On February 21st, the ChristChurch area of New Zealand was hit with an earthquake that rated 6.3 on the Ritchter scale, which causes all kinds of devestation.
My readers in New Zealand have been part of my prayers and thoughts since Tuesday. Having been through an earthquake nearly that powerful (I was in Southern California for the 1990 5.7 earthquake), I know it can be a scary thing, especially for kids.
CurrClick, who also serves a large number of homeschoolers from New Zealand, has put together two options to help out the Red Cross in New Zealand.
Note: The CurrClick donation opportunity has expired. To further help out in New Zealand, visit the New Zealand Red Cross site for updates and more information on how you can help out.
As February is American Heart Month and I have some personal experience with the affects of not taking care of your heart, I promised to share with you some free heart-healthy cookbooks.
Because it’s a Latino recipe cookbook, all the 26 recipes are in both English and Spanish, and includes both little heart-healthy cooking tips and the nutritional information in both English and Spanish.
I’m a California girl living in Texas, so Mexican and Latino recipes are integrated into our dinner menus, and I love the flavors. But I don’t usually like the fat. This recipe collection gives great little tips on cutting the fat, and includes yummy Latino flavor.
The cookbook includes a total of 26 easy to prepare, heart-healthy Latino recipes such as:
Appetizers and Soups, including a lentil soup recipe (lentils are wonderful nutrition and very-budget friendly)
Entrees like Latino style Turkey Meatloaf, and Chilian Corn and Meat Pie
Vegetarian Recipes like Quinoa and Black Bean Salad, and a veggie warp. (gotta love Quinoa!)
Side Dishes and Sauces like fresh salsa and a Argentian Chimichurri sauce, and of course
Desserts and beverages – like Flan and a mango shake.
There’s a substitutions page that shows if a recipe calls for a high fat ingredient like cream what to subsitute instead to make it more heart-healthy.
So there you, another free heart-healthy cookbook for you. I’ve got at least one more to share with you next week, so be sure to come on back and grab that one too.
P.S. S. It looks like you can also order a printed copy of the cookbook from the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute here. But I haven’t tried it out myself, but the option looks like it is there if you prefer a printed copy.
Recently while cooking dinner, I realized I had run out of laundry soap – and didn’t have time – or ability – to run to the store. So J volunteered to make up some homemade powdered laundry detergent for me, if I would teach him how. (what a great kid!)
And then he agreed to do it all on camera so you can learn how to make homemade laundry soap too, just in case you ever have a need
The cost breakdown for homemade laundry soap is equal to about the cheapest laundry soap available on the market, but it is quick and easy to do, and a real time saver if you are caught in a pinch like I was.
Budget wise – I also consider it a time saver and money saver, because I can’t seem to get through a grocery store with *just* one item, so just having the ingredients on hand helps. And if money is tight having the ingredients already on hand, makes it much easier to make a new batch of homemade laundry detergent without figuring out where the money is going to come from to make another shopping run.
For ingredients, you need:
a bar laundry soap (Fel Naptha, Zote, or any other bar laundry soap), usually costs about a $1
washing soda , found in the laundry isle, usually costs about $3-4
Borax, also found in the laundry isle, usually costs between $4-5
The washing soda and Borax will last you a while (the recipe only calls for 1 cup), and I usually just make sure I have a bar of Fels Naptha on hand (especially during poison oak/sumac season).
In all I think it costs about 5 to 10 cents per load, depending on how much you pay for your ingredients and if you use the optional Oxiclean (or generic) like I do in the video.
And then just follow the instructions in the video… it’s really that fast and easy. And then all you need is 1 Tablespoon per load, 2 if the kids’ clothes are particularly dirty.
Enjoy!
…Shannon
P.S. If you aren’t able to see the video, here’s the short version of the homemade laundry soap recipe:
Mix together 1 bar of laundry soap (grated), 1 cup of washing soda, and 1 cup of Borax
Yep, that easy.
P.S.S. If you have young children in the house and you make your own anything, be sure to write the ingredients on the container you use, so that if there’s ever an accident that involves you or a babysitter calling poison control, you can just read the ingredients off the container rather than trying to remember what’s in there.
First of all, thank you for providing the link to the Geology curriculum you’re using with your kids. I’m very interested in trying it with my own homeschool high school aged son. Can you tell me what it consists of? Is it a textbook? Are there lesson plans or tests? And finally, about how much time are you planning on devoting to the course? I’m trying to find out if it would count as a full credit or half on his high school transcript.
I appreciate any help you can provide. Sort of new to the whole homeschooling thing, and a bit overwhelmed.
First, Thank you Michael for the question. I’ll try to explain things in writing below, but if you have the ability to watch it, here’s a video review I did today for you, answering the questions and showing you exactly what Connect the Thoughts Geology is, and what you need for it.
What does it consist of?
Connect the Thoughts Geology is a complete secular high school (ages 11 and up) geology curriculum written for the student, and designed for indepedent study. It consists of 78 lessons, about 90-100 hours of study. Each lesson follows the Connect the Thoughts study methodology, which is a little bit different than most curriculums.
For each lesson, there’s
vocabulary for the reading
geography for the reading, if needed
hands-on exercises and experiments to help concrete the concepts
25-50 word writing prompts or questions to further concrete the concepts (I use these as discussion questions)
Overall, this is a thorough exploration of geology, originally written to give the students the education they needed to be well-educated without going on further to college. So it uses and covers materials that would be covered in more advanced geology classes, but with a study methodology that works well for students as young as 11 to do indepentently. (I’m adpating it for students age 7, 9, 11, and 13)
Topics wise it covers:
What is Geology
Plate tectonics
How Earth was made (conventional view point, including Panagea)
Minerals
Rocks
The interior of our planet
Earthquakes and how they’re measured
Volcanoes
Weathering and Erosion
Geology and history (conventional viewpoint)
Geology in our everyday lives
I do need emphasize that this is a secular geology curriculum. It covers conventional explanations of how the earth was created and developed. It does *not* include a creationist view of how the earth was formed; that’s up the parents to provide and compare and contrast with their students. For me, I’m good with this, but if you aren’t, then you will either need to skip these section of the course or look for a geology course that covers it from a creationist view point.
Is it a textbook? Are there lesson plans or tests?
Many of the Connect the Thoughts courses including the textbook reading, but not Geology. It does require the additional purchase of a relatively inexpensive book called Geology: A Self-Teaching Guide I got my copy off of Amazon for about $13 and you can find it used on Amazon for less. There’s also a Kindle version.
You also need access to The Amazing Earth video and the Journey to the Center of the Earth video. I ordered The Amazing Earth used from Amazon for less than $10, and am getting Journey to the Center of the Earth via Netflix. So in all, with the curriculum (purchased on sale), plus the added book, video, and clay I needed for the plate tectonics section, I spent about $45 total.
Basically what you get with Connect the Thoughts Geology is a complete independent study guide for the student to go through on their own (though I’m using it with a group of students). It explicitly tells the student what to do. And the end of each major section, there is a test. But tests in Connect the Thoughts are not-graded, instead they are used to verify mastery and understanding.
For more on how a connect the thoughts studyis laid out, I recommend downloading the free “how to do Connect the Thoughts” course. And of course you can see the actually Geology course in the video above.
If you go with this curriculum, your student will need access to the outdoors to do some of the investigative exerices and experiments (like smashing rocks )
Also, there’s a few miscellaneous materials needed (like clay or magnets) for some of the experiments, so it’s a good idea to have the students give you a list of what they need for the coming week, or to read ahead yourself to make sure you have everything on hand. To my knowledge there is no materials list available just for this purpose of making sure you have everything you need (a pet peeve, but workable still)
About how much time are you planning on devoting to the course?
The geology course is designed specifically to be a semester course, but is actually longer than the normal 60-70 hours. It is part of the Connect the Thoughts 3 part Earth Sciences series, which in all covers 1.5 credits. I’ll be awarding a .5 credit (semester) to K when we complete the Geology course.
We’re doing the course about 3 hours a week, so we should be done with it in 20-25 weeks. But this also lends it self well to intensively working through the Geology curriculum as well, in which case you can complete the course easily within a month.
A few more key points
This is not our first connect the thoughts course, we’ve done several. and I go into on the video a little more about what I like and don’t like about the curriculum and how I’m adapting the Geology course to suit my needs. But overall, if you are looking for a secular high school geology course, this is a good one to consider.
I will emphasize also that this curriculum as well as all of the Connect the Thoughts courses we’ve tried are designed for the kids to think for themselves. It introduces a variety of information, but doesn’t want the students to regurgitate it back, but rather to own their own education and their own thoughts and opinions. If this is your goal, like it is ours, this is a wonderful benefit to the curriculum. If you aren’t ready for that…well, might want to look else where.
To give you a further idea of how the Connect the Thoughts science curriculum is structured, I recommend watching the videos that Steven has on the Connect the Thoughts site and reading through some of the articles. It’ll give you more of an idea of the man behind the curriculum and his thoughts and style.
(A side benefit to using Connect the Thoughts is the access to it’s author. Steven is really good at personally answering quesstions and is active in the Connect the Thoughts Yahoo Group.)
If Connect the Thoughts Geology sounds like something you’d like to try with your student, you can download your copy from CurrClick. And be sure to agree to get the email updates, because Steven does a great job of doing sales for those of us on a budget, and the sales are announced through those email updates.
So there you go… If you have more questions about our experiences with Connect the Thoughts or the Geology course in particular, feel free to ask.
…Shannon
P.S. Looks like Steven is running a 20% off sale on all Connect the Thoughts courses this week too, The geology course is coming up on sale for $16 until Sunday, February 20th.
I’ve mentioned in the Living Life at Home newsletter that I was the one that had the biggest adjustment to returning to schoolwork after the long holiday break – and the reason why was because I changed our homeschool schedule -again.
Our homeschol schedule changes from season to season, not just calendar seasons, but seasons of life, seasons of development, and seasons of work. And I adjust it accordingly.
For example, homeschooling K 10 years ago, as a preschooler, when I only had one other child, was totally different than homeschooling her and J, with a toddler and a baby underfoot (not to mention a full-time at-home job).
And then there was big adjustment when Little E was ready for formal schoolwork, and learning how to balance the needs of all four of them.
The important thing is to remember that it is okay to create a homeschool schedule that fits you and your family, for where you are at right now, and for the demands that this season of life is putting on you.
When K was in Kindergarden and 1st grade, she and I homeschooled the 3Rs at night, when I was done working. During the day, she unschooled, video schooled, car schooled, audio book schooled, whatever you want to call it… She explored her own interests under her dad’s supervision.
Last year, after three years of taking Latin classes from our local homeschool coop, and earning her first full high school credit at age 12, she asked for a break from serious academics. So that’s what we did, and she worked on things she was interested in, and recharged herself.
In December, I realized that we had drifted a little too far over to the “homeschooling in a silo” side of things, (i.e., they were all doing their own schoolwork without much interaction with each other), and I wanted to bring them back together for some studies.
So I revamped the schedule. The 3Rs are of course all done separately, but we’re doing geology and geography together, and they are having fun with it.
It’s more work for me, but there are bigger lessons being learned than just the academics, and the relationship building and memory making that is happening is worth the extra time it requires of me.
The point is – It’s okay to mix things up. It’s okay to change the schedule to meet your current goals and needs. And it’s okay to ditch a schedule that just isn’t working and adapt it to something that will work.
Homeschooling is not about mimicing what the public schools do. It’s about tailoring your child’s education to their needs, and your lifestyle. And when you take that stress of following someone else’s homeschool schedule out, and adapt it to your situation – everything becomes a lot more enjoyable.
Food for thought.
…Shannon
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