I have made an addition to the geography Pit Stop project. This is a mapping project that creates a layered map==with page protectors. You can find further details under the Lesson Plans tab under Geography Pit Stop.

Just an update on this, we are a slight bit behind where I wanted to be at this point, due to some illness. The kids decided to pass a fever back and forth, it was very nice of everyone to share, but really--two weeks lost almost! YIKES! So we have 12 countries done instead of the 18 I wanted done by yesterday, but still it is going really well.

I will be adding in the map project on Monday. My plan is to do one Section (continent) at a time and get them all done before moving on. Some sections we will be able to do very quickly as there are only a few things to add on, some will take a full week. We'll play it by ear.

Hope every one is having a fabulous weekend! :)
~T8ermomma

I began work on moving in the lesson plans. I am not done with these pages just yet. I began moving over the pages starting at the bottom of the list. I don't know why I started at the bottom, but that's just how it is! ;) Today is an upside down kind of day. I am heading out for piano class with DD14 so I have to put the rest of the move on hold. I plan on getting the rest moved over before Monday!

You will see two new pages under the lesson plan tabs. At least they are new since HSB. The first one is Classical Music. With this change over, I think I have found a way to embed some PowerPoint Presentations my father-in-law created for us when we first started Homeschooling. I have updated them a bit and I would love to be able to share them. I am hoping this will be easy enough to do! 

The other new one is a lesson plan IDEA I just thought up this morning. I think it will be a fabulous idea. Here's the blurb I wrote up for the Lesson Plans main page:

My oldest will soon be ready to start her own job and she needs to learn some real life budgeting. Such as how to deal with rent, utilities, debt, a checking account etc. I want to teach her this prior to her actually having an income besides the occasional babysitting money. So my plan is to set up a weekly lesson plan that will simulate each "MONTH." Each month they will have an income, bills, etc. They will also have some weeks with financial emergencies, big purchases and bonus income (to represent taxes, work bonus etc.). I think this would be a really fun subject. They will have to make real life choices and sometimes say no to their wants in order to make the budget. 

DD14 is trying to convince me this needs to be the next co-op lesson I do for her age group. I think it would be a great fun co-op class. So it's a possibility. Either way I will get this figured out soon. :)

I'm off to piano class, have a great day everyone!
~T8ermomma

Starting tomorrow, there is an online conference being put on by Heart of the Matter. There are a number of speakers on a wide variety of topics: Simplifying Homeschool, resistant learners, Successful Homeschooling, Missional Mom, Smart Kids Hating to write, Falling off the lesson plan, Notebooking, Growing a Writing Vocabulary, and Loving Living Math,

You can check out the speakers, topics, and times (Plus registration!) here:

http://conference.heartofthematteronline.com/

Ok, Now I KNOW I'm in love with the new blog!! I have just added a whole forum section! YES A FORUM!! So all those of you that have questions concerning the book of Virtue's study . . . there's a whole forum set up for it. There's a section for discussing curriculum, a section for unit studies/lapbooking/notebooking. there's a section for just chatting! I'm so excited! :) How cool is that???!!!

As for the rest of the blog, it is a slow and steady process. I am still trying to determine the easiest, quickest way to bring in all "Relevant" posts from HSB. The only downside to joining Weebly is that I can't just import my posts--shucks! so I am trying to decide if I should just recreate them with new posts (cut & paste) or if I should just add in a few that are really important and forget the rest. Decisions . . . Decisions!!

Anyways, check out the new forum section!! Sign in (you can use facebook, twitter, yahoo, google, and the list goes on!) and drop a line to say hi!!

~T8ermomma

Welcome to the new and improved (yes it's already improved I think!) Shiver Academy Home. Due to the changes underway, and mainly because of their lack of caring, I am moving my blog to weebly.com I will eventually change my site address to my own domain and this host will allow me to do that.

Please be aware that there will be considerable construction and reconstruction going on until it is just the way I want it. I must say that so far I am very excited about the change over.

The most important thing to know . . . Ok, maybe not the most important BUT . . . SHIVER IS BACK!! You can once again feed our mascot Shiver!  And don't forget he loves a good tickle (Keep clicking on him) He may go for a splash!  He is found on the Home Page!! (This is super exciting as we couldn't play with him on HSB!!)

By clicking on the more tab above you will get the download links. I'm still working on trying to get them to be a button at the top, but I haven't gotten it worked out yet!

To keep in contact, you will need to sign up for the RSS feed. I am hoping that we will not have the same problems I had with Homeschoolblogger's RSS feed. It was a nightmare, even when I changed it as they suggested. I really doubt we will have the problems that we had there though!!

During this construction period, or any time for that matter, if you see something that doesn't look quite right, or if things are hard to read, or links aren't working (Keep in mind I am cutting & pasting from HSB, so I have to reset EVERY link. It may be a few weeks to get it all settled. Please point them out though if I have done all the rest on the page, and it's not working == or heading to the wrong thing!!)