I am now following a lot of your boards and just wanted to say Thank you for all the great pins! The pins for home-school that I am most interested in are links to either free games, video's or print-outs to use like supplements. I think of them as extra's that make learning fun.

I have a DS (12) who sounds very much like your son even to wanting to get into Robotics. I would encourage you to try to make that happen. I honestly think that if you let them have the time needed to pursue their interests, it's amazing how much they can learn. Maybe start with the Math since that seems to be taking the longest time. Robotics in all likely-hood will have a fair amount of math in it and that could count towards his studies.

What is it about book 3 ? I haven't read them but am wondering what the issues in that book are? thank you

Thanks for the thread, I will check those out. Do you have the link for the collaborative boards too? I think it would be great to pull our resources and really be organized.

oops trying to figure out how to use the quote. figured it out below. such a newbie!

Isn't it wonderful when they are organized. same feeling as after I tackle a closet or a room...lol

I haven't read them but from what I have heard they sound disturbing to me too. I don't think you are being over-protective, you are being a caring Mom. I would say read them and then also take the time to think about them for awhile too. maybe take notes about parts that would make for a good discussion?

This one is designed for leftovers - enter 3 ingredients or flavors and it will come up with recipes for you. http://www.bigoven.com/recipes/leftovers

This site lets you enter ingredients you have and it will give you recipes to go with it. http://www.supercook.com/

We are currently reading A Wrinkle in Time by Madeline L'Engle - very sci-fi like. I read out loud as part of our going to bed ritual, my ds(12) has said that it will be hard to go to sleep after the chapter ends on a creepy note but he likes it.

thanks everyone for sharing, know what I will be doing in my "free" time.

2 Golden Retrievers - get washed about every other month. Unless they have been chasing skunks then right away! I keep a gallon of vinegar on hand for when that happens. The dog washing is the boys job. We do it outside in the warm weather or in the basement shower when its cold out.

It was something the pinner did, not you. The picture should take you to the original link but it doesn't always. I try to check the link before I pin it just to make sure. You can do a search on google and pin it yourself or you can search on Pinterest to see if there is a better one.

thanks for the better link. I just read it and learned a new word “Gamification“. Gamifying simply means turning the class content and the way students learn into a game with a rewards system, quests, experience levels, and healthy competition. I thought it meant using games (board or online) as a part of your curriculum .Am learning so much here.

Pinterest is all about sharing and is just another tool to encourage each other. If you don't want it linked to your Facebook page, you can sign up using Twitter. You can choose who to follow but don't have an option of who is following you. Here's my advice for Newbies :1) make specific boards for each subject at the Beginning so you don't have to go back and reorganize later. I've also seen some where they use a child's name as the title of the board to further divide them up. The board titles are at the top after you click "repin" and if you scroll down to the bottom you will see "create a new board", click that and type in whatever you want. 2)A great way to get started is to type in homeschool in the search button and then to click on 'boards" . A bunch of boxes will pop up and you can select the ones you want to see. It's a great way to take advantage of the work someone else has already done in searching. When you find a person's boards that you like you can "follow" the board by clicking on the word "follow" - then whenever they pin something new it will show up on the home page. 3)To get to the home page click on the word "pinterest" at the top. To get to your pages click on your picture in the upper right hand corner. Hope that was helpful. Thanks for sharing with me. Will go look at some of your boards now.

great minds pin alike http://pinterest.com/terri_moore2/

would love to see everyone's boards. mine are at http://pinterest.com/terri_moore2/.

Reminds me of the joke - Home-schoolers don't need insulation for their houses they just put up more bookshelves. lol We are in the process of taking down artwork to put shelves on the walls, and over the window frames, we love the shelf brackets from IKEA.

I love Pinterest because it replaces the long list of bookmarks with pictures so that I can quickly find what I had liked. I had one Mega board for Home-school but that defeated the purpose after awhile, because it took me awhile to find what I wanted too. So in my desire to really be organized this year, I started new boards with a specific subject and (here's the key) am only pinning stuff we are going to use THIS year. Anything else goes into the old board for later. Would love to hear how everyone else uses Pinterest. P.S. Newbie here and learning lots!

our house rule is that you have to read the book before you can see the movie. We get the movie from the library. Goodwill or rent it. So the movie is like a reward. I have seen a paper chain made with each link having the name of the book or story written on it. like this: http://theteacherwife.blogspot.com/2011/02/100-book-challenge.html. Fun to see it grow and doubles as a decoration.

I just did a search on the curriculum board and found this link http://www.mrdaley.com/wordpress/201...our-classroom/. It was posted by user Wehomeschool. hope that is what you were looking for. I have been buying lots of games at thrift stores too. Love the idea that there is "sneaky" learning going on while we play.

My ds (12) loved The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster and has since reread it which you know is the sign of a good book. He also likes The Series of Unfortunate Events, no happy endings but he thinks they are great.