Ambleside on Librivox

I'm not sure if I'm the last person on earth to know this, but Librivox now has a Wiki!!!  And low and behold they have a page dedicated to the Amblesideonline reading selections that are available as audiobooks on Librivox.  I hope you're as excited as I am.

Bittersweet Magazine and the One Room School

Bittersweet Magazine began in 1973 as a class assignment.  An English teacher found a great way to get her students to write.  They began a project "dedicated to preserving the crafts, lore, legends and personalities of the Ozarks."  And so the students began documenting the culture of the area around Lebanon, MO.

This project is near and dear to my heart because it just so happens that I am originally from very close to the same area.  Several generations of my family lived in this area.  And this same culture is a part of my heritage.

One particular article struck me as I was reading tonight.  This article is an interview with a woman named Lois and she tells about what it was like when she was going to school back in the early 1900s.  I was struck by how very different the school experience is today.  From something as simple as having an hour for lunch and playing to the orderliness of lining up outside according to where you were seated and marching inside.

Morgan School from Bittersweet Magazine

I really found this article in the same issue fascinating.  While the previous article I mentioned is from the point of view of a student in a one room school in the early 1900s, this article is from the point of view of a teacher in a similar school in the 1970's.  He has some really interesting points that I think home educators will be interested in reading.  I was sad to read his hopefulness at the end that perhaps the one room school approach was coming back in vogue.

Another article shows what a day is like for one teacher in a one room school house.  Her lesson plan is shown and her thoughts on how to get eight grades through one day in one room.  Her organization style will be so familiar to any home educator.  Especially one in a large family.  I'd love to pick her brain!

I hope you'll enjoy reading through the issues of Bittersweet Magazine and learning a bit about the Ozark culture.  Tales of a hardworking, industrious people from a time long gone. 

Art and Music Appreciation

I recently ran across this site that has a set of paintings in a slideshow with the music of a particular artist.  For instance, this set contains the works of Van Gogh with the music of Bach.  They are well done and particularly nice to watch if your are studying either of these artists. The only problem is they are hosted by some mice that I find particularly annoying.  Fortunately you can skip their intro, but they reappear at the end with links to short biography of the artists.  Sadly there wasn't one with Monet or Ravel who we are currently studying.  But you'll want to check them all out!

The Book Seer

I'm in love with this...

New Free Audio Site

I found a new site for free audio through my Learnoutloud.com newsletter. I've blogged on Learnoutloud.com before and I urge you to receive their newsletter which provides links to all sorts of free audio, some not good, some good but definitely worth looking at. Today's link was for Cicero's Treatise on Friendship. I thought this was something that would be good for me to listen to with my kids to start some conversations on friendship. That brought me to Ejunto.com

Learnoutloud.com links to other websites with free audio. Ejunto is a site that provides audio of Historical and Philosophical works and there are some really interesting offerings there. Everything from Aesop and Shakespeare to The Federalist Papers and The Communist Manifesto. Lots of things we can use for school. I bet you can find something useful there as well!

How to be a Patriot

Every child in America should be acquainted with his own country. He should read books that furnish him with ideas that will be useful to him in life and practice. As soon as he opens his lips, he should rehearse the history of his own country.

Noah Webster, On the Education of Youth in America, 1788

I agree with Mr. Webster that every child in the United States should understand the privilege of being a US citizen. Like the holidays in the Bible, patriotic days are a great time to remind your children of the past, where we have been and how we got where we are. In this country we have a common heritage of music and heroes that should not be forgotten. Here are some resources to help you do that.

The Old Schoolhouse Magazine has a series of informative and helpful newsletters. One of those is called Freebie Fridays. This Friday's newsletter contained several links to help educate children on our heritage.

Learn Out Loud is a collection of audiobooks for sale and for free. They have a daily newsletter that let's you know what's free and it often touches on the current holiday or events. This week there have been several American History audios highlighted that are free. On their kid's page scroll down and under "most popular" you'll find audios of The Declaration of Independence, documents of the Founders, biographies of famous Americans, The Bill of Rights and several important speeches.

Amazon gives away several mp3s on their site everyday. I downloaded Documentary Recordings Presents Patriotic Music . Another great source of copyright free music is one of my favorite blogs Music You (Possibly) Won't Hear Anyplace. Wednesday's post contained a link to 78's For A Fourth of July Mood, a collection gathered by the blog's author. It's a great collection of music from the early part of the twentieth century. A teachable moment for kids on how we used to listen to music as you explain the scratchy sounds in the music! If you want more of this kind of music check this blog's archives for patriotic holidays. There are some real treasures here.

I hope you enjoy your weekend and spend some time teaching your children!

The Homemaking Cottage

Recently I was given the pleasure of a free week of the subscription Deluxe Edition of The Homemaking Cottage site to review. Shiloah Baker is the owner and editor of The Homemaking Cottage, but the articles are written by a group of freelance writers who are just normal homemakers! Shiloah is a homeschooling mother of 7 children and an experienced homemaker.

I was quite excited as this sounded like just my cup of tea! I'm an avid magazine reader and this site was like have all the back issues of a great homemaking magazine at my fingertips. More than a magazine subscription, it was a subscription to not only what is written this year, but to all that has ever been written! It was a pleasurable week pouring through the many articles, but there were so many more I never even got to read.

There is a lot to this website and a subscription is quite a bargain at $36, about what you would pay for a premium magazine. But remember...you get to read ALL the information written for the site. User receive 24 hour a day access to the over 891 original articles/recipes/crafts and 20% off anything in the website store. Here is a sample of the sections on the website:

Home & Garden

Homemaking

Gardening

Back to Basics

Cleaning

Home Office

Laundry

Organizing

Self Reliance

Thrifty Living

Thrifty Shopping

Time Management

Crafts

Kitchen & Cooking

Family Corner

Fair Lady

Entertaining

Holidays

Health

Inspiration

Decorating

I spent most of my time in the Self Reliance section. This is a current interest of mine as my husband has asked me to help him get our family more prepared for emergency situations. The articles I read were not only informative, but practical. Plenty of wisdom to help me get started.

Shiloah was so kind to offer to let me give away on FREE subsubscription to the Deluxe edition to one of my readers! To enter, please leave a comment between now and midnight on Sunday, April 26. I will put your names in a hat and draw a winner next Monday, April 27, and post the winner here and notify them by email. Don't forget to provide a way for me to be able to contact you, either through your blog or an email address so that I can notify you if you win.

Even if you don't win the deluxe membership, be sure to visit the website, and consider purchasing a membership for yourself. I think you will love it.

Winter Nature Study

Charlotte Mason recommended that children study nature in order to understand, appreciate and be good stewards of the world around them. Since I come from a long line of nature lovers this hasn't been too difficult for me, but it can be somewhat of a challenge in winter. I recently discovered a great resource for the Kansas City area in the Walt Bodine Show.

The Walt Bodine Show covers local happenings and produces a quarterly show called Nature in the City. Listening recently I heard information about Snowy Owls which people in our area usually can't see but have a opportunity to see right now due to the owls normal prey being unavailable in their area. There was also information about foxes and other wildlife and flora in the area. If you live in the Kansas City area I suggest you check it out.

To use this program as nature study I download it and then I went to youtube and found video of the animals described in the show. My children can hear local experts discuss nature in our area and see visuals to help them identify those birds and animals when we are out driving or walking. There is also an archive of previous shows and I plan to do the same with other shows in the future. Very praiseworthy indeed!

Our Daily Bread: Daily Audio Bible

The bible exhorts us to be in God's word daily. But it can be a bit of a struggle to adopt that habit. As the Psalmist says:

You, God, prescribed the right way to live;
now you expect us to live it.
Oh, that my steps might be steady,
keeping to the course you set;
Then I'd never have any regrets
in comparing my life with your counsel.

Psalm 119:4-8

Happily I have found help in my struggle. The Daily Audio Bible.

The Daily Audio Bible provides a daily podcast of readings from the Old Testament, New Testament, Psalms, and Proverbs. The goal is to read (or listen) through the Bible in one year.

The voice behind these podcasts is Brian Hardin. Brian's voice is soothing and engaging. His comments before and after the readings let you know that he is just another guy trying to follow God's path. He exhorts and teaches all with a background of soothing music and sounds of nature. It really is an incredible listening experience! After the readings and Brian's comments there is a time of prayer followed by quiet music for personal prayer and meditation.

Since I have begun with DAB a curious thing has happened. I have found that my children love it too! My son often reminds me to "turn on Brian" in the morning. My children will grow quiet in that way that you know they are listening. Not only that but they will often ask me questions or make comments after. My son usually asks to pray with me for the requests. This part was unplanned and unexpected. A little butter with my bread.

A reading is also available specifically geared for children read by Brian's daughter. Versions are also available in Spanish and Hindi. Why not try it out yourself? You'll have no regrets.

Inspired Eye Images

Inspired Eye Images is an inspiration site which features original photographic art "devotionals". The goal of this site is to offer inspiration and encouragement through the power of the visual image and “good words”– (Anxiety in the heart of a person causes depression, But a good word makes it glad. Proverbs 12:25.) By subscribing to their monthly email newsletter which will start in January, you’ll receive a fresh, original image with an inspiring message that you can print and put on your desk, fridge, bathroom mirror, etc... You will also receive priority notice of special offer downloads; special pricing on framedprints, greeting cards, devotionals, photo books and journals; and have the opportunity to enter their quarterly print give-aways.

If your looking for a calendar or perhaps have created your own and need some nice visuals, visit the site at http://www.inspiredeyeimages.com/ .

The Coupon Game

I've been reading all these coupon game blogs about Walgreen’s and CVS. Have any of you ever seen these? Have any of you ever tried it? It's actually fun!

Basically these ladies take current specials, coupons and rebate offers and match it all up in combinations that save the most money. I just went to Walgreen’s and bought $47 of stuff. Using coupons (the links to them are usually in the blogs so you can print them out right there) and a $25 gift certificate I got for transferring a prescription there I ended up spending $6. Then I got a register reward for $5 off my next visit so it’s really like I spent $1.

The first few times I looked at the "scenarios" of things that people bought there I thought, "I don't use those products so it won't work for me." See, a lot of it is convenience food. But I've realized that there are lots of deals on personal care items and household cleaners that I would use. So now I scan the deals for things I normally buy anyway and ended up saving $46.

There's a lot to this and it seems daunting at first but check them out and you may find a way to save your family money too. For me it's worth it as there are two Walgreen's less than a mile from my house. So it's convenient. I recommend you start at MoneySavingMom's blog (which is a favorite of mine anyway). She has tutorials for how to do all this and links to lots of other blogs that can help.

Free Copywork!

The Old Schoolhouse is giving away a Ten Commandments Copybook e-book today only. They are having a deal of the day every day in September. It's called "The Daily Deal." Some of them are free and some are just really good deals. Check it out!

Walgreen's Gift Card Giveaway!

I'm new to the whole Walgreen's/CVS coupon game but I'm finding it fascinating. Basically there are several blogs out there where women share how they are being good stewards of their money by strategically planning their shopping around sales, coupons and rebates. One of those blogs The Coupon Game is offering a free Walgreen's gift card. Check it out and learn more about how to play the game yourself.

If you are new to this whole thing then I strongly urge you check out Money Saving Mom for some great information on how to do it yourself. Use the "Start Here" links on the right side of her blog.

When Mother Lets Us Cook

Homeschoolfreebieoftheday.com is becoming the site I check every morning. They have managed to find so many wondeful freebies. I signed up for their newsletter that gives you a heads up at the beginning of the week as to what they will be offering during the week. That way you can mark your calendar for that one that you MUST have!

Today's offering is right up my alley. A cookbook for children from 1916. Here is an excerpt from the preface:

Recipes include everything from lemonade to applesauce to fudge to omelets. You'll find it here. Hurry up because it's only for today!

P.S. The wonderful Kara has informed me that this is available on googlebooks so you can still get it! Thank you Kara!

P.P.S Kara has gone one step further and recorded it as an audiobook. Have a listen at Librivox!

Paperdolls and things

You may have noticed if you read my blog regularly that I really enjoy paper crafts. I'm enamored with Ephemera in general, but especially paper toys. So just for a little fun I thought I'd give you some links to a few of my current favorites.

For some reason some of the best places for this kind of thing seem to be french. Oh well, you won't have to speak french to enjoy them. I will warn you that if you choose to look around on their blogs be aware that you might see some nudes not appropriate for children. So beware.

There were some very sweet girls on Grenouille Plus, a blog where you can find lots of fun paper crafts. You can find them here http://grandformat.blogspot.com/2007/11/meilleurs-scans-de-ces-3-cartes-dj.html. That link will take you to the flickr of Agence Eureka another blogger with some fantastic paper crafts like this fun set of articulated animals and some fantastic toys in her Paper Craft set here http://www.flickr.com/photos/taffeta/sets/72157601156433867/. There are so many goodies like a cowboy set, a little cottage, French Chateau's and people and furniture! You'll have a lot of fun looking through that set if you are as interested in paper toys as I am.

There are also many items on Agence Eureka's site that can be used to study history. There are Roman soldiers, American Indians, and a Louis XIII Musketeer to name a few. But there is so much more, I hope you'll take a look around this site.

Valerie's Living Books!

Eileen at 8 - George Soper

I have blogged on Valerie's Living Books in the past but I just learned that Valerie has recently updated her site. Valerie's Living Books is a fantastic resource not only to buy quality children's books but also to become more informed about them. Valerie graciously provides information on quality books gleaned from her years of homeschooling her 11 children in her information pages. These pages contain recommendations to many praiseworthy books and book series for children. I highly recommend you check them out. And if you find something you like do take the time to see if Valerie has it. I've purchased from her before and the product is always excellent. AND you get to support her homeschool. Go check it out!

Learn Out Loud

I love audio books. We read a lot of books and I can't possibly do all the reading to my children. So I use audio books to give us some variety and me a rest. I have been a long time fan of Librivox but now I'm found something new, Learn Out Loud.

Learn Out Loud provides a list of classic downloadable audiobooks for sale, but they also have several free downloadable audiobooks. The have a wonderful collection of children's audio listed by age. I recently received an email from them with this information on those audio collections:

By far one of the largest collections of free literature to be released for free on MP3 download is the University of South Florida's Lit2Go collection, now available through iTunes U. This treasure trove of free downloadable audio books, poetry, and short stories is aimed at K-12 educators, but most of its resources can be enjoyed by literature listeners of all ages. We've compiled a comprehensive list of what they have to offer for each grade level:
Lit2Go: Audio Files for Kindergarteners:Features Robert Louis Stevenson poems for children, as well as classic nursery rhymes like "Jack and Jill", "Little Bo-Peep", "Hickory Dickory Dock", and "Baa, Baa, Black Sheep".
Lit2Go: Audio Files for 1st Graders:Features more classic poems and fairy tales including Lewis Carroll's "Jabberwocky", "Fire! Fire! Burn Stick!" from Aesop's Fables, "Humpty Dumpty", "Peter Piper", and "The Twelve Days of Christmas".
Lit2Go: Audio Files for 2nd Graders:Features "The Story of a Fierce Bad Rabbit" by Beatrix Potter, "The Hare and the Hedgehog" by The Brothers Grimm, more Robert Louis Stevenson poems, and an unabridged audio book called The Outdoor Girls in Florida by Laura Lee Hope.
Lit2Go: Audio Files for 3rd Graders:Features a number of Aesop's Fables, "The Ugly Duckling" & "The Emperor's New Clothes" by Hans Christian Anderson, "How the Alphabet Was Made" by Rudyard Kipling, and the audio books Squinty, the Comical Pig by Richard Barnum, The Outdoor Chums on the Gulf; or, Rescuing the Lost Balloonists by Captain Quincy Allen, and Jack Tier, or the Florida Reef by James Fenimore Cooper.
Lit2Go: Audio Files for 4th Graders:Features many more of Aesop's Fables, tales by Beatrix Potter, and the unabridged audio books The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett, Seven O'Clock Stories by Robert Gordon Anderson, The Tale of Tommy Fox by Arthur Scott Bailey, Whitefoot the Woodmouse by Thornton W. Burgess, and many of Andrew Lang's Fairy Books.
Lit2Go: Audio Files for 5th Graders:Features "Sleeping Beauty" by The Brothers Grimm, even more of Aesop's Fables, tales by Beatrix Potter, The Tale of Brownie Beaver by Arthur Scott Bailey, The Go Ahead Boys and the Racing Motor-Boat by Ross Kay, Curly and Floppy Twistytail the Funny Piggie Boys by Howard R. Garis, The Adventures of Jerry Muskrat by Thornton W. Burgess, Half-Past Seven Stories by Robert Gordon Anderson, Beyond the City by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll, and The Snow Queen by Hans Christian Andersen.
Lit2Go: Audio Files for 6th Graders:Features dozens of short stories including many by Virginia Woolf and Rudyard Kipling. Also features the audio books The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz, & The Emerald City of Oz by L. Frank Baum, Famous Stories Every Child Should Know, The Story of Siegfried by James Baldwin, The Light Princess by George MacDonald, The Open Boat by Stephen Crane, A Florida Sketch-Book by Bradford Torrey, Sylvie and Bruno & Sylvie and Bruno Concluded by Lewis Carroll, Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Philosophy and Fun of Algebra by Mary Everest Boole, The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and Flappers and Philosophers by F. Scott Fitzgerald.
Lit2Go: Audio Files for 7th Graders:Features Edgar Allan Poe's most famous short stories, as well as the audio books The Tin Woodman of Oz & Tik-Tok of Oz by L. Frank Baum, The Little Lame Prince by Maria Dinah Mulock Craik, The Return of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, The Castle of Otranto by Horace Walpole, Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson, and The Invisible Man by H. G. Wells.
Lit2Go: Audio Files for 8th Graders:Features poems by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, short stories by Emily Bronte, more of Edgar Allan Poe's most famous short stories, and the audio books In the Wilds of Florida by W. H. G. Kingston, Logic: Deductive and Inductive by Carveth Read, M.A., The Number Concept: Its Origin and Development by Levi Leonard Conant, Ph. D., The Mystery of Edwin Drood & Great Expectations by Charles Dickens, and Around the World in 80 Days by Jules Verne.
Lit2Go: Audio Files for 9th Graders:Features "History" essay by Ralph Waldo Emerson, more poems by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, and the audio books Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, Wakulla, A Story of Adventure in Florida & Canoemates: A Story of the Florida Reef and Everglades by Kirk Munroe, Florida Trails by Winthrop Packard, The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man by James Weldon Johnson, A Victorious Union by Oliver Optic, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court by Mark Twain, Dracula by Bram Stoker, The Mystery of Cloomber by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, The Castles of Athlin and Dunbayne, Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen, Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte, Agnes Grey by Anne Bronte, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson, The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde, and The War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells.
Lit2Go: Audio Files for 10th Graders:Features the audio books St. Augustine Under Three Flags: Tourist Guide and History, Symbolic Logic by Lewis Carroll, The House of the Seven Gables by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte, The Professor by Charlotte Bronte, The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins, Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray, and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain.
Lit2Go: Audio Files for 11th Graders:Features the audio books The Game of Logic by Lewis Carroll, The Scarlet Letter, The Blithedale Romance & The Marble Faun by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Deductive Logic by George William Joseph Stock, M.A., Lettres Philosophiques by Francois-Marie Arouet, and Beowulf translated by Frances B. Grummere.
Lit2Go: Audio Files for 12th Graders:Features the audio books Physics by Aristotle, Lectures on Ten British Mathematicians of the Nineteenth Century by Alexander MacFarlane, A Short Account of the History of Mathematics by W. W. Rouse Ball, History of Modern Mathematics by David Eugene Smith, Flatland by Edwin A. Abbott, The Flamingo Feather by Kirk Munroe, Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen, and Spherical Trigonometry by Isaac Todhunter.

I urge you to check out these files today. Listen to them from your computer or copy them onto cd's to listen to in your car or child's room. Very Praiseworthy!

Something Fun: States Visited

I've just returned from a trip to another state for my brother's wedding. On coming home I saw this fun tool on Visited States. This would be fun to do with your kids and a nice lesson on geography as well. Here is a picture of the traveling in my lifetime:




create your own visited states map
Enjoy!