Sight Word Games

Sight words are hard for me to teach...but not as hard to play! Happiness and I are working through a sight word list, so I've been compiling a list of games to be the proverbial "spoonful of sugar" to help these words get learned! Thought I would share some of the game resources for others:

• SunnyPatch Game Ideas
• A large collection of games that can by modified in Microsoft Word from Kelly's Kindergarten
• Even more printable reading games of all flavors and kinds
• Ideas from About.com on activities to reinforce sight words
• Sight Word Games from Practical Pages

If you've come across any great sight word games/activities, share them here. I'm always looking for more ideas.

Chinese language learning resources

Part of our 2011/2012 curriculum is learning Mandarin Chinese using Usborne's 1000 Chinese Words. I'm keeping my goals quite low - hopefully by next May we'll know somewhere around 40-60 vocabulary words and will be using them on a regular basis.

Here's some resources I recently discovered that might be useful to others:

• Free Mandarin flashcards
• Intro to the Chinese language - Video series by the BBC
• Pictures, videos and info about China from National Geographic Kids
• Free online Chinese video lessons
• A HUGE listing of links for learning the Chinese language. Lots to explore here, and haven't yet delved into it.
• The audio page for Usborne's First 1000 Chinese Words. You can listen to the vocabulary presented in the book.

Any resources you've discovered for learning Chinese? If so, share them with me and I'll add them to this page. 

More math game fun

Just to let you know there's a whole host of new game links added to my Early Elementary Math Games page. If your kids are like mine, they find games addictive and don't even realize they're learning! Hah! If only they knew...

Want to be a SAHM and a freelance writer?

Just sent off an e-mail with some advice to another mom who is trying to increase her freelance writing pay, and thought I should post it here as well. Maybe there are others who would be interested. Nothing really profound or deep in my advice...just some resources that I've found helpful:

Hey, M-. Well, I would say ramping up your income is a bit of a slow process, as you must build your clip portfolio and locate new employers. Here's some resources I'd encourage you to explore:

• I really do get good work from oDesk.com. The biggest thing with finding work here is you HAVE to be picky. Only apply for jobs you're genuinely interested in and only apply at the rate you want to make. If the employer doesn't want to pay that, move on. NEVER waste your time on the millions of low paying jobs that are listed on there.
• Have you looked into magazine writing? Get an online subscription to the Writersdigest.com magazine guidelines and start pitching mags. Doing that is where my career really took a giant step forward, and now that I have magazine writing experience, I can command a higher pay.
• Read this blog: http://www.makealivingwriting.com/  Lots of great stuff.
• Read this book: Writer's Digest Handbook of Magazine Article Writing
• Find a writing niche - what do you know and what are you good at?
• Pursue copywriting. There's very good money in that, and I've only scratched the surface of that market myself - not enough time in the day and too many little kids to corral! But if I was serious about generating more income, I'd pursue that without a doubt.

I hope that helps. As I'm sure you've discovered, it takes a good bit of work to get good work! But it does pay off. Good luck!

Sonlight Core B (Core 1): Week 5

We're having so much fun in our Sonlight journey! One of the most successful aspects of my pre-planning has definitely been the Notebooking pages. The girls love their notebooks and love adding to it each week. Soon I'll do a post about Sonlight Notebooking and how we've implemented it. Now here's the extras for Week 5:

Houses & Homes:

• Try to do some school using walkie-talkies, just like farm kids in Australian outback
• Watch Farm Dog Martha
• Have other farm books to look at, as well as activities from theNC Dept. of Agriculture Coloring Book
• Use wikistix to build reed house frame, then do some paper weaving to make the walls.
• Look through The Ultimate Building Book together and find a project or two to tackle next week.

World of Animals:

• Animal Match game
• Read I See a Kookabura
• Do the “Animal Cracker” biome project
• Read Will We Miss Them?

Homer Price, Chps 1-3
Before sharing the extras we're doing with Homer Price, I've got to give credit to where credit is due. I got my ideas from a very creative homeschool mom who posted them on her blog as part of their FIAR study. Check out her full list of Homer Price activities.

• Find Ohio on the map.
• After reading, come up with our own “spoonerisms”
• WatchThe Case of the Cosmic Comet
• Watch /span>Donut Making video and this Krispy Kreme video
• Either make some donuts or go buy some!
• Take a field trip to a donut shop and learn how they make these tasty treats!

Summertime Filler Ideas!

Well, the heat is turned up outside and the AC inside, and thanks to the fast approaching due date of our little girl, we're basically stuck to the AC environment. Outside is no fun...maybe in a few weeks....maybe...anyway, until then, I've been trying to come up with activities that my girls can do inside (or outside with limited supervision). Here's some of the ideas I've got in the queue. Hope they can be of help to you!

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Popsicle Bracelets

http://www.suzyssitcom.com/2011/04/feature-friday-popsicle-bracelets.html

Sound Eggs

http://sweetandsimplethings.blogspot.com/2011/04/eggs-full-of-sound.html

Homemade Pinata - DO

http://ruffledblog.com/diy-mini-pinata-wedding-favors/

http://onecharmingparty.com/2011/04/29/cinco-de-mayo-pinata/

Celebrate Spring - Hop Counting

http://almostunschoolers.blogspot.com/2011/04/hop-counting.html

Homemade Silly Putty

http://myhomespunthreads.blogspot.com/2011/05/day-29-homemade-silly-putty-with-aprons.html

Sun Tea to go

http://justcallmejamin.blogspot.com/2011/05/sun-tea-to-go.html

31 days of Summer Fun ideas

http://myhomespunthreads.blogspot.com/2011/06/summer-soiree-wrap-up.html

Marshmallow Catapult - love this!

http://2littlehooligans.blogspot.com/2011/03/marshmallow-catapult.html

BlowFish Toy

http://madebyjoel.blogspot.com/2011/03/blow-fish-toy.html


Paper City
http://madebyjoel.com/paper-city

Helicopter Toy

http://almostunschoolers.blogspot.com/2011/05/folk-toy-fridays-hand-propeller.html

Mini Marshmallow Popper - so easy

http://www.realsimple.com/work-life/entertainment/crafts-hobbies/make-a-mini-marshmallow-popper-00000000039219/

Water Fight Sponge Balls - cool

http://craft-interrupted.blogspot.com/2011/05/sponge-balls.html

Origami Star

http://zencrafting. blogspot.com/2008/12/origami- star-tutorial.html

Quote Frame

http://coleybelle.blogspot.com/2011/01/quote-frame.html

Simple Flower Card

http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/gallery/photo/1654818?&limit=last1

Pardon the formatting

Please pardon the funky formatting of the blog at the moment...I just added a new template, but don't have the time to tweak it as necessary...really, it will look better eventually. I promise!