Shay's Articles from HEM's Online Newsletter
Make Your Own Homeschool Web Site!
"But I don't want to do Web admin," I protested, when a friend urged me to put up a simple website for my local homeschool support group in 1998. In the 7 years following, my simple anyone-can-do-it site received over 50,000 hits, and it sat at the top of Google's ranking for homeschooling in Prince William County VA. I never imagined that would happen--much less, that I would go on to create other, more complicated sites, protesting, "but, I don't want to do Web admin," the whole while.
Germ Warfare
OK, so the puppet was a flop. But things went better from there. We had a lot of fun doing experiments with GloGerm, a harmless product that simulates the presence of bacteria.
Fun With Family History
Having a clear connection to dates and places, through names, biographical sketches, and--if you are lucky--photos, can kindle the imagination and make history come alive. Once our young history buffs learned that their paternal great-great grandparents passed through Ellis Island on their way from Slovenia to settle in Pennsylvania, they wanted to know more about the conditions and challenges those immigrants faced.
Lemonade Stand Economics
I still have the first dime I ever made. It's a mercury head coin that I received as payment for the first sale at my sidewalk lemonade stand.
Mad About Mad Libs
By some grace, I managed to miss sentence diagramming and other tedious grammar and syntax exercises in school. Otherwise, I would have probably come to hate writing and wouldn't be doing it now. But thanks to Mad Libs, I know the difference between an adverb and an adjective, pretty well off the top of my head.
Travel Buddies
A few years ago, my daughters and I took care of an elephant for two weeks. Eleanor Elephant is a travel buddy, a small visitor that arrives by mail. Our pachyderm guest was handmade by a family in another state. She wore a straw hat, and a dress splashed with bright sunflowers.
Exploring Maps
When my parents took the family on a car trip across the country in my 8th summer, I became a map reader...my older daughter became interested in maps, as a result of her father's taking her and her sister on a trip to South Carolina to visit their grandparents, an 8-hour drive away.
All articles (c) Shay Seaborne and originally pubished in HEM's Online Newsletter. All rights reserved.