In this week’s episode, the moms talk about using their new “Seize the Year” wall calendars to get organized and using incentives and rewards to help homeschooling run more smoothly.

Links in this Episode:

2013 “Seize the Year” Wall Calendar

Chalkboard paint

HomeRoutines, Toodledo, and Scatterbrain apps to get on track. (Sadly, Scatterbrain is no longer available. *sad*)

Journey North Mystery Class

“Books of the Week”:

A Year Without Autumn by Liz Kessler

The Orange Trees of Versailles by Anni Pietri

The Finches’ Fabulous Furnace by Roger W. Drury

Guardians of Ga’Hoole series

Oliver Moon and the Potion Commotion by Sue Mongredien

 Magyk by Angie Sage

Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy  by Douglas Adams

“Links of the Week”:

Disney Family

HighScore House–Unfortunately this site has become no longer available. But we did see this program as a possible alternative: Me In a Tree

Using Incentives in the classroom

Should Learning be it’s Own Reward?

Using Incentives in Homeschooling

TimesUpKidz – Sadly, this site no longer exists.

iRewardChart app

Helpful Homeschool Hints: Small Rewards for Children

Homeschool Reward System and Incentive Chart – Off to a Good Start

Please note: If you downloaded this episode prior to 2/23/13, please delete it and re-download. There was a glitch a little after the 1hr mark where our intro/outro music just randomly started playing (not sure how I missed that before, but it’s fixed now!), making it difficult to hear the content. The file here on this page should be the corrected one, so just throw out the old one and listen here or redownload and you should be good to go! 🙂

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In this episode the moms chat about a vacation, paper airplanes and what to do when a homeschool curriculum doesn’t work for you.

Links in this Episode:

Monarch Grove

Letterboxing and Geocaching

Sea Life Center at Avila Beach

Doc Burnsteins Ice Cream Lab in Arroyo Grande

San Luis Obispo Children’s Museum

Morro Bay Museum of Natural History

Elephant Seals rookery at San Simeon

Raising Playful Tots Podcast

HomeRoutines App

Journey North Mystery Class

Pento for the iPad–no longer available

Books of the Week:

The Golden Acorn by Catherine Cooper

The Children’s Shakespeare by Edith Nesbit

A Year Without Autumn by Liz Kessler  (Emily Windsnap books Tina mentioned, can be found here.)

The Orange Trees of Versailles by Anni Pietri

The Miserable Mill (Series of Unfortunate Events #4) by Lemony Snicket

The Magic Half by Annie Barrows

The Sword in the Grotto by Angie Sage (Araminta Spookie series)

Guardians of Ga’Hoole by Kathryn Lasky

Oliver Moon’s Summer Howliday by Sue Mongredien

In this episode, the moms gather their strength in the midst of some gnarly colds to talk about all kinds of useful and educational apps for the iPhone and iPad.

Links in this Episode:

Horrible Hauntings (Augmented Reality Book)

2013 Rose Parade float Tina mentions, by Honda

The Amazing Race

Books in this Episode:

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis

Good Night, Owl by Pat Hitchens

The Perks of Being A Wall Flower by Stephen Chbosky

The Hangman’s Daughter by Oliver Potzsch

The Wide Window or, Disappearance! by Lemony Snicket

The Fire (Witch & Wizard) by James Patterson

Magic Tree House books by Mary Pope Osborne

The Golden Acorn by Catherine Cooper

Alien on a Rampage by Clete Smith

At Home in Mitford by Jan Karon

Pocketful of Pinecones by Karen Andreola

Links of the Week:

Balancing Everything–She changed this to VeryMom.com but changed the feel of the blog a lot.

Starfall

The Wired Homeschool

iPhone and iPad Apps:

Dropbox

LibraryBooks–no longer exists

Kindle

(And here’s the episode of our show that Tina mentions that we talk about Kindle Fire Department)

Goodreads

Google Drive

Overdrive

Dictionary.com and Thesaurus.com app (together)

Dragon Dictation (for kids who don’t like the physical act of writing…or to help keep ideas flowing w/o the hindrance of writing.)

Compass

Google Earth

On this, the last day of 2012, the moms chat about the holidays, update listeners on their last month, and how to start the New Year right with homeschooling!

 

Links in this Episode:

 

Homeschooling with the Amazing Race

Tina’s kiddos’ shadow puppets she mentioned they did when the race went to Indonesia.

Magic Tree House series: List of books in the first series (which is what Tina’s son is reading currently), and the Magic Tree House website (complete with book samples, games, videos, and a neat “Reading Program to Adventure” program where your child can earn stamps for completing trivia questions related to the facts learned from the books!)Magic Tree House Research Guides and Fact Trackers (nonfiction companion books for the series)

 

How to Train Your Dragon movie:

Review on Kids-in-Mind

Review on CommonSenseMediaHow to Train Your Dragon Live Spectacular

 

Homeschool Co-ops

R.E.A.L. Science Odyssey by Pandia Press

 

Scrooge with Albert Finney

(You can watch the entire movie on YouTube for FREE!)

Tina’s list of essential Christmas movies

 

 

Math Mammoth

 

Fresno Chaffee Zoo

 

The picture mentioned, of Beckie’s dog Sadie and Tina’s husband, Adam

 

 

Beckie’s kids’ new dressers!

 

 

Little Free Library

Books of the Week:

* Dealing with Dragons by Patricia Wrede

* Dragon Spear by Jessica Day George

*

 

*The audio player is at the bottom of the page, and if you’d like to skip right to the Thanksgiving content, it begins at 1hr, 48sec (1:00:48).*

In this episode the moms chat about Halloween fun, the History Odyssey curriculum, and maintaining cultural sensitivity during Thanksgiving.

Links in this episode:

Stick Works Art Installation

Math Wrap-Ups

World Book Night

BookCrossing

Little Free Libraries

All Hallow’s Read

Paperback Swap

Books in this episode:

The Land of Stories: The Wishing Spell by Chris Colfer

Dragon Slippers

Dragonflight

Dealing with Dragons

Muse Magazine

Lego Club Jr

Emily the Strange

Illusions

A Bridge Across Forever

StoryBundle

 

“Links of the Week”:

* Google Art Project

* Kitchen Pantry Scientist

 

Curriculum Reviewed in this episode:

Pandia Press History Odyssey

Ancients Level I (what Beckie is using)

Early Modern Level I (what Tina is using)

Timelines (we both use these!)

Homeschooling Thanksgiving in a Culturally Sensitive Way, Thanksgiving and Native American Links:

 

*PLEASE NOTE: Beckie and I pronounced “Wampanoag” incorrectly throughout this episode. I just discovered this through watching

In this episode the moms talk about field trips galore, Google Earth, the Earthquake and…

Homeschool co-ops!!

 

Links in this episode:

Homeschoolrealm Facebook page

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

Horrible Histories

Google Earth

Google Earth (Oceans, as mentioned by Beckie)

Humble EBook Bundle 

Books in this episode:

Isle of Swords by Wayne Batson

World’s Toughest Machines by Judy Schmauss

How to Draw Monster Trucks

Doctor Who: The Angel’s Kiss by Justin Richards

Pirate Cinema by Cory Doctorow

A Gift of Dragons by Anne McCaffery

Master Cornhill by Eloise Jarvis McGraw

Dragon Rider by Cornelia Funke 

Dragon Slippers by Jessica Day George

The Chronicles of Pern: The First Fall

Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother by Amy Chua

“Links of the Week”:

The Toymaker

Biddy Bedtime Stories

 

Savvy Homeschool Moms Episode 3 – Getting Started Homeschooling

Book ~ Homeschool Co-ops, How to Start Them, Run Tem and Not Burn Out

What is a homeschool co-op?

Richmond Math Salon video:

 

This episode is sponsored by Moving Beyond the Page – homeschool curriculum for hands-on, creative, and gifted learners. Learn more at 

In this episode the mom’s chat about Flylady routines, history lesson mishaps, share 2 great educational British websites, and Beckie talks about homeschooling with chronic illness.

Links in this episode:

Flylady.net

January’s Girl – Top 5 Parenting Tips

Popular Mechanics for Kids Videos

Ms. Frizzle’s Adventures: Ancient China

The Animal House on PBS  (Specifically the Ant Colony video we discussed)

Discovering Great Artists (Art History curriculum used by both the Savvy Moms! )

Michelangelo

The Sociable Homeschooler (We were interviewed on October 5th)

Books in this episode:

Once Upon a Curse (Tales of the Frog Princess)

A Gift of Dragons

The Gift (Witch and Wizard)

Annie’s Adventures (Sisters 8, Book 1)

Dragon Rider (also by same author, Inkheart)

The  Case of the Missing Monkey (High-Rise Private Eyes)

The Chronicl...

In Feb 2013, I created a country report printable to use with my kids, along with The Amazing Race (discussed briefly in the first 15 min of ep 27 and 28,). It has been updated and improved upon a couple of times since then…and is now available for sale on my website: http://homeschoolrealm.com/shop/Beckie and I have also started a Homeschooling with The Amazing Race Facebook group, for sharing ideas! Come join us!–Tina

In this episode we catch up after a week off, chat about fun and games while homeschooling, and…

Homeschooling with The Amazing Race!

Learn about all the great ideas we’ve found on the web, and some we thought up ourselves, on how to turn the tv show “The Amazing Race” into geography and social studies lessons!

Links in this episode:

Red Cabbage pH Indicator

Egg Tempera Paint

Trading Up Game

Homeschool Realm Exchange Change Game

Write with the Best (New writing curriculum the mom’s are trying out)

Secular Homeschooling Magazine (Sadly, this magazine and it’s website no longer exist, so we’ve removed the link.)…But there is a new secular homeschooling magazine now by the Secular Homeschooler.

Wright on Time Book Series

Do Life Right, Inc

Flylady … Flying with Homeschoolers

Books in this episode:

The Secret Kingdom by Jenny Nimmo

Emily the Strange: Lost Days by Rob Reger

In this episode the moms share 2 new segments: “Books of the Week” and “Links of the Week”, as well as discuss bullying and teasing in homeschool situations.

Links in this Episode:

Teaching reading and writing with cursive first

Cursive First: An Introduction to Cursive Penmenship

The Tale of Desperaux

Cornelia and the Audacious Escapades of the Somerset Sisters

The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Prisoners Dilemma

Mo Willems

Book of Max

A Very Special Delivery

Blast Off to Earth!

Little House in the Big Woods

Mighty Machines

Chronicles of Narnia Audiobooks

Free Audiobooks

Seed by Ania Ahlborn

Child of Faerie, Child of Earth

Little Passports

Secular Homeschool

Home-School.com Homeschool Groups

A to Z Home’s Cool Homeschool Groups

Books about bullying Tina mentioned:

Please Stop Laughing at Me

Please Stop Laughing at Us (sequel to “Please Stop Laughing...

In this episode, the moms chat about their CurrClick giveaway, the overscheduled homeschooler, and share their favorite art and science recipes.

Links in this Episode:

Elephant and Piggie books

Chaffee Zoo (where Tina took her children)

Scholastic Shoe Box Learning Centers

CurrClick and CurrClick Giveaway

Restore Margin in your Life

Math Mammoth

Kids Concoctions

Discount School Supply

Fresno Family Kid Activities (lots of art/science recipes)

Gak/Flubber

Borax Crystals

Sugar Crystals

This episode is sponsored by Moving Beyond the Page – homeschool curriculum for hands-on, creative, and gifted learners. Learn more at www.movingbeyondthepage.com. Be sure to listen to episode 19 for the new correct coupon code!