Ladybug's Teacher Files: Organization Linky Party at Growing Kinders!

Ladybug's Teacher Files: Organization Linky Party at Growing Kinders!: "Aaahh..one of my favorite obsessions--organization!! Growing Kinders is having an Organization Linky Party and I wanted to share some of my ..."

Ladybug's Teacher Files: Homework can be fun with...

Ladybug's Teacher Files: Homework can be fun with...: "Homeworkopoly! In our class, one of the most anticipated activities each week is Homeworkopoly, which you can learn more about at teachnet.c..."

Teachable Moment turns into "Kidspiration"

So as Christians we are always teaching and talking about the Word of God, whether in schooltime or not. The Bible says in Deuteronomy 11:18-19 So commit yourselves wholeheartedly to these words of mine...Teach them to your Children. Talk about them when you are at home and when you are on the road, when you are going to bed and when you are getting up.

In this one particular instance Joshua and I were talking about how God made each person with their own unique purpose. In his wisdom he designed each one, giving them each their own gifts in order to acomplish that unique purpose. We started talking about what we thought our gifts were, and how we could use those gifts to glorify God.

He stated that he believed that drawing was a gift of his...and it is...I asked him what different ways he felt he could honor God using those gifts. He quickly said he should make cards for sick kids in the hospital, and tell them about Jesus...and immediately got to work doing just that.

The more we talked about it the deeper the idea went, He said , we could do this regularly, not just this once, and we can write down their names and pray for them. We should help other kids try to think of ideas on how to use thier gifts to glorify God....Wow! I have been humbled by the desire of my 5 yr old to serve others like this. Its as if by this one conversation, we  have tapped into a well spring of ideas in his little 5 yr old heart.

So in examining my own areas of gifting, one of them being a joy for writing, I decided that the best way to put all of his ideas into motion, would be to start up a blog....or a dot com as Joshua calls it. So I started this blog for him, http://www.theboomerangang.blogspot.com/ So that we could post our journey as we embark on this new mission from God which has sprung up in my little boys heart. We called it The Boomerang Gang because we were created by God with these gifts, sent out into the world, and by using those gifts as they were intended, to serve others and spread the word of God, we bring glory back to God in heaven.

We will post a summary of our visits each week, as well as prayer requests for the kids whos parents permit us to, we will give them the information from the site so that they can visit and give updates if they would like. There is also a tab on there so that other kids and parents can be challenged to examine their gifts and how they might be using them for the glory of God. As they are challenged to put ideas into motion, they are welcomed to share their journey on our blog, so that we may be praying and supporting them as they step out in faith.

I am very excited and humbled by what God is doing in the heart of my little boy. I want to sew the concept of this way of thinking and living in his little heart early on and I cant wait to see how this "kidspired" idea plays out. :)

Beginning Reading Help: Use Magnetic Letters to Teach Decoding Words Before Reading a Book

Here is a great read on helping your child learn how to read in a creative and fun way. She includes some really helpful videos. Magnetic letters are not hard to come by, in fact you probably already have some. However if you are looking for them on a budget, you can proably find some at the dollar store. I also use bottlecaps to make letter learning time fun. Save your bottle caps,  set some aside to write the alphabet on the cap tops, and store them in a ziploc. IF you were feeling ambitious, you may even make some into magnets yourself :) Enjoy the article!

Beginning Reading Help: Use Magnetic Letters to Teach Decoding Words Before Reading a Book

Teaching Kids to Type-Reviews

So I had some time to look through and have Joshua try out the resources posted by Book Chook on  Teaching Kids to Type.

Her first recommendation was Tux Typing  which features Tux, the Linux penguin. It's available as a free download for Windows, Mac OSX, and Linux. There are two games, Fish Cascade and Comet Zap and each comes graded from easy to hard. Games start with alphabet identification or finding the keys on your keyboard, and move on to practice fluency and accuracy. I did not try this link out personally because my computer said the security software was not ...well...secure...you will have to check that one out for yourself if you are interested, if you do try it, please do let me know what you thought.

Her second recomendation was Type for Gold which is a game you don't need to download but you can play online. It is a racing game, like track n field racing. There are a number of runners on the starting line and there is a bulletin board above them, when the race starts, the bulletin board will reveal a word, the player has to type the word that is in the bulletin board and it makes thier player run faster. After each word is typed(whether correct or incorrect) the word changes. The faster you type, the closer you get to the finish line, the slower you type, the slower you get to the finish line.

There are different levels and the higher the level the larger the words are.  I would recommend this site for older kids or even adults who perhaps are a little more seasoned in typing and just want to enhance thier speed and accuracy. My reasons behind this are that the game moves really fast, even when I myself typed the words at my usual pace, on the easiest level, I lost more often than won. If the child is constantly losing, that makes the game not fun, or motivational. So I dont give this website a GOLD metal recomendation, but I would give it a bronze for someone who wanted to enhance and practice their skills.

Her third recomendation was Dance Mat Typing which is an offering from the BBC Online. It is very well organized, it starts with an explanation and teaches correct finger placement. Then it moves on slowly, emphasizing lots of drills and repetition to drive the key locations and movements into their memory. I do give this site a GOLD metal. It was very much a great teaching resource. It shows the kids where to put thier fingers and gives them a screen that shows where the letters are so they are not always lifting thier fingers to find the letters. It has a number of levels too, which I didnt try all of them, but level one was very helpful. There are a number of fun characters and interesting and unique features to help make it exciting. My 5 yr old really enjoyed it and seemed to really understand the concept. I think if we do a little each day he will have it down in no time. Best of all this is a FREE resource! Free is always a good thing :)

So there are my teaching Kids to type reviews, try them out for yourself and let me know what you think :)

What Are You Looking for?

I would like to post a Q & A blogpost to try and answer as many questions as I can that people have about homeschooling, and parenting ideas. I am not all knowing, but I will be sure to research and find answers to the questions I dont know the answers to :) I would also love to recieve emails on topic suggestions you would like to hear about, as well as some general feedback on what you would like to see more of, or less of on my blog. I want to make my blog one that is helpful to YOU! Help me to do so by sending your questions and comments to teachableme@gmail.com

Thank you,
Marybeth Santos

Todays Website Highlight www.hubbardscupboard.org

When I first started doing home education with my oldest son Joshua, when he was around one year old, I simply wanted to be a faithful as a mother, to nurture and love my son, and train him up in the way he should go. I would basically wing it, coming up with ideas to pass time, and grow us closer together through playtime and learning. I was usually getting books from the library in a theme, and then making up art projects and games etc. to surround the book theme for the week. I tend to be more of the creative artistic type, so that kind of thing was fun for me to do and came naturally.  However, when he started getting a little older, I wanted something more concrete. I would still do the same kind of thing, just on a deeper level, but I had things I wanted to teach him though I was not sure how that should look. It was around then that a good friend turned me on to a great resource. The website she sent me was http://www.hubbardscupboard.org/ and it was what completely jump started my journey, and excitement for homeschooling.

This website has it all! They have full lesson plans outlined for you in full detail, there is only minimal preparation, such things as printing, organizing, and cutting. They have all your lessons pre-planned for you, what you should do day by day, broken down in a few different kind of ways, so it appeals to many learning and teaching styles, they even have it broken down hourly if you need that, They provide many printable worksheets, they suggest books to buy or check out at the library which supplement the lesson, they have songs, poems, nursery rymes, and many projects games and other items to illustrate and practice as per their lesson plan for each week.

It is a Christian curriculum and goes along with a Bible theme each week, or as the kids are older, a character trait theme, always with corresponding Biblical verses, stories, and songs to illustrate that trait or theme. A variety of subjects are covered in a weekly plan, all somehow connecting to that weeks theme. This is MY personal favorite way to teach my kids. I love when every subject is connected, thats how the world works isnt it. It helps me to show how all areas of life work together, how God is in everything, and how we are constantly learning, even in our everyday tasks.

Here is a good example, when learning about Adam and Eve, you will, read the story, sing a song and memorize a verse, as well as do counting math by using 10 5x7 full color tree print outs provided by the site, and small apples to fit the trees (you will need to cut them out) to create an apple tree counting book, you and your child will count out the appropriate ammt of apples, placing each one on a designated tree, each page has a different number, they are numbered up to 10. You will also do a letter which is A is for adam, which pairs with the song Adam ate an apple, a-a-a to illustrate the sound of the letter as well. Apple paint prints, and apples for a snack.

Hubbards Cupboard provides ideas and pictures of those ideas for different art projects, sensory tub ideas, etc. and and often provide everything you need through printable worksheets to make them. You can use their ideas or create some of your own, which I do often. It is everything you would get in a "boxed" curriculum....for FREE! They also provide many useful links on thier site for you to look through and they are extremely informative. I really attribute this website to my feeling confident in my ability to homeschool my kids, and for giving me a one stop resource to show me what that should look like. It really got me started on the right foot. They have curriculum plans for babies thru 5 year olds and then have many links to provide homeschool support for kindergarten as well.

I hope you will check this site out, even if you are not planning to homeschool, its got lots of exciting options  to entertain your children in a way that provides enrichment and fun, for a rainy day, a weekend, or just for everyday ways to spend time together. :)



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