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Stone Soup is Looking for Guest Bloggers

Do you have something to say? Stone Soup Homeschool Network is looking for guest bloggers. You could write only once, or submit regular, weekly or monthly articles. It's totally up to you! Lesson plans, home organization, or your most recent trip to the museum... What will YOU write about?

Here are some ideas:

Apples and Fall, Art, American History
Burnout: How to Cope on Tough Days
Creative Ways to Teach Spelling or College-Dual Enrollment
Entrepreneurs or Electives
Foreign Languages (including sign language)
Geography Projects or Graduation Ideas
Homeschooling through High School or Homeschool Alumni
Latin, LEGOS or Lunches
Micro Businesses, Math Fun or Music Theory
Needlework or Notebooking
Organizing for the School Year, Online Classes
Preschool or Poetry
Quilting or Common Questions
Resources or Reading
Special Needs or Scheduling
Time-lines or Toddlers
Unit Studies or US History
Videos or Vocabulary
Winter Fitness or Weekly Planning
Xylophones or X-Rays
Yearbooks or Yahoo Groups
Zoo Trips, or the History of Zippers...

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What are you passionate about? You could write about it and publish it here!

If you would like to consider writing as a guest contributor for Stone Soup Homeschool Network, please read our Writers' Guidelines:

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Comments? I would love to hear them!

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U.S. Geography Notebooks - Free!

Simple U.S. Geography Notebooks

Rather than using a "formal" geography curriculum, we have been making a "United States" Notebook. It began with a reproducible workbook that I found at the teachers' supply store. Later, we continued the Notebooks without the workbook (It was lost in our move!) The workbook is: Maps of the U.S.A. By Jo Ellen Moore (Evan-Moor Publishing) The link for that book will allow you to look at the pages, so you can decide if the content is worth paying for. Evan-Moor now offers it as an eBook. We also used the Scholastic Pocket U.S. Atlas as an information source.

For FREE? Really?

Now I realize that it could have easily been done for free, by using pertinent sites that I have found in the process. Below, I have listed the sites and the information that I used for the notebooks that we produced. It has been a fun way to study the states. My girls' knowledge of U.S.Geography has increased dramatically!

The Structure is Simple

The states in our notebooks were separated by regions, such as the Pacific Region, Southwest Region, etc. On each state page, we included a topographical map (colored by the child) including main cities, rivers, and any other feature that we thought were important (state flower, state bird, etc. On the flip-side of that page, we glued state flags that we had colored, and and a paragraph that we had written about that state. Of course, you can include as much or as little information as you like.

U.S. Geography Printables & Links
(All FREE!)

STATE UNIT STUDIES Homeschooling.About.com: My FAVORITE SOURCE for State Unit Studies printables, state fact sheets, coloring sheets, word searches, etc. Listed by state. Important: Once you go to the state page, you must scan down the page for the "Printable Pages" link. Then, to print the PDF's, you click on the title under the picture. There is a list of page numbers to click on as well. No need to click on each and every page number (thankfully!) when you hover over the page number with your mouse, a description of the page is visible. For example: Page 7 is the State Bird and Flower Coloring Page. If you cannot find what you are looking for, post a comment or send me (Robin Montoya) a message.

UNITED STATES MAPS AND WORKSHEETS Worksheet Works Customizable maps of every state, region, territory of this nation, as well as a few historical maps. The best source for MAPS.

THE FIFTY STATES InfoPlease.com: LOTS of state info, including census statistics, US History time-lines, and encapsulated state information/history with links. We have used this one a lot.

LEARN ABOUT THE 50 STATES NETSTATE.com: States listed alphabetically, State info summaries, state mottos, state links, etc.

FREE GEOGRAPHY WORKSHEETS TLS Books.com: Map activities, word searches, name the states worksheets, and more!

FREE COLORING PAGES Friends Across America: American landmarks and symbols, famous Americans and state birds and flowers listed alphabetically by state.

State Flag Line Drawings

Alabama

Alaska

Arizona

Arkansas

California

Colorado

Connecticut

Delaware

Florida

Georgia

Hawaii

Idaho

Illinois

Indiana

Iowa

Kansas

Kentucky

Louisiana

Maine

Maryland

Massachusetts

Michigan

Minnesota

Mississippi

Missouri

Montana

Nebraska

Nevada

New Hampshire

New Jersey

New Mexico

New York

North Carolina

North Dakota

Ohio

Oklahoma

Oregon

Pennsylvania

Rhode Island

South Carolina

South Dakota

Tennessee

Texas

Utah

Vermont

Virginia

Washington

West Virginia

Wisconsin

Wyoming

Online State Geography Games

From SheppardSoftware.com

Select the Right State: Beginner Level

Drag Each State to the Map by Region: Intermediate

Drag Each State to the Map: Advanced

Homeschool Launch - Free Filesharing

I am a fiddler. It's true. I am one of those people who clicks on things to see what they are, only to click "undo" in a frenzy, because I have deleted a system file, or caused some unexpected "rebooting of the system." People who are not "fiddlers" or "tweakers" don't do this kind of thing because "God only knows what will happen!"

This curiosity coupled with my impetuous tendency to jump into the unknown with both feet has resulted in few catastrophes, thank God, and many discoveries. Call me blessed, or call it dumb luck, I have yet to cause a total system melt-down. Truthfully, I suspect that this is really because computers are not as vulnerable to my curiosity as they are to adware or viral attacks.

Additionally, I will see something in a book or on a site that I like, but I would like it much better if it were just a little different. So, I create my own files for home management, and homeschooling. I have spent many hours on a computer, figuring out how to get things "just right."

Apparently, I am one of many "fiddlers" out there. Since I began creating my website in April of this year, I have been humbled by the amazing, creative women (and a few men too!) that grace the pages of the internet with their wisdom, wit and creativity. Many of whom maintain some of my favorite blogs, listed on the right side of the Stone Soup Blog Page.

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One of my favorite discoveries is Homeschool Launch.com a free, file-sharing site for homeschoolers. There are many files there, created by really smart homeschoolers, like you, who made something to use in their homeschooling endeavors. Then, they posted it for you and I to use, free of charge.

Check it out. It is very likely you will find something you can use. Or, perhaps seeing what others have created will get your creative juices flowing. ...and you could share it on Homeschool Launch too.

Don't forget to visit me on Facebook, or drop me a note from the Stone Soup "Comments" page. I always love hearing your thoughts.

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