2011-2012 Schoolhouse Planners now available!

Passing on this notice from The Old Schoolhouse.

Need a tool to help maintain a well-organized home and homeschool?
Want to get your kids organized too?
Get ready to plan another great year with The 2011-12 Schoolhouse Planner, the brand-new 2011-12 Special Needs Schoolhouse Planner, and the 2011-12 Student Schoolhouse Planners for students from kindergarten to high school.
Erase the frazzled feeling of disorganization with The 2011-12 Schoolhouse Planner and bring order and efficiency to your school year.
Packed with relevant articles, clever calendars, useful forms, handy lists, and so much more, this planner is the key to meeting your many goals for the 2011-12 school year.With over 175 new forms, you'll have all the organizational tools you need to make this the best school year ever.
New forms this year will help you:

• Plan beautiful holiday celebrations.

• Run a successful home business.

• Plan a course of study over four years.

• Run a well-organized home from top to bottom.

And so much more!

Whether organizing your homeschool curriculum, household tasks, a home-based business, or jotting down lists of things you hope to do some day . . .
The 2011-12 Schoolhouse Planner has all of the planning components you will need to make this year a great success.  http://www.theoldschoolhousestore.com/index.phpmain_page=index&cPath=191_193
Don't wait! Take advantage of great prices with the special presale going on now until April 14.

These are available in digital format so I assume you can print off only what you need.  Sounds interesting!

World Read Aloud Day Report

March 9, 2011 was World Read Aloud Day.  Anna and I celebrated at to two events.

Our local library has a story time every Wednesday afternoon. I told our librarian about World Read Aloud Day and she talked to the kids about it during story time and then explained about it to the parents present.

Our local homeschool group got together for a special World Read Aloud Day celebration.  We talked about how privileged we are to be able to read and the advantages it gives us.  Then each child shared a favourite reading from a book they brought with them.  It was great fun to see each child's personality reflected in what they had chosen to read.  One of the boys chose to challenge us by reading clues from little fact cards about different animals and plants and having us guess what it was before he read us the answer. His brother read one of his favourite verses from the Bible (1 Thessalonians 4:11), while their sister read her favourite Bible story (Jesus feeding the five thousand).  Another boy read one of his favourite poems.  Another child read a favourite book of his dad's while his sister read a passage for a new book she just got the day before.  My 5 year old daughter did her first public read aloud at the event.  She read Splat!, a first reader, and everyone congratulated her on her great reading.  I read a couple of our favourite read alouds, What if Your Mom Made Raisin Buns by Newfoundland author Catherin Hogan Safer, and Watch Out Big Bro's Coming by Jez Alborough.  There were about 16 of us present and we all had a great time sharing about the joys of reading.

If you did something to celebrate World Read Aloud Day be sure to send in a report about it.

Weekly Character Projects

Doorposts, a company who's mission is to supply you with "Bible-based, parent-designed, family-tested products to help you apply Scripture in your home" has a new blog titled Doorposts of Your House.

One of the features on their blog is a weekly character project.  The first project is on How to Develop Patience Towards Others and it suggests a real simple, practical way to work on this.  I know it's something we all need to work on in our family and I'm glad I came across this great idea.  I'm looking forward to future character projects.

TOS Homeschool Expo Preshow

The TOS Homeschool Spring Expo takes place May 16-20, but they have bonus Pre-show nights on March 16 and April 12 for those that register early for the Expo.  Sooooo, last night was the first pre-show!

I almost missed it!  I didn't even realize it was happening until it was started and I was scrabbling to get everything set up so I wouldn't miss it.

The first session was Teaching with Technology: Boon or Bust with Terri Johnson.  I loved a statement she made early in the session.  The gist of it is that the education community is experiencing these "New Revelations" in Education, but in reality they are just learning what homeschoolers already know!  Things like you don't need desks, teacher lectures, peer groups, or classrooms to learn.  She then talked about what technology is and what it isn't and how it's changes over time and shared number of interesting quotes.  My favourite was "In times of change, it is the learners that will inherit the earth while the learned will find themselves beautifully equipped for a world that no longer exists. –Eric Hoffer".  It is important for us to teach our children how to learn and to take advantage of all the tools that will help.  Then Terri introduced us to a number of apps that can help our children in their quest to learn.  Great session!

The second session was Home Business and Homeschooling: The Dynamics of Delegation with Malia Russell.  She made a great point about how important it is to delegate and even pointed out in scripture that delegation was important to God.  One statement that she made that really stuck with me was that if you are over worked you are doing things you shouldn't be doing! - either doing things that someone else should be doing or doing things that nobody should be doing.  Another great session.

Unfortunately I didn't get to take in the last session because I had to put my little one to bed.  I can't wait to get the MP3s so that I can see what I missed.

I'm looking forward to the next pre-show in April!

Canadian Homeschoolers - make sure you are counted!

Homeschool Horizons is having a fun challenge to see which is the top homeschooling province in Canada.  Really, it is not an actual account of homeschoolers in each province, just an account of how many homeschoolers in each province have filled in the Homeschool Horizons Survey, but it's still fun. Along with giving you a chance to have your province more accurately represented in numbers, the survey also gives you a chance to help ensure that Homeschool Horizons will meet the needs of homeschoolers across Canada.  They post updates of the results each week on their facebook page.  Come join in the fun.

Here are how the provinces stand right now:

Ontario 30%

Alberta 21%

British Columbia 13%

Saskatchewan 10%

Newfoundland 8%

Nova Scotia 7%

Quebec 6%

Manitoa 4%

New Brunswick 3%

Prince Edward Island 0%

I can't believe that their are no Homeschoolers in Prince Edward Island!  I know that is wrong.  I also can't believe that the numbers are so low in some of the other provinces.  I also know that it is not a true reflection of the numbers.  People need to help get the word out and get these numbers up!

Why don't you help?  If you are a homeschooling in Canada, make sure you fill in the survey so that you are counted.  If you have friends that are homeschooling, point them to the form and stay after them until they, too, fill it in.  Post about it on your facebook, on your blog, in your provincial forums or email lists.  Talk about it at support group meetings.  Get the word out!  Let's get those numbers up and have some fun!

Which province do you think has the most homeschoolers?  Where do you think your province falls?

What are you doing for World Read Aloud Day, March 9, 2011?

You'll find suggestions for how to celebrate, a tally sheet, a certificate, and lots of other things on the WRAD activities page.

If you're looking for some suggestions for books to read aloud for World Read Aloud Day tomorrow, check out my 365 Days of Children's Books blog.  There are lots of suggestions there.  Why not check out at least one book by a Newfoundland Author and at least one book by a Canadian author?  While you're there, check out the March Reading Challenge.  I'd love to have you join and hear about what you read, even if it's just on World Read Aloud Day.

Anna and I will be attending Story Hour at our local library as well as participating in a special WRAD celebration with our local homeschoolers.  We love any excuse to enjoy books!