Best Homeschooling Blogs
This Squidoo lens is chock-full of the best information from homeschooling blogs where you'll find inspiration, practical tips, lesson plans, and curriculum reviews. The author, lensmaster "Jimmie," is a homeschooling SAHM who shares her great ideas for creative learning.
Learning History through Pictures
Visit Picturing
Modern America for an entertaining and educational visit
to our past. Learn through images and exercises about the
American Experience. Picturing Modern America presents historical
thinking exercises for middle and high school students - also
fun for adults!
Brain Food - Puzzles for the Brain to Gnaw On
A favorite pastime for many folks is working on brain-stretching
puzzles - jigsaw puzzles,
word finds, crossword puzzles and logic problems. Visit the
BrainFood
web site for plenty of great educational entertainment - puzzles
and games to exercise your grey matter. Brain
Food - Puzzles For the Brain To Gnaw On By Samuel Stoddard
Think Before You Speak
Jenna
Glatzer's "My Words Matter" Pledge is about
taking time to think about the word "retard" - about
its use in everyday language, and about the needless pain
its careless use causes to those who have Down's syndrome
or other mental handicaps. It also hurts their family members,
and ultimately, it hurts us all. Click
to learn about one writer's campaign to raise awareness
and consider taking the My Words Matter pledge.
Getting Organized with Lists
I don't know about you, but if I don't write something down,
I'll never remember it. That's why I have "to do"
lists, and I religiously cross off items as I complete them,
and add new items as they come along. click
for full article, links to printables
Safe Kids & Teens Online
 Kim
Komando is a great family resource for computer information
for everyone! Check out Kim's free 10 Commandments for Kids
to keep 'em safe, and sign up for Kim's tips or newsletter
to learn how to take care of your home computer yourself.
Kim
Komando's Contract for Kids. Kim's got great tips for
computer users of all ages and levels - that's why she's America's
Digital Goddess!
Also check out SafeTeens.Org,
and SafeKids.Org.
Everything I Need to Know I Learned from a Jigsaw Puzzle
by Catie Gosselin of WomanLinks.com
My youngest and I share a passion for solving puzzles. This
Christmas, he was given a 250 piece jigsaw, his greatest challenge to-date.
We decided to tackle it over the past few days, and are learning quite a bit.
It is ironic [to me] how similar [the task of] successfully approaching a puzzle
is to achiving balanced living.
Did you know, for example, that the piece you need to complete
a certain section is most often right under your nose? In fact, it is most likely
the piece you have tried and discarded several times already (you just forgot
to try it at a different angle).
- How often have I found a solution to a problem in my life
was the most simple, and first discarded?
We have also found that the more we try to force pieces to fit,
the more elusive the solution becomes. No matter what we do, if a piece is not
meant to fit, it won't. ( it's the old square peg in the round hole thing).
The best way to complete a puzzle section is to refrain from analyzing it to
death. Going by gut instinct yields better results each time.
- How often have I found forcing my solution
never works?
It also never fails, that when I've decided I do
not have enough pieces to solve the puzzle, I am proven wrong. No matter how
certain that I'm short, there is always enough to complete the task at hand.
- How often have I seen that, despite fears to the contrary,
I do posses resources to face any challenge?
Probably the most astounding thing we found is
that there is no law declaring a solution must be found immediately. The beauty
of puzzles is they are solved when they are solved, not a minute sooner.
- How many times has the sky not fallen as a
result of me carefully searching for a solution?
I guess my professors were wrong all those years
ago. The most important lessons do not occur in a classroom.
All the best, Catie
copyright 2002
Catie is owner/editor
of WomanLinks.com (http://www.womanlinks.com);
a community of support, empowerment and spirituality for all women. She is the
homeschooling mama of two kids, two cats and a tank of fish
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