Homeschooling Times

Amazon.com Inc, the Web retailer known for selling books, said it had paid about $4 million to buy a handwritten, illustrated book of wizardry by “Harry Potter” author J.K. Rowling.

Sotheby’s on Thursday held an auction for the book called “The Tales of Beedle the Bard,” which was mentioned in the last Potter book as having been left to Harry’s friend Hermione by their teacher, Albus Dumbledore.

London dealer Hazlitt, Gooden and Fox had the winning bid of 1.95 million pounds ($3.98 million) on behalf of Amazon.com.

All proceeds from the sale will go to the Children’s Voice, a charity Rowling co-founded in 2005 to help vulnerable children across Europe.

There are just seven copies of “The Tales,” bound in brown Moroccan leather and decorated in silver and moonstones. Rowling gave six copies of the book to people closely connected to the Harry Potter books and auctioned off the seventh.

“‘The Tales of Beedle the Bard’ is really a distillation of the themes found in the Harry Potter books,” Rowling wrote in the sale catalog.

Of the five stories in the 157-page book, only one, “The Tale of the Three Brothers”, is told in the Potter novels. It appears in the final Potter book, “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.”

Amazon.com has posted several pictures of the book — which it handles with white gloves — and a review of one tale called “The Wizard and the Hopping Pot” on the Web site www.amazon.com/beedlebard. The company plans to post reviews of all five tales.

“Even before establishing her charity,” Amazon.com Chief Executive Jeff Bezos said in a statement late on Thursday, “J.K. Rowling had done the world a rare and immeasurably valuable service — enlarging forever our concept of the way books can touch people — and in particular children — in modern times.”

Teenagers who have had formal sex education are far more likely to put off having sex.

Teenagers who have had formal sex education are far more likely to put off having sex, contradicting earlier studies on the effectiveness of such programs, U.S. researchers said on Wednesday.

They found teenage boys who had sex education in school were 71 percent less likely to have intercourse before age 15, and teen girls who had sex education were 59 percent less likely to have sex before age 15.

Sex education also increased the likelihood that teen boys would use contraceptives the first time they had sex, according to the study by researchers at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which was published in the Journal of Adolescent Health.

“Sex education seems to be working,” Trisha Mueller, an epidemiologist with the CDC who led the study, said in a statement. “It seems to be especially effective for populations that are usually at high risk.”

Mueller’s team looked at a 2002 national survey of 2,019 teens aged 15 to 19.To read full article
http://www.reuters.com/article/healthNews/idUSN1960794920071219

Here is a compilation of NDS Games for boys, Girls and Nintendo DS games for younger kids

Nintendo DS Games for Boys:

Mario Party DS This is a new release based on the popular Mario Party series- and the first to come out for Nintendo DS. It is a TON of fun and you have option to play wireless with other kids from around the world. This is good game for both girls AND boys.

Luxor: Pharaoh’s Challenge This has all kids of puzzle game. If you are familiar with Zuma and other Popcap games this is similar. The puzzle all have an Ancient Egypt theme. Also good for both boys and girls. This came out this week and we rented it. Not what I thought it would be- ton of puzzle games set in Ancient Egypt. Great for kids who like Brain Academy, etc. Another good for both boys and girls if kids share games.

Yoshi’s Island DS Very , very popular Nintendo DS game. It is considered one of the the top ten games for NDS of all time. Girls don’t like it as much as boys…

New Super Mario Bros. Classic Mario Brothers stuff. Based on the original Super Mario Bros, game for Super Nintendo. One of the top games and great for both girls and/or boys.

Metroid Prime Hunters Very high cool factor - you have option to play with others wirelessly. with wireless function.

Pokemon Diamond The is the most popular and best selling game for Nintendo DS- along with Pokemon Pearl. If you don’t own it all ready- get it.

Pokemon Pearl See above.

Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin Vampires set in scary castle.

Sonic Rush Just release. NDS game featurug Sonic the Hedgehog.
Chibi-Robo: Park Patrol for Nintendo DS Very addictive Nintendo DS game. Good for both boys and girls.

Mario Kart really really neat can race others players worldwide with wireless feature.

Nintendo DS Bundles (Game Console with game)
Nintendo DS Lite Gold with Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass (NDS Bundle)
Nintendo DS Lite Crimson & Black with Brain Age 2

Nintendo DS Lite Onyx Black

More Nintendo DS Games For Children- Good Nintendo DS Games For Girls

very popular Nintendo DS game for girls : High School Musical
Can’t escape her.. Hannah Montana Nintendo DS Game This is just enormously popular- lslap Hannah Montana’s name on something and girls go nuts for it. Depending on child this is good for ages 7-10 -ish. Older girls may not like this as much.
CRAZY popular. Good for girls 8-12 years.

Master of Illusion Do Magic tricks on your Nintendo DS.. nt sure how this works or how you cold be tricked my a visoe game(!) but this is selling very well.

Zoo Hospital- For any girl who is into animals this is really good. Has a lot of play value.

Pocket Pets (Dogs, Cats, Hamsters more) This just game out… you can look after and “feed” , cats, guinea pigs, rabbits. This will be a slam dunk gift for girl who like to take care of animal kind of fuzzy creature.

American Girl: Julie Finds a Way From the American Girls” book series- I am thinking if it does well they wil continue to relaese more Nintendo DS games based on the series.

The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass For girls you like playing the RPG-type games ( role playing). This isan excellent NDS game has good play value. Good for older girls- 10-16 years old.

Boogie Lots of “mini-games” and my kids have been begging for this one.

Mario Party DS a safe bet- this is an excellent game. Probably one of the best games of the year for Nintendo DS.

Nintendogs (Chihuahua) DS This is a HUGE favourite, and one she will pick up and play a lot. Probably her most played game in last year. This is older game and will be a HUGE hit if you are lloking for Nintendo DS game for 8-10 year girl. Any of the Nintendogs series and good to go.

Cooking Mama. This was good - sounds more boring than it is- you use the Nintendo DSstylus to “cook” meals and meet cooking challenges. This was a bonus as my 4 year old son ooves to watch her play… so they enjoyed on long road trip to Florida last year. Again- very fun- good for 8-10 year olds..

Animal Crossing Very popular with girls, good for 8-12 years.

This list is updated regularly. My kids are WAY into video games as are most of their homeschooling friends. I am a big believer in video games being a part of learning- as much a reading or crafts or math, etc. I am as happy for my kids to read a book as I am when they are playing together on their Wii.

The latest and hottest Nintendo DS Games

New Release NDS Games

Luxor: Pharaoh’s Challenge

Yu-Gi-Oh! World Championship Tournament 2008

Left Brain, Right Brain

Master of Illusion

Pocket Pets (Dogs, Cats, Hamsters more)

American Girl: Julie Finds a Way

Strawberry Shortcake II for Nintendo DS

Boogie

The Golden Compass

Coming Soon:
Warhammer 40,000: Squad Command

Wow- where was this when GIANT cardboard boxes were common place. I remember building elaborate forts in my backyard from refrigerator boxes.. and making plans to “live” there indefinitely and BEGGING my parents to let me sleep there overnight. I even remember rigging up electricity and putting lights in one of them .

This is VERY cool- the site has plan for making your own cardboard castle. They are very well thought out elaborate and in my mind this is the quintessential homeschooling project. The kit includes Rivets , knife for cutting and plans.

http://www.mrmcgroovys.com/p-13-cardboard-castle-kit.aspx

A good list of recommendations for the current most popular board games- this list is updated often.
The list includes favourites like Carcassonne and Settlers of Catan, as well as some you may not have heard of…

If you are homeschooling your kids and they have been asking to learn cursive writing, don’t botthre buying expensive worksheets. There are many sites online that offer free downloads that you can print of cursive writing worksheets.

You can also use MS Word or similar to print out sheets with cursive font on them. If you don’t have a “cursive” style font installed you can get a free font here If you know of others or better- let me know and I will happily post.
Here is a list of sites that have free cursive writing worksheets.

Cursive Writing WorkSheets and Printables Sites

Handwriting for Kids These are PERFECT. Blank pages with the traditional red and blue lines- and available in different heights. Also excellent worksheets for each individual letter.

Handwriting for Kids These are PERFECT. Blank pages with the traditinal red and blue lines- and avialble in different hieghts. Also excellent worksheets for each indiviual letter.

Exceptional worksheets here at Kidzone.ws They offer workseets by age/skill level.

ABC Teach offers Zaner=Boser printables

It Advent calendar ( or is that avent calender??: ) )time at Neopets. Neopets are a GREAT way for kids to learn to read and practice math skills. What dofference does it make if they are doing addition and multiplication from a dry textbook or in an online game? None, except one is more fun .
For those of you play Neopets - go daily to get your new items !

http://www.neopets.com/winter/adventcalendar.phtml

Saturday, December 1st, 2007

You get 920 Neopoints , a Neohome Heater and a Snowager Cap

Sunday, December 2nd, 2007

You get 489 Neopoints, , Quilt Cape and a Kougra Defender Action Figure

Monday, December 3rd, 2007

You get 328 Neopoints , a Snot Holiday Tree and a Snot Ladder

Tuesday, December 4th, 2007 neo Pet Advent Calendar prizes

You get 238 Neopoints , Shining Star Tree Topper and Fir Cookies

Wednesday, December 5th, 2007

You get 934 Neopoints, Sliding Bruce Plushie and an Ice Garland

Thursday, December 6th, 2007

You get 732 Neopoints , Snow Yooyu Plushie and a Snow Splat

Friday, December 7th, 2007
You get 859 Neopoints and Gift Wrapped Presents

Saturday, December 8th, 2007
You find 203 Neopoints, a Homemade Gingerbread House, and a Pet Pop-up Card
Sunday, December 9th, 2007
You find 859 Neopoints, Directors Slate, and toolbox

Monday, December 10th, 2007
You find 904 Neopoints , a Christmas Arkmite and a Seaweed Garland.
Tuesday, December 11th, 2007
You find 839 Neopoints, You find Smores, and a Fiery Marshmallow Hat

Wednesday, December 12th, 2007
You find 483 Neopoints, Meepit Carols, and a Christmas Wocky Plushie.