TED Talks - Tinkering

LiveBinders.com

New find! LiveBinders.com is a great place to keep track of online learning resources. It allows you to create a virtual binder, with tabs/pages. Each of the tabs can be linked to an web page. This is just an outstanding tool if you like to pull together lesson plans and units from multiple sources. Of course it is also a wonderful tool just to keep track of online resources. You can even use Google search to populate the tabs for you, and then add or delete tabs as you wish.

Below are the binders that I've started so far.

Typing Tutors

Chemistry Resources

Latin Resources

Cleaning Out the Closets

That time of year again! Time for the end of summer garage sale. Every year, on the Saturday after Labor Day, the neighbors on our street have simultanious garage sales. It is great, because it doesn't require a lot of advertising.

I don't think we participated last year, and I know I didn't really get rid of a lot of clothing, because I wasn't quite sure I was ready to get rid of my larger size clothing. I had been dieting for nearly a year, and was trying to level out my weight. Everyone always talks about how fast you gain back the weight that you lose. I went slow and steady in my diet to avoid that, but I was still afraid of throwing out my larger sizes.

One year later, I have 23 pairs of jeans in my new size, plus all of my old clothing in storage. I haven't even looked at the kids closets; although, they were working on them all evening on their own.

So here are a few rules that I've gathered for cleaning out the closet. I wonder how many I can stick with.

First, get rid of the obvious, get rid of anything you just really don't like anymore, or you know no longer fits. Set it aside for garage sale.

Second, get rid of everything with stains or holes. If it has either, get rid of it. Trash these, don't set aside for garage sale. This one is particulary hard for me, because I'm always wanting to save the fabric for something else: quilts, doll clothes, craft projects etc.

Third, try everything on. Unless you've worn it recently, try it on. This is the part the kids hate. I think they get rid of stuff that does fit, just becasue they are sick of trying things on. If it doesn't fit get rid of it. If you don't like the way it looks on, get rid of it.

That covers the basics, and my closet is slightly cleaner, but I still dont' have enough space. I'll need to dig a little deeper.

I've read that you need to limit yourself to four pairs of jeans and four pairs of black pants. I'm not sure how I could ever get it down that far, and I'm not sure I want to. If I only have four pairs of jeans, what am I suppose to wear on a one week vacation? I don't want to laundry while I'm on vacation. I'm still trying to talk myself into a reasonable number, but for now I've decided on fourteen. That is if I can pick my fourteen favorite pairs.

I've also read that if an item doesn't go with atleast three different items, get rid of it. I'll have to work myself up to that one I think.

Lastly I've heard about a process where you go straight the closet day by day. Each day you go the next item in line, and either wear it or toss it. I'm not as decisive as that, so I'm going to compromise. I'm going to allow each item three passes. I'll mark each pass with a rubber band on the hanger. Once I get three rubber bands I'll toss. I'll also need to make sure each item is arranged by season and purpose. After all I'm not going to go grocery shopping on Saturday in a suit, or wear my cargo pants to work. Oh wait, I do both of those all the time, but you get the idea.

Wish me luck.

120 Great History Projects

I found an absolutely wonderful source for hands on history projects today at the library, 120 Great History Projects from Lorenz Books. This is definitely one of those I will have to go out and buy. It is jammed packed with art projects, costumes and recipes. I've just begun to dig into this book, but it looks like there is a hands on project to coincide with every just about era in history and prehistory.

Some of the recipes included in the book: "Stone Age Food", "Egyptian Pastries", "Aztec Tortillas", "Cowboy Cookout", and "Medieval Flan".

A sampling of the other projects include: Archimedes' Screw, a Viking coin and die, an Arctic sled, Japanese Samaria helmet, and a Celtic harp, just to name a very few.

Each project begins with a brief history lesson, a paragraph or two. Most include color illustrations to go along with the lesson. The lesson is followed by full color photos and step by step instructions for the project.

This is just an awesome book for homeschool project ideas!

History Channel Video Clips

History.com has a nice collection of video clips covering topics like: Ancient Civilizations, U.S. Presidents, American Revolution, , World War II, the states, etc. These are clips are about three minutes each, some of them appear to be pieces of a tv episode, but others appear to be made just for the website.

A list of main topics can be found here.

I liked the Fall of Rome video that was found under Ancient Civilizations. It is a song about the fall of Rome.

How the States Got Their Shapes Guide

Found a link to the "How the States Got Their Shapes" Teachers Guide. I love this show, and I think it is available on NetFlix.