Newton, Comets, Asteroids, and Thanksgiving

Tomorrow is Science with a touch of History. If you go to scholastic.com you can watch the live podcast on the first Thanksgiving. It will be showing tomorrow at 1PM.

This week DJ is studying Sir Isaac Newton, asteroids and comets. The four videos below, are all great adjuncts to any lessons you may use. I am curious if any of my homeschool readers have ever used Edhelper.com I really like the themed units as a way to learn, but I want to be sure they are complete enough for my older learner. I put a lot of time into lessons right now, and really am not fond of all the books we have lying around all the time. I would love to try all themed units next year, but am looking for some feedback from others first. Maybe they have some free ones I can try, for older learners, to see how I like them.

Lesson Plans For 11/16/10:

DJ:
Science: As above
First Thanksgiving podcast
Spelling: Chapter 8 write each word three times each
Math: Division
Sign Language

Caitlin:
First Thanksgiving podcast
Math: Addition
Spelling: List 8
Printing Practice
Science: Dinosaur lapbook with artwork, Weather/Seasons lapbook Fall
Language Arts: Long vowels, blends
Read sentences and color pictures WS

Learning About Dinosaurs Velociraptor And Triceratops

Finally we are back on track after a crazy week of fun and excitement last week. Caitlin has begun a dinosaur lapbook. I found a cool art book at the library, and she will be drawing her own dinosaurs to add to her book. I ran out of printer ink, so I won't be printing anything until next week. I will be adding the videos in this series below, as we go along, to help her learn about each dinosaur. Down at the bottom of this blog, are a bunch of free links, in that section there is a website all about dinosaurs for kids to learn with. It is a good site, and you should check it out. Because I use two different math resources for DJ, he will be finishing up division this week in his Spectrum workbook, with no Saxon math. Then after the Thanksgiving break he will begin fractions in the Spectrum math book and mixed math in his Saxon book.

Lesson Plans For 11/15/10:

DJ:
Language Arts: Linking verbs
Writing: Blog Post: Fishy Monday Coral Grouper fish
Spelling: Chapter 8 write each word three times each
Math: Division
Reading Comprehension with worksheet
Proofreading
Art: Dragon Art or Dinosaurs

Caitlin:
Spelling: List 8
Printing Practice
Math: Addition
Language Arts: Long vowels, blends
Dinosaur lapbook with art work
Read sentences to color pictures WS
Calendar work, clock work, sight words, skip counting

What Is Free Speech and What Does It Mean To You?

In this country we have the right and luxury to free speech. What does that mean, and what does it mean to you? I am not a politically correct person. I am not a conservative, or liberal. I do believe in free speech and our right to have it. I find a lot of things vulgar, offensive, hateful, rude and even disgusting. That does not give me the right to violate that person's right to free speech. If someone chooses to write about disgusting fantasies, violent things, or things they might like to do, or how to do said things, undoubtedly a lot of us will be offended or even disgusted. But does that give us the right to tell them their speech is not protected under our Constitution just because people are offended by it? Why is one person's free speech protected more than another persons? It shouldn't be. We all have the power to not view, read, discuss, yell, scream and holler about things we find offensive. Our will to be stronger than the offending writer to get their material discussed, is what will win in the end. Our will to be aware and know what is going on to protect our families, are the things we should concentrate on. Don't give them the power to win by drawing attention to their cause, but they can have their free speech. Just like all of us who blog and appreciate our free speech to write and discuss at will. It really is no different.

On a more pleasant subject we only have 42 days left until Christmas. I am continuing my countdown to Christmas on all by blogs. Have you started shopping yet?

Story Time For Me Review and Giveaway

Do you have a reluctant reader, especially because they are having difficulty learning to read? I think teaching a child to read is harder than any of the other subjects I teach my children. It is easy for them to become frustrated, and even angry. Repetition and review are the two most important aspects of learning to read, I think. That is why I am glad to tell you about Story Time For Me.


Story Time For Me, will teach your child to read through engaging stories, repetition, and highlighting the words as he or she reads along. The books are completely read online, with no books to be left lying around the house. Your child can read along as many times as it takes to learn the words. There are over 50 titles to choose from, and each of my readers that clicks the link above, will get two free books to try it out. Simply click on the send me my two free books link, and follow the prompts. My daughter loved the book about the elephant. The other book I received was for an older child, and my son found the lesson taught to be a good one. The stories were not too long, as to lose their interest either. The pages turn automatically, or you can turn that option off. I won't give away the stories, and plots, I want you to check them out yourself. I found their pricing to be reasonable and fair. You do need Adobe reader for the books to work, so be sure to download it for free if you don't already have it. I hope you will enjoy these two free books as much as my children did. You can also view the video below, for any questions you might have.




[Product review & giveaway disclosure: I received one or more of the products mentioned above for free using Tomoson.com. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commissions 16 CFR, Part 255 "Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising."]