Choosing The Right Homeschooling Teaching Material

Choosing your homeschooling teaching materials can be an overwhelming decision because there are so many excellent resources and products available. In addition, it seems that each one claims to be superior to all of the others. However, if you talk to many veteran homeschooling parents, they would probably suggest that you stick to a traditional curriculum for the first year or so until you get more familiar with the whole process.

When making the decision to home school, it does take some time and experience to determine which materials are best suited to your teaching style and your children’s needs. However, there are plenty of resources available that can help lead concerned parents to the appropriate teaching materials and methods that work best for their family. In this article, eight suggestions and/or rules concerning choosing the right curriculum will be presented. Use these to guide you in your homeschooling endeavor.

Rule #1: First, you need to consider your situation and budget when it comes to choosing your teaching materials. For example, a farming family in the Midwest will have many opportunities for a hands-on-approach to learning in the areas of science and economics, while a city family may have better access to museums, libraries, cultural events, and more support group activities. You can make the most of the real life learning opportunities that are available to you; perhaps even replacing textbook material in certain subject areas.

Rule #2: Choose the teaching materials that complement both you as the teacher and your child as the learner. Textbooks that are developed for traditional classrooms tend to be teacher directed and chalkboard oriented. Seldom do they take into account different teaching approaches and styles. Nor do they account for different ways that children perceive and process information.

Each student has a style in which he/she learns the best. The perceptive parent will notice this and take it into account when choosing the right teaching materials. Think of what your child is interested in and learn from that.

Rule #3: If you don’t like the material that you have initially chosen, you will ultimately end up resisting using it no matter how good it may be. Unfortunately, it seems that all teaching materials have a certain bias built into them, both in the subject matter content and in the way the subject matter is presented. Every teaching parent, whether he/she recognizes it or not, has an educational philosophy of their own or some set of values and beliefs about what and how children should be taught. You should be true to those beliefs.

Rule #4: If possible, avoid programs that require a great deal of teacher preparation. Unless you are a high-energy person or really enjoy researching, you will be extremely irritated by these types of programs. They are often filled with detailed teacher’s manuals that you need to wade through, supplemental books or seminars that are necessary to fully utilize the program, or lots of activities to prepare beforehand. This ultimately can slow you down and result in both a frustrated parent and child.

Rule #5: You need to be aware that there are various schools of thought when it comes to the teaching of a specific subject. For example, when teaching children to read, there are programs that focus on different learning styles. These often include programs that teach learning phonics before learning to read, programs that focus on learning the rules of grammar and punctuation while you are learning to read, and programs that focus on just learning to read and letting the rules come later. Each school of thought has produced excellent results. However, what this means is that you can teach to the style and ability that works best for you and your child.

Rule #6: You need to realize that people’s needs change. What worked one year may not necessarily work the next. Your family’s needs and interests will always continue to change and you need to learn to go with the flow. Buy materials that meet your present needs and mold the curriculum to the child’s abilities, not the child to the curriculum.

Rule #7: Remember that you were given your children because there is something in you that God wants you to impart to them. Teaching materials are only meant to be used as tools to help you in this role. With faith and some work on your part, you can trust that you will find those materials that will be bested suited to your family. To that end, trust your instincts when it comes to homeschooling.

Rule #8: You will want to remember that teaching materials are often the least important elements of your home school situation. Books are easy to get rid of if they don’t work for you, but attitudes and destructive family dynamics are not. The entire family must be committed to the success of your homeschooling endeavors. If not, the entire process including choosing the right materials will suffer.

As you can see, choosing your homeschooling learning material does require some thought and work on your part, but it doesn’t have to be harder than it needs to. If you realize that your own instincts and abilities are your best assets, you will then know that you can find what will work best in your particular situation.

David Dunlap is the founder of The Homeschooling Report, a daily blog designed to provide informative and relevant information for prospective and veteran homeschoolers alike. For more information on

About Tin

Tin is obtained from a mineral called cassiterite which is mined in Brazil, Bolivia, China, Indonesia, Malaysia and Peru. The Cornish mines in Britain were almost wiped during the price collapse in 1985. Cassiterite is basically tin oxide and needs to be smelted before use.

The cassiterite is smelted into metal by reducing it with carbon in a big furnace called the reverbratory furnace in temperatures in excess of 1200 degrees Celsius. The reverbratory furnace is a special furnace that isolates the tin oxide being smelted from the fuel that is powering the furnace. The hot gases that result from the burning of the fuel are the ones that are acting on the tin oxide.

The challenge in smelting casserite is that it is usually mined with other minerals mixed in it. Therefore, it is necessary to refine the tin to make it commercially viable. Refining the tin in a furnace involves various procedures before pure tin can be produced. For example, iron is removed from the molten tin by passing steam through it. Tin that are very impure can be refined using electrolysis to reach a pure level.

One of the main properties of tin is that it mixes quite well with other metals forming alloys. This alloy forming quality and low meting point makes tin a valuable resource. Tin is non-toxic and does not corrode and there fore it makes the ideal finishing coat for steel cans used to store food and drinks. This is how the tin can is made.

Pewter is a popular tin alloy used by craftsmen to create artistic designs used in household decorations. The shiny surface of pewter lends a certain charm to decorations and the ease of shaping this tin alloy allows many an artist to express their creative freedom. The fact that pewter will not rust or corrode ensures a long life for works of art.

Bronze is also an alloy of tin composed of tin and copper. Bronze metal were used by the ancient Roman army to forge their protective body armor and spear tips. Higher grade tin bronzes are also used to make bells.

Another alloy of tin that is very important today is the solder. Solders are used in electronics to create connections between microchips and the printed circuit boards that they sit on.

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Four Approaches to Journal Entries in the Classroom

The four approaches to journal entries discussed are: learning development, artifact, expression, and social interaction. Furthermore, I will be evaluating these four approaches in this article, so that teachers can utilize them in their classrooms.

Learning languages and techniques will differ according to grade level. Only half of the population in schools today is above the national average in reading and writing. These statistics are available in major magazines and newspapers. Much of the attention that the teacher needs to disseminate to students and parents today is academic. Everyone must know where the student is in terms of academic progress. But what about the much needed attention to what a student is writing on a daily basis?

A well rounded teacher, in my opinion, should be able to teach two learning languages simultaneously Similarly, teachers that deal with handicapped, special education, or learning handicapped, really have their hands full. Social skills and language expression can be defined through the teachers’ high expectations to create a love for communication and writing.

Each student must take responsibility for their opinions while at the same time participating in cooperative group projects like the writing process, editing, and proofreading. These all promote teamwork. When students read each others’ papers and offer editing and content help, along with verbal praise for content, there is great growth in developing the student writer. These are ALL heralded in my classroom.

Furthermore, learning language as development must include modeling and scaffolding. The teacher models writing by actually creating stories, outlines, Venn-diagrams, notes, you name it, in front of the children right there on the spot. That’s true modeling. You would see this more in Kindergarten and Second Grade verses upper and middle school grades.

Learning language as artifacts promote in depth thinking skills among students. When students learn a particular part of language it spawns more ideas. Artifacts such as brainstorming, making an outline, and creating student made author profiles, are very useful to create awesome writing in the classroom. I have also had great success when students create pictures and or make pictures while I’m lecturing, and then develop essay answers on the spot by looking at their drawings. Use everything you can think of in the classroom, especially when it comes to artifacts.

Every student can learn in a variety of writing situations. Never forget: Every student can learn. Every student can write. Every student can read. Never give up on a student. Ever.

The teacher, psychologist, and even an outside advocate, must promote the overall goal of student learning, literacy, and promotion. It is always my goal to bring out the best in all my students.

Learning as development, using artifacts, and specific social and expressive language teaching techniques will enable the students to learn more effectively and rapidly. I would use groups, lectures, and even projects with these techniques. Journaling each and every step of the way. We must get back to allowing students to journal on each and every assignment. Students can have a journal sitting right next to their textbook, and make notes about what they are learning in math, social studies, science, and language.

Thus, the students will have habitual learning and writing techniques that they can take with them until they finish high school and into the college settings. Essentially, writing and literacy through journals that they can take with them-forever.

You can learn more about journal writing instruction with Dr. Anne Gere, Ph.D., by visiting her web site at:

www-personal.umich.edu/~argere www-personal.umich.edu/~argere

Online business owner Don Alexander is also a writer and published poet and has two
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Don feels that online home business is the financial answer for the average American today.

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“Helping ALL to Succeed”

Online Nursing Education – How To Choose The Right Online Nursing Degree Program

Online nursing education refers to the method of distance learning for the people who aspire to build a career in the field of nursing. For this purpose you have to join the online associate nursing degree school so that you can become eligible for this profession by earning an online associate nursing degree. You may choose the online nursing degree program of your choice among the several available options. This is an important step in the process of becoming a nurse. If you choose the right kind of online nursing education then it will be beneficial for you in building a successful career in nursing.

Benefits of Online Nursing Education

The benefit of online nursing education is that you can choose online nursing degree program according to your choice and convenience. Before selecting the program to obtain an online associate nursing degree you must consider carefully how much you will be able to give to the studies. Then you should also consider the viability of the option when it comes to getting the right kind of job that can provide you many perks. This is essential for creating the interest of any new student in this field.

People prefer the online nursing education to the traditional schools because this method is less expensive as compared to the traditional method of getting education in the standard nursing schools. Moreover, the flexibility of schedule is also attracting more and more new students to join the online nursing education to get an online associate nursing degree. You should make the decision of choosing the nursing program carefully and calmly after considering all the facts so that you will not regret the decision in the future.

For most of the people cost is an important factor when making any decision. Although the cost of the online nursing education has already come down to a great extent yet you can still choose a less expensive option by thoroughly examining all the options. If you join any reputed school you may rest assured that there are no hidden costs associated with the program. However, you should not forget that you would need a computer along with the Internet connection for online nursing education. Although the education is offered online yet you may need to purchase some books as well. You may need to spend a little amount of money on the other kind of supplies also. Another thing where you need to spend some money is the right kind of software for online nursing education.

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Mercury- Messenger of the Gods (Planetary Series)

In our tour of the solar system, we should begin by exploring the innermost planet. A short distance from the inferno of our sun we find it, hurtling through space at 40 to 60 kilometers per second in its 88 day cycle around the sun. As we approach it we notice its similarity to a body much closer to Earth, our own moon. It too is heavily cratered, with no atmosphere (or only a trace of one) to protect its surface or erode signs of previous collisions. The sun as seen from this distance is approximately three times as large as from Earth, and we know this is going to be the most dominant force affecting our trip to this planet.
Now we have touched down and we take a quick look around. We know that the surface gravity of Mercury is 38% of Earth’s, so if we weighed 200 pounds before, here we weigh only 76 pounds. Looking up at the sky we see a black, star-speckled sky dominated by the fiery globe of a sun almost three times larger than we are familiar with. There is only the faintest trace of an atmosphere, and the only way we even know it is there is the instrumentation we have with us. It will be totally useless to us. The sun beats down unabated in all its fury, and the temperature hovers around 800 degrees Fahrenheit. If we were on the night side the temperature would drop to -270 degrees. We would never survive here without space suits.

Bending down to inspect the surface we find a layer of dust similar to what astronauts found on the moon. This is the result of billions of years of meteor impacts, and also the extreme temperature differentials applied from a hellishly close sun. The processes which shaped this world across the eons were much different than the ones which shaped our home planet.

Around us are the pockmarks of craters, some mountain ranges, and a horizon much nearer than what we know at home.

Contrary to what astronomers once thought, there is actually a cycle of days here, but it is much different than anything we are used to. Mercury is not tidally locked with the sun, but tidal forces have slowed it to the point where its day is 58 of our days (indeed it will one day many years from now become locked one side to its huge neighbor). This means that Mercury’s day is about three quarters as long as its year. This results in some very peculiar observations if we were to stay that long. We would observe the sun snake across the sky very slowly. In certain places on this world we would then see the sun slow and actually backtrack a short distance before continuing its slow march across the sky. Then the very long night would follow.

We take one more look around this world. No, Mercury is not an enticing place for humans to visit. Maybe one day we will have reason to be here, either for the rich deposits of iron and other metals or for observational purposes, but this is not the day.

Studies of Mercury Through History
Mercury has been know and observed at least since the times of the Sumerians in the 3rd millennium BC. Following the Sumerians there is better documentation from the Babylonian Empire. Records from the 7th century BC refer back to much earlier records which described observations of the planet. The Babylonians called the planet Nebu, after the messenger of the gods in their mythology. This is an interesting parallel to the later Greek mythology and reference to the innermost planet. The ancient Greeks had two names for the planet, Apollo visible in the morning and Hermes visible in the evening. They eventually came to understand that these were the same object, and it was even proposed this early in history that Mercury and Venus orbited the sun.

Early modern astronomy began making observations of Mercury in the early 17th century when Galileo turned an early telescope to the inner world. A sketchy vision of the planet developed from that point, but its proximity to the sun has always made this one of the most difficult members of our solar system to study. It has only been recently with the advent of new imaging techniques that ground-based observation has drastically improved.
And what of research with space probes? This is also laced with technical difficulties. An application of Newton’s Laws of Motion shows that it takes more rocket fuel to achieve an orbit around Mercury than it takes to escape the solar system. Because of this only one spacecraft has visited the planet to date, the Mariner 10.
The Mariner 10 was launched on November 3, 1973 to study both Venus and Mercury. After its study of Venus, the probe made three flybys of Mercury in 1974 and 1975 when it mapped about 45% of the planet’s surface. Its closest approach was 203 miles on March 16,1975. The Mariner 10 circles the sun in its own lone orbit around the sun to this day, although its electronic instruments have long since been destroyed by the sun’s intense radiation.
Our most ambitious Mercury research project to date was begun August 3,2004 with the launch of the Messenger by NASA from Cape Canaveral. After two quick flybys of Venus in 2006 and 2007 the Messenger will finally work its way inward and make three flybys of Mercury in 2008 and 2009. Then in March of 2011, if all goes well, it will finally become the first orbiting spacecraft around Mercury. It is carrying high resolution imaging devices, spectrometers to determine the composition of the crust, and magnetometers to study charged particles around the planet.
There is an astronomical event which is of interest to amateurs and professionals alike, but not necessarily for any scientific value. Once every couple of centuries there is an occultation of Mercury and Venus. This occurs when Venus actually passes directly in front of Mercury for a few minutes. The last one occurred on May 28,1737 and the next will occur in 2133.

Structure of Mercury
Much of Mercury’s mass is composed of an iron rich core. Current theories suggest that this core comprises most of the 4879 mile diameter of the planet. This is surrounded by a 350-400 mile thick mantle and finally by a crust some 100 miles thick. Because of Mercury’s slow rotation period, there is very little tectonic or volcanic activity.
There have been several theories presented to explain why Mercury is so metal rich, and why its core comprises such a huge part of the planet’s structure. One popular theory is that the planet was struck by a large body early in its history and lost most of its outer, “lighter”, mantle. Another theory is that the extreme heat of the early sun vaporized the outer part of the planet, giving the young Mercury a dense atmosphere of gaseous rock, which was carried away by the huge solar winds of a much more volatile sun. The competing theories to explain the unusually heavy composition of Mercury will be tested by the upcoming Messenger mission.

The Future of Mercury and Its Possible Role in Our Own Future
Mercury’s most dominant feature makes it an attractive part of our future: its huge stores of heavy metals, especially iron. Although its proximity to the sun makes it hard to imagine humans working and living there, I can envision automated factories mining its surface and freighters picking up the ore to bring it back for our use.
Mercury will remain pretty much as it is for billions of years to come. As the sun slowly gains in intensity over the next 4 to 5 billion years, the planet’s surface temperature will slowly rise with it. Then a singular moment will arrive as the entire solar system changes with the beginning of the sun’s passage into its next phase. When the sun consumes a critical amount of its hydrogen fuel it will, within a matter of just a few days, enter its red giant phase.
At that time Mercury will be the first of the inner planets to be entirely consumed.
(Look for more articles soon in the Planetary Series.)

Planetary Statistics of Mercury

closest distance to the sun(perihelion)…..46,001,272km(28,583,865 miles)

farthest distance from the sun (aphelion)…..69,817,079km(43,382,322 miles)

density…..5.427 g/cubic cm

diameter…..4879.4km (3031.9 miles)

orbital period (year)…..87.96934 days

rotation period (day)…..58.6462 days

max surface temperature…..700K (800F)

satellites…..None

atmospheric pressure…..trace

surface gravity…..38% Earth’s

More science and futurist articles can be found at future-seek.com

Michael D. Watson is a free-lance science writer and editor/webmaster of future-seek.com future-seek.com, a futurist/science site featuring science forums, a science fiction bookstore,articles, and science links.

Artificial Intelligent Armies

What will the artificially intelligent robotic armies of the United States of America and their military look like in the year 2030? How will it operate? Will robots fight our wars for us or will there simply be no one dumb enough to risk a war with the United States for fear of total annihilation by the world’s largest and fiercest future fighting force and robotic artificially intelligent army?

Indeed, such a scenario is not Sci Fi, although some might have thought so a decade ago, now it seems more of a reality and the actual direction things are progressing. But how would this work? Well simple really. The Joint Chiefs of Staff would call up the central fighting force computer command and control and then alert them of a war with “x” country and declare the enemy eliminated. The computer would ask; “define enemy” the joint chiefs of staff would read off the coordinated of a country which we wish to serve our political will over and one which we have reached an impasse with attempted political negotiation.

The central command and control computer would line up all the logistical efforts needed to accomplish the task based on the data already in the computer and basic war plan information already known and execute the command from the joint chiefs. The computer would not retreat or stop until the other party had surrendered and the war would be over after the enemy was defeated, surrendered or annihilated (eliminated). That is basically how it would work. Consider this in 2006 and be really nice to the USA.

“Lance Winslow” – Online WorldThinkTank.net/wttbbs/ Think Tank forum board. If you have innovative thoughts and unique perspectives, come think with Lance in the Online Think Tank and solve the problems of the World; WorldThinkTank.net www.WorldThinkTank.net/

Pittsburgh Schools Use the Summer to Prepare for the Future

Pittsburgh Schools Create High School Reform Task Force

This summer Pittsburgh Schools Superintendent Mark Roosevelt announced the creation of the Pittsburgh Schools High School Reform Task Force. The Pittsburgh Schools High School Reform Task Force will be comprised of education professionals, private foundations, business professionals, parents, and community members. The Task Force will investigate the current practices in the Pittsburgh Schools and determine what the best approach to high school reform should be. Pittsburgh Schools High School Reform Task Force will be responsible for evaluating and ultimately redesigning Pittsburgh Schools’ high schools as part of Pittsburgh Schools’ “Excellence for All” reform plan. The “Excellence for All” plan aims to improve the academic performance and increase graduation rates in all Pittsburgh Schools.

The most important goal of the “Excellence for All” reform plan is to increase the graduation rate by 10 percent by the end of the 2008-2009 school year. Pittsburgh Schools High School Reform Task Force will spearhead reform so that high school students will have the opportunities to succeed after high school. The main tenet of the “Excellence for All” reform plan is that all students no matter what their age, experience or background can achieve quality education. The Pittsburgh Schools High School Reform Task Force will evaluate education in high schools based on six main principles. These principles will be used to guide the changes in the high schools: personalized learning environment; academic engagement of all students; empowered educators; accountable leaders; engaged communities and youth and an integrated system of curriculum, instruction, and assessment supports.

Pittsburgh Schools High School Reform Task Force Members and Funding

The Pittsburgh Schools High School Reform Task Force will be led jointly by Jan Ripper, Principal on Special Assignment for high school reform and Dr. Lynn Spampinato, Deputy Superintendent of Instruction, Assessment, and Accountability. Pittsburgh Schools High School Reform Task Force will visit and observe techniques used in nationally recognized high schools in urban centers around the US to determine which techniques would be beneficial to Pittsburgh Schools. Pittsburgh Schools High School Reform Task Force will be funded mainly through a grant of $255,000 from the
Fund in Excellence in the Pittsburgh Schools.

The Fund in Excellence in the Pittsburgh Schools is a recently created by a local foundation. The inaugural event for the Pittsburgh Schools High School Reform Task Force will be a meeting with renowned educator Dr. Willard R. Daggett, President of the International Center for Leadership in Education.

The current members of the Task Force are: Dara Ware Allen – Executive Director, YouthWorks, Inc.; Seppy Basili – Senior Vice President, Kaplan K12 Learning Services; Dr. Charles Blocksidge – Vice President of Organizational Development/Frieda G. Shapira Center for Learning, Community College of Allegheny County; Susan Brownlee – Executive Director, The Grable Foundation; Honorable Kevin E. Cooper – Pittsburgh District Judge; Joseph Dominic – Director, Education Program, The Heinz Endowments; George Gensure – Executive Board Member and Staff Member, Pittsburgh Federation of Teachers; Dr. Cecilia Griffin Golden – Chief Executive Officer, YWCA of Greater Pittsburgh; Ruth Howze – PPS Parent Representative; Rufus Jordan – Executive Board Member and Staff Member, Pittsburgh Federation of Teachers; Jeffrey Laurenson – PPS High School Teacher, Brashear High School; Dr. Alan Lesgold – Dean, School of Education, University of Pittsburgh; David J. Malone – President and CEO, Gateway Financial; Chairman of PA Workforce Investment Board; Dr. Indira Nair – Vice Provost for Education, Carnegie Mellon University; Ronald D. Painter – Chief Executive Officer, Three Rivers Workforce Investment Board; Jeanne Pearlman – Senior Program Officer for Education and the Arts, The Pittsburgh Foundation; Gregory K. Peaslee – Senior Vice President, Human Resources, Construction and Property Management, UPMC; Douglas Silinski – PPS Parent Representative; Linda Serody – PPS Parent Representative; Gregory R. Spencer – President and CEO, Randall Enterprises, LLC; Former Senior Vice President and Chief Administrative Officer, Equitable Resources, Inc. ; Michael T. Thorson – Former Principal of Creative And Performing Arts (CAPA) High School; Doris Carson Williams – President, African American Chamber of Commerce of Western Pennsylvania; and Yolanda C. Wilkins – PPS Arlington Academy (ALA) Teacher; Former PPS High School Teacher

Stacy Andell is a staff writer for Schools K-12, providing free, in-depth reports on all U.S. public and private K-12 schools. Stacy has a nose for research and writes stimulating news and views on school issues. For more information visit schoolsk-12.com/Pennsylvania/Pittsburgh/index.html Pittsburgh Schools