son Zack, what a wonderful program they put on. He reminds me so much of Steve Irwin. My boy's we're so thrilled to see all the reptiles and learned so much today. Just wanted to share.......



Ken Panse, "Reptile Wrangler"

Ken Panse and his alligator associate smile for the camera. Panse takes his critters — which include show star Igzilla the iguana (far below) and some nonreptiles, such as the tarantula below — to schools and parties.

• What I do: Crikey! Georgia has its own crocodile hunter.

Ken Panse, who bills himself as the "Reptile Wrangler," visits schools, state parks and birthday parties with his menagerie of snakes, turtles, frogs, lizards, iguanas, tarantulas and even an alligator to educate and entertain children and their parents and teachers. He has written a book and is pitching a pilot for a television show.

Panse (pronounced "pans") even looks a bit like the late, celebrated crocodile hunter Steve Irwin.

Panse, 46, loads his critters — that's what he calls them — into cloth sacks and wicker baskets for the trips to the shows.

"There are elements of anticipation, as things rustle in the baskets," he said. "I start small and end up big" — sometimes with his 12-foot albino Burmese python.

Kids love to handle the critters that aren't dangerous, he said. And a favorite party photo is a line of children holding a big snake.

Panse has acquired his critters at animal shows and through wholesalers. He adopted some of them, but most of the time he has to say "no" to offers of unwanted creatures, he said.

Panse has been doing his shows — several of them a week — for about 12 years. He started showing just exotic animals, but, as Georgia's state parks started focusing on native animals, he's added indigenous species — such as timber rattlesnakes, snapping turtles and tree frogs — to his collection.

Panse said he's often asked which is his favorite. "They're all like children to me," he said. "I can't pick one over the other."

But the star of the show is Igzilla, a 12-year-old iguana with orange skin.

public school student get microchiped in RI

I read about this and wanted to post it here, another reason to homeschool.....

Public school students will be micro-chipped in R.I.!! Here is the link, check it out, it's just a short article.------------http://www.naturalnews.com/023445.html Who will be next?

Im Glad this week is OVER!!!

I didn't get to post this week on my blog due to being so sick. I ended up going to my GYN Thursday. I have 3 infections and have to take a lott of medications to get this under control, but Praise God I do feel better. My daughter got up yesterday and now she has a UTI....hmmmm. She is taking antibiotics now too so Im going to try to rest for the rest of the weekend.

Happy Father's Day

To the Love of my Life......"Happy Father's Day, Greg!!!" this is for you!!!

Thing's I wish I'd done differently

When I first began homeschooling I sure would've done things a lott differently now such as:


* You don't have to bring school home. When I started our "official" homeschooling, we had the desk, flag, blackboard, letter strips, etc. I quickly saw and felt how artificial that all was from what we had been doing naturally before "school" started at the age of 5! After that first few weeks, up until now, we continue to learn all over the house! My oldest is 16 and choose not to work at the table, my 12, 11 & 9 yr old like to sit at the table where they can draw and work on projects like notebooking, lapbooking and Story of the World activity papers and maps.

* I don't need to worry about what the kids in school are doing - the freedom to homeschool is the freedom to tailor each child's education, moving at THEIR own pace, NOT the school system's. I spent way too much time during those first few years worrying & comparing our school to the public school. We were fairly relaxed and I knew we were doing it the right way for us, but that didn't keep me from fretting!

* You will make mistakes when purchasing curriculum, and it's okay! With so many options available to us, it is important to prayerfully consider when buying curriculum.. However, there will be times when you purchase books or resources that either don't "fit" your family/child or simply don't get used due to any number of reasons. I've learned over the years to go easy on myself and I've seen how my mistakes have been able to bless others who are looking for that item I have just sitting on my shelf.

* Don't feel guilty when you spend hours reading aloud. I used to get mad at myself for allowing my boys to talk me into reading for hours, therefore not getting to all the "work" that needed to be done. Now, these are my most treasured memories, AND my older children still enjoy listening to me read aloud. Our favorite books these days are from the classics lists from Ambleside Online or Penny Gardner's website.

As I mentioned before, my list could go on and on. It's good to reflect on these things every now and then. I am so thankful to have the chance to be with my children through all the phases of their young lives. One thing is for sure - our homeschooling journey has not been boring. Each year brings new opportunities and challenges! I am so thankful we can learn together and grow together as a family!