The Magic Treehouse

I love The Magic Treehouse books! When my daughter was in Kindergarten, we started reading some of these books aloud. As she got older she read a lot of them by herself as well. They were our first chapter books. The books are not too long - ten short chapters in each adventure. The books always follow the same format - Jack and Annie go to the treehouse in the Frog Creek Woods which then spins away into another time period. There are so many things to be gained from these books - geography, history, science, music, art - I could go on and on. Check out the Wikipedia article on the books, too.

During my organization of books I realized that we have ten of these books in our library. This summer I've also discovered that my son loves the books now, too - and for my daughter it is like seeing an old friend again. As I read a book out loud she listens intently, even though she has heard it before. I love that my almost nine year old and five year old like the same books!

At the library yesterday I stumbled upon The Magic Treehouse books on CD, so I checked out the first set (which is the first 4 books). In the car today we listened to the entire first book, Dinosaurs Before Dark. Each time we had to make a stop today and stop listening the kids groaned - but how I loved those groans! It meant they were hating to stop the story. We learned about several different dinosaurs, what time period they lived in, and lots of other neat facts.

We came home and I hopped on the computer to show my children the website for The Magic Treehouse books. You can print out your own passport and after reading a book (there are more than 40) you can take a short quiz and print out a "stamp" for that area of your passport. You can also print out a picture of Jack and Annie and take your picture with them to upload to the photo gallery.

We printed our passports and took a quiz. It was fun to paste on stamp #1 in our passport. A goal was set to read (or listen to) as many Magic Treehouse books as we can during this first semester. While this isn't a part of my daughter's "curriculum", it does enrich her studies so much, and the same goes for my son. I think the audio books will be really helpful in keeping him busy when I'm doing some heavier read-alouds with my daughter. He has a CD player in his room and loves to lay on his bed and listen to books. (and as I type this, my husband has also chimed in that they are available on Amazon in e-book format - I wonder about .mp3?)

Another great feature on the site (which is also linked into the passports) are the Neighborhood Adventure Activities. These are printables with questions about places you might visit like the library, bookstore, museum, etc... You have to answer questions as you visit these places. What fun! I feel a field trip coming on.... I'm pretty sure (although I haven't checked) that there are a plethora of lesson ideas out there on the web as well.

Oh, and there is also a Reader's and Writer's Club section of the website with tips from Jack and Annie about writing, with some activities to go along with select books. You can even enter an essay contest to win your own tree house! Even if you don't choose to print the passport and set a goal of reading a certain number of books, I do think the books are just great read-alouds or as some of the first chapter books your child will read.

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Legal Requirements of Homeschoolers

Today I am printing declaration forms for both of my children. In the state of Georgia, you are required to submit this form each year, in addition to sending a monthly attendance record to your district's homeschool coordinator. I'm certainly not an expert on homeschool requirements in other states, but I do know that Georgia is very relaxed about its regulations - as it should be. The only things required of us are the intent form, monthly attendance forms, and a record that your child has taken a standardized test once every three years beginning in the third grade.

Most of the homeschooling moms I know keep very meticulous records about their children's education - portfolios of their work, copies of attendance records, logs of field trips, etc... Remember, we care enough to educate our kids at home so it just stands to reason that we will document it carefully.

There have been slight rumblings this week in our homeschool group that our county is going to begin reviewing these records carefully and coming after the violaters. Good. If you keep your records (and have taken copies of what you send to the county board of education) you are in good shape and have nothing to worry about. Of course, however, if someone does get in "trouble" for not keeping proper records it will make all homeschoolers look bad. That's just the way it is. If I have learned one big thing from homeschooling it is that you cannot worry about what others think of you - if you did you would be miserable.

Case in point: last month at the YMCA my children were in childcare. One day after childcare my daughter was so excited about some card games she had learned from one of the workers. She taught them to us that night and it was great to learn new games and to have our daughter teach them to us. The next day I made a point to tell the woman who taught the games how appreciative I was. We continued talking and it came out that my children were homeschooled. She said (and I quote) : "We have some homeschooled kids who don't even know their letters or numbers. They are dumb as rocks. Thank goodness for us or they would never learn anything." Really? Did she just say that to me? My first response was to fire back something nasty, but I just kept my composure and said, "Really, that's a shame, isn't it?" Mental note: don't talk with that woman again.

It irritates me to no end that in some states the government is making homeschooling very difficult for competent families that just want to educate their children the way they see fit. One blogger I love to keep up with is Spunky Homeschooler. She puts these thoughts into words much better than I can. I could digress into a conversation about government intrusion into our lives, but I have lesson planning waiting for me.

Long story short, if you live in the state of Georgia be thankful for the lack of government regulation. If you live somewhere else and have different regulations, I'd love for you to leave me a comment and tell me about them!
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