25 Must-Read Homeschooling Articles for Newbies

February 19, 2010 general homeschooling

Actually, if you’ve not read these before, these 25 articles would be good for any homeschooling mom, not just newbies.
Maybe they’ll help you as you plan for next year.
Maybe they’ll inspire you out of that homeschooling slump that comes in these gloomy days before spring. (Yeah, I’m pretty much there.)
General Homeschool Articles
1. Letter from [...]

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Customs or Superstitions (And What’s the Difference?)

February 15, 2010 living in China

“In the hours before midnight on the eve of Chinese New Year, hundreds of families went outdoors to burn paper money and incense. Although our host’s brother said it’s “just a custom and not a superstition,” I am not convinced.
While the money burns, words of prayer are spoken.
“Grandpa, make my children healthy and [...]

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Happy New Year!

February 14, 2010 living in China

It is now officially the Year of the Tiger.
Thank goodness. I really dislike the time of the year between Jan. 1 and the Chinese New Year. It’s just too confusing. And it was so long this year — a whole month and a half. Even though the Jan. 1 new year is a holiday that [...]

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Hobnobbing at the Education Conference

February 11, 2010 Uncategorized

We recently had a wonderful opportunity to attend an education (homeschooling) conference especially for foreigners living in Asia. For me the most valuable parts were interacting with other homeschool moms and having Sprite tested.
Here I am with Janna Gilbert from The Potter’s School.

I am seriously considering having Sprite take classes from their interactive, online school.  [...]

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Book Review: Where is God? by Dr. John Townsend

February 9, 2010 faith

Where is God?
Finding His Presence, Purpose, and Power in Difficult Times
By Dr. John Townsend
Where is God? discusses a topic that resonates with every human – why do we suffer and what is God’s place in that suffering?  I really appreciated the compassionate and honest tone of the book. Townsend addresses head-on the tendency to question [...]

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Suffering in China (with great food)

February 8, 2010 food

Yeah, don’t you feel sorry for me? I’m just suffering here in China with nothing decent to eat. (That’s sarcasm.)

Scenes from a simple meal at the home of friends. They are from a coastal city, so seafood features prominently.

A pickled turnip dish. Yummy!

Cilantro, jellyfish, and mushrooms are the main ingredients in this very tasty salad.
[...]

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Looking for an American History Curriculum?

February 4, 2010 curriculum

My latest curriculum review is up at The Curriculum Choice. It’s a review of Winter Promise American Story 1.
If you’d like an overview of this literature based history curriculum, go check it out. It’s been a good fit for us, and we’re using American Story 2 right now.

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Creating with Flowers

February 1, 2010 crafts

In doing some blog organizing, I found this post from the fall of 2009 that never got published. Actually, all I had here were these photos of Sprite arranging flowers.
It’s dreary winter in China, so let’s enjoy some summertime flowers, why don’t we?
Back in the fall, I realized that with all our creative projects, Sprite [...]

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Painting on Canvas

January 30, 2010 drawing

Sprite snatched the paints and a drop cloth and disappeared in her room one night with the one remaining canvas. I had no idea what she was creating. I was far too busy getting my Taobao account set up. I’ll be blogging about that later, I’m sure. It’s basically a Chinese Ebay, but I’m getting [...]

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World War 1 Notebook or Lapbook

January 28, 2010 history

Another period of history is complete; this time it’s World War 1.
We used the Eyewitness WW1 book as our main resource, and I pulled a few chapters from True Stories of the First World War. The stories were not as good as I’d hoped. They had more of a textbook style than narrative style. Some [...]

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