This blog is designed to list resources and other helps for homeschool. I will be checking all my links, but if you find a broken one, please let me know. Also, if you have something you would like to share with others, let me know. We can put it on this site and give you the credit. I want this to be a place where everyone can share ideas. Thanks!
This awesome article was written by Momma Jo. Thanks so much for sharing this with us!
Here's an article I wrote for the parents of our homeschool co-op's musical theater students, a class I'm teaching next school year:
Introducing Shakespeare
(Almost) Painlessly
Just the thought of introducing Shakespeare into your homeschool can be intimidating at best, and downright frightening to some. The language is difficult, some of the themes make you blush, and all the talk of witches and fairies and death can be hard to explain to youngsters.But there is a way to introduce the Bard to your children, and explore these plays that have had such a powerful impact on our world, our language, and our art, in a fun and easy manner.
Step 1. Pick your play
Starting with Macbeth or Hamlet or King Lear is not a good idea.Comedies are easier to understand for newbies, especially kids who are sensitive to scary elements in stories.A Midsummer Night’s Dream is an excellent place to start, followed by something like The Taming of the Shrew or Twelfth Night.
Step 2. Children’s version of Shakespeare’s plays
I recommend either Charles Lamb’s version (Tales From Shakespeare which can be found online here: http://shakespeare.palomar.edu/lambtales/LAMBTALE.HTM) or Edith Nesbit’s Beautiful Stories From Shakespeare (which can be found at the Baldwin Project online: www.mainlesson.com ).Read the children’s version of the play out loud.Then, if you can find it, get it on tape or CD.Jim Weiss reads some great ones, including A Midsummer Night’s Dream.Listen to it in the car and talk about it.Children’s versions are generally edited for content, and kids get the plot line fixed in their heads this way.
Step 3.Video adaptations
My family likes to rent movies, so naturally we gravitate toward the Shakespeare movies by Kenneth Branagh or whatever we can find on Netflix or at the library in the video section.Often these films have current TV and film actors in them.We turn on the closed-captioning so we don’t miss anything, and follow along.Sometimes we still miss things, but knowing what is happening from reading the children’s versions keeps the kids focused and in the loop.Many times the kids will pause the movie to ask me about what’s going on, or I’ll pause it to discuss something, and occasionally I have to fast forward through an inappropriate romance scene or something.I’ve found the kids will understand the meaning of unfamiliar words simply from the context, but often we’ll pause to look things up in the ever-present dictionary.
Step 4.At last!We’re ready for a live performance!
Knowing what is going on is key to keeping the kids engaged in the action of a live stage performance of Shakespeare.We can’t pause, rewind, or turn up the volume.We can’t turn on the captions.If someone can’t follow along with the story they will lose interest very quickly.Don’t attempt a live show without going through the preceding steps!Especially if the kids are young, it has great potential to end up being a disastrous waste of time.On the other hand, if done right, this is one of the things your kids will look forward to year after year.My kids love “Shakespeare Summers,” and we literally devote our summer months to this process of learning to appreciate the Bard.
Here’s the deal: Every weekday, Monday through Friday, they post a new homeschooling “freebie” to this site. What kind of “freebies”? Stuff like: Unit Studies… Ebooks… Audio Programs… Games… Samples… Lesson Plans… classic books… and other quality resources! This is the REAL THING.
Many of these will be products that you would normally pay for on their regular websites… but here on the Homeschool Freebie of the Day site, they’re 100% free… at least for that one day! Just download your copy and enjoy! It’s as simple as that!
These freebies are only available for one day each so check in often!
Sung to Its's A Small World" by Nadia L.(2005) It's a world of mollusks and world of worms,
It's a world of animals that crawl and squirm.
No backbone they share, its time we're aware...
It's an invertebrate world after all.
It's a world of snails, which are gastropods.
It's a world of squid, which are cephalopods.
Lobsters are crustaceans, it's all a revelation...
It's an invertebrate world after all.
It's an arthropoda world after all,
It's a cnidaria world after all,
It's a porifera world after all,
Phyla of invertebrates all!
The itsy bitsy spider was an arthropod.
He had jointed legs which made him look quite odd.
Eating many insects caught in webs he spun,
Being an arachnid sounds like lots of fun .
Inside the cell, before it splits in two.
There are several phases the nucleus goes through.
A student wrote this song to help you learn the way,
The nucleus divides itself each and every day.
Interphase, interphase the resting point for cells.
This is where growth occurs in the parent cell.
Prophase, prophase chromosomes have replicated,
Soon they will appear so they can be separated.
Metaphase, metaphase, metaphase is great,
This is where chromosomes line up at the equatorial plate.
Anaphase, anaphase, anaphase comes next.
This is where the chromosomes finally disconnect.
Telophase, telophase, the last one of them all,
Ending with two nuclei that are identical.
It's Beginning to Look Like Photosynthesis (sung to It's Beginning to Look a lot like Christmas) by Matt T. and Chad S.
It's Beginning to look like Photosynthesis
Everywhere plants grow;
Take a look at the leaves and stem, making glucose again
With water molecules and sunlight aglow.
It's beginning to look like Photosynthesis,
Food they need to store,
But the prettiest light to see is the violet that will be
Energizing the Phyll O' Chlor!
A pair of molecules and a cholorplast is cool
Getting the reaction to cook.
Light is needed for one, but the other needs none
We read that in a book
Here comes photosynthesis, so why don't you take a look?
It's beginning to look like Photosynthesis
Everywhere plants grow;
There's a tree breathing CO2 and mixing water too
Making lots of food plants need to grow.
It's beginning to look a lot like Photosynthesis;
Soon the reaction starts,
And we will all eat the plants and have energy to dance,
As glucose fuels our hearts.
