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Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Intriguing Physics

I'm sorry to say when I studied Physics in high school I didn't enjoy it, like it or even care about it. All I wanted to do was get it over with. This doesn't have to be the case for your students/children. The following sites helped me to see how intriguing and interesting Physics can be.

To explore, discover and uncover news in the field of physics check out Physics.org
I'm ready to go and check out weird phenomena and spooky science-so cool.

If you are fortunate enough to already be intrigued by the studies of Physics perhaps this next site will be of use.

Eric Weisstein's World of Science
is an encyclopedia listing of terms and topics related to physics. In addition to Physics entries, there are links to Mathematics, Science Biographies, Chemistry and Astronomy.

Have a great day exploring!
JulieDD

Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Earthquakes

There have been several devastating earthquakes. Today we will look at a couple of websites that go into depth about earthquakes just for kids.

USGS Earthquakes for kids

The Topic: Earthquakes from 42Explore

Education Technology Center KSU presents Earthquakes

Monday, March 29, 2010

Jewish Traditions and the Passover

This week for Christians is Holy Week. It is the week leading up to the most important celebrated event of the Christian faith-Easter.

As I noted in my previous blog I was not able to post a link for Sunday-so the following link is for the Sunday link and its focus is to learn about the Jewish roots of the Christian faith.

The Jewish Children's Learning Network offers insights into the Jewish faith/religion.

For today's link because we are entering into Holy week we will continue to explore the Jewish roots of Christianity by learning about the Jewish Passover celebration.

Jewish Passover 2010 site has activities, crafts, recipes and information about the Passover celebration.

Sunday, March 28, 2010

Daily Links Update and Emergency Preparedness

As of yesterday, I have hit the first snag with a daily blog-no internet service. In the event of power outages and no internet services I will attempt to get online and post as soon as possible.

In addition, there will be certain days due to personal events that I will be unable to post. The first of these will be next Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

Spring brings unpredictable weather and so today the links will be about helping kids be prepared for outages and in emergencies.

FEMA for Kids
Ready Kids

Be safe and hopefully will be back soon.

Friday, March 26, 2010

Virtual Spring Field Trips

Today we will be taking a couple of virtual spring field trips via YouTube videos.

The first video is a spring transition video. As winter transitions into spring in northern locations this is something that is observed on lakes and rivers. This is from the Chippewa Nature Center




Next we visit a southern location Boyd Hill Nature Park in St. Petersburg, Florida and view a perfect spring day.




Here is one that shows some beautiful spring migratory birds




Hope you are enjoying your spring day!

JulieDD

Thursday, March 25, 2010

Music Appreciation

Today my children have finished another section of their music appreciation Teaching Company lectures which means that soon they will need supplementary material to round out and finish up the course. Here are two sites that offer lectures and musical links for a music appreciation class.

From Free-Ed.net
(I like free resources) This page contains a link to a video lecture series on iTunes and more that for us will be a perfect supplement to round out our world music appreciation class.

Exploring the World of Music has free Video on Demand music appreciation lectures.

Songs that Teach has a set of songs for Music Appreciation

Hope your day is filled with music.

JulieDD

Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Speak English, please?

Understanding the English language and speaking it grammatically correct can be difficult even for students who live in English speaking countries. All the rules, rules, rules...

Here are two sites to help develop those skills.

Grammar Bytes!
(Don't you just love that title?) Here you will find grammar lessons infused with just the right amount of humor.

Guide to Grammar and Writing
This site is organized, informative and useful with in depth explanations, quizzes and guides.

Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Note Taking Skills- Cornell Method

There are many effective methods for taking notes. Notes can be totally useless or extremely helpful. When I was in college many times they fell into the totally useless category until I took a "How to study course" where I learned to organize and use my notes.

What a concept!

As part of my children's education we are experimenting with several different types of note taking. The plan is to find the style that works best for them and then give them plenty of opportunities to practice.

The first style we will explore here is called the Cornell Method.

Alexandria Technical College has a great explanation of this method and also a review of a couple other methods.

At Eleven 21 you can find a Cornell Note Taking Generator to create note taking pages and print them off.

That's it for today.

JulieDD

Monday, March 22, 2010

Math: Rulers and Protractors

Rulers and protractors fall into the same category as pens and pencils in my house. The category of "Why can't I find them when I need them?"

The following links I have chosen came from "Free Printable Math Measurement Tools: Standard, Ruler, Metric Ruler, Tape Measure, Protractor" an article written by Melissa Kinney Sachteleben.

Though I have used the internet and computers for years the idea of printing a protractor or a ruler never occurred to me but what a great idea.

Printable Rulers

Printable Protractors


Now if I could just find a pencil.

Happy Homeschooling!

JulieDD

Sunday, March 21, 2010

Sunday Themes

Generally this blog will jump from topic to topic but on Sunday my plan is to focus on what I am going to call my Sunday theme. This theme will focus on faith education, religions, culture, beliefs and world views. It will not be about preaching or trying to convert you to my faith.

My Sunday themes will hopefully be links to help broaden perspectives on faith and belief systems or a non threatening place to explore other views on religion, faith issues and/or cultural perspectives.

I am not here to judge anyone's beliefs but I do want to gain a bigger view and share that view. When we see people as people not as us or them then we can start to put aside prejudices and begin to work together for the benefit of ourselves, our communities and the world.

I will be adding a Sunday page for specifically the Sunday themed links and all Sunday links will be on that page even if they cross over into one of the other pages. As there is only the ability to have 10 pages the Sunday theme page will replace the About Me page. For the information that is currently on the About Me page I may leave it on that page or move it to another spot on the blog.

Today's link is a link to a site dedicated to world cultures.

Countries and Their Cultures

Hope you are having a great Sunday!

JulieDD

Saturday, March 20, 2010

Educational Movies

A little while back I wrote an article about using movies as a fun and educational activity. In particular, I was referencing Christmas Movie Themed Lesson Plans.

Since it is Saturday-education can take on a more relaxed approach and maybe they won't even realize they are learning-just having fun.

Check out these fun and educational movie sites

BrainPop This site offers very short clips on a variety of subjects and the mini movies are fun to watch. They offer a free trial to their subscription movies and free movies. In addition, I noticed that they have expanded to include lesson plans and other guides for educators.

Another site that is also a subscription site but only $11.99/year is Teach With Movies This site for the subscription price offers learning guides and lesson plans based on movies.


I do like free resources and here is one I just discovered that I will be spending some time on exploring. This site gets my "check it out" recommendation.

There are educational songs, movies and it is a network divided into subjects and topics. The movies I saw were more educational than entertaining but they did draw attention.

The Totally Free Children's Network

That's it for today. Have a great Saturday!

JulieDD

DISCLAIMER: I am not affiliated with BrainPop or Teach with Movies or The Totally Free Children's Network and have received no compensation for mentioning their sites.

Friday, March 19, 2010

Learning Science with videos and games

I have two websites for you today on the topic of Science. I love science and exploring and discovering new things however, many students find the science textbook explanations hard to follow or boring or just not engaging.

The following two sites try to change that by using age related games and videos to try to make it more interesting.

The first link is for the younger crowd-preschool and elementary age students
BBC Science Clips

The next link is for games that are challenging and information packed on more complex science topics. Perfect for high school age students and older but may also be used with advanced middle school aged children.

Nobel Prize Educational Games

Have a great day playing ...er...I mean...learning science.

JulieDD

Thursday, March 18, 2010

Pre-K Through 5th Grade Free Worksheets

Throughout the last twelve years that I have homeschooled I have at times loved using worksheets and at other times deemed them time wasters. For my children worksheets were often just short of a punishment.

Why?

The difference is our learning styles. I grew up with teachers who regularly used worksheets. I thrived in that format of teaching/learning. However, at least two of my children have struggled with that style of teaching and the expectations.

Yet, I love worksheets and I do think they can be used to reinforce concepts or to practice or test a set of skills.

The other problem with worksheets which often frustrated me was going to a website that said it had "Free" worksheets only to discover the ones I wanted were only available to those who had a subscription.

So for you I have found a site that as of this writing has all free worksheets for Pre-K through 5th grade. Now there is an unobtrusive request for a yearly donation of $1.00 and there are supplemental ads but they are not on the worksheets which come with answers in a PDF file.

Here is the site TLS Books

Happy Homeschooling!

JulieDD

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Since it is St. Patrick's Day

Since it is a day to celebrate I thought I would send out a bonus link. Actually the link came from a comment on my recent article Five Reference Websites for Homeschoolers to a homeschool Squidoo page.

I didn't know what a Squidoo was so I let my curious nature explore away and this led to a fantastic reference page for auditory learners.

So check out- Learning With Your Ears a Squidoo page by Jimmie.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Happy St. Patrick's Day

One thing that St. Patrick was known for was for using the clover as a teaching tool about the trinity. In honor of St. Patrick's day today's website is focused on something I feel is very important for homeschoolers-understanding your learning style and intelligence and your child's and learning how to teach and learn better.

The following website is set up like a Wiki page but is from the Department of Educational Psychology and Instructional Technology, University of Georgia. The focus of the site is to provide perspectives on learning.

Happy Homeschooling!

JulieDD


Multiple Intelligences and Learning Styles

Emerging Perspectives on Learning, Teaching, and Technology

Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Hodge Podge of Homeschool Resources

I'm excited to get started with this homeschool resource and link blog. Generally, I will only be posting one or two links per day and I will try to stay on one topic per day but today will be different. Instead I will post a resource link that will co-ordinate with the upcoming pages of this blog. Enjoy!

Math Links


Exploring Pre-Calculus with William Mueller

Science Links

Biology 4 Kids

History Links

How Stuff Works- The Vikings

Language Links

Electronic Texts Latin Resources

Art/Physical Education/Extra-curricular Links

Exploring the Arts and Humanities

Worksheets, Activities, Lapbooks, Fun Stuff Links

Worksheets for Teachers

Virtual Field Trips Links



My Stuff-Blogs, Website, Places I Write and Twitter

Follow Me on Twitter

General Education and Research Links

How to Create Linked Text

Curriculum and Learning Links

AS Parenting Blog

Welcome to Daily Homeschool Links and Resources!

I'm glad you are here. Welcome to my blog. I hope you will visit often and find the resources you are looking for and just enjoy the blog.

Homeschooling is a great adventure. I have been homeschooling for about 12 years now and I'm still going strong. Join me as I search the internet for homeschool resources.

Please let me know if there are particular topics you are looking for and I will be glad to try and help you find resources. Of course, I mean homeschool resources and topics related to homeschooling.

Again welcome and let's get started.

JulieD