Q: What are your favorite early childhood websites?

A: I love this question! I have two absolute favorites. There is no reason to spend tons of money on curriculum and software with these free resources at hand.

First, an AWESOME reading website is www.starfall.com; there's a link provided for you in my list of favorites to the right. You will find amazing interactive reading programs as well as free printables including activities and phonics readers. Quite frankly, you could use this website exclusively to teach pre-k through first grade reading with a few extra library books thrown in for good measure.

Second, I LOVE the School Bell website; there's a link provided for you in my list of favorites on the right. This is a site developed by a classroom teacher. My two favorite things about this site include the Dolch Word Kit and the Number Families Kit. The Dolch Word Kit is a comprehensive FREE reproducible program to help your child learn the most frequently used words needed for reading; it is activity based and great for all learning styles. The Number Families Kit is a complete FREE reproducible program that uses both hands-on and worksheet methods to teach children addition and subtraction facts through +/- 10.

I'm using both of the School Bell programs mentioned for our "summer school" program. My kindergarten son will complete a Dolch Activity and a Number Family activity each day, and will participate in the summer reading program at our local library. We'll keep learning light, fun and brief during the summer, but will do enough to keep the lights on upstairs.

Enjoy browsing these sites!

Happy Home Schooling,
Mrs. Sherry

Hey, Home School Solutions Friends!

I know, many of you think that I must have drown in that quart of cookie dough ice-cream I wrote about a while back. Actually, I overcame the temptation to eat the ice-cream, although I did succumb to a few too many of those generic oreos.

Writing about the blahs definitely helped cure them, and I was reminded of one of my favorite don't-feel-sorry-for-yourself scriptures from 1 Thessalonians 5:17: "Give thanks in all circumstances for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus."

In fact, today, once again, I was feeling disappointed as I took my morning walk and meandered past a beautifully treed lot that my husband and I hoped to build a house on this past spring. The lot was sold to someone else, and we ended up with a different space down the hill. As I prayed that God would help me be content with what I had, He prompted me to go a step further and be THANKFUL for what He had given us. Even more difficult, He prompted me to be thankful for the people who bought the land we wanted and to pray that they would be blessed in their new home. I have a feeling that God will prompt me to pray this again until I can really mean it. Interesting how that works, isn't it?

Anyway, I just wanted to write a quick hello today, and to offer you a word of encouragement as your school year comes to a close. Rather than focusing on what you or your child didn't accomplish, be thankful for what you DID accomplish. Celebrate every little achievement as a victory. It's amazing how a change in attitude will give you new perspective on God's work in your life.

I'll check in later this week with some great ideas for Bible teaching resources.

Happy Home Schooling,
Mrs. Sherry

Q: Is it important for high school students to learn to do Power Point presentations? What criteria should I use for making assignments and grading them? How long should presentations be?



A: Yes, it is important for high school students to learn to do Power Point presentations. Power Point projects are a fantastic way to combine language arts skills (research, writing, speaking) with technical computer skills and with a particular content area such as social studies or science. In fact, I would suggest that doing a Power Point presentation is as important as writing a traditional term paper whether students are college or career bound.

Middle school students and beginners may enjoy experimenting with a 5-10 slide presentation, while older or advanced tech-savvy students should design 10-15 slides per presentation. Below is an excerpt I copied and pasted from educationworld.com that explains how to make a power point presentation assignment for your student. There is also a link at the bottom of the paragraph that you may use that suggests assessment guidelines; a link is also listed to give you and your student a tutorial of the Power Point possibilities. I will note that you should give weight to three areas of the presentation: technical merit, quality of content and the oral presentation. Have fun with your projects!

HELP YOUR STUDENTS CREATE PROJECTS (from educationworld.com)

Encourage them to start with short presentations that contain only a few slides. Remind them to keep the text and graphic images simple. A plan never hurts either.

Project-Based Learning With Multimedia provides a workable outline for planning and completing multimedia projects. Advise students to follow the guidelines below.

1. Plan the projects. Identify goals and content; determine overall project length and progress checkpoints; determine project activities.
2. Prepare the information. Complete research and/or activity components.
3. Plan presentations. Create storyboards, which are detailed plans of the text, graphics, and order of each slide.
4. Create presentations.
5. Present completed projects, review experiences, and discuss project highlights or trouble spots.

For an evaluation tool to use for evaluating the writing content, technical content, technical organization, and communication skills used in student-created PowerPoint projects, try http://www.uwstout.edu/soe/profdev/pptrubric.html or http://www.artteacherconnection.com/pages/powerpointrubric.htm.

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

PowerPoint Informational Slide Show
This slide show provides an overview of PowerPoint and describes its tools and capabilities.
PowerPoint Tutorial
Mark L. Merickel of Oregon State University provides this terrific PowerPoint tutorial, which includes lots of graphics. You may find the PowerPoint tutorial link at: http://www.educationworld.com/searchnew/adv_results.jspe

Happy Home Schooling!
Mrs. Sherry