Wednesday, September 27, 2006

Our Field Trip to Honey Hill Farm

We loved tasting the delicious honey and made two recipes right away.

These bees are busy filling these hexagonal cells with honey. They will then seal the honey in with wax.
These kids were demonsrating how bees move from flower to flower, picking up pollen from one flower and leaving some of it behind on another flower. This pollinates the flower so it can make seeds or fruit. Posted by Picasa

Wednesday, September 20, 2006

Flat Stanley Learns to Lapbook


Charles learns to make a lapbook and he taught one of our flat visitors all about it.

Flat Traveler Lapbook



I created this lapbook for Flat Max, a cute rabbit, who visited us from Kamloops, Canada.
If you do an image Google search on Kamloops, you will see how beautiful it is.

Monday, June 05, 2006

My Favorite Homeschool Curriculum

Having homeschooled for over 13 years with six different children with 6 different learning styles and preferences, I have tried MANY, LOTS, TONS of curricula, texts, and home education methods.
But one method and publisher I always go back to is Sonlight Curriculum.
They do not use many textbooks, but instead use biographies, historical fiction and non-fiction books to teach subjects. We found it very effective and the kids retained a lot of what they learned.
The style is a combination of timeline studies, literature based and mini-unit studies.
The teacher manuals are laid out nicely with daily charts, teacher helps and suggestions.


Does Homeschooling Work?

Does Homeschooling Work?

Meet the '06 Sonlight Scholarship Winners!

as of Feb 23, 2006, 15:20

Some of the most common questions parents have when they start homeschooling are, "How do I know it's going to work?" and, "How can I make sure my children will be prepared for college?"

While our scholarship winners won't provide you with answers to your specific situation, they do provide convincing evidence that Sonlight Curriculum works. Each scholarship winner has used an average of four Sonlight Core programs. In fact, one of the winners has used seven Core programs during his education. Based on these students' achievements, it seems that Sonlight Curriculum meets the highest standards. Among the eight 2006 scholarship winners, you'll find:

  • An average SAT score of 2180, including a score of 2290 (out of 2400).

  • Three perfect (800) and one near-perfect (790) Critical Reading score, a near-perfect Math score (790), and a near-perfect Writing (780) score on the SATs.

  • One perfect score of 36 and one near-perfect score of 35 (out of 36) in the Reading portion, and a near-perfect score of 35 in the Science portion of the SAT exam.

  • A score of 5 (out of 5) on the Advanced Placement History exam, and two scores of 5 on the Advanced Placement English Language exam.

  • Commended Student and 3 Semi-Finalists in National Merit Program.

  • Two pianists, an award-winning debater, a therapist for an autistic child, a Gold Congressional Award winner, a theatre performer, Tsunami disaster volunteer, and several overseas mission participants.

And this is just a brief list of these scholars' accomplishments!

Read More Here at Sonlight.com....

Where Can I Find Teaching Materials for Homeschooling?

Where Can I Find Teaching Materials For Homeschooling?

By: James Masterson

How do you successfully determine what method of teaching, what lessons to teach and at what speed? Having decided to educate your kids at home for the purpose of giving your children the needed attention they require, do you still follow the school's standards of what subjects to cover and take up and when? Has keeping with the rules and standards of the school meant hurrying your children through anything by driving them to memorizing certain areas of the subject matter so to progress?
If you are, keep in mind that you are not doing your children any favors at all. For kids to really be equipped for life, you should exploit the benefits of what homeschooling will permit you to accomplish and that is choosing your objectives and goals and setting the pace in relation to your children’s specific needs.
By far, the biggest challenge that a homeschooling parent encounters is making a homeschooling schedule. While some make use of software programs, some parents write their notes in notebooks or in computer programs such as Microsoft Word; some plan the activities as the day goes and others do the planning ahead; there are some who do not make plans at all. It would really depend on the type of person that you are, on where are you comfortable with.
However, making a yearly plan of objectives consisting of goals which you have established for your child is the best, convenient and effective way to go. Basing from the goals you have set, the choices you make when gathering the homeschooling materials needed will be much easier and ensure that they will be put into productive use.
Since you are well familiar with your child’s learning abilities, it is wise that the goals you set will be based from his/her capabilities. At such time that your child is old or mature enough, he can and must help in the goals that you make, ultimately setting his own goals, making you his advisor.
You can acquire homeschooling teaching materials on the internet, and it is important that you become well acquainted with the teaching materials in order that you can manage, organize and take control so that you understand and see everything in an orderly manner. Here are suggestions to help you achieve this task:
1. Group materials for the whole school year by topic.
2. Sort out the teaching materials that will be used by you from the materials that will be used by your child.
3. Place the materials in such a way that it is accessible to the kids when they need to refer to it.
4. When organizing the educational materials for every subject, keep the primary alongside the supplemental materials, as well as make certain that extra materials, like additional readings and tools, are readily available when needed.
5. Take into account making a listing of educational materials that you have. This is useful especially when you are teaching two or more children as the list can keep track and organize the materials that you have through the years.
6. After obtaining the materials for a certain subject's curriculum, study and spend a lot of time getting yourself familiar and well acquainted with everything. You can inspect the materials through answering the following guidelines:
How are these materials constructed to be carried out?
What is the expected time frame for each session?
What type of performance is expected for the child?
Do I have all supplemental materials that I need, such as the teacher's guide or student workbooks? If not, you will need to get them before the school year starts.
Do supplemental materials, like the answer key and teacher's guide fit in and conform with it?
Do the materials actually match your expectations? At times when you were not able to directly examine the materials, when you receive them, they are not what you really have expected. Return and replace the materials with what really matches your needs.
The technology of today, especially the internet has exposed a lot of homeschooling materials and supplies readily available to all individuals. With a lot of research one can surely find homeschooingl educational software, lesson plans, curriculums, programs, educational games, activities, and a lot more!
The internet is overflowing with information so searching for and looking for resources is not a problem at all. Also, there are a number of support groups and forums to ensure an effective homeschooling experience for you.
Article Source: http://www.myarticlepub.com
It doesn’t matter if you just want to explore home schooling possibilities or have made the decision and are looking for a guide to point you in the right direction, "The Parents Guide to Home Schooling" will provide you with the information you require. www.free-online-course.com/homeschool

Friday, November 04, 2005

Packing Shoeboxes

One event we do every Christmas is pack shoeboxes for Operation Christmas Child, a ministry of Samaritan's Purse. This year we are privileged to have so many flat helpers.
Our family loves this ministry because we can personalize each box with boy stuff or girlie items, send a letter and photos if we want and add a variety of goodies. We try to remember to pray over each box and that the precious child receiving it would not only be blessed, but would come to know Christ as their savior.

New Flats Arrive!

We got two new visitors. Their first outing was our homeschool co-op Partnership where they participated in gym class.
We hope they enjoy their stay with us.

Sunday, October 30, 2005

Thanks for stopping by

We appreciate your visits here and hope you find it interesting. Flat traveling has opened up educational opportunities we would not have had. We are learning about other families, cities, culture, history, landmarks and geography by trading flat travelers with families all around the world.
As more posts are added and our experiences, hopefully you learn a bit too.
There are many links about Minnesota, so please browse through them and get a small taste of what Minnesota living is all about.
Check out the interactive items on the sidebar, please use them. We would love to see where you are from on the guest map and read your comments in the guest book.
Our posts have been primarily about the travelers that we host, would you like to see information and pictures about travelers that we sent out?

Frosty Fall Days!



These pictures show the changing weather and the changing colors in our autumn forecast. The flat visitors are coping well.
However, they will be heading home soon since none of them brought winter coats!
Because the clocks were set back last night it is now getting dark at 5:30 p.m., which I do not like!

Sunday, October 23, 2005

About Flat Travelers

Are you curious about what flat traveling is all about?
It seems to have originated from a children's book titled Flat Stanley. Stanley had an unfortunate accident and was flattened, which turned into a positive thing when he wants to take a trip but can't afford it because his family decides to mail him.
What we did is we printed out some paper doll patterns and colored them. Each of my kids picked what kind of flat traveler they wanted to send. Some people send flat pets, animals, historic figures, or a paper doll of themselves. We also laminated our travelers to make them more durable. Once our travelers were ready we had to find host families for them.

My favorite source for that was a Yahoo group called, Flat Travelers Homeschool.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/flat_travelers_homeschool/

From this group you will learn how to compose a journal, you will find families willing to host your traveler, you'll see pictures of other travelers, it really is a complete site.
After your travelers are mailed to the host family they will show your traveler the town! They will take the traveler to places the host family is visiting and also make him a part of their daily routine. The host family will also keep a journal of sorts documenting things about their own family, their town, area, and what they have been doing. Most travelers are gone 3-4 weeks, but we found the average length of time to be 6-8 weeks.
Our travelers have been to Texas, British Columbia, Alberta and Illinois. Traveling is not without its risks; we have one traveler missing and one has been gone for almost a year. It does happen, but I don't know how often.
One way to bypass that is to have Cyber Flat Travelers, which is one purpose of this blog.


Great Links about Flat Traveling
This site describes flat travelling, shares photos and has helpful links. http://www.angelfire.com/empire2/flattraveling/

The Official Flat Stanley Site
http://flatstanley.enoreo.on.ca/

A Fellow Flat Traveling Family
http://www.zorenaflattravelers.blogspot.com/

Another Family's Adventures with Flat Travelling
http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/zanyzookeeper/

FLAT TRAVELER'S HOME SCHOOL SCRAPBOOK
http://flattravelschool.bravejournal.com/

Fall Harvest Orchard





What a beautiful day for a great experience! We attended Fall Harvest Orchard five miles from Delano. The weather was sunny, 70 degrees, a light breeze and brilliant colors everywhere. This orchard is especially terrific to see because there are many things to do, a favorite is to jump and play in the corn bin, it is even better than a ball pit! Posted by Picasa

Saturday, October 22, 2005

Flat Traveling in Cape Cod




We received one of our travelers home from Cape Cod. Our flattie even got to attend a Boston Red Sox game. Considering NickaBob is a HUGE baseball fan, that was a treat! The Cape looks like a BEAUTIFUL place and very different from our neck of the woods.

Monday, October 17, 2005


The Ojibwe learned to survive cold winters.