This is a free printable 6 page document (1 page instructions 5 pages of cards)  you can print from your computer. I printed them out on card stock and laminated them for durability before cutting out.

There are two sets of cards- one with images and one without. Play with either or mix them up.

Download the Bible Match Game (4 page PDF)

More About Children’s Bible Drill

I’m working on several Bible Drill games.  I will post if there is interest. Comment if these would be helpful to you.

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Social Media and education?

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Required Books

• Bible
• Writing handbook
• The Heart of Wisdom Teaching Approach.

Create a Year 1 Package

You can use the links in the list below to create a personalized book package for your family.B y using the links below you will be shopping in two stores- the Heart of Wisdom Store and Amazon Homeschool Store.

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Click on the book title to read more about it. This will open a new browser window.
2. Clcik on “Add to Shopping Cart” for each book seclection.
3. Return to this page to chose the next book.
4. The shopping cart in the stores will keep track of your selections.
5. Repeat until you make all your selections.
6. Use the check out button to complete your purchase in the appropriate store.
7. You will get email confirmation of your purchases and email instructions to download any ebooks.

Key Recommendations for the Heart of Wisdom Year 1 Plan
The reading assignment with pages numbers of most these books are in the lessons. Books with a * are used can be used for several years. Chose Ebook or paperback no need for both
A Chronological Bible*
The Heart of Wisdom Teaching Approach (PB) *	Excerpt (60+ pages)
The Heart of Wisdom Teaching Approach Ebook *	Excerpt (60+ pages)
Nurturing the Write Relationship (PB)*	Excerpt (20 pages)
Nurturing the Write Relationship Ebook	Excerpt (20 pages)
Writers Handbook*	Robin’s Review and Links to Student Samples
Rose Book of Bible Charts, Maps, and Time Lines*	Robin’s Review & SUPER Sample Pages
30 Days to Understanding the Bible (PB) *	Robin’s Review
Ancient History: Adam to Messiah (Ebook)*	Book Excerpt ( 42 pages!) Contents (5 pages)
Discover Jesus in Genesis (PB)
Adam and His Kin (PB)
Eyewitness Mesopotamia
Eyewitness Ancient Egypt (HB)
Our Father Abraham (PB)
Eyewitness Ancient Greece (HB)
Eyewitness Ancient Rome (HB)
Daily Life at the Time of Jesus (HB)
The Kingfisher History Encyclopedia (HB)*
Wisdom Unit Study (PB)
Wisdom Unit Study (Ebook)
Walking Wisely (PB)*
Creation Unit Study (Ebook)	Sample Lesson Resource List Objectives
Unlocking the Mysteries of Creation (HB)
Light Unit Study (Ebook)	Sample Lesson Objectives
Eyewitness Light (HB)
God’s Lamp, Man’s Light: Mysteries of the Menorah (PB)
Energy Unit Study (Ebook)
Eyewitness Energy (HB)	Sample Lesson Objectives
Eyewitness Electricity
Force and Motion
Properties of Matter (God’s Design)

Pages for creating a Heart of Wisdom Year 2, 3, and 4 package pages are under construction. Meanwhile see

• HOW Year 1 History
• HOW Year 1 Science
• HOW Year 2 History
• HOW Year 2 Science
• HOW Year 3 History
• HOW Year 3 Science
• HOW Year 4 Science
• HOW Year 4 History

Which Classics do you Recommend?

Use this for your library lists.

Free Book Lists by Grade Levels

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Become a better teacher through the use of digital technologies. There are many web sites where you can watch streaming videos on your computer. Video streaming brings courses alive to online learners, by allowing you to use your visual and auditory senses to learn interesting and complex material.

We use streaming videos in our homeschool every day to enhance lessons. My boys process  information quicker and have a stronger grasp on the subject matter when I reenforce the lesson with a video. They are motivated and engaged when they have this option.

Be Sure to Bookmark this Page!

Educational TV and Radio Shows with Web Pages
Amazing Animals Arthur Bill Nye the Science Guy’s Nye Labs Online Critter Glitters Children’s Television Workshop His Creation (Christian) Jack Hanna’s Animal Adventures Kids News Room Kratt’s Creatures Magic School Bus National Geographic Explorer	Newton’s Apple Pappyland (art program) Reading Rainbow Smithsonian Museums Toonz (Christian) Veggy Tales (Christian) Where in Time is Carmen Sandiego Wildlife Adventures WWWishbone.com Zoog Disney Zoomtoo
4Teachers Family of Tools
QuizStar RubiStar Arcademic Skill Builders PersuadeStar Classroom Architect Equity TrackStar Assign-A-Day Casa Notes PBL Checklists Teacher Tacklebox Web Poster Wizard NoteStar Think Tank KidsVid

Add your favorite online resources in the comments.

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This book is recommended in every Heart of Wisdom Unit Study. Throughout the lessons you are asked to correct students spelling, capitalization, punctuation, grammar, sentence structure, subject/verb agreement, consistent verb tense, and word usage in all writing by marking the error with a number that corresponds with a rule from Writers INC. The student refers to the rule in the book and corrects his paper and turns it back in.

It is important to read through “The Writing Process” in Writers INC with your student. It is important for your student to understand the writing process: Prewriting, Drafting, Revising, Editing and Publishing. Explain to your student that you will accept his or her writing in different stages. Requiring all work to be “published” can discourage writing.

Throughout the lessons your student will be asked to write summaries, paraphrases, letters, essays, etc. Much of the time you can accept rough drafts, but occasionally (especially adding work to the portfolio) your student needs to go through the entire process.

Through the writing assignments students will learn:

• Writing Skills: context, form, mechanics, editing and revision
• Spelling Skills: create a personal spelling dictionary
• Increase Vocabulary create a personal vocabulary notebook
• Handwriting Skills: practice writing Bible verses
• Critical Thinking Skills: manage and use information to solve problems, interrelate knowledge, effectively communicate learning outcomes.
• Character development through assignment completion: attentiveness, commitment, confidence, decisiveness, efficiency, faithfulness, perseverance, promptness, responsibility, and self-control
• more writing and revising strategies based on the six traits of effective writing;
• expanded guidelines for writing expository and persuasive essays;
• additional information on writing research papers including writing MLA thesis statements, using APA research guidelines, searching for information—in the library and on the Internet, and citing electronic sources;
• updated strategies for writing with computers including writing multimedia reports and publishing on-line;
• more information on thinking and learning skills including viewing, note taking, and test-taking skills.

Give your students an invaluable resource they’ll turn to again and again school and beyond.

The mechanics of writing should be taught as part of the overall process of writing .Gaining control of the mechanics of writin–punctuation, spelling, and correct usage– clearly important to becoming an effective writer. Research has shown that grammar lessons taught without making connections to the context of authentic writing do not typically help students better write or edit their own work (Hillocks, 1986;Weaver, 1997).

Many experts on writing and cognition emphasize the importance of learning these conventions in the context of the students’ own writing (e.g., Atwell,1987; Calkins, 1994; Graves, 1983; Spandel, 2001; Weaver, 1997). Routman (2000)points out, “Writers learn to control conventions best ‘at the point of need,’ that is, in the context of real writing.” This is not to say that mechanics, usage, and grammar should not be introduced in lessons directed by the teacher. What is necessary is that once introduced, these skills are made meaningful only by practice in the context of students– own writing. In addition, these skills should be reinforced as appropriate with mini-lessons.

Teacher Review

“This is a handbook not a textbook,therefore allowing the opportunity to use it not only during the English block, but throughout the curriculum. This handbook is a resource tool and a reference guide for my students to use as a means of mastering the beauty of the written word. It is a way for them to learn to express their thoughts and feelings in a variety of ways including journals, reports, poetry and story writing .

When I looked at this handbook for the first time, I was hooked! I knew I had found a tool that was child-friendly and illustrated the traits all good writers possess .

I begin each year by teaching the six-traits of effective writing, introducing my students to journal writing and portfolio management. We then spend time building paragraphs and writing short essays while simultaneously learning the steps in the writing process. Then we branch out across the curriculum incorporating our writing s kills in every aspect of our day…

The illustrations help present the important information in a fun and exciting way. The format breaks the writing process into simple steps and more importantly, it gives real-life examples (samples) of writing done by other kids. The checklists and proofreading guides are invaluable. It also teaches students how to use a dictionary, a thesaurus, how to become a better speller,punctuation skills, test-taking strategies as well as how to work in cooperative groups.

Write Source

Write Source is a group of teachers and writers who develop materials for students and instructors from kindergarten through twelfth grade.  Visit the links below for supporting materials for Writers Inc provided by Write Source.

Writing Topics

• My craziest experience in a restaurant or shopping mall
• The hardest thing I’ve ever done
• My first encounter with a bully
• Let’s hear it for my favorite senior citizen.
• The toys I’ll never give up
• A friend who moved away
• I couldn’t believe that my mother volunteered me for that job.
• Putting my foot in my mouth
• What if school sports were dropped?
• Who knows me best?
• What do I worry about?
• My muscles were so sore after . . .
• What do we Americans do well?
• “Obstacles are what you see when you take your eyes off the goal.”
• I admit it; I enjoy professional wrestling.
• An unforgettable dream
• My worst vacation
• A “visit” to a hospital, doctor’s office, or dentist’s office
• Coping with brothers and sisters
• A typical evening at home
• Morning madness
• When I was a discipline problem
• A meaningful gift I’ve given or received
• We all make mistakes.
• Why do I deserve the job?
• My brother (or sister) made me so mad!
• Hanging out
• Something this school really needs is . . .
• Why are soap operas so popular?
• I take some things too seriously.
• What do I do to break routine?
• More topics.

Student Models

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• Personal Writing (9-12)
• Extended Personal Narrative: The Climb
• Extended Personal Narrative: Caught in the Net
• Extended Personal Narrative: The Boy with John Travolta Blue Eyes
• Personal Essay: It’s a Boy!
• Personal Essay: Take Me to Casablanca
• Personal Essay: My Greatest Instrument
• Personal Essay: Snapshots

• Subject Writing (9-12)
• Descriptive Writing: H’s Hickory Chips
• News Feature: Internet Plagiarism
• Eyewitness Account: Anticipating the Dream
• Profile of a Person: Rosa Parks
• Profile of a Person: From Bed Bound to Breaking Boards
• Interview Report: Student Entrepreneur . . .

• Persuasive Writing (9-12)
• Pet Peeve Essay: Mosquito Madness Editorial

• Creative Writing (9-12)
• Patterned Fiction: The House on Medford Avenue
• Poetry: Mama’s Stitches
• Play: The KHS Press

• Academic Writing (9-12)
• Process Essay: Huddling Together
• Cause/Effect Essay: Save the Elephants
• Essay of Comparison: If Only They Knew

• Writing About Literature (9-12)
• Personal Response to Literature: Adam’s Train of Ghosts
• Personal Response to Literature: Diary of Gaspard
• Literary Analysis: My Interpretation of The Joy Luck Club

• Research Writing (9-12)
• Research Paper: Should Smoking Be Banned in Public Restaurants?
• Research Paper: The Killer Bean

• Workplace Writing (9-12)
• Memo: Mid-project Report
• Business Letter: Dear Ms. Cline

Multimedia Reports

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The “Multimedia Reports” chapter of this book shows how to prepare a multimedia presentation and an interactive report. The following presentation and report are based on the storyboard in that chapter. To play these files on your computer, you will need the PowerPoint program (Windows or Mac) or the PowerPoint Viewer (Windows only).

For your convenience, we have also provided a link to a Web slide-show version of each presentation or report (without sound or slide transitions).

Multimedia Presentation

Download the “Save Now, or Pay Later” multimedia presentation.

Launch the Web slide-show version.

Interactive Report

Download the “Save Now, or Pay Later” interactive report.

Launch the Web slide-show version.

Visit the Write Source blog for their writers’ latest thoughts on the process and teaching of writing.

Writers Inc.: A Student Handbook for Writing And Learning
By Sebranek, Patrick Sebranek, Dave Kemper, Verne Meyer

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YouTube Videos Tips and Tricks

10 Reasons for Using YouTube Videos in Your Classroom

Science Videos

There are thousandsof  science videos online. HOw Stuff Works, The Discovery Chanel, The Learning Chanel and Science Chanel have combined all their videos in one search engine. So when you go to any of the liink below you will have the same list of videos:

• How Stuff Works
  
• Discovery Chanel
• Science Channel
  
• The Leaning Channel
  

Do you use the Internet in your homeschool day? Tell us about it.

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Charlotte Mason said, “Now our objective in this most important part of education is to give the children the knowledge of God.”

Kill two proverbial birds with one stone by having your children practice handwriting with these FREE printable Bible verses in manuscript, cursive, or D’Nealian.

Below  are links to the printable the pages I made for my boys from NIV. We were memorizing KJV but our church uses NIV and I found the  modern language easier for the boys to understand and remember.

If you like a verse not listed here, request in the comments. I’ll try to get them for you.

Cursive, dotted, lined

D’Nealian, dotted, lines

Bookmark this page to return to check back for more verses

Tips and Options

• Younger children can trce the dotted words.
• Older children can use the blank line under the words to write the verses
• Copy verses to index cards
• Copy pictorials on index cards to jog your memory

• Also see BibleStoryPrintables.com Includes K-5 bible printables. Bible Coloring Pages, Bible lapbooks, Bible StoryBoards, Bible Timelines, Bible Copywork, Bible Games and more

  

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How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.

Telling a child to clean a room is overwhelming. These check lists are broken down into easy doable one to three minute chores. Assign a child a room or a few steps. Hang the kids core chart in the appropriate room.

Explain to your children if you complete the list every day each can be done in about 15 minutes!

Click on list to get 8.5 x11 sheet for printing. Laminate list. Use dry erase markers to check off or assign chores. (If you don’t have a laminate consider getting one, we use ours all the time).

Here is a blank list to make your own

n.

A 15 Minute Cleanup time is a great way to stay ahead of clutter. To really keep a home clean you should add weekly to do lists too (clean out fridge, clean under beds, closets, etc).

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Most Popular Post on Robin’s Blog

1. Sweet Fruit of Intimacy with God
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The Bible Worksheets have been very popular. We wanted to make these available in index card size also. One page includes all three Bible study cards: Bible Passage, Bible Event, and Bible Character.

Print on card stock for index card quality. Store in recipe or index card box. Index card dividers are available in office supply stores.

Download Bible Study Index Cards (PDF)

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I created Google email accounts (free safe Gmail’s plus-addressing) for my boys so I could email educational game links to their laptop computers. I didn’t realize how motivating email would be. They began writing letters to their father, grand parents, brothers and sisters.

Writing and receiving emails makes learning fun. Much more fun than traditional “skill-and-drill”.  Students write on topics that they enjoy. Receiving email gives interaction and feedback.

Students need to know how to compose an email. The New York Times reported ” Businesses are spending as much as $3.1 billion annually to teach white-collar professionals how to write clear, concise emails, reports, and other texts.”

Research from the BBC

• A survey of 3,001 children aged nine to 16 found that 24% had their own blog and 82% sent text messages at least once a month.  73% use instant messaging services to chat online with friends.
• …Of the children who neither blogged nor used social network sites, 47% rated their writing as “good” or “very good”, while 61% of the bloggers and 56% of the social networkers said the same.
• “Our research suggests a strong correlation between kids using technology and wider patterns of reading and writing,” Jonathan Douglas, director of the National Literacy Trust, told BBC News.
• “Engagement with online technology drives their enthusiasm for writing short stories, letters, song lyrics or diaries.”
• “Our research results are conclusive – the more forms of communications children use the stronger their core literary skills.”
• Use a basic checklist before sennding mail: Are you sending it to the right person? Check for spelling mistakes in the address and message body.

Email Tips for  Readers

• Introduce your child the basic parts of a letter with attention to: salutation or greeting, body, closing and signature.
• Be available to help with spelling. Keep a list of words they ask about.
• Print out list of frequently words in alphabetical order for reference. (Please, thank you, etc)
• Give them a dictionary (or child’s dictionary) and teach them to use it.
• Use graphic organizers to help a child compose an email.
• Teach the child to attach photos, draw pictures and use other computer resources over time to enhance the emails.
• Teach them to use the spell checker and teach them how often spell checkers fail.

Email Tips for Non- Readers

• Use Charlotte Mason’s narration methods.
• Ask someone to write to your child. When your child receives an email, read the email to the child and ask if she wants to respond. Type the response for your child.
• Continue writing for the child until he has the typing and language skills to go it alone.

Email Safety

Gmail’s plus-addressing feature to create filtered in boxes and send-from address for  kids. Children can send and receive emails from their own address without being exposed to  spam of a full-fledged account, and you can keep an eye on what kind of communication their mail .

How to give your young children a personalized (managed) email address

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I can never find our ruler when I need it. I even have a speacial drawer for math manipulatives but it almost never put back.

Download the PFD file below to print out a disposable ruler. Better yet, print it on cardstock and laminate it.

I made several and use extras s book marks. Disable any “print to size” options when printing.

Here are a few different colors so each child can have their own.

• Download Black and While Ruler
• Download Yellow Ruler
• Download Red Ruler
• Download Blue Ruler
• Download Green Ruler
• Download Faux Wood Ruler
• Polka Dotted Ruler (yellow w red dots)
• Polka Dotted Ruler (purple w red dots)

Thak you to  Vendian.org for the ruler template. Find more rulers (metric, centimeter, etc) at Vendian.org

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Using these worksheets will help your child (and you) extract pertinent materials from the Bible reading, analyze it, categorize it, and produce a reference sheet for his or her Bible portfolio. This is not busywork- its writing to learn.

These can be used for all ages even non readers! Mom can fill in the pages for younger students using Charlotte Mason narration principles (child tells mom what happened, mom fills in worksheet).

Sample of Bible Character Worksheet

Sample of Bible Event Worksheet

Teaching Tips

Do not give them a worksheet and walk away. Motivate students by asking questions. Help them use Bible study tools if needed.

Allow students more than one worksheet,  tell them to  plan on writing and rewriting information so that they can condense, arrange, and write the summary in the best fashion.

As they rewrite and reread, they select, eliminate, and add information with your prompts. The student is conveying in his  own words (paraphrasing) the meaning of what was read, using the fewest number of words and sentences.

Don’t underestimate the filling in process. Students develop excellence in achievement by completing the worksheets ; they develop diligence by continually practicing clarity, accuracy, relevance, prioritizing, consistency, depth, and breadth through writing activities.

Use the worksheets as a way of testing. You will find out what students already know and encourage them to learn.

Download Bible Worksheets (12 page PDF)

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