This week’s “Wednesday Winner” is….

Margie Jackson of Ontario, Canada

Margie has won her choice of one of the following Usborne Encyclopedias:

Usborne Internet Linked Encyclopedia of World History
Usborne Internet Linked Encyclopedia of World Geography
Usborne Internet Linked Encyclopedia of Science

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Would you like to enter our “Wednesday Winners” contest for a chance to win homeschool products and gift certificates? Just enter your email address into the blue “Sign up for the ChoosyHomeschooler Email Newsletter” link at the right. After confirming your subscription to our newsletter you will automatically be entered to win each week!

For complete contest information, see our contest announcement and our official contest rules.

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We’re taking a break next week so that our team members can enjoy the Thanksgiving holiday.  Our next “Wednesday Winners” prize will be awarded on December 3,2008. We will announce the prize soon, so check back!

Debbie Chikousky is a agricultural columnist that has combined her love of farming with her love of homeschooling.  Her writing allows her to be a stay at home farm mom with four children ages 20,19,17 and 15.   She utilizes free tools as much as possible in her endeavours to keep learning connected to life.

The one area that I have always felt our homeschooling curriculum was lacking in was history. The reason for this is that the available curriculum in my school division is repetitive.  Our children wanted something they could work with that was fun and possibly interactive. That is a tall order for history. How do we make learning about dates personal?

The idea to use genealogy as a history tool sprouted in my mind while listening to a grandma exclaim as she looked at a graduation picture, “Imagine all of this started with just two people!” When I glanced at the picture she was referring to, I saw about twenty people all gathered in a family picture at her grandson’s graduation. Is this not the case for many civilizations over time?

I immediately thought that there must be a learning lesson in this and started trying to figure out how to make this personal for our children. This is where the idea of using genealogy came from and I was thrilled to find the FREE online tool Geni.

“Geni is a private place for your family to build your family tree, preserve your history and share your lives.” 

The Geni website is very easy to sign into and they take personal security seriously. I was granted a temporary password that I could use until I upgraded to the password of my choice. They have a full page of options where you can choose who can view your information and who cannot.

Our family has tried to explore genealogy in the past and I always found it cumbersome.  When we started using this site, I found that it did all the work for us.  The mapping starts in the center with my husband and I, and then moves outward.  The programming automatically moved the names where they belonged and prompted us with balloons.  The help area was very useful.  Videos and photos can be added to your tree also.

The other aspect to this site that I liked was that it can be interactive.  Each person that you add to your tree can be invited to the site (depending on your security settings).  Once these people have built their own profile pages, they are added to your family’s history. To fill in many of the branches on our tree, we enlisted the help of our extended family.  We regularly go back to view what has been added.

Once the information was on the site we could edit and add to it as necessary.  All the dates of marriages, deaths, births and any other important events can also be entered.  This makes it easy for us to use the information for further projects.  For example, if we are studying Anglo-Saxon literature we can look on our family tree and check if there is a relative that would have been alive then.  If there is, the children can then imagine what the life of these people may have been like.  We can research our old family albums for pictures too.  That is one way this site has made history come to life in our house!

Other ways to utilize this tool in your homeschooling curriculum are endless.  Older students could log in under character names and build family trees for complicated character sketches they are working on in creative writing.  Students of history can log in and build family trees for other historical figures and have the information at their fingertips when writing essays, etc. The site is friendly enough that even elementary age children could make themselves a simple family tree and print it for a computer project.

There are also socializing aspects to Geni that I didn’t pursue, but may be good tools if a few people wanted to collaborate on a project together.  For example, family members who were logged in to the site at the same time could work together to add information to family members’ profiles or discuss changes to their family tree.  Students working together could discuss complex characters in a novel study.  The possibilities are endless!

Overall I have found Geni to be a beneficial tool for our homeschool history component.  It is free and easy to use.  All we had to add was imagination!

Welcome back to our Using ChoosyHomeschooler series, where Elise shares new tips and tricks each week to help you get the most out of ChoosyHomeschooler.com!

One of the benefits of registering on ChoosyHomeschooler.com, which I discussed in my November 5, 2008 blog, is that you can share your first-hand experience with a product, including your perception of the product’s usability, effectiveness, and price/value.

Currently our site has more than 750 product listings, and ChoosyHomeschooler users have posted well over 400 reviews. If there is a product that you’d like to review, look it up on our website, making sure to check if it’s encompassed by another product. For example, Alpha Omega Switched On Schoolhouse French describes both the Primary French and the Secondary French products – and there are many other curricula, particularly math, that cover a range of grades and levels. If and you don’t see the product listed that you want to review, Contact Us and ask us to add the product.

Here’s how to upload a review. Log in to the ChoosyHomeschooler website and locate the product you want to review.

One quick way to do this is to click on Advanced Search on the right side of the screen, then scroll through the product listing until you find the product. Click on the product name and the product details will be displayed.

Click on Add a Review.

The next screen is separated into four sections: ratings (Rating/Value), title (Review Title), description (Review Text), and tags.

Ratings:
The ratings section has three parts, effectiveness, usability, and price/value. Use the drop-downs to rate each area, based on a scale of 1 to 5 with 5 being the highest (excellent).

Determine instructional effectiveness by how positively the product/website/service impacts the learning of the student or aids the teaching parent. A high rating for effectiveness means the students who use it benefit greatly from what it offers, and, perhaps, that the parents find it helps them in being better homeschool teachers.

Determine usability by how easy it is for the student and teacher to use the product/website/service. Consider the clarity of instructions, ease of navigation or application, visual appeal, customer support, time required for pre-planning, and the completeness and accuracy of the materials provided, and how engaging or fun the product is to use.

Determine the price/value by considering what is included in the price and how affordable is it for a homeschooling family when compared to other similar products/websites/services.

Title:
Enter a three to twelve word title that encapsulates your feelings about this product or calls out a key point.

Description:
Describe your experience using this product. Include specific information about what you did and did not like; how well the product worked for you and/or your child(ren), whether the product provided a thorough education or required supplementation, and how the product compares to similar products you have used.

You may also want to include the grade level/volume/version that you used, how much planning and preparation was required for the parent, whether you would use this product again, and how well the product suited your child’s age, learning style, special needs and interests, or academic strengths and weaknesses.

Tags:
Enter keywords that describe the product and your experience using it. Separate each tag with a comma. Here are some examples: “Flashcards, Hands-On, KinestheticLearning, SpiralMethod”.

When you are done, click Save and you will see your review displayed with any other reviews for the same product.

Click Product Details and you’ll see your review as it appears on the main product page.

Congratulations; you’re a published author! Stay tuned next week when I provide more information about tags. In the meantime, I’m looking forward to see some new product reviews showing up on ChoosyHomeschooler.com!

Our next “Wednesday Winners” prize will be awarded Wednesday November 19, 2008. Our winner will have their choice of ONE of the following hard-cover books:

Usborne Internet Linked Encyclopedia of World History
Usborne Internet Linked Encyclopedia of World Geography
Usborne Internet Linked Encyclopedia of Science

__________

Would you like to enter our “Wednesday Winners” contest for a chance to win homeschool products and gift certificates? Just enter your email address into the blue “Sign up for the ChoosyHomeschooler Email Newsletter” link at the right. After confirming your subscription to our newsletter you will automatically be entered to win each week!

For complete contest information, see our contest announcement and our official contest rules.

__________

Wednesday November 12, 2008

Winner: Elizabeth Erikson of Pennsylvania

Elizabeth has won TWO Languages Come Alive® Story-Texts from Teach Teanga, LLC

Welcome back to our Using ChoosyHomeschooler series, where Elise shares all the tips and tricks you need to get the most out of ChoosyHomeschooler.com!

If you followed my blog from last week, Registration and Profile Customization, then you’re now a registered user on the ChoosyHomeschooler.com website. Welcome!

One of the advantages of being a registered user is that you can now select individual reviewers and specific products as your favorites. Once you’ve selected them, you can jump to them easily from your profile – to send a message to a reviewer, to see if your favorite reviewer has uploaded new product reviews, and to check for new reviews added to a favorite product.

Here’s how it works. Log into the ChoosyHomeschooler website.  Begin browsing through the product reviews.

Setting up your Favorite Reviewers:

When you find a reviewer that you really like, click on the reviewer’s name. This brings up the reviewer’s profile.

From the profile, you can do three things: (1) send this reviewer a message by typing in the box and clicking “Send,” (2) see a list of the reviews that this reviewer has uploaded by clicking “View reviews >“, or (3) make this person one of your favorite reviewers by clicking “Add to My Favorites“.  After you click the button, it changes to the message: Reviewer added as favorite.

Now when you click on My Profile (on the left side of the green bar near the top of the screen) and then click on My Favorites, you’ll see that the reviewer’s name appears.

If you click on the reviewer’s name, it will take you to that reviewer’s profile so you can send a message or view their reviews.

Setting up your Favorite Products:

As you continue to browse the site, when you find a product that you really like and would like to keep an eye on, click on Add to My Favorites. (This button is only visible if you are registered and logged in.).

After you click on the button, the button changes to the message: Added to favorites.

Now when you click on My Profile and then click on My Favorites, you’ll see that the product has been added under Favorite Products. If you click on that product, it will take you to that product so you can read the overview, link to the vendor’s site, view reviews, click on any available links to purchase the product, or add a review of your own.

Our site relies on homeschoolers like you to share your experiences with others by writing reviews of products you have used.  If you’re a little timid about posting your reviews on the ChoosyHomeschooler website, don’t worry!  Next week I’ll walk you through the process!

Angie Lindsay is married with two boys, and a baby due in April ‘09. She uses free resources to homeschool her children and does her own therapy with her 6 yr old, who has autism.  She helps educate others about autism and the challenges that come with teaching children with special needs.

One of the challenges that a parent of a child with autism has, is keeping them motivated to be responsible. I began assigning my kids chores at a VERY young age - just simple ones at first like putting dirty clothes in the hamper.  Over time we worked up to the more difficult tasks.

My oldest son has been doing chores for three years now, but it’s still a daily battle to ensure that the chores are done. We’ve tried rewards, praise, stickers, and even loss of privileges, but still no success. However, learning to be responsible, to be part of a family and work as a unit, is a crucial developmental concept that I want him to grasp.

Then I found Zefty ! It’s FREE online program designed for parents and kids. It helps parents organize their children’s allowance, with functionality similar to a bank account. I can deposit or withdrawal virtual money (no real monetary transactions take place with this product), helping me consistently reward him for the chores he has done.

“Easily track and manage your child’s allowance & spending online. Kids can easily learn about money management. Parents can spend more time with their kids.

The Zefty sign-up process is easy.  Just sign up as the parent and add your children to your child list (we recommend using “alias” names for your children).  You can enter your child’s email address or use your email address for your child.  The entire site is password protected and only the children’s first names or alias names are used.
Parents specify how much allowance is given and you can set it up as an automatic “deposit” of weekly, monthly, or bimonthly amounts, just like direct deposit at a real bank. If you prefer, as I did, you can set it to manually deposit the money in the amounts and dates that you specify. The object of the website is to encourage saving and good money management.

When my husband and I are doing our normal online banking, my son sometimes watches us.  He understands that we have to budget for our typical household expenses and the money left over in the account determines what non-necessity items we can purchase. So, when I first sat down with my son to open his account on Zefty, he was amazed that he had his own bank account! His interest was instant, and he’s been doing his chores now without fighting and only occasional reminders. He loves going on to Zefty (with help) to deposit his money, and enjoys being able to see how much money he has earned or saved.

Children can also learn about check writing.  “From within Zefty, Kids can print out a ZeftyCheck to better learn how checks work. They print out the check, bring it to their parent, who then hands them the money, and their parent can then reconcile the check (and make the appropriate withdrawal) all from within Zefty.”

With the Zefty interface, parents act as the bank tellers.  Children cannot make a withdrawl from their account, without parent approval.  Children can also learn to save their money for a specific purchase by depositing their “extra” money into a safe keeping/savings account.

Zefty has a forum to discuss issues with the website and money management and with over 2000 parents and 3000 children, it’s growing every day. I can see children using this website to keep track of their lemonade stands, purchases at the mall, babysitting money, and so much more!

I love the idea of having a VERY simple, free program that helps me teach my son not only about family responsibility, but also math and money management. This program is great for kids of all ages, with or without special needs, whether taught at home or at school.

If you sign up for Zefty, let us know how it is working for you and feel free to share any tips on additional uses for this product.

In a previous blog entry, I told you about Big Universe, a free online tool that allows parents and children to create and publish online books.  I recently found another online book authoring tool that I’m very excited about!

“Tikatok™ is where kids channel their imagination into stories – and publish those stories into books for you to share and treasure with friends and family”.

I found the Tikatok site extremely easy to use.  After completing the free site registration, we were able to begin writing our e-book.  The program offers a number of story themes to choose from and each theme includes “story starters”.  These are pre-written templates that help children come up with and refine their story ideas.  If you already have a story idea, no problem, you can also start from scratch.

Imagine a Story. Create a Book.

You can also add illustrations to your book!  Your child can create hand-drawn pictures to accompany the text and then you can scan the pictures and insert them into your Tikatok book.  If you don’t have the technical skills for this or don’t have a scanner, simply put your child’s illustrations into an envelope and mail them to Tikatok.  The folks there will scan your child’s drawings and send you an email letting you know that your child’s drawings are ready for you to use!

Once your book is finished, you can share the online version with others via email or by displaying it on your website or blog.  Or you can purchase a paperback or hardbound version of your child’s book!  “Hardcover books start at $16 and paperback books start at $13 with a cost of $.18 per page. Discounts are available for orders of more than 10 books.”  Imagine how proud your child would be to have a printed copy of the book they wrote!  These would make great gifts for family members also!

I was also very happy to see that Tikatok is serious about children’s online privacy.  When we created our online book, we added our photos and information about us (the book authors) on the back cover of the book.  When other people view our book online, this information is protected and not visible to other users.  Printed versions of the book will include the photos and information.

If you would like more information on how Tikatok works, check out their tour below, written as a Tikatok book:

The Tikatok website also offers a number of different free activities and options, such as private groups or “clubs” where users can share their stories, information on encouraging children to develop writing skills, and programs for classrooms and libraries.  They also recently began selling gift certificates for printed books - a wonderful idea for children’s birthday and holiday gifts!

And of course I have to share the book my son and I created together:  (click the FULL SCREEN link on the bottom right so the text is big enough to read)

Give Tikatok a try and let us know what you think!

Welcome back to our Using ChoosyHomeschooler series, where Elise shares all the tips and tricks you need to get the most out of ChoosyHomeschooler.com!

To access the most features on the ChoosyHomeschooler website, you’ll want to register. Once you’ve registered, you will be allowed to edit your profile, mark individual products and reviewers as “favorites,” send a message to a reviewer, and post your own product reviews.

How do I register?

1. Go to the ChoosyHomeschooler.com website and click on Login or Register on the top right of the screen:

2. Complete the registration form by typing in a username, entering a password (and entering it a second time for verification), along with your first name, last name, and email address.   Please double-check to ensure that your email address was entered correctly.  If you enter the wrong email address you will not be able to verify your account!

Write down the username and password you selected - you’ll need them to log in again later. If you’d like to be automatically logged into ChoosyHomeschooler on the computer you are using, click on the box to select it.

Click the Register button when you are finished.

3. We will send you an email to verify your account.  If you do not receive this email within 10-15 minutes, check your spam mail to see if your mail client directed it to that folder or box.  If you still have not received the verification email, fill out our Contact form and let us know about the issue.

After the email arrives, open it and click on the link provided to verify your account.

When the ChoosyHomeschooler website is displayed, click again on Login or Register, and this time you can enter your username and password on the left side of the screen.

You can verify that you are logged in by looking at the top-right of the screen where it will show Welcome and your username with Logout immediately below. There’s also a generic, black and white headshot that will display until you create a profile and assign a photo or image in its place.

How do I edit my profile?

When you register, ChoosyHomeschooler automatically creates a basic profile for you - one that contains your email address, first name, and last name (if you entered one when registering). At this point, the information you have provided is not visible to others using the website.

How do I add more detail to my profile?

Click on My Profile on the left side of the green bar.

Next, click on Edit My Profile.  Then customize these areas:

Describe yourself - To let others learn more about you, use the Description area to enter information about yourself and your family. You may want to describe how long you have been homeschooling or what has motivated you to consider homeschooling, your homeschooling style and philosophy, your general geographic location, the ages of your children, special situations and challenges you face, and your family’s special interests. You may use this area to share as much or as little information as you would like.

Upload a photo - If you’d like to have a photo or image associated with your profile, click Browse and locate the drive and directory on your computer where the image is stored, highlight the filename, and click Open. (Once you save your profile, you’ll see the image at the top right of the screen.)

Share your information -  Our system allows you to decide which parts of your profile are visible to other ChoosyHomeschooler.com users. (Other users can view your profile by clicking on your name on any of the reviews that you post - your name will appear next to “Reviewed by” in the header of your review.)

Click on the checkboxes next to First Name, Last Name, Email, or Description to keep any of these fields private/hidden. To keep all of your profile information hidden from other website users, just click the Profile Private box. If you place no checkmarks, all your information will be available to others on the website.

You can also use My Profile to change your password. Simply enter a new password in the Password box then enter it a second time in the Confirm Password box.  If you are editing the content of your profile and do not want to change your password, then just ignore these two boxes.

Click Save Profile when you’re done.

I hope this information has helped you to take the plunge and register for an account on the ChoosyHomeschooler.com website!  Next week I will teach you how to select favorite products and mark other reviewers as your favorites so you can read reviews written by homeschoolers just like you!

Our next “Wednesday Winners” prize will be awarded Wednesday November 5, 2008.  This drawing is sponsored by…

Teach Teanga, LLC

Our winner will receive TWO Languages Come Alive® Story-Texts:

1)  Patricius et Hilda - Alone in Rome -  Mystery, History, Culture, & Latin.
Fifteen chapters take us from a smattering of useful words and phrases through to a conclusion that is almost entirely in Latin. Each chapter begins with an original illustration specific to a key action taking place in the chapter and also has informative cultural segments, always building the student’s understanding of the period and its peoples. Finally, each chapter’s vocabulary list comes complete with definitions and a phonetic guide to pronunciation.

2)  Friends and Foes - Amigos e Enemigos - Mystery, History, Culture, & Spanish. The same trademark format that that has made Patricius et Hilda so successful, in the classroom and with homeschoolers, is employed to bring us from having little-to-no Spanish beyond Hola! to a quite respectable vocabulary, reading, and speaking ability.

Languages Come Alive® author Finnbarr Dunphy:

“Using our Languages Come Alive® system, you will gain comfort, confidence, and a concrete foundation in the languages you choose to begin learning. And, as we’ve seen year after year, using our Languages Come Alive® system, our students take these life-changing strides whilst having a good time.Our goal is to help you, your family, our students, to continue the Journey, to help all of us develop into builders of a better world, and, through Learning, to become the truly exceptional, extraordinarily talented people we should be.”

For more information about the Languages Come Alive® products and to learn more about the development of these products, see the Languages Come Alive® website.

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Would you like to enter our “Wednesday Winners” contest for a chance to win homeschool products and gift certificates? Just enter your email address into the blue “Sign up for the ChoosyHomeschooler Email Newsletter” link at the right. After confirming your subscription to our newsletter you will automatically be entered to win each week!

For complete contest information, see our contest announcement and our official contest rules.

__________

 Wednesday November 5, 2008

Prize Winner:

Dana Portwood of Florida

Dana may select up to $50 worth of downloadable math texts from Math Mammoth.

Jennifer Bolton is married with two boys, both special needs. She is the author of the book: We Learn Everywhere! and owner of the Special Needs Home Learning website.  Jennifer uses free resources for teaching whenever she can, to keep her boys’ interests and to tailor their learning experiences to their individual learning styles and special needs.

My family is not artistic. At least I didn’t believe we were until the computer age started. We all have sensory issues that deter us from our getting hands dirty, making a mess, working with different art mediums, or anything that means actually touching something that is “gooey”. Once I started using Photo software to enhance pictures, I fell in love. I showed my son how to use it, he showed his little brother and before I knew it, we found something creative that we all enjoyed!

Our sensory issues and finances do pose a few problems in our creativity in this form though. First, many photo programs are expensive!  Some photo programs stop short in the mediums it uses. Sure, I can highlight a picture and click here then click there and suddenly have a chalk drawn picture.  But I just clicked buttons, I didn’t actually draw the picture. I didn’t get to experience how the chalk smudges for different affects or blends with different colors and mediums to create something new.

So the hunt for something that would allow us to use different mediums lead us to ArtRage 2.5.

“With ArtRage you can paint with oils, sketch with pencils, sprinkle sparkling glitter and much more. Stencils and rulers let you create precise shapes or smooth curves and straight lines freehand. Tracing and Reference images let you load photos to recreate as paintings either by eye or by letting ArtRage select colors for you as you paint. For professional users, ArtRage offers Layers, Layer Groups and Layer Blend Modes compatible with the PSD file format.  Best of all, ArtRage doesn’t force you to learn complex tool settings, it lets you get right down to painting with tools you already know how to use.”

This program allows us to use glitter, paint tubes, photos or clear canvas, paint in layers, produce soft edge air brush strokes, use stencils and rulers, leave paint splats, paint with metallics, store custom colors and so much more! In the free version, it’s pretty basic and gives the basic mediums of a paint brush (complete with strokes), chalk, pencil, and a few more. You get a bit of every section and it works like a demo but with no limit on when the demo ends. It is good for beginners and for primary grades. The price to upgrade is very reasonable at a one time cost of $25. It’s offered in English, French and Dutch. It can be downloaded to Windows and Mac.

We can draw that chalk picture that allows us to find out what that medium can do, all virtually! No mess, no fuss. This tool allows you to save your work in .jpeg format so you can do some of your art in this program and easily open it in another program for more advanced image work. Everything can be saved on the computer and your work is printable - great for posting on the fridge!

If you decide to download ArtRage, let us know how it works for you!

We just got notice from Kati, Loud Family mom, that the next two episodes of TLC’s “Six for the Road” will NOT show on 11/5/08 as originally scheduled.

Don’t worry!   Kati assured us that the show will air soon and we will be the first to know the new airtime.  

Keep an eye on the ChoosyHomeschooler blog for our announcement about the new date and time!

Our next “Wednesday Winners” prize will be awarded Wednesday November 5, 2008.  This drawing is sponsored by…

Our winner may select up to $50 worth of downloadable math texts from Math Mammoth.

Maria Miller, Math Mammoth author:  “My aim with the books is to help parents and teachers teach math so our children and students can really understand what is going on. I’ve strived to explain the concepts so that both the teacher and the student can “get it” by reading the explanations in the books. In essence, the books become self-teaching.”

See the full series of Math Mammoth texts.

__________

Would you like to enter our “Wednesday Winners” contest for a chance to win homeschool products and gift certificates? Just enter your email address into the blue “Sign up for the ChoosyHomeschooler Email Newsletter” link at the right. After confirming your subscription to our newsletter you will automatically be entered to win each week!

For complete contest information, see our contest announcement and our official contest rules.

 __________

Wednesday October 29, 2008

Prize Winner:

Elizabeth Morris of New Hampshire

Elizabeth has won (2) Literature Teaching Guide/Book Bundles courtesy of Blackbird & Company Educational Press.

You can learn more about Elizabeth by viewing her profile.  Want to know which homeschool products she has tried and what she thought of them?  Read the product reviews Elizabeth has contributed to the ChoosyHomeschooler website. 

Be sure to watch the Loud Family’s new show “Six for the Road” on TLC.   Follow the homeschooling/ roadschooling family as they travel across the US in their 350sqft RV.

I caught up with Kati (aka “Mama Loud”) via phone while the family was heading toward New York for their big interview on the Today Show.  Of course I was full of questions, specifically, ones pertaining to educating the children while on the road!

Does the family have a schedule for academics?  According to Kati, they “wing it”.  She said, “I used to be a lot more structured, but now we never know…”.  The family’s schedule can change at the drop of a hat.  They’re meeting new people, being invited to different events, and never know exactly what the day may bring.

For instance, when I first started talking to Kati they were in their RV heading towards New York.  At some point during our call they saw a scenic overlook with a great place to pull over, so that’s what they did! The remainder of our call was while Kati trudged up the mountain behind her family!

The family studies topics pertaining to the area they are visiting.  They study the history, the culture, and the people of the area. You can see some of the places they have visited and view some photos on the Loud Family Website.  Or check out the map that shows their travels.

The children use curriculum for math, spelling, and language arts.  Kati mentioned that they are currently using A Beka Math and Natural Speller .  She also said that she has a fondness for the Beautiful Feet History Books.  The children don’t work for a set amount of time each day.  They are given a specific amount of work to do, or a number of pages, and do the work as their schedule permits.  Each child also studies a specific topic for a week and then does an oral report for the family.

Kati said it is sometimes difficult to stay on topic while traveling.  Interests and locations vary as they travel.  And Kati and Vern always have the question on whether they should study up on an area or topic before visiting, or wait until after they have visited an area to learn more about it.

Of course this made me wonder about reference materials.  When traveling in a 350sq ft RV, there isn’t a lot of room for books, is there?  Kati said that they originally had a number of books with them, but they have to watch the overall weight of the RV, so they were not able to continue traveling with all of them.  They use the internet as their main resource for information but also use local libraries and informational pamphlets and materials found at visitor’s centers and historical sites.

I asked Kati how she would compare learning from books to learning while on the road.  She said it was “so different”.  When the family was back in their home, she used to work hard to make learning as fun as possible.  But now while on the road, “It’s not just me sitting down reading to them.  They’re not just memorizing facts, but fully understanding what happened in the place we’re visiting”.

Overall, Kati and Vern’s goal for their childrens’ education is to “inspire the kids to want to learn and follow their interests.”

Check out the Loud Family’s website.   And be sure to enter their new Bumper Sticker Contest!

For more information and descriptions of each of the six episodes, see the TLC website’s listings for Six for the Road.

See the Loud Family’s interview on the Today Show.

Editor’s Note:   If you enjoy the show, PLEASE send your comments and feedback to the Six for the Road producers at viewermail@figure8films.tv 

If the show receives high ratings and positive feedback they may film more episodes!

 ~Six For the Road~

How do a mom, dad, 4 kids, 3 dogs, and 2 lizards live full time in a 350 sq foot RV?

A new TLC series, called Six for the Road, will follow the family as they travel around the US.   The show is set to premiere on October 29.  The first and second episode are on October 29 10/9c and the third and fourth episodes are on November 5 @ 10/9c.

You can also follow the Loud family on their journey by viewing their website - Our Loud Family.  The website is updated often with interesting information about places they have visited.  The family has been on the road since October 15, 2007 and so far they have logged 31,214 miles!

The Loud Family will be featured on the TODAY SHOW on Wednesday 10/29/08 during the 9am hour.  And don’t forget to watch their series premier on TLC Wednesday night!

SEE THE TODAY SHOW INTERVIEW HERE