Inclusive Homeschool

One of the best videos I’ve seen on consumption and the impact it has on the environment and the world by Annie Leonard, http://www.storyofstuff.com

A description from their website:

The Story of Stuff is a 20-minute, fast-paced, fact-filled look at the underside of our production and consumption patterns, with a special focus on the United States. All the stuff in our lives, beginning from the extraction of the resources to make it, through its production, sale, use and disposal, affects communities at home and abroad, yet most of this is hidden from view. The Story of Stuff exposes the connections between a huge number of environmental and social issues and calls for all of us to create a more sustainable and just world.

I loved it. The fast pace is not initiated by tons of flashy images and a string of 20 second sound bytes. It’s strength comes from the veracity of the facts and statistics and the passion of Annie Leonard. It’s obvious how she leans politically, but since I lean in the same direction, I’m fine with it.

Regardless your political beliefs, the truth Annie Leonard shares about how our consumption is affecting the planet and everyone in it is invaluable. Our rampant consumerism affects everyone…and in the end, without prejudice.

More information about Annie Leonard from her bio on the website:

Annie Leonard is an expert in international sustainability and environmental health issues, with more than 20 years of experience investigating factories and dumps around the world. Coordinator of the Funders Workgroup for Sustainable Production and Consumption, a funder collaborative working for a sustainable and just world, Annie communicates worldwide about the impact of consumerism and materialism on global economies and international health.

With Annie’s first hand experience of witnessing the impact of our consumer driven society, I think Annie has plenty of room to be as passionate and direct as she is in her advocacy.

You know, much is made of “living books” in the homeschool movement, authors who write books on topics they are passionate about. I believe this is a “living video”, as the person with the passion for this subject is the one standing in front of the camera and not a narrator. It definitely comes across.

There are free downloadable pdf files - tips, invitations, taking action, group activities, discussion guides and posters to help facilitate a screening of the movie (which you can download for free, btw). The discussion and group activities pdf files make this a great homeschool resource for use in the home or in co-ops.

This movie is thought provoking and well worth watching. When Brhiannon comes home from her dad’s, we’ll be sure to watch this together and go over some of the discussion questions and activities.

Highly recommended.

Tags: environment, free resources, lesson plans, movies, Resources, Reviews-Movies, Science, sustainability, unit studies

If you’re interested in lap or note booking this is the site for you!

eMINTS is an acronym for the Missouri’s Instructional Networked Teaching Strategies. They created an incredibly rich collection of information, the individual units called eThemes. These are used in classrooms (and homeschools) across the country and worldwide.

Even if you’re not interested in unit studies per se, the grouping of so much information under specific topics makes this a great resource for anyone and a more efficient way to find quality information.

Topics are categorized by grade level and alphabetical order. I checked out a few, and the information and web links for Ancient China alone blew me away. There are tons of animal eThemes, as well as other topics. The Art of the Five Major World Religions eTheme is a gold mine. Even though it’s listed for 9th grade and up, the art work and synopsis of information can definitely be used for younger grades.

These aren’t lesson plans, but it wouldn’t be difficult to create one from these resources.

Another thing I really like is their eTheme Calendar, which has a link to a website for whatever is featured on any given day. The links are relative to the general theme of the month. February had links for Susan B Anthony’s birthday, as well as various links related to Black History month, President’s Day, Lunar New Year and other interesting topics.

The one problem I have on this site is getting sidetracked as I discover one cool link after another!

Tags: Links, Resources, theme, unit studies, websites

I love homeschoolers. They are among the most supportive people I have ever met, especially in the online groups I belong to.

I was stressing out about a situation, and asked for help on one of my email group lists. It’s amazing the support and wonderful suggestions I received. As a single parent, it can be very challenging to homeschool your child, but while I’m responsible for putting together my curriculum, implementing it and supporting myself and my child, I’m not alone.

I’m fortunate there are two co-op groups in my area that I can participate in, but I also have 24 hour seven days a week support online from any one of my many homeschool email groups.

You don’t have to do this alone. If you’re considering homeschooling or are homeschooling, get on a homeschool list and let yourself reap the benefits of other people’s experiences. Plus, you deserve the emotional support. The curriculum reviews are valuable alone, but those encouraging words are priceless.

Yahoo Groups has tons of homeschooling groups for all topics and regions. There’s over 800,000 education and school groups alone! You can narrow down your search and find the group(s) for you.

So Many Uses
If you want to know about cyber schools, there’s a group. If you want to know about a specific cyber school there’s a group. If you’re interested in unschooling or Waldorf or classical education there’s a group. If you have a visual spatial child or you want to know more about lapbooking there’s a group. There’s actually more than one group on each of those topics and more.

Co-ops often have their own group to keep in touch with members and virtual co-ops exist online. There’s groups for virtual field trips, a valuable resource to find really awesome places to go to online, live cams, 3D museum tours and the like. There are groups for just about everything and anything. You pick. You choose. Or you can start one up.

I just read of a homeschooling family that created their own yahoo group for their family. This doesn’t take the place of family time, but really helped them to coordinate their school work and activities throughout the day. Plus, it was fun.

Just go there, type in your search and choose. I don’t know what I’d do without mine. Well, I do know…I did without before with my first two. I struggled. That’s what I did.

It’s still a challenge, but what a world of difference!

Tags: help, homeschool, network, online, Resources, single mom, support

Well, The Nickelodeon Spiderwick Chronicles upset me more than I realized. When I woke up feeling angrier the next morning than I did the previous day, I knew it was more than just because of a stupid movie.

This particular total disregard for the story hit a deep nerve in me. It underscores our culture’s general disregard for the artist, whether authors or musicians or any other art form, and evidently a part of me had an intense reaction to it.

It’s so prevalent in our society, this flippant disregard, that you can become desensitized, but at least for me, not this time. I wrote about it on my personal blog, Keeping the Dream, this morning. I’m sure I’ll be addressing this issue in further posts.

In Honor Of
Today, in honor of telling your story and story tellers everywhere, I want to acknowledge one of my favorite storytellers and include two good resources for stories.

Mountain Moon Storytellers, Bob and Barb Gingrich, two of my favorite storytellers in my hometown, York, PA. If you ever have a chance to catch any of their events, you have to. They are delightful and warm people both on and off stage, filled with rich stories and generous spirit.

National Storytelling Network: Find a storyteller, find support as a storyteller, learn about the art and develop your own skills.

Peace Corps Stories: Phenomenal resource of stories collected by Peace Corps volunteers complete with lesson plans. The stories are grouped by grade, region and subject area.

These are not just a collection of native stories from around the world, but include a collection of letters from Peace Corps volunteers themselves in the field, and that is where all good stories begin - from personal human experience. I just discovered this website this morning. I will definitely be using its resources in our homeschooling venture.

Tags: lesson plans, reading, Resources, Spiderwick Chronicles, stories, storytelling

I just discovered this math site tonight http://illuminations.nctm.org/ that is an absolute treasure trove of resources.

It’s divided into four major sections: activities, lessons, standards and web links, and covers grades pre-K to 2, 3-5, 6-8 and 9-12.

The standards are number and operations, algebra, geometry, measurement, and data analysis and probability. The online activities are a lot of fun, though I did have one page freeze up on me using my Firefox browser.

I can’t wait to do some of these activities with Brhiannon when she comes home. She is more of a hands on and visual learner, and using more than one approach, utilizing as many of her senses work best for her. I anticipate her really enjoying this site. Brhiannon has not had a positive experience with math, and has developed a…oh, shall I say, dread, for doing math?

I have to be honest and say part of the reason for this is because of the inconsistency of academic practice between her two homes. It’s one of my greatest frustrations. Another part is because she is very right brained and she operates on her own time table. I must confess that I have periodically succumbed to pressure to “keep her up to state standards”, pushing her into abstract learning before she was psychologically or neurologically ready.

Between the two, she has developed a lack of confidence and self esteem in all things mathematical…except when she doesn’t know they’re mathematical. Which is another reason why I love another site so much. I’ll post on that one later.

For now, I want to say I think http://illuminations.nctm.org/ is a valuable resource and I’m very pleased to have discovered it. Rather than go through most of the site myself before posting, I want to post it now and give you the opportunity to explore it yourself!

I’d love to hear what you think - what you like best or recommend from this site. I’ll revisit this site and make further posts concerning which activities we like or find most helpful.

Happy learning!

Tags: Math, Resources, virtual manipulatives