Cramberry
February 25, 2010
Cramberry could be useful in many ways. It is a virtual flashcard program that you can use to test yourself. Create sets of online flashcards with questions on the front and your answers on the back and then test yourself. This would work great for scripture memorization, vocabulary, math facts or virtually anything you want to study and memorize. You can mark the cards that you answered correctly and incorrectly so that it will re-show your incorrect cards until you have them right.
-”Study Less, Remember More”
Intelligent scheduling
Cramberry builds a studying schedule for you based on your progress on each card, letting you study more quickly and efficiently.”
Take your cards with you
Study away from your computer by printing each set as either cut-out flash cards or a list of terms, or use our iPhone app.
Spelling Resources
January 17, 2010
Spelling City makes it easy to teach spelling. They have a great variety of spelling lists such as colors,numbers to ten, possessives, homophones and words of latin origin. You can just type in your spelling words and have the child be tested online, taught how to spell them or play a game with the words.
All About Spelling is a great resource for words. They have free spelling lists for grades 1st through 7th. They also have the Ayres Spelling scale which contains the 1000 most frequently used words and the Dolch word list which contains the 200 most frequently used words. If you sign up for their free newsletter you will receive their free report called “20 Best Tips for Teaching Spelling”. A great resource to have in your spelling
Spelling Time - SpellingTime.com is a virtual spelling tutor that presents quizzes, spelling bees, spelling tests, and fun spelling games all customized to each child’s abilities.
Everday Spelling – Spelling Lists by grade.
Kids Spell- Fun spelling games
Fun, Interactive Online Game Spin and Spell
Great games to improve spelling :
Turbo Twist Spelling by Leap Frog
Book List Links
January 13, 2010
Another list of links to invaluable tools for the homeschool…BOOK LISTS! You will find a wonderful variety here. If you have a favorite place to look up books for your students please let me know. Enjoy!
Classical Christian Homeschooling
Christian Children Book Review Blog
Five in a Row Curriculum Book List
Lists and Reviews by Focus on the Family
Family Fitness
January 1, 2010
The start of a new year always brings new beginnings and new habits. Now that I have shared about getting spiritually fit in my last post I thought we could take a little look into our physical well being in the homeschool. I am not talking about diets but rather keeping our bodies moving and in shape. This is important for the whole family. Keeping kids active is important for their minds and ours too.
Speaking of family fitness and staying healthy, a friend, homeschooling mom of 4 and reader of 100 Digits has entered the Spirit 40 Day Health and Fitness Challenge. Would you support a fellow homeschool mom in her efforts of being healthy and fit and VOTE FOR Katie Jones between January 2nd and January 8th? She would love to be part of the final 4 in this challenge. You can also show your support by becoming a fan and rooting for her on her Facebook page. Good luck Katie!
Here are some resources that I have come across to look into for keeping active with your family:
Website links:
Successful Homeschooling – Great article on designing a P.E. program into your homeschool
Homeschool Family Fitness Institute
Fun Physical Activities for Children
100 Digit Physical Fitness Bookshop – Checkout my bookshop for books and equipment under homeschooling
Teaching Our Kids to Minister to Others
November 16, 2009
It is important that we teach our children to serve others with love. And that we teach ourselves as well. It builds character and helps conform us to the image of Jesus. There are many ways to do this. The first thing to do is start with the Bible.
“In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.” Matt 5:16
Just recently we finished a project in our homeschool group where we put together bags for our car to be able to hand out to the homeless. You know when you are at that street corner and you would like to reach out to that hurting person but don’t know how or what you can do? So we put together zip lock bags containing a New Testament Bible, new socks, pen, paper, stamped envelope, water bottle, snack, and a rain poncho. We will keep them in the car and easy to reach for those times when the opportunity presents itself.
There are many programs that you can find to help minister to others. Here is a list that might help you find a ministry that is a good fit for you and your children.
Samaritans Purse Operation Christmas Child This is a great organization that you can participate in all year around. This year you can donate boxes between November 16-23rd at a local drop off. If it is any other time of year you can send them directly to Samaritans Purse. They have a system that even allows you to follow your box so that you will be able to know where your box went and a little information about it.
Angel Tree – Angel Tree is a ministry that reaches out to the children of inmates and their families with the love of Christ. It seeks to transform the lives of these families and to reconcile them to their Heavenly Father and each other.
Volunteer Match- Enter your zip code to find places that you can volunteer near you. Volunteer at soup kitchens, food banks, nursing homes and shelters. Or just contact the locations you know of directly and ask if there is a way to help out.
World Vision Gift Ministry- Do a fundraiser or have your children save their money and buy an animal for a family in a third world country. For instance give a goat. Goats nourish hungry children and families with healthy milk, cheese, and yogurt. Goats also give a much-needed income boost by providing offspring and extra dairy products for sale at the market.
World Vision Sponsor- As a child sponsor, you are connected with one special child who will know your name, write to you and feel your tender love and prayers. Your monthly sponsorship gift will provide a child with things such as clean water, nutritious food, health care, educational opportunities and spiritual nurture.
World Relief Refugees- Volunteer to sponsor a refugee or refugee family.
Donate clothing, toys or food to your local charities or drives. Put together homeless help bags for your car.
Measuring
August 13, 2009
Children are easily entertained, but generally their attention span is short, so you have to have lots of different fun things for them to do.
Some of the things that kids like to do are:
Having their picture taken.
Anything to do with water.
Combine these two fun ideas with a bunch of colored measuring cups and you have an exciting math measurement lesson.
Kids can play as they find out about measuring.
Notice how intense the child in the picture is while pouring the water into the measuring cup. Success is so sweet!!!
For more ideas about measuring, see
Measuring Volume
More Later,
Janice
Play and Find Out about Math: Easy Activities for Young Children
Blueberry Season – Teaching for all Seasons
July 19, 2009
I am taking the 100 Digits berry picking this week. Since we need to get back into school gear after a couple weeks of summer camps I decided to look into a blueberry unit study. The blueberry council has put together some great pages to make learning about blueberries fun. You can download them below or visit blueberrycouncil.com . There are 3 worksheets for grades 3rd and 4th and 3 worksheets for 5th and 6th. I think that you can find ways to use them at any grade level. They are great, check them out.
add-up-fruit-fun -Math 5th/6th
blueberries-for-every-season -Geography 5th/6th
latest-fruit-news – Language Arts 5th/6th
read-write-and-blue – Language Arts 3rd/4th
blueberries-cuisine-Geography 3rd/4th
blueberry power worksheet (shown above)
For information on U-Pick Farms local to western Washington click here.
Fun Blueberry facts
- The blueberry muffin is the official muffin of Minnesota.
- It is also the most popular muffin in the U.S.
- The blueberry is the official state fruit of New Jersey.
- July is National Blueberry Month in the U.S.
- August is the National Blueberry Month in Canada.
Stir Up the Heart of Missions in Your Homeschool
July 14, 2009
This is what I love about having this blog. Being able to share some of the great things that I come across or that others share with me. It is especially great when it is FREE! Yes, an entire unit study designed and written for homeschoolers and it’s free. I haven’t looked through the entire year of lessons but wow, I am intrigued by what is offered here. Take a look and download it! Go to Harvestministry.org.
Here is an excerpt about the curriculum:
“The curriculum includes 160 day-by-day teaching plans, missionary highlights, motivational mission stories, crafts, songs, prayer projects, and hundreds of ways to incorporate a passion for the lost into nearly every subject (including Bible Study, Family Devotions, Reading, Writing, Geography, History, Art, Science, and even highlights for Math).
The curriculum presents a “whirlwind tour” of God’s enduring passion for missions, all-the-way-through-history and all-across-the-globe. Using weekly unit-studies, this curriculum is created to be used over a one-year school year, although it can be easily adapted to be used throughout two years. It can be used as a core curriculum guide (for elementary children), or as a supplement to another curriculum. It is written especially for elementary grade levels, but it can also be used for the whole family to study missions together.”
Glossary of Grammar Terms
May 14, 2009
Adjective
A word like big, red, easy, French etc. An adjective describes a noun or pronoun. It will answer the question what kind or how many.
Adverb
A word like slowly, quietly, well, often etc. An adverb modifies a verb.
Article
The “indefinite” articles are a and an. The “definite article” is the.
Auxiliary Verb
A verb that is used with a main verb. Be, do and have are auxiliary verbs. Can, may, must etc are modal auxiliary verbs.
Clause
A group of words containing a subject and its verb (for example: It was late when he arrived).
Conjunction
A word used to connect words, phrases and clauses (for example: and, but, if).
Infinitive
The basic form of a verb as in to work or work.
Interjection
An exclamation inserted into an utterance without grammatical connection (for example: oh!, ah!, ouch!, well!).
Modal Verb
An auxiliary verb like can, may, must etc that modifies the main verb and expresses possibility, probability etc. It is also called “modal auxiliary verb”.
Noun
A word like table, dog, teacher, America etc. A noun is the name of an object, concept, person or place. A “concrete noun” is something you can see or touch like a person or car. An “abstract noun” is something that you cannot see or touch like a decision or happiness. A “countable noun” is something that you can count (for example: bottle, song, dollar). An “uncountable noun” is something that you cannot count (for example: water, music, money).
Object
In the active voice, a noun or its equivalent that receives the action of the verb. In the passive voice, a noun or its equivalent that does the action of the verb.
Participle
The -ing and -ed forms of verbs. The -ing form is called the “present participle”. The -ed form is called the “past participle”.
Part Of Speech
One of the eight classes of word in English – noun, verb, adjective, adverb, pronoun, preposition, conjunction and interjection.
Passive Voice
In the passive voice, the subject receives the action of the verb (eg The President was killed). See also Active Voice.
Phrase
A group of words not containing a subject and its verb (eg on the table, the girl in a red dress).
Predicate
Each sentence contains (or implies) two parts: a subject and a predicate. The predicate is what is said about the subject.
Preposition
A word like at, to, in, over etc. Prepositions usually come before a noun and give information about things like time, place and direction.
Pronoun
A word like I, me, you, he, him, it etc. A pronoun replaces a noun.
Sentence
A group of words that express a thought. A sentence conveys a statement, question, exclamation or command. A sentence contains or implies a subject and a predicate. In simple terms, a sentence must contain a verb and (usually) a subject. A sentence starts with a capital letter and ends with a full stop (.), question mark (?) or exclamation mark (!).
Subject
Every sentence contains (or implies) two parts: a subject and a predicate. The subject is the main noun (or equivalent) in a sentence about which something is said.
Tense
The form of a verb that shows us when the action or state happens (past, present or future). Note that the name of a tense is not always a guide to when the action happens. The “present continuous tense”, for example, can be used to talk about the present or the future.
Verb
A word like (to) work, (to) love, (to) begin. A verb describes an action or state.
National Poison Prevention Week
March 13, 2009
This year National Poison Prevention Week is March 15th-21st
What is National Poison Prevention Week?
Public Law 87-319 authorizes the President to designate annually the third week in March as National Poison Prevention Week. This act of Congress was signed into law on September 16, 1961, by President Kennedy, after which the Poison Prevention Week Council was organized to coordinate this annual event. Congress intended this event as a means for local communities to raise awareness of the dangers of unintentional poisonings and to take such preventive measures as the dangers warrant.
Did You Know…
…poisonings just surpassed traffic fatalities as the leading cause of injury-related death in Washington State and the third leading cause of hospitalization?
…91% of poisonings take place in the home?
…the WAPC answers more calls about medications (specifically pain killers) than any other potentially harmful substance!
(facts taken from The YUK Report Winter 2008)
Here are some activities to incorporate into school this coming week:
More on Plants, A list of Toxic and Non-Toxic Plants
You will be able to find these and many more educational resources on your local Poison Center’s website. The website for the Washington Poison Center is here.
What is a Poison Center?
A Poison Center is a knowledge resource center, set up for the benefit of you and your
community. Up-to-date information about millions and millions of dangerous products and raw
materials is available here for quick, easy retrieval, 24 hours a day, every day. The person who
answers your call to the Poison Center is a dedicated, highly-trained poison information
specialist with access to the latest medical research in toxicology, the study of poisons. Through
regular research and continuing communications with national toxicology specialists, the Poison
Center makes itself a resource for the latest information on the treatment for exposures to
hazardous substances.
The Poison Center is an education center. The staff helps train and update medical professionals
on new toxicological research and treatment. The Poison Center reaches out to the community
with valuable education programs for families at home, day care centers, schools, service clubs,
civic organizations, etc. The Poison Center serves everyone and animals, too!.
The Poison Center serves the community by saving money. When the public—you—learn to
call the Poison Center first, at 1-800-222-1222, when you suspect a poisoning, thousands of
needless hospital visits and unnecessary use of emergency transport vehicles are eliminated.
With the Poison Center’s knowledgeable help, most poisonings can be successfully treated at
home. This saves each community hundreds of thousands of dollars annually in medical costs
and frees-up police, 911 and other emergency personnel for other people that need them.
Call the Washington Poison Center at 1-800-222-1222 for poison help or for information about
preventing poisonings. This is a national phone number so whatever state you live in you will be connected to your local center.
