Hello everybody! Summer’s hit, and just about every homeschooler I know has stopped or at least slowed down for the year.

So what are we going to fill our time with this summer? We’re headed camping a bunch of different times, and I plan to bring no technology except my computer (a girl can only take so much!) so that I can get some writing done.

But in the meantime, we’ll all be knitting and reading up a storm! So here are some links to keep you busy this summer:

First, the Make it From Scratch Blog Carnival is up over at Our Red House. Head on over for great recipes and craft ideas!

Want tons of suggestions for summer fun, from car bingo games to learning by osmosis? Try Three Rivers Library for great links for homeschoolers!

At our homeschool I’m assigning ten books for each child to read this summer. They’ll probably read more than that, but 10 have to be really good, worthwhile books that I have chosen for them. Actually, I’m giving them each a list of 25 books, and they can choose ten from there!

If you want to do the same thing at your home, here are a few sites that can get you started:

I Think Therefore I Blog has a great roundup of all the incentives for kids to read. Get in to movies free, get $10 in a bank account, free pizza, etc. etc. So check it out!

ChristianBooks.com has summer reading lists up by grade level, and they include classics, not only Christian books. Good selection!

Houston Independent Schools Network has lists by grade level, too, but they’re a lot longer!

If you want to join About.com’s Summer Reading incentive program, you can find more here.

Here’s HomeschoolBuzz’s summer reading program.

If you’re interested in branching out into new books yourself, check out the Spring Reading Thing at Callapidder Days. It’s almost over, but stop in to see what other people have read. You just may find a great nugget to add to your list!

Here’s my post on what I’m reading this summer over at my To Love, Honor and Vacuum blog!

That’s all I have time for today, but I hope that keeps you busy! Get reading, and have fun!

This week in our Tuesday tour, I’d like to direct your attention to a book giveaway I’m having at Apples of Gold Ministries. ‘With This Ring’ is written by Joanna Weaver, who also wrote ‘Having Mary Heart in a Martha World’. We have two new contributing authors writing at AGM now and looking to add a few guest contributors as well. We’re have begun a marriage study and you’ll want to head over there while it’s still in the beginning stages. The deadline for the book giveaway is June 15th.

In addition to this book giveaway, I was able to have a phone Interview With Erin Bethea, who is Kirk Cameron’s co-star in his upcoming film, ‘Fireproof‘. ‘Fireproof’ is the third film produced by Sherwood Baptist Church in Albany, Georgia. You may remember ‘Facing the Giants‘ as it gave hope to our souls in 2006. The key to these films is that they receive a substantial amount of support during opening weekend. If ‘Fireproof’ does well, it will open the doors for more theaters to show the film, and reach more lives. This film is not just an action drama, but a vessel to be used to reach wounded marriages with the Gospel and Redemptive Power through the Lord Jesus. You can swing by and grab a widget for your blog to help spread the word about this powerful ministry.

Sprittibee shares more about her gardening adventures and is having a flower quiz and you can have a chance to win a packet of seeds!

Heather posted an article titled ‘Why Homeschool‘ in Heart of the Matter’s June 2008 Issue. I’m always inspired by her articles and you won’t want to miss this one!

Growing in Grace Magazine also has their June issue available and their pdf version is for a limited time only. So be sure to get it while it’s hot!

I’d also like to introduce you to a wonderful sweet friend of mine Mama Bug, Analene at UsLoves. I tell ya this blogosphere is a SMALL world! Analene and I became acquainted at The Homeschool Lounge, only to find out a month later that her mother is one of my dear friends right in my very own church! Who knew? We were all so pleasantly surprised to make that connection! On top of that I had a dream that I met her, then her little sister, who is friends with my daughter Jess, came to help with my little ones today. She told me that they’re coming back for a visit soon! How very cool to be able to finally meet her in person.

So please go on by and say Hello to her and her little love bugs! Now have I told you yet that Analene is one of 7 children who all homeschooled? She’s a second generation homeschooler and has fabulous siblings. One of them is also friends with my daughter Jess and is currently visiting Mama Bug, but I wanted to be sure to introduce you to her as well. This is our sweet friend, Emma! She’s an 18 year old Auntie and her adorable little nieces and nephews even call her Auntie EM. ( I just love that!) I’m still stunned that I didn’t realize these wonderful ladies were all related. What an amazing world we live in.

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Hello everybody! I haven’t posted much yet, but I’m Sheila, and I’m great! At least, that’s what I’m telling myself as I am sitting here with wet hair at 8:52 a.m. when school is set to begin at 9:00 and I haven’t had breakfast yet and the kids are complaining. But I’m great! Yeah, right.

In my public life, I write. A lot. I’m the author of four books, and you can check them out here. In my private life I homeschool three kids and I surf the internet and I pretend that I am not sneaking chocolate every chance I get.

But while I surf the internet, I come up with things for your benefit! So here is our Tuesday Tour.

First, for a laugh, you have to watch Tim Hawkins’ video on being a Homeschool Family. I think I posted this before, but it’s worth another go.

Now for the serious stuff. Make sure you read my post here and watch the accompanying video if your children have ever learned math in public school. Or if you’re not sure if your math textbook is really teaching your children to do multiplication and long division properly. Sorry for linking to myself, but it’s really the video you have to watch!

 But let’s talk SUMMER! The school year’s winding down, so we parents are wondering if we should throw in the towel now on school or keep slogging away. And next year’s curriculum is on everybody’s mind.

The Thinking Mother has a great post on 10 things to think about when choosing curriculum.

Our own Sprittibee is talking Elementary Grammar curriculum!

Stepping Heavenward is a recovering curriculum junkie, and has a couple of posts up about trying to decide what to do for next year. Start here and then look around.

For those still heading out to conventions, Mingo has a good post on how to handle all the pressure in the curriculum hall!

With a Taste of Chocolate helps you put standardized testing in perspective. And gives her thoughts on the end of the school year. But be sure to read her other posts; she’s got some funny stuff in there.

And here’s something cool: Want to teach your kids Hebrew for free? Heart of Wisdom has a link to how you can get a great Hebrew tutorial by email for no money! It looks promising, and I’ve signed up.

That’s all for now! Have a great one!

And be sure to stop by To Love, Honor and Vacuum! I’ve got a book giveaway contest going on!

This week we’ve been on vacation with my In-Laws, who are always so happy to be a part of our homeschool adventures! They’re retired and live on the road in their motorhome and travel throughout this beautiful country of ours. This month we’re staying at my Mother-in-law’s sister’s home. Aunt Susan is vacationing in Cypress and we get to stay in her home in Southern California. In between our days at Disneyland, we have been spending some time in the garden. Aunt Susan will come back and find a lovely display of colorful flowers planted in pretty clay pots that are placed sporatically around her patio which over looks a calm and beautfiul lake.

Since gardening has been on my mind I thought I’d take you on a tour of some of our fellow garden-schooling families here in the blogosphere.

We begin enjoying Nature Day With Kim at ‘In The Potter’s Hand’, as shares about Making Bird Feeders with her family. When gardening, it’s so nice to hear the birds twittering and tweeting as they fly about your yard. Even Michele at Simple Living has shared how she makes her yard an oasis for birds to gather in her midst.

Once you have your yard full of feathered friends, you can join Harmony Art Mom and read about her Nature Study of Flower Parts then begin your adventure with your own flower study.

For some extra fun, for those little guys who aren’t interested in flowery gardens and feathered friends, you can visit Nature Momma as they hunt for Frog Eggs! And if that isn’t fun enough, head on over and find out what happened to Sarah Joy’s children when they encountered a squirrel. Although their face to foot confrontation is a serious situation, I couldn’t help but share it with my family tonight. I think about how comical it could be if told from her son’s point of view.

Garden-schooling can be so much fun, for any age! Here are some tips I’d like to share with you.

Decorate your area- Where ever you decide to set up your very own gardening station, make it unique by adding your own special flare.

Care For Your Tools- Take the extra time to clean all your tools once you’re done with your day. Even if you’ll be back out tomorrow, it’s worth it to have everything clean and ready to go.

Water Pots- You can make water pots out of many things, even old tea kettles. So keep an eye out at yard sales to find unique old cans to be used in your garden. I hope you have enjoyed this edition of our Tuesday Tour. Have a great day!

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Nothing like getting it in under the wire. I had this post almost ready to go this morning, and then life interfered.

I’m not sure what’s in the air right now, but I have found some blog posts this past week that have really got my blood pumping. I’m pretty sure everybody else is going to think I’m just weird, but on the off chance that you don’t… Here we go.

Ambleside Classical has listed her plans for a study of composer Antonin Dvorak. While we’re not studying Dvorak, I can easily use this as an example for setting up my own composer studies. Make sure to spend some time browsing around this blog. It’s a real treasure.

Socks and Books shows how to get your children to dream about chemistry with the Periodic Table pillowcase that her kids made. I tell you, I am a hands-on drop-out, but even I can’t resist this.

Homeschool Math Blog talks about triangles in a way that makes my geeky little math heart go pitter-pat. This is what I love about math. I’ll quit talking now so your eyes don’t glaze over. Be sure to read that post, though.

Right up there with my love of math is my love of books. And, to satisfy my compulsive tendencies, I especially love book lists! Walls of Books has put together suggested reading lists for Grades 2-6 and Junior High. I just hope my children will be as thrilled about this as I am.

And last, but not least, let’s not forget the Homeschooling Carnival! It’s up at Principled Discovery.

This is going to be a real hodge podge today. Hopefully you will find something that inspires you.

Worksheet Works is a site filled with  supplement worksheets to use with all ages. It is still in the beta stage, so not everything is available yet. There are some great things there, though, and I personally plan on continuing to check back for updates.

I. Science Mate has science lesson plans, broken down by grade. I think I have seen this one before, but had forgotten about it.

Check out SoCalVal’s new web-site Weblink Education. The name of the site says it all.

I don’t know about your homeschooling day, but ours goes a lot better when we are structured. This need for structure includes any time left after school work is done. Too much “free time” around here paves the way for children begging for screen time. Too much screen time then paves the way for grumpy children. Let’s not talk about what happens to Mom when there are grumpy children. Three Plus Two has a wonderful couple of posts about Choice Time. While things are Montessori-inspired in her home, it would be very easy to adapt it to any homeschooling style.

Carnivals

The Carnival of Homeschooling is up at A Pondering Heart.

The Homesteading Carnival is at Forward to the Past.

 The Charlotte Mason Carnival is at One Child Policy Homeschool. 

Sorry for the delay, folks… life is hitting hard and fast lately. I figured I’d sneak a Tuesday Tour in before the clock strikes 12 and I turn in to a pumpkin.

So here’s your whirlwind tour:

First stop: 101 Reasons to Homeschool (keeps you up to date with the latest scary public school crimes and issues)

Second stop: Sprittibee’s Coffee & Tunes Lounge @ The Homeschool Lounge (some groovy music, slideshow widgets, and a fun messaging board… what’s not to love about the Homeschool Lounge?)

Third stop: BBC Schools (they have some of the most fun educational kid stuff out there… we love love love their Science videos & quizzes)

Fourth stop: Texas Standardized Tests Online (free) - the TAKS … or Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills

Fifth stop: Have some tea with Toni (who isn’t a homeschooler yet)…

Sixth stop: Easter activities anyone?

Seventh and final stop: The cuteness of kids (Astronomy through the eyes of a four year old.)

Join us next Tuesday (a little earlier in the day) for another spin around the blogosphere - as seen by a homeschooler who is hopefully not as sleep deprived as I am…

Goodnight!

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At this time of year it’s easy for me to get antsy about our homeschooling. It’s the time when the blahs can set in. I’m not sure if that’s because of the weather or just the non-newness of our school days. In either case, I find that if I start thinking about how I can tweak things here to make life easier, it can help me re-focus and get excited again.

There is a great post on organizing schoolwork and taming the paper monster (always a struggle here) from Lisa at Koinonia Academy. One of the best things about this post is that it has a link to the new the new on-line homeschooling magazine The Heart of the Matter. (Or you can just use that link. But don’t miss Lisa’s post!)

Another thing that helps is to start thinking about plans for next year. I try to get as much curriculum used as I can, so it helps to have time to look around. This means that I need to know what we’re doing many months advance. Plus, it’s just fun to pull out the curriculum catalogs!

Tami at Ambleside Classical Academy has a great method for planning and some forms to share here. A place to visit for lots and lots of planning ideas is By Sun and Candlelight. A real treasure trove there!

Fun stuff is good, too. Here’s a neat world geography game - Traveler IQ Challenge. Just don’t ask me how I do on it. I think I need a course in world geography as much as my kids do. The Heart of Harmony has a Sketch Tuesday challenge every week. It’s an easy way to add in some art and a great way for your kids (and you!) to get to show off their work. For a more craft-y approach to art, check out Hearts and Trees. She offers some great art kits for those of us (raising my hand here) that are craft-challenged.

I find that with just a little effort, we can get through this time of year and actually enjoy it. I hope you’ve found something here that can do the same for you.

P.S.

Oh… and The Homeschool Blog Awards has finally been added to Technorati: HSBA Technorati Profile. Go and add us to your favorites!