Local places for kids -- preliminary

Downtown Raleigh:

Natural Science Museum


NC History Museum

Marbles Museum
(IMAX for all ages but most of the museum is for the 10 and under crowd)


Durham:
Life Science Museum
Lots of inside and outside things to do -- most of the day

Duke Gardens/Cathedral



Chapel Hill
Planetarium

Asheboro
NC Zoo

Grammar Checks: Dr. Grammar

Easy to find grammar/word questions... Different from or different than...?

http://www.drgrammar.org/faqs/

A couple more simple and clutter-free websites

Just because one can dream... (more important when life is swamped!):

The Simplicity Habit
http://simplicityhabit.com/

My War on Clutter:
http://www.43folders.com/2007/07/02/clutter-discard-not-organize

Website design for kids

Kompozer: tutorial:

Blog with info about statcount, creating a website with Kompozer, etc.:
http://wysifreeauthoring.blogspot.com/2007/11/counting-kompozer.html

StatCounter (free):
http://www.statcounter.com/

HTML Tutorial:
http://www.w3schools.com/html/
http://www.w3schools.com/web/ (cool example of different CSS style sheets)

Learning HTML for kids:
http://www.goodellgroup.com/tutorial/

IPL Kidspace: Learning HTML
http://www.ipl.org/div/kidspace/kidsweb/

Beginning Homeschool Links

An email I sent to a new homeschooler today who has a middleschooler. Some good websites to keep in mind...

Also, here's a website about deschooling -- written by Sandra Dodd who is a big unschooler. Even if you don't think you'll be an unschooler, it's helpful to read ways to shift your paradigm about what learning is and isn't!
http://sandradodd.com/deschooling


LEARNING STYLES:
This is the questionnaire we used to determine learning styles:
http://www.businessballs.com/vaklearningstylestest.htm

And a great book about it: How Your Child is Smart by Dawna Markova (you can read a lot of the book at the following website):
http://books.google.com/books?id=Zl8pJ6r5sJkC

Another great book about different types of learning is by Cynthia Tobias: The Way They Learn

RIGHT BRAINED LEARNERS:
I should say that I don't know if Alex is a right brained learner or not but it sounds like he might be. If you were to draw a huge venn diagram, there is a big circle of overlap for ADHD/ADD, right brained, dyslexia, and those who benefit from vision therapy....

A great summary of the Right Brained/Left Brained resources:
http://www.throwingmarshmallows.com/right-brained-links/

and a book (I have it if you want to borrow it):
Right-Brained Children in a Left-Brained World: Unlocking the Potential of Your Add Child by Jeffrey Freed

Right brained learning cards for states/capitals:
http://www.arty4ever.com/right/brain.htm

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Local email loops:
http://groups.yahoo.com/groups/spice-line/

http://groups.yahoo.com/groups/WakeHSConnections/

A website about a workshop a friend and I organized in June this summer (I have booklets available for $5 each to cover the cost of printing if you want one):
http://www.freewebs.com/stayingthecourse/

Dayspring Home Educators (monthly meetings -- 3rd Monday of each month -- open to everyone):
http://dayspringhomeeducators.com/

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Other animal/wildlife resources for classes/field trips -- let me know if you need help on how to organize any of these and keep your sanity!:

Hemlock Bluffs will set up any classes you want if you organize a group/age group. Just email them and tell them what you want -- age range (11 to 13?), topics, if it would be a standalone class or a series.
http://www.townofcary.org/depts/prdept/facilities/snchome.htm

Natural Science Museum classes (only $35 -- up to 30 kids -- still a great price if you limit it to 10 kids)
http://www.naturalsciences.org/education/tropical_connections.html

Duke Primate Center (lemurs):
http://lemur.duke.edu/

A very cool tour of carnivores:
http://www.cptigers.org/

NC Wildlife Programs at Centennial Campus:
http://www.ncwildlife.org/fs_index_08_education.htm