Clickschooling is pretty awesome

I subscribe to Diane Flynn Keith's "clickschooling" newsletter, which is geared toward homeschoolers and focuses on a different part of a curriculum on a daily basis. (The top boasts: Free daily curriculum ideas! -Get free daily web-based curriculum ideas that will save you money. -Enjoy educational websites that will save you time!) Mondays are math days, Tuesdays science, Wednesdays language arts, Thursdays social sciences, Fridays virtual field trips and Saturdays allow you to get foreign languages, arts, music, et cetera in. (The field trips have been pretty intersting too - sometimes it can be a museum visit, other times a factory or a behind the scenes of how something is made (at Easter it was a trip to the Palmer Chocolate factory and she even had a visit to the PEEPS site which was pretty cool.)

I have to admit that I've actually followed some of the suggested links on some days, and today's was no exception. If you would like to "hear" what Beowulf sounded like read out in loud, click here and launch the timeline. At each stage in the timeline, you can click on different things to get more history and to listen to things - the microphone will give you excerpts of different readings (Beowulf, Shakespeare, Charles Dickens, and several others); the jester in the top right corner will give you insults of that particular time. Listen to stage 8, The Age of the Lexicographer 1600 - 1800 (Early Modern English), insults and get a nice giggle. I loved fopdoodle - now if only I can figure a way to use that in my writings - lol.

I signed up for the daily newsletter hoping to find some ideas for new activities to put in my study guides. I have found some and one in particular, I'm trying to figure out how to actually make this work for book #5. I've emailed the contributors/designers/creators of this website about creating a "case" for a particular item but have never heard anything back from any of them. The contact page on the site doesn't work so I copied all their email addys and sent an actual email (may need to resend it soon, since I'm finishing up book #5 very soon).

I'm loving getting the new ideas and just exploring some fun areas. I encourage anyone who is looking for ways to enhance a homeschool curriculum or who is in need of new things to try out to subscribe to Diane Flynn Keith's "clickschooling" newsletter.

Lemonade anyone? National lemonade day coming

I subscribe to a newsletter geared for homeschoolers called "clickschooling" but some of the sites she sends us to are pretty cool. I had to share this with you all since it sounds like a fun and interesting way to get your kids involved in the community and make a little bit of money.


Now, you may ask, "What's Lemonade Day?"

It's a real nation-wide event that trains the next generation of entrepreneurs through a fun and experiential activity that teaches kids skills such as:

- Goal Setting
- Developing a Business Plan
- Establishing a Budget
- Seeking Investors
- Providing Customer Service
- Giving Back to the Community

On May 2nd, 2010 in a handful of cities across America (with the exception of the festivities in Durham, North Carolina on May 1st, and the celebration in the San Francisco Bay Area on May 15th), young entrepreneurs of all ages can participate by setting up a lemonade stand and selling lemonade in their community.

Kids pick the time and location of their choice to set up and run their lemonade stand - and they keep what they earn!

And in the spirit of a true business, they are encouraged to open a savings account, pay back investors, and make a further investment in their community by donating a portion of their profits to a charity of their choice.

Of course, kids will need adult supervision, sponsors, investors, employees, and customers!

To help kids get started, Lemonade Day provides registered participants (in the sponsoring cities) with a free how-to "Entrepreneur's Workbook" containing instructions and lesson plans that combine academics and life skills to help students accomplish their goal. Details on how to register are at LemonadeDay.org.

Now, while "Lemonade Day" may not be "officially" celebrated in your city, you can still play the free online games and put what you learn into practice by setting up your own independent lemonade stand on May 2nd - or any time of year!

Check out the Lemonade day link for more information on how to register as well as "official cities" but some fun games as well.






If you homeschool, you may want to subscribe to Diane's Clickschooling newsletter and get daily curriculum ideas. She has it set up so that Monday is math, Tuesday is science, Wednesday is language arts, Thursday is social sciences, Friday is virtual field trip day (I think these are pretty cool), and Saturday is music/art/foreign language day. She had an interesting site for one of the Thursdays and I'm still trying to figure out how to turn one of my clues in book #5 into a historical investigator type activity. I'm working on it but if interested in the "cases" they have available right now, you can check out this website and maybe do some historical invesstigating of your own.

Hope you all participate and that your lemonade is not too sour nor too sweet, but just right - Let's make some lemonade - Mrs. E :)