In this episode the mom’s chat about preparing for the first day of homeschool, read listener mail, foreign language study ideas and 6 quick tips and tricks for homeschooling!
Links in this episode:
Is your Child fearful of reading? Comment here!
Homeschool Realm ~ Read Alouds for 6yr Old Boys Book List
Muzzy, the BBC Language Program
Library Books App –no longer exists
This episode is sponsored by Moving Beyond the Page – homeschool curriculum for hands-on, creative, and gifted learners. Learn more at www.movingbeyondthepage.com. Be sure to listen to episode 19 for the new correct coupon code!
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Heather
I really enjoy your podcast!
I am so excited I stumbled upon your post over at the Secular Homeschool Forum!! I not only bookmarked your site, but also added a link to your site on my blog (hope that’s OK!).
Thanks for keeping it real and I look forward to listening to more of your podcasts! You gals are awesome!!
Tinamama
Thank you Heather! Of course that’s ok to link to us! 🙂 We love the extra exposure! And thank you so much for your kind words! We enjoy doing the podcast, so its really rewarding hearing from listeners that they are enjoying listening! 🙂
Karen
More resources for learning Spanish:
CDs and books by Jose Luis Orozco. Our library has many of them so they may be available in yours as well. http://www.joseluisorozco.com/
Whistlefritz language DVDs (immersion) and CDs – http://whistlefritz.com/
Pocoyo channel on YouTube. Cutest cartoon entirely in Spanish. My boys loved watching them! http://www.youtube.com/pocoyo
Chinonyerem
As one of the last few folks without a smartphone, an invaluable resource for me to keep track of my library books is Library Elf. (https://www.libraryelf.org/). From their site:
Who uses Elf?
Anyone who wants to reduce overdues
Families with children and lots of books
Individuals with several library cards
Anyone who requests a lot of holds
What’s delivered?
Email and/or RSS alerts before items are due
Email and/or RSS alerts on overdues and holds
Consolidated list of yours or your family’s library loans and holds
Cellphone text message alerts for holds (US and Canada)
Real-time checking by browser
I wasn’t sure if you knew about it but I thought I’d share. 🙂
Angela
A few more options for really early first grader readers:
Keep Books from Ohio State University offers Parent Sets here http://www.keepbooks.org/kb_kids_sets_home.htm They are similar to the Bob books but I think the story lines are a bit more interesting and they emphasize using context cues and sight words along with phonics.
Creative Teaching Press has fluency readers, sight word readers, and phonics readers that are also very easy but have full color pictures. My child really liked “Here Comes Cocoa” “We are the Monsters” and “Are We There Yet?” from that collection. http://www.creativeteaching.com/
Once they are reading a bit there is a new series of easy books called Elephant and Piggie books by Mo Willems that are very cute and funny and about middle of first grade level: http://www.amazon.com/Elephant-Piggie-Bundle-Mo-Willems/dp/1423167074/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1346623736&sr=1-1&keywords=elephant+and+piggie+set
Tracy
My son and I love listening to your podcast! He’s 9 and begs me to wait and listen with him, rather than listening on my own! We have used several of your links and tips in our homeschooling adventures. I wanted to suggest wonderopolis.com as another resource that is similar to The Kid Should See this. Each day has a new question and a short video, along with information, ideas and further questions. It does require reading (or someone to read it aloud) but it has brought up many interesting questions in our house!
Keep up the great work!
Becky
I love that you mentioned studying a foreign language for families who are not native speakers:). I think learning another language helps kids to learn about the world, realize there are different perspectives, and teach kids about other cultures. I loved your ideas about having a language lesson combined with other fun activities such as cooking or playing. Here are some bilingual books that I recommend to parents who don’t speak Spanish, but want to teach their kids some easy words and phrases: http://kidworldcitizen.org/2012/04/14/using-bilingual-stories-to-teach-un-poquito-de-espanol/
Also, here are some apps and games to help kids learn Mandarin (we are native speakers of Spanish, but NOT Mandarin:)- http://kidworldcitizen.org/2011/12/20/learn-chinese-with-your-kids-games-videos-apps-books-and-more/ I hope these help! Thanks for your site- you have so many great resources!
Arial
Love the podcast ladies! I wanted to let you know about Duolingo. It’s a free online program for spanish, french, and german. The lessons are all outlined and gated so you can’t progress to the next level until you complete the previous ones. It’s a lot like a game. One of the really cool things is that you need to translate sentences to progress. Those sentences are actually from webpages that need to be translated. It’s an effort to translate the internet through volunteers because translators are so tough to come by. I’m not sure how young is too young for this program, but it’s awesome so I thought I’d let you know. Here’s a review to get more information http://www.fluentin3months.com/duolingo/
Keep up the great work!
Veronica
Adding another recommendation for a Homeschool Charter, Golden Valley Charter:
http://www.goldenvcs.org/gvcs/Home.aspx
They serve L.A., Ventura and Santa Barbara Counties. From what you described on this episode it sounds a lot like the IEM schools. ( It doesn’t offer much community-wise but it does give us money for classes and supplies.) We are lucky in our community that so many families are with Golden Valley and our Homeschool group coordinates many classes, often times using GV vendors so in that way we are making our own community for GV students.
-Veronica
Erica
Thank you so much for the stop motion app recommendation! I am new to your podcast and listening to them in a random order, but loving them all! I heard the app recommendation and downloaded it while still listening. My two boys (almost 7 and 9) have already made a few movies. I can’t wait to see what will come from this!
Thank you for the wonderful information!