E. spends fifty minutes each day drawing from observation. We hope this will strengthen her drawing skillls, but it is also an excellent way to get centered and focused, for example before writing an essay.
"Judging from his tracks, Boo was about six and a half feet tall, dined on raw squirrels and any cats he could catch. There was a long, jagged scar that ran across his face. His eyes popped and he drooled most of the time." Jem describing Boo Radley in To Kill a Mockingbird "Facts are stubborn things." Tobias Smollett
Emma's homeschool year and beyond
Email comments, suggestions to us: nmboxer at yahoo.com
Our approach.
Read, and then read more. There is no agenda here except to learn.
Search Judging from His Tracks
Award Winning Young Adult Fiction Titles
cloud of knowing
homeschool
quiz
study guide
Philip Pullman
desert quiz
essay questions
geography quiz
social studies lesson plans
Lisa Yee
Newbery
Oliver Twist
Project GUTS
civics
civil disobedience
fossil lesson plan
geography lesson plan
homeschooling
immigration lesson plan
lesson plan
lesson plans
middle school
reading comprehension
roald dahl
seventh grade
seventh grade lesson plan
unschool
1840s
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
A.A. Milne
Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian
Amber Spyglass
Balto
Bent's Old Fort
Blitz
Bridge to Terabithia
Call of the Wild
Catcher in the Rye quiz
Charles Dickens
Chronicles of Narnia
Civil War
Cranford
Cynthia Lord
DeWitt Clinton literary magazine
E.H. Shepard
Ernest H. Shepard
Gary Paulsen
George Cruikshank
George Selden
Golden Compass lesson plan
Green Glass Sea
HG Wells
Hatchet
His Dark Materials quiz
Iditarod lesson plan
Industrial Revolution lesson plan
J.D. Salinger
Jack London
Jan Scruggs
Jane Austen
Jem
Joshua Chamberlain
Junior Ranger program
Kenneth Grahame
Killer Angels
Lewis and Clark
Math U See
Maya Lin
Meals on Wheels
Merriam-Webster sites
Miracle Worker quiz
My Boy Jack
Pete Seeger
Romeo and Juliet
Rudyard Kipling
Sandra Day O'Connor
Santa Fe Trail study questions
Scout
Sea Legs
Second World War
Sherman Alexie
Sliding Into Home
Stratego
Subtle Knife
Summer's End
Supreme Court
The Raven
Time Machine
To Kill a Mockingbird quiz
Turn Turn Turn; adapting lyrics from Bible
Vietnam War
War of the Worlds
Western
William Shakespeare
Wind in the Willows quiz
abolitionism
allegory
animal farm lesson plan
ap tests
artist trading cards
bette bao lord
bildungsroman
children during wartime
computer modeling
corps of discovery
cynthia ryland
diary of anne frank
ecosystems
edgar allan poe
final project
harmony camp
here comes science cd
in the year of the boar and jackie robinson
japanese american internment
japanese internment
josiah gregg
labor movement
lesson plan development
lewis carroll
living history
meter
millicent min
quiz Call of the Wild
reading list
red menace
rhythm
richard peck
stanzas
study guide Call of the Wild
study guide link
study guide sites
subject verb agreement
sudoku
symbolism
they might be giants
thin wood walls
vase painting
water lesson plan
world geography
world war ii
Lesson Plan and Subject Idea Links
- Art of Renaissance Europe (via The Metropolitian)
- Arrow Book Club (study guide for many books)
- China Geography
- Control the Spread of Rift Valley Fever
- Core Knowledge Lesson Plans, Grade 7
- The Dark Frigate
- Galileo (NEH site)
- Geography
- History and Social Science
- Immigration Lesson Plan
- Immigration Novels
- Leonardo da Vinci
- Leonardo's Window (a lesson in perspective)
- Magna Carta
- Norton Anthology of World Literature companion - excellent quizzes and discovery modules
- Postcards From Buster (U.S. geography workable for middle schoolers)
- The Printing Press
- Science, Rockingham County
- The Silk Road (San Bernadino Public Schools)
- The Silk Route (Montgomery County Public Schools)
- Storm Word Search
- Taking a Stand (Civil Rights movement)
- Three Branches of Government
- Vincent Van Gogh lesson plan
Other Links We Like
- Books For Kids Blog
- Brush Up on Arithmetic Skills (Timed)
- City Different Home Learners
- Chaparral and Fire
- eThemes, 1930-1939
- Gardening for Kids
- Kids' News from Scholastic
- Kidstorm Sky Diary
- Library Thing (Keep Track of Your Library)
- Life Hacker
- Lightning Explained
- The Manhattan Project and the Second World War
- Mapman Game (geography from Scholastic)
- National Gallery of Art for children
- Osmosis (Spineless Potatoes)
- Panorama of the Mountains
- Plant Biology
- Plants Database, USDA
- Project GUTS
- Santa Fe Public Library catalog
- Science Fair Projects.
- The Structure of Flowers
- Vincent Van Gogh
- Why Leaves Change Color
- WordNet
- Words Without Borders (World Literature)
Don"t Forget Music
We make music part of the homeschool curriculum through a local progressive and inclusive church, where E. sings in the youth choir (the Que Choir). She's very lucky to work with Director of Choral Ministries Catherine Robinson, who has performed with the Desert Chorale, Canticum Novum, Pro Musica, and the NM Symphony Orchestra chorus. Catherine truly does help our kids "get" the joy of music.
The Que Choir practices once a week.
Growing Up Thinking Scientifically
It's good to admit limits, and our limits include teaching science. So E. is participating in a National Science Foundation-funded program called Project GUTS, held at the Santa Fe Institute. The staff is outstanding, the location beautiful, and we will make the most of it. If you live nearby, your homeschooler can participate.
Science News Links
Blog Archive
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2007
(51)
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October
(11)
- The Santa Fe Trail.
- Post-war fiction and the Red Menace.
- Fifty minutes per day.
- "Growing up, I was weird. I was a bookworm."
- This week's fiction...
- The art of Charles Schulz.
- The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, 1962.
- E's art class is near Old Santa Fe Trail. A vase ...
- China studies.
- Conclusion of World War II.
- The Tale of Desperaux.
-
▼
October
(11)
E"s Favorite Books (This Changes)
- A Wrinkle in Time
- Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian
- All Roald Dahl Books
- Bud, Not Buddy
- Everything on a Waffle
- Goodnight, Mr. Tom
- Island of the Blue Dolphins
- Matilda
- Pippi Longstocking
- The Egyptian Game
- The Halloween Tree
- To Kill a Mockingbird
Life in...
...Santa Fe.
Consider home learning...
...so your middle schooler can stop:
Breaking up the day into learning time and play time.
Shifting topics according to an externally-imposed schedule.
Being told what to care about and when to care about it.
Being told what is good enough.
Being part of a hierarchy with students at the bottom.
Having to supply "acceptable" excuses for absence or lateness.
Standing in lines, waiting for everything: food, water, attention of the teacher, time on the computer, etc.
Having individual gifts or problems neglected.
Moving at the sound of a bell.
Being segregated by chronological age.
Being separated from the family.
Feeling isolated from the working world.
Experiencing schedule rigidity--who wants to miss the World Series? Or the lunar eclipse because you have to get up early?
The natural curiosity of a healthy child, given access to a rich environment, will lead the child to learn what he or she needs to know. Eric Anderson
Breaking up the day into learning time and play time.
Shifting topics according to an externally-imposed schedule.
Being told what to care about and when to care about it.
Being told what is good enough.
Being part of a hierarchy with students at the bottom.
Having to supply "acceptable" excuses for absence or lateness.
Standing in lines, waiting for everything: food, water, attention of the teacher, time on the computer, etc.
Having individual gifts or problems neglected.
Moving at the sound of a bell.
Being segregated by chronological age.
Being separated from the family.
Feeling isolated from the working world.
Experiencing schedule rigidity--who wants to miss the World Series? Or the lunar eclipse because you have to get up early?
The natural curiosity of a healthy child, given access to a rich environment, will lead the child to learn what he or she needs to know. Eric Anderson