Ellen Stoll Walsh

I am still accepting portfolios.  I am only reviewing them, and sending the form you need for your school district.   Thanks so much. Becky ohiohomeschool@gmail.com

The author for September is Ellen Stoll Walsh.   I remember learning about Ms. Walsh back in graduate school.  I was fascinated as another student used an overhead projector, glass jars, and colored water to enhance her telling of Mouse Paint.   I am dating myself with that overhead projector comment, but it was very fun to watch. 

Mrs. Walsh pictures are distinct and inviting.  She has a wonderful way of reviewing colors, shapes, and counting.  Here is a post by another author Tedd Arnold about Ms. Walsh.  It tells about how she became a storyteller and author. 

 I have set up a Pinterest board with some activities that I have found.   Here are some ideas I am going to try to work in this month.

~ Take a nature hike.
~ Make some shape pictures
~ Read and snuggle as much as I can.
~Do some color mixing in glasses so my kids can see it.
~Paint and mix colors.  
~Print a couple of worksheets as optional activities.

I would love to hear your ideas.  Please write them in the comments.

Happy Reading!
Becky

Author of the month

I am still accepting portfolios.  I am only reviewing them, and sending the form you need for your school district.   Thanks so much. Becky ohiohomeschool@gmail.com

I am starting something new at my house.  I feel like my "littles" need some more directed author studies.  I believe there is something powerful in studying an author and reading many books by that author. You get to observe the type of writing style and look at their artwork more closely.  

I have decided this school year, I am going to do an author a month in picture books.  The intended audience of the books is PK-3rd, but my older kids love to revisit their favorites. I am going to gather the books from my personal collection and ask my local librarian to help me gather more by that author.  I am going to put them in a special tub/bin and keep them available for the month.  My hope is that by having them all gathered, I will be able to grab and read them.  I feel like personally I need to be more intentional about reading good literature to my kids.  When I ask them to grab a book we tend to read some less quality titles.  I am also hoping the older kids will read these to the younger ones as well.  

I will try to post these at the end of the previous month.  Hopefully you can join me on my journey. These are the authors I am planning on for this school year.  But, they are subject to change. I am choosing easy to find authors who have published many books.  

September- Ellen Stoll Walsh.  
October- Lois Ehlert
November- Patricia Polacco.
December- Jan Brett
January- Ezra Jack Keats
February- Bill Martin Jr.
March- Tomie dePaola
April- Margeret Wise Brown
May- Eric Carle

I hope you will join me on my adventure.  
~Becky

Homeschool Graphic. . . Interesting

I am still accepting portfolios.  I am only reviewing them, and sending the form you need for your school district.   Thanks so much. Becky ohiohomeschool@gmail.com

Source: TopMastersInEducation.com

Planning for Next Year. . .. Simply Charlotte Mason Web site.

I accept portfolios for review through Saturday August 24, 2013.  After that date I will accept your portfolio, but I will not write up any notes.  I will only send you what you need for your district.   I am still happy to help you after the 24th. Thanks so much. Becky ohiohomeschool@gmail.com

 

I have bought my calendar each year from the lovely people at Simply Charlotte Mason.  This year I looked around their web site and found many other great resources that I have found helpful.

They have a wonderful article on the six basic types of home education.  The article describes them and gives vendors to help you.  They also have an excellent article on what methods Charlotte Mason used. 

I enjoyed reading through their explanation of copy work, narration, and dictation.   A great site to check out to help you plan your year.

~Becky

Planning for Next Year. . . Donna Young

I was in desperate need of graph paper for my son to work his addition and subtraction problems on.  I searched the web for graph paper and found DonnaYoung.org Printables and Resources . . . . again.  I had visited this site before, but had not been there in awhile.  So after printing up some papers designed for math I looked around. 

 

She has many helpful printables on her page.  She has printables for handwriting, science lessons & journals, nature journals, math facts practice, math charts, and so much more.  

You may download free of charge from her site and she also sells a CD.  It looks like in the future she may sell a subscription to her site.  

I think this is a fabulous resource.  I printed a multiplication chart that made my heart skip.  

Maybe this will help you with your planning for this year.

~ Becky

Our Nature Hike and resources.

Tammy's post last week inspired our family to go on a nature hike with my kids.  I really enjoyed the time with them and remembered again just how wonderful nature walks can be.  

Starting on the trail.  

  We enjoyed each others company, and made shared memories. There is something powerful about slowing down.

 

We found shell fungus and spent some time observing it.  

 Here are some resources that we use when we observe nature, or want to read more about it. 

We love the series One Small Square .  There are a variety of books in this series including one on the woods. 

One Small Square books. 

 Another favorite is the Fun with Nature Take Along Guide.  That is a very well loved book in our house.  This version is compilation of several books in the series.

Fun with Nature

Any of the Audubon Field books are particularly helpful. 

Guide for Birds

We also love the Dover  coloring books as well.   

A Walk in the Woods

American Wild Flowers

 Happy exploring! 

~Becky