I'm Back With You! (and 3 new links!)

I've finally found my way back to this blog. Things have been rather challenging the past few months and I've really been debating on whether to continue homeschooling Monkey next fall. I discovered a knitting group on Friday evenings that helped me begin to get my personal issues sorted out (mostly by finally giving me a few hours every week that I could count on for de-stressing!) Happily one of the ladies in the group is a former teacher. She has been an invaluable resource for how to deal with my sometimes very frustrating 8yo. So now we have a new game plan and things seem to be going a little smoother.

One thing we have been working on is his typing skills. Since our biggest battles always centered around writing, I've decided to pretty much ditch hand writing things all together for now. Hence the need to learn to type. I did a search of the web and came up with some great online free typing lessons for kids, and tons of games. I will toss out a couple today and maybe some others soon. Though the first one is loaded with links of it's own.....

Typing Games 2 Help U is loaded with links to other websites with typing help. Most of them are directed at kids and free. Several different games to practice new typing skills are included. Our favorites for new typists are:

ABCya! This is a link to an exploded keyboard that needs to be put back together. Great for becoming familiar with what the keyboard looks like and where things are on it.

And Dance Mat Typing This link is a series of lessons that Monkey took to like a fish to water. It's a BBC site, so expect an accent that may take a little getting used to, but it's great. In under 30 min my 8yo son was confidently typing words using the homerow keys and propper finger placement. He didn't even have to check his fingers very often because the keys are pictured on the screen. It's loaded with fun graphics and music to incourage budding typists to have a good time while learning. I recommend this site to anyone who wants thier kids to learn to type.

That's it for today. I'll try to be back in a few days with some math links....

Finally Another Freebie!

Well, I've been very bad about getting the Link of the Day posted. Life really has a way of keeping you off the computer sometimes....

Today's Link of the Day is chock full of activities for preschool to grade five. This is a real go to resource for daily lessons for my two. From free printable worksheets, to lesson plans, to online activities this site has it all. Infact, I just printed out all our school work for the week from this one website. Add a few books from the library and a little internet research and we're off to a great start to the school year!

I hope you enjoy this site as much as I do.

Kidzone - Fun Facts for Kids

Homeschool Blogging

~Today's Link

Today I'm sending you over to Homeschoolblogger.com to check things out. Looks like this might be a great way to connect to other home schoolers and get ideas for things to do in your own home school. There are links for starting your own (free) homeschool blog and a whole community to network with.

I haven't had time to really explore this site yet, so if you get a chance please come on back here and leave me a brief review in the comments. I'd love to hear what you think!

Today's Link

~Today's link:

Today I'm posting a link for all those preschoolers out there.

Have you ever tried to get a 3yo to sit still for any length of time? I often struggle with things to keep the Grub busy while Monkey is doing his schoolwork . I know she's old enough to begin learning things herself, but her attention span is about 5 minutes long. When I found this site I was excited. It offers tons of things to keep her occupied, and allows me to have a variety of activities available to switch up things for her when the inevitable boredom sets in. I hope you enjoy today's link:

Providing links to lesson plans, worksheets,
tips,activities and more for your preschool child!

And, because I missed posting yesterday here's a bonus link (another site with daily links to free homeschool stuff):

The Homeschool FREEBIE of the Day!

Summer's Here! and Link of the Day

~Summer's Here!

So what does that mean to the homeschooling families? Sometimes not much. =) Monkey's routine doesn't change much, except he spends more time outside playing with the neighbor kids. I'm not sure I like him playing with some of them, but what do you do? They are the only kids around here his age, and I do make sure he has time with kids I prefer. Plus, there are positive life lessons to be learned from playing with kids you might not think are the best influences.. After all, we all have to learn to deal with real life, and not all people have the same values you may have. It's important to me for my kids to learn to deal with these issues while I have some control over the consequences. And we do have weekly playdates for both kids with other homeschoolers to counterbalance what he has to deal with here at home. =)

I've decided to begin a Link of the Day section. I'm hoping this will help keep me on track with my goal of providing as much free information as possible to help out fellow homeschoolers. I know how expensive things can get. =) So without further ado, here is:

~Today's Link

Monkey has decided that Science is his thing, so we try to put all the schoolwork in a scientific focus. It makes things so much smoother when he's excited to do what we ask. =) So today's homeschool link is from About.com: Homeschooling. We've spent the summer learning about sea animals, and this link has tons of unit studies and worksheets related to sea animals. Hope you enjoy the link!

Free Printable Science Worksheets

Homeschool resources

I've been finding all kinds of free homeschool resources online in the past couple of years and I thought I'd share them with you. I'll make a list of links in the sidebar, but this post (and later ones) will have a short description of the website included with the link. Hope someone finds this useful.

A to Z Home's Cool
This site is chock full of information. You could really get lost here! This is a great resource for legal information, as well as a jump off point to find more information and resources.

School Express
We get tons of our curriculum free from here. Sign up for their free weekly unit studies and activity pages. (You need Adobe Acrobat to download the freebies.) There are also lots of links for more activities for your kids (all educational and fun). Great for all ages.

A to Z Teacher Stuff
Great page to find lots of lesson ideas. Also has links for tips and tricks, worksheet generators, and much more. Absolutely LOADED with links.

I think those three will keep the new homeschooler busy for now. Feel free to share your favorite links in the comments. We can all benefit from sharing. =)

Here I am

For better or worse I chose to homeschool when my first child (the Monkey) came of school age. He was very clever and intelligent and missed the cut off date to enter school the year all of his peers did. I couldn't see holding him back since he was already ahead of the pack, so I embarked on a dark and winding road... And here I am 3 years later and getting ready to start all over again with the Grub. And let me tell you.. this is one adventure that is definitely not for the faint hearted!

For my adventures in knitting you can check here: BS Knits. I may even toss in a free pattern every now and then, provided I can come up with any originals!