Resources.
Thursday, February 3, 2011 at 09:08AM I love finding resources to use on our homeschooling journey. Love it. So. Today, because it's our "off" week from homeschooling and I find myself going through all sorts of things prepping for the rest of the month, lol, I thought I'd share a few...
1. 50 Things Every Young Gentleman Should Know. My pal Kelli posted on her blog about this book not long ago. She also has three boys she's homeschooling. I love that, and am looking forward to adding this book to our reading here. (I'm impatiently waiting for it to be delivered, lol.)
2. Wipe off maps. Remember when I was telling you how I was going to start using index cards in our geography studies? Well, we started that last week and it's been great. One thing that I tweaked from where I got the initial idea, though, is that rather than solely using a big wall map or the globe, I've been using these wipe off maps that I have. I give each boy a map and call out the places listed on the index cards. They label them on their own map. It's been going pretty well, and I'm excited about the potential.
3. Free downloads. Awesome stuff going on over at Five J's. Check it out. Be sure to look at their Homeschool Resources tab, too! (Incidentally, this blog and some others I've been reading lately have me thinking I may reorganize my own blog here to include more links and information and such. Maybe soon, okay?)
4. Units of measurement. In lieu of finding resources, sometimes I discover that I need to make my own. Since I was having a hard time finding anything that worked for what I was looking for, I created these little half-sheet pages:
;)
Basically, I just wanted a nice, straight-forward reference that not only converted measurements (and most that I could find for kids only did one or the other...for instance, only showed how many inches in a foot but not also how inches and centimeters compare) but visibly showed a comparison. I'm a very visual learner. It helps me. ;)
So. For each set of measurements, there are three pages...one with US measurements, one with metric measurements and one comparing US and metric. The bar dealios on the bottoms are all roughly to scale (unless the label is in parentheses, which happens just once because I couldn't adequately represent a 1/1000 of a liter). I'm thinking I'll go through and hand-draw some arrows on the labels on the bars, as I feel they're a little confusing unless explained.
Right now, I have sets for length, mass, volume & liquid volume. I printed mine all out on this tagboard paper (because I think it looks cool and "educational," lol) but haven't decided yet how I want to bind them...whether I want to just add a binder ring, keep them clipped so I can spread them out or something else. For the moment, then, they look like this:
;)
Anyhow, if you'd like a copy, you can download it here. (Just print them on 8.5x11 paper and cut them in half.) If you do use them, would you mind letting me know what you think and if you find anything that could be improved/corrected? I'd appreciate it. Thanks!
Okay, I guess that's it for now. If you know of other resources that you enjoy, PLEASE share. ;)
Reader Comments (2)
You are making my life better. In clear, measurable charts.
Your a Genuis!!!!!!!!!! Thanks for sharing!!