EduLinks 08/29/07

Hello my fellow educators and thank you for stopping by for another week of EduLinks and Blog of the Week. I hope everyone has a great day today. I am very glad to say that I have been working on many new things for you including a very long list of reviews that I will be bringing to you over the next few months. I have met so many fantastic people from so many companies lately and I can honestly say I am very proud to know them.

Please always remember the small business and new business owners when you do your supply and curriculum shopping. These companies are working hard to succeed and you honestly wouldn't believe just how hard unless you've been there yourself. It takes a lot of strength to say the least. Thanks to people like them though, this is going to be great!

On with this week's EduLinks and as always, if you've got a link you'd like to share then please email me and I'd be happy to include it.

Last week we started with the letter "A" on our "back to school" links so this week I've got the "B" list for you. ;)

BiblioCat- Resources for Librarians, School librarians, Library/Media Specialists, Teachers, Parents, and Homeschoolers. Wow, when they say resources they mean RESOURCES!!

BBC's "Ancient History"- Not only is this a great resource on Ancient History but they also have several era related games your child can play while learning. It's really a lot of fun!

Boost For Readers- FANTASTIC resource and all they ask is that you sign the guestbook before using the materials. How easy is that?!

Book Adventure- If you haven't signed your kids up at Book Adventure yet then I definitely suggest you do so now! Book Adventure is a FREE reading motivation program for children in grades K-8 and motivating is exactly what it does.

Biology In Motion- Really, need I say more? Bookmark it people because it is most definitely a keeper!

My Blog of the Week is one that I have had bookmarked and used as an invaluable resource over the last few years. I think she was another one of the first few who took notice of my homeschooling blog and always passes on the Link Love to me.

Sara Sellers Homemaking, Home Education, and Other Stuff contains resources on homemaking, home education, Montessori materials and so much more. The Montessori materials she has created herself and has been very sweet in allowing people to use them for free. Unfortunately she has had a few people criticize some of her materials which baffles me because, they are FREE people why would you complain?? Quite rude!

So visit Sara this week and show her some much deserved love. Thank you Sara, for being such a fantastic example when it comes to homeschooling. I for one am very thankful for all you do.

EduLinks 08/22/07

Despite allowing myself to get behind on some of my other blogs, I wanted to make sure this EduLinks post went up today since people are actually reading it now. :) I hope the links are useful to you and as always, if you have a favorite site or homeschooling blog that you would like to share please let me know. I'm always more than happy to hear from readers.

Let's start today's EduLinks and Blog of the Week post shall we? In honor of "back to school" I am posting links that all start with the letter "A". Can you guess what next week's theme will be?

Art History Resources On The Web- This site has art resources for probably every era, civilization, country, and genre you could want. I still haven't made it through the whole site yet!

ABC Teach- Over 5000 free printable pages and worksheets in all kinds of subjects! Members get access to even more great stuff.

A+ Math- developed to help students improve their math skills interactively, this site has games, a homework helper, flashcards, and worksheets. We've used this site a few times and the worksheets especially have been helpful.

African Studies Center- Plan to study Africa this year? This site by the University of Pennsylvania is a great resource and guide to use. We will be using alot of their stuff when we do our own Africa studies this year.

About.Com Free Printables- About.com is always a great place for free printables, freebies, resources, and much more.

This week's Blog of the Week is by another lady whom I have been reading for awhile now. She just recently switched over to this new blog and name but Steph hasn't changed the way she homeschools her kids one bit. Steph is funny, posts pics of the experiments they do, and wait until you see her kids' eyes! Gorgeous I tell you!

So my Blog of the Week pick for today is Steph at Tribe of Autodidacts. Thank you for always commenting on everyone's blogs and for sharing so much on yours. You are inspiring and I'm glad to know you hun. :)

EduLinks 08/15/07

Hello everyone and sorry about not posting last week. I've been battling vertigo lately so trying to type with crossed eyes just wasn't working for me. :)

This has been a very good week for me when it comes to discovering new educational and homeschooling sites. Just when I think I've probably bookmarked every site there is I find a few more that I need to save. lol So I will get right to sharing them with you along with the new blog of the week.


Math Night Modules- a site that allows kids and their parents to explore and enjoy areas of mathematics they wouldn't encounter in everyday schoolwork.

OperaGlass (Opera for Everyone)- this site enables opera companies and educators to access and download FREE digital versions of the Opera for Everyone series of Cd's and the Teaching Manual for teaching purposes.

Internet 4 Classrooms- Several large collections of links, assessments, tutorials, and more for K-12 teachers.

Homeschooling With Notebooks- A great site for those who like to use or have an interest in using notebooks as part of your homeschooling. This site does have religious references and pages at times but as always, the stuff you don't need just don't read. ;)

K12 FREE Homeschool Courses- Yes, K12 curriculum actually has "free" courses that your children can take online. These classes are not totally free though because they do charge you $4.95 per course for s&h I think. The variety of free courses is limited but it's easy to find something for just about anyone on the list. K12 is a Christian based curriculum with alot of religiously themed courses but they are clearly marked so you can avoid them if their not for you.

This week's blog of the week kind of gave me a giggle for the simple fact that I had already chosen it without having many chances to talk to the couple who runs it. In the past week though I've emailed with the mom several times so it just solidified my choice even more.

My Blog Of The Week is Atypical Life by Ron and Andrea. This wonderful couple also run Homeschool Journal where you can set up your own free homeschooling blog. Homeschool Journal was started last year partially as an alternative to HSB for those of us who were anti-OSH Magazine (I'm using abbreviations because I refuse to give them "Google Juice"). Now it's just there for anyone who wants to use it and Ron and Andrea are awesome when it comes to fixing glitches and trying to keep things running smoothly.

Andrea has written alot about homeschooling over the years and I even heard someone sing her praises on a podcast I was listening to once! lol. Ron is often overrun with working outside the home but just like Andrea you can always count on him when Homeschool Journal really needs him. I've learned alot from the two of them in the last year and I'm very thankful to them both.

EduLinks 08/01/07

Hello and welcome to a whole new month! Wow, this summer is just flying by for me. Where does all the time go? I heard the weatherman on the radio say that we are now officially into Monsoon Season here in NM. Personally, I want to know when it stopped?! It has been raining here in the desert all summer long!

Anyway- here is this week's EduLinks and Blog of the Week. If you would like to have me feature your site or blog then please feel free to email me at jocoiner [at] gmail [dot] com. I'm always looking for news links.

Hasbro Monkey Bar TV- This site has games, videos, comics, and tons of your child's favorite characters. My youngest loves the Transformer games the most and really enjoys playing on this site for his "extra" time.

The Role Model Project for Girls- This site was created to share the notion that girls can grow up to be almost anything--in a wide variety of professional careers--way more than they probably know exist. With a Role Model Registry, information, and resources this site is a great start for any parent wanting to help build their daughter's hopes and dreams for the future.

Wild Monthly- A monthly newsletter with nature notes, activities, recipes and more, to enhance your nature study. While this newsletter hasn't been updated in awhile, the ones listed have some really great information in them. I found them to be very useful in our nature studies. Don't forget to check out the main site as well because there is alot there with a focus on Charlotte Mason too.

The Futures Channel- Awesome movies and videos to help you teach Math and Science to your students. Their goal is "of using new media technologies to create a channel between the scientists, engineers, explorers and visionaries who are shaping the future, and today’s learners who will one day succeed them". I still haven't made it all the way through this site. There is just so much that is fascinating!

The Write Source- A great writing resource. They have books for sell to help your child learn better writing skills but if you scroll down to the bottom of the page they also have alot they offer free like Writing Topics to get your little writer's talent flowing.

As always, we have a new Blog of the Week to share with you. I'd like to introduce you to Tara and her amazing son, Sam at Eames Learning Project. I have "known" Tara for several years on a parenting board that we both frequented and she has always left me in awe. Sam is a very smart little boy and watching him grow over the years has been alot of fun. While Tara and I never had a chance to get close on the forums, I have always read her posts and thought very highly of her.

So visit her blog and you will immediately see how dedicated this mother is to her son! It's also thanks to Tara's blog that I found out about the Hogwart's Summer Correspondence School. We're getting ready to start and it looks like a blast!

EduLinks 07/25/07

Boy has it been busy around here this week! This blog went from less than 10 visits a day to almost 200 a day thanks to the Dog Days of Summer Giveaways! If you haven't headed over there and entered the more than 450 fabulous giveaways then please do so now. Don't forget to sign up for the eight great prizes I'm giving away here and at Onorach as well!

Definately don't forget to attend the 8th Country Fair of Homeschooling put together this month by my wonderful friend, Meg from Get In Hang On. She put alot of thought into the theme for July and I think she did a fantastic job as did everyone who submitted something.

I hope you enjoy today's EduLinks and if you have any you would like to share please feel free to email me and let me know. :)

Alphabetical List of Educational Card Games- A collection of 132 card games for you to use and learn with. Please do not use for resale.

Butch’s Secular Homeschool Links- Doc/Butch has a great collection of links for just about every subject. She has been an unschooler for many years with wonderful and successful children to show for it.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art- Excellent art resource! You can download publications, check out online features that teach about the art of several different cultures and eras, browse themes and cultures that would be great to use with Unit Studies, and much more! I mean, this IS The Met we're talking about here!

Everyday Spelling- Awesome spelling site for "grades" 1-8. Enjoy the Workout Room, Reference Room, spelling lists for each grade and alot more! Lots of fun stuff to do.

Let's Play Math- Denise actually makes Math fun! Coming from me that is a huge compliment as I'm more of a History gal myself! Her series "Alexandria Jones" is too cool and my younger kids love it! Anytime my math hating daughter hits a brick wall I put her on Denise's site and it's like getting her second wind.

This week's Blog Of The Week belongs to my blogfriend Summer at Mom Is Teaching. Summer always has great posts and information to share with the homeschooling community and she is also alot of fun to know. If it wasn't for her I would probably miss out on well over half of the blogging carnivals that go on. Thank you Summer for all the time you put into your blog and for sharing with the rest of us. Now go get your award girl and you can display it on whichever blog you'd like (if ya wanna.). ;)

EduLinks 07/18/07

I hope everyone had a great weekend. Our's was pretty uneventful but tomorrow we are going on a field trip with the local homeschool group to a local wildlife park/zoo. We've never been there before so this should be interesting and fun!

Here are this week's Edulinks plus the Blog of the Week. Some of you might have noticed that I started an SCR Blog of the Week award that I will give out to the people I've chosen each week. Just my way of saying thanks. So here we go....

Learn2Draw with BillyBear4Kids- Free drawing lessons for kids of all ages. Try your hand at drawing a penguin, bear, frog, lion, lizard, paperdolls, and much much more. Each lesson shows you step by step how to draw the character of your choice plus they have several free downloads for you to try!

PBS Kids News Flash Five- a news site whose mission is to encourage young people to take an interest in news and current events. News for kids in a way kids can not only understand but also relate to. YOUR kids can even become reporters for the site and submit their own news stories!!

175 Cool Boys from Children's Literature- A list of 175 cool boys by Jen Robinson from some of the greatest kids' books of all time. A great resource when you want to find positive stories about boys learning life's lessons, living, and caring for others. Not all of them are "good" boys but that's what makes them so lovable!

200 Cool Girls from Children's Literature- Having a hard time finding smart, brave, strong, and independant girls and women to use as examples to show your daughter she can be anything she wants? Jen Robinson has also compiled a list of 200 cool girls from some of the greatest kids' books of all time. No weak damsels in distress here!!

EDSiteMent- The Best of the Humanities on the Web from the National Endowment for the Humanities in partnership with the National Trust for the Humanities, and the Verizon Foundation. This educational partnership brings online humanities resources from some of the world's great museums, libraries, cultural institutions, and universities directly to your classroom. Excellent EXCELLENT humanities site!!

And last but not least, this week's Blog Of The Week is Get In Hang On. Meg is a personal friend of mine in real life and just an amazing homeschooler. She and her husband are both engineers and their kids are really great. Meg taught me so much when they lived close by and has continued to be a very good friend despite the miles between us. Anytime I freak out about homeschooling or think I can't do it, Meg pulls me back from the brink.

Thank you Meg for being a great friend. Now go get your little award. ;)