Plutarch and character

When you look for character education resources, you find Plutarch recommended everywhere.  I personally have not done the best with this in the past.  It seems like somehow I miss the point and it just winds up as a (someitmes) interesting historical reading.


  But I found this great blog post on the blog Charlotte Mason Help.  How We Study Plutarch gives a good strategy for Plutarch that makes it a lot more applicable and interesting.  Of course since I have only one at home now I have to make one kid activities!

Free audio books - a boost to literature studies

Librivox is a great source for free audio books.

Our literature studies have really taken off with this resource!

Since we live in Peru, we are always looking for downloadable resources and literature in English.  And of course, as missionaries, we really appreciate FREE!

Librivox also offers the opportunity to volunteer as a reader, a great opportunity to volunteer (character development) , practice reading and theater, and it would be pretty cool to hear your own recording!

Keeping up with grades, lesson plans, etc.

The greatest tool that I have found so far is Homeschool Skedtrack, an online scheduler and tracker that is free to use.  I belong to an umbrella school that requires lesson plans and grades for your annual (or semiannual) report and getting it done is really quick with this.  I have tried many methods, and this one is certainly the best for me!

One hint:  Watch the video tutorials even if you never do that and always figure things out on your own!  They are a big help.

Animal Reports

My middle school son has to write a report about an extinct bird.  He's the kind of kid who needs a step-by-step breakdown of what you do in a report, or he will turn in just a few sentences and wonder why Mom & Dad say its not good enough.  So I went looking for just such a thing.  Here's what I found.

Step by step for older kids  (This is on E How and has links to other articles, but this one is my favorite.)

Animal Report Graphic Organizer

Report planner/writing guide (I think I will try this one!)