Millionaire Dropouts

Inspiring Stories of the World's Most Successful Failures...

Home and School planner brought to you by The Old Schoolhouse Magazine

We’re excited about our new planner and know that you will be too! We have taken ALL of your suggestions and ideas and compiled them into ONE fantastic planner, so that everything you need to plan in your life can be in one place, making your busy life as a homeschool mom just a bit simpler! In The Schoolhouse Planner, you can expect to find:

• Calendars in various forms – yearly, monthly, weekly, and daily
• Lists of holidays and places to record special days in your family
• Planners for your homeschool – in various styles to meet your individual needs
• Pages for both long-term and short-term homeschooling goals
• Curriculum planning forms
• Evaluation forms and test score recording sheets
• A through-the-Bible in a (school) year schedule
• Forms for recording Bible memory and other memory work
• Logs for recording books read, movies and documentaries viewed, etc.
• A field trip planning form and recording log
• A sample science lab sheet and nature study sheets
• A place to record extracurricular activities
• Outside classes, co-op, and support group information and recording sheets
• Household planning forms
• Daily, weekly, and monthly household schedule charts
• Grocery, menu-planning, and food logs
• Various budget and financial planning forms
• Garden planning sheets
• An appliance and electronics inventory sheet
• Vacation planning ideas
• Address and telephone records
• And much, much more!
And, if that’s not enough, we’ve also included:
• 12 “homeschool must-know” items, one for each month of the year
• 12 essays from some of our favorite authors in the homeschool community – you absolutely won’t want to miss these!
• 24 easy main-dish recipes from some top homeschoolers around the nation
• Forms that are appropriate for preschool – graduation
• A 12-year planning form, so that you can plan your child’s school career from beginning to end!
• 2-page monthly calendar with BIG blocks, providing lots of room for writing in details each day

http://www.theoldschoolhousestore.com/ info
http://www.thehomeschoolmagazine.com PDF download

Nature-Deficit Disorder...

AFB: Rolling Stones Rocker Calls for More Agriculture & Nature Education

WASHINGTON, D.C., June 25, 2008 — Today’s children are increasingly disconnected from the natural world and schools can play a big role in fixing this. That’s the message Chuck Leavell, Rolling Stones keyboardist, shared during his keynote address at the Ag in the Classroom conference in Costa Mesa, Calif., this week. Leavell addressed the teachers present not as a musician but as a Georgia tree farmer and the author of the 2007 American Farm Bureau Foundation for Agriculture Book of the Year The Tree Farmer.

Leavell told the group of more than 500 attendees he wrote his book in response to what he calls “nature-deficit disorder,” where younger generations don’t understand or appreciate nature and agriculture. He adds that classrooms are the ideal place to fix this but teachers are facing increased pressure to teach towards standardized tests.

“Programs like Ag in the Classroom and the American Forest Foundation’s Project Learning Tree help educators make outdoor experiences part of their everyday lesson plans,” Leavell said. “They teach core subjects through experiences in nature and show that learning through environmental education is not incompatible with math and reading instruction.” He adds that this method has also been shown to improve test scores.

(my only problem with this is having Commercial Ag businesses being the main thrust of the "education"). But it's a GREAT IDEA and local and organic farmers should visit local schools and Homeschoolers can visit farms throughout the year!)

STORIES FOR CHILDREN MAGAZINE

A Free monthly Ezine for Children (3 to 12).
Website: http://storiesforchildrenmagazine.org
June Issue PDF SFCmagazineJune2008final.pdf

Stories for Children Magazine, which just launched its new website with its June 2008 issue, announces the addition of three new SFC Team members. VS Grenier, Founder & Editor-in-Chief of Stories for Children says: “SFC has been growing with each new issue. The SFC dream is coming true because of our readers and supporters. I’m so grateful to have a dedicated staff working with me each month. It’s been only a matter of time before we needed more help in other areas to keep the magazine growing. I’m excited to say Cynthia Sherwood (SFC Copyeditor), Neysa Jensen (SFC Proofreader), and Wayne S. Walker (SFC Book Reviewer) have all joined our SFC Family. Cynthia and Wayne have been contributors to SFC for some time, so having them on board along with Neysa is just wonderful.”

Cynthia Willett Sherwood, Copyeditor of SFC, lives in Orange County, California with her husband and eight-year-old daughter. She works as a freelance copyeditor, and writes both fiction and non-fiction for children. Cindy is a former print and broadcast journalist who most recently headed the news department of the ABC affiliate station in Norfolk/Virginia Beach.

Neysa CM Jensen, Proofreader of SFC, is a writer, musician, and mom. She has more than 20 years of experience in publishing, including magazine and book editing. She has written hundreds of articles for national, regional, local, and niche magazines, and she helps authors ready their manuscripts for submission. Neysa’s children’s works have been published in LadyBug magazine, Children’s Playmate, and Winds of Change.

Wayne S. Walker, Book Reviewer of SFC, is a native of Hillsboro, Highland County, in southern Ohio. Married to his wonderful wife Karen for over 25 years, he is the father of two sons, Mark and Jeremy, who are both homeschooled. He also has worked as a minister for almost 35 years. The family currently lives in Affton, MO, near St. Louis. Wayne's interests include classical music, hymnology, and children's literature. He has been a regular book reviewer for The Old Schoolhouse magazine and Home School Buzz.

Magnetic Movie

http://www.animateprojects.org/films/by_date/2007/mag_mov/1/

The secret lives of invisible magnetic fields are revealed as chaotic, ever-changing geometries. All action takes place around NASA’s Space Sciences Laboratory, UC Berkeley, to recordings of space scientists describing their discoveries. Actual VLF audio recordings control the evolution of the fields as they delve into our inaudible surroundings, revealing recurrent ‘whistlers’ produced by fleeting electrons. Are we observing a series of scientific experiments, the universe in flux, or a documentary of a fictional world?

Video Shooting Guide

Shoot your own videos with film-maker Mat Whitecross
Mat Whitecross shares his top filming tips and shows how you can make someone fly in your videos.

When I started out making films I spoke to so many people who told me that you needed to have a special camera or you needed to shoot on film, you couldn’t shoot on video. Actually there’s some of the most famous film-makers in the world right now making films on handycams, just as good as the one you’ve got, so just get out there and make them. It doesn’t matter whether you’re using a film camera, a video camera or your mobile phone.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blast/downloads/blastcasts/filming.shtml
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blast/film/tipsandtools/videoshootingguide/ (excellent, straight forward, how-to info)

Be a GREEN COLLAR entrepreneur! (Tech/Independent/Home School)

http://www.mstc.edu/renewableelectricitytechnician/
http://www.mstc.edu/renewablethermalenergytech/index.htm

This fall, Wisconsin’s Mid-State Technical College will be offering three new renewable energy degree programs. These will include biorefinery technology, renewable electricity technician and renewable thermal energy technician training. Ronald Zillmer, associate dean of MSTC’s technical and industrial division hopes the courses are the beginning of new trend in green energy education. “The college is investing in programs for jobs that will be here 100 years from now. This is not a short-term endeavor; folks feeling the effects of globalization and being displaced from their jobs are looking for stability.”

CCC: These professions are needed TODAY! One can self-school via books/online, as well as apprentice with experienced doers. The "big gov" mostly promotes big business/big projects, but this kind of profession, from the Energy Auditor to the Insulation/home energy improvements to passive solar heat and solar electric consulting and install* (*would need plumbing/electrical license for pro jobs) are all doable.

Be a GREEN COLLAR entrepreneur!
Earn a living doing good, what you love/enjoy, because you care.

Crop Circle Pattern is Pi to 3.14159265358

The fact that the Pi decimal point is included (in the 2008 Barbury Castle barley pattern) and there is rounding up to 10 decimal places is to me a little mind boggling!” – Michael Reed, Astrophysicist

Barbury Castle barley crop formation near Wroughton, Wiltshire, U. K., reported June 1, 2008, 300 feet in diameter. © 2008 by Lucy Pringle.

June 8, 2008 Timberlake, North Carolina - On June 7, 2008, I received the following email from a retired astronomical physicist from the University of Arizona, now living in Timberlake, North Carolina. He had been studying the June 1, 2008, formation in barley at Barbury Castle.

From: mreed@reedev.com
Subject: Barbary Castle Pattern = First ten digits of Pi 3.141592654
Date: June 5, 2008

On looking at the Barbary Castle pattern the ratio of the angles of the radial jumps is apparently the first ten (10) digits of the mathematical constant Pi ( the ratio of the of circumference of a circle to the diameter)

The dot after the first radial jump is even positioned correctly as the decimal point.

Take the pattern and draw radial lines from the center of the central depression though each radial jump. Take the smallest angle sector and call it one (1), then compare the other ten sectors contained angle to the smallest and pick the closest single digit for the ratio. They come out as 3.141592654.

Note that the last ratio digit has even been rounded up to four (4) since the the value of Pi out to twelve digits is 3.14159265358 and the tenth digit would normally be rounded up to four (4) if the number was only given to ten (10) places.

The significance of the three decreasing diameter circles at the end may be trying to convey the the idea that the number goes on indefinitely.

Then he sent me a graphic analysis of his Pi analysis and I called to ask him about his process of discovery, the fact that the ratcheted spiral he measured was also contained in the 1991 Barbury Castle formation and is in some of the complex diagrams contained in the 2007 leaked CARET document from the Palo Alto Laboratory about back engineering of extraterrestrial technology in the 1980s. http://www.earthfiles.com/news.php?ID=1434&category=En

The Story of Stuff...

http://www.storyofstuff.com/

Physicists have 'solved' mystery of levitation

By Roger Highfield, Science Editor 7/08/2007

Levitation has been elevated from being
pure science fiction to science fact.

The University of St Andrews team has created an 'incredible levitation effects’ by engineering the force of nature which normally causes objects to stick together.

Professor Ulf Leonhardt and Dr Thomas Philbin, from the University of St Andrews in Scotland, have worked out a way of reversing this pheneomenon, known as the Casimir force, so that it repels instead of attracts.

The force is due to neither electrical charge or gravity, for example, but the fluctuations in all-pervasive energy fields in the intervening empty space between the objects and is one reason atoms stick together, also explaining a “dry glue” effect that enables a gecko to walk across a ceiling. • http://www.telegraph.co.uk/

Incredible pictures of one of Earth's last uncontacted tribes firing bows and arrows

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/

Skin painted bright red, heads partially shaved, arrows drawn back in the longbows and aimed square at the aircraft buzzing overhead. The gesture is unmistakable: Stay Away.

Behind the two men stands another figure, possibly a woman, her stance also seemingly defiant. Her skin painted dark, nearly black.

When anthropologists first overflew the area, they saw women and children in the open and no one appeared to be painted. It was only when the plane returned a few hours later that they saw these individuals covered head-to-toe in red. 'Tribes in the Amazon paint themselves for all kinds of different reasons - one of which includes when they feel threatened or are aggressive,' Ms Ross says.

OpenCourseWare ~ HOW TO GO TO M.I.T. FOR FREE

HOW TO GO TO M.I.T. FOR FREE

Online 'intellectual philanthropy' attracts students from every nation on earth.

By Gregory M. Lamb | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor

By the end of this year (January 04, 2007 = NOW!), the contents of all 1,800 courses taught at one of the world's most prestigious universities will be available online to anyone in the world, anywhere in the world. Learners won't have to register for the classes, and everyone is accepted.

The cost? It's all free of charge.

The OpenCourseWare movement, begun at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 2002 and now spread to some 120 other universities worldwide, aims to disperse knowledge far beyond the ivy-clad walls of elite campuses to anyone who has an Internet connection and a desire to learn.

Intended as an act of "intellectual philanthropy," OpenCourseWare (OCW) provides free access to course materials such as syllabi, video or audio lectures, notes, homework assignments, illustrations, and so on. So far, by giving away their content, the universities aren't discouraging students from enrolling as students. Instead, the online materials appear to be only whetting appetites for more.

"We believe strongly that education can be best advanced when knowledge is shared openly and freely," says Anne Margulies, executive director of the OCW program at MIT. "MIT is using the power of the Internet to give away all of the educational materials created here."

The MIT site (ocw.mit.edu), along with companion sites that translate the material into other languages, now average about 1.4 million visits per month from learners "in every single country on the planet," Ms. Margulies says. Those include Iraq, Darfur, "even Antarctica," she says. "We hear from [the online students] all the time with inspirational stories about how they are using these materials to change their lives. They're really, really motivated."

more to article: http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0104/p13s02-legn.html

MIT: http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/web/home/home/index.htm

Here are some links to more universities offering OpenCourseWare:

Tufts: http://ocw.tufts.edu/

Keio: http://ocw.dmc.keio.ac.jp/index.html

Kyoto: http://ocw.kyoto-u.ac.jp/en/index.htm

MIT: http://ocw.mit.edu/index.html

John Hopkins: http://ocw.jhsph.edu/

Osaka: http://ocw.osaka-u.ac.jp/index.php

Toyko: http://ocw.u-tokyo.ac.jp/english/index.html

Utah State: http://ocw.usu.edu/

Waseda: http://www.waseda.jp/ocw/index_e.html

Notre Dame: http://ocw.nd.edu/

and here's Open Course audio
Open Culture too...

http://www.oculture.com/2007/07/freeonlinecourses.html

Parents making plans for homeschool co-op

Inspired by Tahoe Parents Nursery School, a few parents want to start a homeschool version of the successful co-op. The nursery school was founded in 1958, and the "co-op" concept means parents of all the students participate.

Caroline Hansa, one of the parents interested in a co-op homeschool, said the group wants to create a social environment for homeschool children while giving parents a chance to network.

Yolanda Nussdorfer, who has two children, said she likes the homeschool method. "I love watching him learn," Nussdorfer said. "I don't want to miss it when he's gone all day."

http://www.tahoedailytribune.com/

• http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/writmm/142054/
• http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art11220.asp
• http://homeschool.lifetips.com/cat/64324/homeschool-co-op/

Start Your Own School...

We started our own school!

By JANE PHILLIMORE

"Education, education, education!" was Tony Blair's battle cry when Labour came to power ten years ago, but today more parents than ever seem disillusioned with the state system. Here, four parents tell us how they started their own schools...

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/you/article.html?in_article_id=480538&in_page_id=1908

How To Start Your Own School

Written By: Robert Love
Publication Date: January 1, 1973
Publisher: The Macmillian Company
http://www.heartland.org/pdf/16690.pdf
(this is direct link to PDF book)

A Guide for the radical right, the radical left,
and everybody in-between who's fed up with public education.

Start A Food Buying Club...

A buying club is a group of people who pool their time, resources, and buying power to save money on high quality healthful foods.

There are 5 basic steps to buying food
through a buying club:
1. Members combine their individual orders into a single order. .
2. The combined and collated order is sent to the warehouse through the internet ('ftp' or email), by fax or by phone.
3. The truck delivers to your prearranged location. At least three buying club members need to be on hand to unload and receive the order.
4. Members divide up the order among the individual households.
5. Household bills are recomputed after delivery to account for any discrepancies. The buying club keeps track of additional charges or credits which may be carried over to the following month’s order. FoodLink takes care of these functions easily.

Why Join a Buying Club?
In addition to being able to access and purchase high quality natural and organic foods and products and the cost savings available from buying directly from the warehouse, there are many other reasons to start or join a buying club.

• to get to know other people with similar interests from your community
• to support organic farmers
• to be a part of a cooperative food system that is owned and controlled by people who use the products, and to work together to serve your needs
• to learn new skills, such as using a computer or bookkeeping
• to revitalize your neighborhood, small town or rural area by gaining access to high quality natural foods and products which might not otherwise be available
• to learn more about natural food, nutrition and cooking

We recommend you have five to eight households to start a buying club, although some groups begin with fewer. Talk up the idea with your family, friends, neighbors and colleagues. Hold a meeting and describe how a buying club works; emphasize the cooperative nature of the organization.

http://www.unitedbuyingclubs.com/RESOURCES/BCHelp/WhatIsABuyingClub.htm
http://www.unitedbuyingclubs.com/RESOURCES/BCHelp/BCResourcesIndex.htm
http://www.unitedbuyingclubs.com/
http://www.coopdirectory.org/distributor.htm
http://www.cooperativegrocer.coop/coops/
http://extension.missouri.edu/xplor/extcirc/ec0943.htm
http://www.vegfamily.com/articles/coop-food-buying.htm
http://www.foodclub.org/
http://www.newfarm.org/features/2005/0205/club/index.shtml
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
CCC: A VERY SIMPLE WAY (in 10 e-z steps), without complex organization/serious meetings or big time planning, is to simply create a LIST of foods, (list) and products that, for example, eight to ten people (friends, family, like minded) buy regularly. Then calculate monthly needs and order the quantity needed (Badda-bing, Badda-boom! All taken care of.)

How to start: 1.a print out food source catalog or weblink; 1.b Each family/person picks & chooses from list. 2. Share lists. 3. Compare lists. 4. Find common, make compromises, some sacrifices. 5. Create MASTER LIST. 6. Pool $$$. 7. Order stuff. 8. Unload stuff. 9. Take stuff home. 10. Eat stuff. (repeat monthly, bi-monthly or quarterly).

PS: You could also bring a Group order to a local-food-coop, small grocery store or Seventh-day Adventist Church (they usually group buy).

Create/Make Your Own "Learn the Herbs" Cards

The game in post below (WILDCRAFT! An Herbal Adventure Game) appears to be EXCELLENT and if you have the interest and funds, consider buying it. But some families may not have the funds, others are adventurous and creative. Simply, you can make your own HERB playing cards (or other topic) and here's how...

You could start with a PDF template (premade) of the size and shape of blank Playing Cards. like this one PDF HERE
and this one: PDF HERE 2 - or - you can trace a card or create a box (with or without rounded edges) in a computer design program, or simply create cardboard cut-outs.

Then, using Google, you can image search for different herbs and place these photos and images within the card (or you can SCAN photos from herb books - or - if you can draw!, then trace or draw the plants). Then add text (or write) the plant name, species, uses, identification, DANGERS, locations found, etc.

Create a dozen or two dozen cards and make up a playing game of your own or use as "Flash Cards" to learn what each plant looks like and can do for your health or dinner!

Something like this can give you an idea of what others have done (professionally): http://www.livingwithbasics.com/wildfree/wf_index.html

You will need either access to a copier (cut-n-paste) or computer, with printer and some type of layout program so you can paste images and re-arrange text. This is something almost anyone can do with a little effort! If you do a good job (after a few "prototypes"), you might even able to sell copies of your own version at local markets or give as gifts! (Ink-jet printers are costly for quantity printing, you may need to use a laser printer or copier and card-stock paper)

Legal Notice: If you use other peoples photos for COMMERCIAL use, you need to get permission, possibly pay for rights to use. "In-house," family use is fine. If you are considering creating a small-business venture...there are hundreds of places to buy images, some very costly, some as cheap as $1 each (for rights). There's also OLD BOOKS (such as pre-1923) that have fallen out of copyright (and images can-be scanned and used from them) are considered Public Domain.

Welcome to Smarty Cat School...

The first lesson is to give the teacher some Feline Greenies (the original smart-treat)