I've jumped back onto that merry-go-round of weekly activities and it seems that every time I look up, I am in the same spot again but another week has gone by! I am enjoying the first of the fall weather and am looking forward to the changing leaves - the coming winter with its cold short days, not so much.

For those of you near a Borders store, this week (9/29-10/7) is Educator Appreciation Week. Check the website for events at your local store. Before we know it the holiday season will be upon us so don't forget to think about gifts during Educator Appreciation Week, when books for personal use are also eligible for the discount. If you celebrate Christmas, check out the 2009 Holiday Timetable to help plan ahead and avoid the frantic holiday rush. It's a valuable resource to help you stay on top of all there is to do during the season. Have a great month!

Warm regards,
Mary Ann Kelley
Editor

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2. TheHomeSchoolMom.com Website Updates

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3. Free Social Studies Lesson Plans

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4. Educational Resources

Wild Kingdom Interactive Field Guide
I grew up watching Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom, so of course I had to check out this site on Discovery.com. The field guide is an awesome way to explore animals (and I have to say that exploring the King Cobra from a distance is about the only way I would do it!). The site is easy for kids to use and if you click the "Go to main" link at the top of the page, you will find a link to videos, episode guides, creature quizzes and more.
http://animal.discovery.com/fansites/wildkingdom/fieldguide/interactives/interactives.html

WORLD Magazine Student Subscriptions
WORLD Magazine offers its subscriptions to students at 80% off the cover price at $32.95 for a one year subscription (valid only for US addresses; regular subscriptions are $49.95 per year to US addresses). I have verified that this offer is extended to homeschool students. WORLD is a quality weekly news magazine from a Christian perspective.
https://www.worldmag.com/s2/special.cfm?p=W9HINFLT

Outline Maps
d-maps.com contains over 5000 maps, each one available in GIF, PDF, CDR, AI, SVG and WMF. There is no cost for any of the maps.
http://d-maps.com/

Abraham Lincoln
The Abraham Lincoln Research Site his site if from a retired American history teacher who has operated the site since 1996. The site is educational in nature and includes a vast number of resources touching on virtually every aspect of Lincoln's life.
http://www.bestteachersites.com/web_tools/materials/timelines/

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5. Time 4 Writing

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Develop your child’s inner writer. Time4Writing teaches 2nd – 12th grade students writing mechanics from start to finish. The eight week courses are taught by certified teachers who focus on skill development, technique and confidence building. Students receive prompt feedback, catered to individual needs.

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6. Recently Seen Online

Confessions of a home-schooler
New series on homeschooling from Andrew O'Hehir at Salon.com:
"Let's be honest: It's almost always mothers who react defensively when the subject comes up, as if our personal decision not to send our kids to public school contained an implicit judgment of whatever different choices they may have made...As I say, I understand this a little bit better than I did at first. For one thing, I'm not sure any man can really grasp the competing and largely incompatible demands faced these days by American women, who are expected to be providers, power brokers, nurturers and sex symbols, either all at the same time or in rapid succession. Whether they're working-class or middle-class, most working mothers feel fundamentally torn between home and the workplace. They get shunted into mommy-track careers if they seem insufficiently devoted to their corporate overlords while getting grief from mothers-in-law for not spending enough time with the kids. They're doing the best they can and it's not that much fun, and the last thing they want to hear is somebody telling them, in effect, that they must have missed the latest memo on hip 21st-century motherhood: You're supposed to quit your job and spend your days reading your kids 'Oliver Twist'! Home schooling is the new black!"

See more on TheHomeSchoolMom.com

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7. Article - Language Arts Graphic Organizers

by Marianne Vanderkolk

Language Arts Graphic Organizers are tools which can help an author choose a subject and gather their details before the writing begins and also during the whole writing process. They can be used as a strategy for teaching writing to help identify possible subjects, learn as much as possible about the subject, decide on an interesting point to expand upon and list factors which can be included and as a tool to design and organize the writing. They are wonderful tools for young writers and helpful in teaching children to write well.

The writing process often follows these steps:

Pre-writing;
Writing the first draft;
Revising;
Editing and Proofreading.

Language Arts graphic organizers will be most useful in the pre-writing stage, but can also be aids when writing the draft and when revising to help the writer clarify and logically present their work.

What are some language arts graphic organizers and when can they be used?

Initially, when deciding upon a topic, these graphic organizers can be used:

Clustering – Begin with a nucleus word related to a writing topic and cluster words around it. Begin with the word in a circle in the center of the page and then branch off it with lines joining to new words. These in turn can branch off to other related words. This helps to identify a subtopic within a larger topic. You will also begin to see which subtopic you know most about and which topics will need more research if you were to write on that topic.
Listing – Do the same as above, but just list words related to the main topic

Graphic Organizers which will help the writer gather details, revise and rewrite are:

Clustering – Can once again be useful to help you narrow down your topic.
5 W’s and H – Once you have selected your topic, ask Who? What? When? Where? and Why? and How? This graphic organizer can have the main topic in the center of the page with each W? spidering from the center. It could look like the spokes of a wheel.
Describing Wheel – This graphic organizer is like a large wheel with the topic in the center. The circle is divided into five sectors – one for each of the senses. This graphic organizer helps the author think of ways to describe a topic, a person, a place, an object according to each sense : sight, smell, touch, taste, hearing.
Story Map – This can be useful for narrative writing. This can be organized in horizontal steps. The Setting – which describes who, what, where, when; The Problem or Conflict ; The Plot which includes the rising action and may include a number of sub-plots; The Climax; The Falling Action and Resolution;
Compare and Contrast – This graphic organizer can be set up as a T on a page and useful to compare and contrast topics, events, people and so on.
Venn Diagram – A Venn Diagram is also a useful graphic organizer which compares and contrasts two subjects.
Timeline – A timeline can be useful to list an order of events in a person’s life, an event,
A Process Diagram – This graphic organizer is useful to list details of how a process works or step by step instructions. Processes can be joined by arrows.
Cycle Diagram – In much the same way as above, this graphic organizer can be used to describe a process which continues as a cycle – science related subjects – life-cycles, water-cycle etc.
Cause/ Effect Organizer – This is another T chart which can describe results which come from a particular event.
Definition Diagram – Using a spiral diagram, information on the subject can be written on the spokes. A topic can be defined by a quote, a dictionary definition, important facts, personal definitions, What it is not, An example of it.
KWL – Another graphic organizer which helps the author see the gaps in his/her knowledge of a subject and a way to fill it: It is presented as a 3 column chart with these headings :
- What do I know? (K);
- What do I want to Know? (W)
- What I learned (L) or still want to know.
Main Idea/Supporting Ideas – This chart can be useful to draft an essay or paragraph. The topic sentence or thesis statement is written at the top and listed underneath are the supporting statements, quotes, facts, examples which support the thesis. An essay may contain a few paragraphs which need supporting evidence for each thesis statement.

These tools are useful to any author, any child or adult, who likes to have a visual and graphic overview of their writing and likes to express their thoughts spatially.

Visit Marianne Vanderkolk’s at Design-Your-Homeschool.com – a Homeschooling guide to help you uniquely design-your-own homeschool to suit your family’s goals. The website provides information on how to teach writing along with free Homeschool Printables and Graphic Organizers.

Source: http://www.homeschool-articles.com/

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