A Net in Time

Curriculum and book reviews, faith, homeschooling and more!

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Free Rice

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Not sure if I’ve ever commented on this site before.
It’s called Free Rice. What is it is a vocabulary site that through advertising gives away rice to developing countries. The fact page is here.

If FreeRice has the rice to give, why not give it all away right now?

FreeRice is not sitting on a pile of rice―you are earning it 20 grains at a time. Here is how it works. When you play the game, advertisements appear on the bottom of your screen. The money generated by these advertisements is then used to buy the rice. So by playing, you generate the money that pays for the rice donated to hungry people.

So it’s a site where you can improve your vocabulary and help folks out at the same time.

So far my highest score is 43, with 2580 grains of rice donated. And I must say, I really don’t even notice the advertising.

Rather cool eh?

TOS contest

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The HSB Front Porch is having a contest and you can win a $50 gift certificate just for blogging about The Old Schoolhouse Magazine Spring Promo before midnight April 30, 2008. Subscribe now to The Old Schoolhouse Magazine and receive 25 BONUS gifts valued at over $550! The Winter Promo sold out, don’t miss out on the free gifts this time!

They are also giving away a $150 gift certificate to the Schoolhouse Store. All print subscribers (new or renewing) between April 3 – 30, 2008 will be automatically entered into a drawing. No purchase neccessary to win. To enter without subscribing, please send a postcard with your name, address, telephone number, and email address to:
The Old Schoolhouse Magazine Spring Promo Contest
PO BOX 8426
Gray, TN 37615

California Homeschooling

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What can I say, I’m glad I live in Ontario and not California. But I do find this somewhat alarming.

On one hand you have a family with numerous complaints against them regarding abuse and a mother who is poorly educating her children.

On the other hand, you have parents who are wanting to homeschool their children and being told that they don’t have the constitutional right to do so.

Dan Phillips over at Biblical Christianity has provided a whole whack of links. Go over there to check them out.

It is a bit alarming for both sides.

Easter is coming

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This time of year is hard in a pastor’s family, especially in a church that celebrates the day’s of Easter…. Good Friday service, Sonrise service and so forth. Means extra work for pastor, and less of having daddy around to help and play. 🙂 But I was thinking about it, and as God would have it, so was This Old Schoolhouse, they sent out their Friday Freebie, and it’s all about Easter. So here are some links on Easter to help with the teaching and crafting of it.

Perhaps first I’ll give you an email that was sent to me though on the facts of Easter for this year.

Easter this year is: Sunday March 23, 2008
As you may know, Easter is always the 1st Sunday after the 1st full moon after the Spring Equinox (which this year is March 20). This dating of Easter is based on the lunar calendar that Hebrew people used to identify Passover, which is why it moves around on our Roman calendar.
A couple more things you might be interested in! Based on the above Easter can actually be one day earlier (march 22) but that is pretty rare.
This year is the earliest easter any of us will ever see the rest of our lives. And only most elderly of our population (aged 95 or more) have ever seen it this early. And none of us have or will ever see it a day a day earlier.
Here are the facts:
The next time Easter will be this early (March 23) will be the year 2228 (220 years from now). The last time it was this early was 1913 (so if you’re 95 or older, you are the only ones that were around for that!) The next time it will be a day earlier (March 22), will be in the year 2285 (277 years from now). The last time it was on March 22 was 1818. So, no one alive today has or will ever see it any earlier than this year!
ENJOY THE UNIQUENESS OF THIS SPECIAL DAY AND THIS LITTLE PIECE OF HISTORY!

Now for other Easter stuff 🙂

Make a Lesson Plan

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One of the things I discovered about Donna Young’s site is that she linked to various pages on how to put together a Lesson plan.

Let’s say you have a book that you are using for a curriculum.
1. you chosen the book.

2. decide how long you will be using it. use these steps to planning.

Steps-to-Planning checklist:

  1. How many weeks of study?_____
  2. How many weeks for special projects?______
  3. Subtract step 2 from step 1. ____ weeks
  4. How many pages are in the book(s)?______
  5. How many lessons are in the book(s?______
  6. How many pages are tests/review?______
  7. Subtract the number of test/review pages from the number of pages in the book.______
  8. Divide step 7 by step 3- _____ pages per week.

3.Now break it down a bit more…
a. how many pages will you do?
b. where will you call it a day?
c. does the book have it’s own laid out plans?

Lots more but I don’t have time right now to go through it all.
Follow her links, read through her examples and have fun! 🙂

Planning out your Homeschool day

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I was sent an email from The Homeschool Store (part of TOS). Anyways, it included some freebies.

One of the freebies listed was to Donna Young’s Home School Lesson Planners. I looked at them and thought…So??? And then I said, hold on, why reinvent the wheel? Should I ever need to plan out lessons, this page just might be helpful. I’d have to figure out how to use them and all that, but this would save me the steps and energy in having to come up with something myself. You might find that it serves the same purpose for you. There are also links for a variety of other types of planning you might need to do, from daily plannersm calendars, art and more. Check it out.

They also included a link to family corner.com about how to organize your homeschool day, how to think out the process of doing so. Plan, Prioritize, Respond. Have a routine, but stay flexible. 🙂