Category Archives: Does this count as Unschooling?

New learning resource : FindingEducation.com

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Friends, I have seen the future of our learning at home and I like it.

Now that my children are getting older, I want to use the Internet more to our advantage. I have my Delicious bookmarks account that I’ve been using to hold sites I find for my children, but that always felt awkward to me. I didn’t want the kids to have to wade through my personal bookmarks to find what they needed. I thought of using email, but they don’t have email accounts yet. (Does my 8 year old need gmail? I’m going to go with No.) I thought of writing down the website addresses on scraps of paper, but that seemed too cumbersome.

Thankfully, I found a website that solves the problem.

At findingeducation.com, you set up a “classroom” to give “assignments” to your students/children. You can tag assignments by grade and subject and make “due by” dates. If you blog with WordPress, you will feel comfortable right from the start with how the site works. (I’m not sure it’s run on WordPress, but it looks eerily similar.) I’m not too keen on the labels (classroom, subjects or due dates), but since that’s the language of the rest of the world, those of us with a nontraditional approach to homeschooling will just have to ignore that part.

This is my findingeducation.com classroom. So far, I have one lesson posted for my baking-crazy preteen.

I’ll be posting links of educational interest for my kids; feel free to poke around my site. Let me know if you make a classroom too. There are no comments, which I love. No way for spammers to come and stalk my kids. There is a built-in search engine that looks promising.

I’ll let you know how how my kids respond to this virtual way of helping them pursue their interests and our learning at home.

Does any one else think the future has arrived?

I win!

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Isn’t she sweet? Meghan has bestowed a lovely award to my humble, little space of the Interwebs. Thanks, Meghan! Now it’s my turn. I answer the questions and pass the award on to other bloggers. The questions, with my answers, are:

What is one thing we don’t know about you? Did you know I can juggle, love spicy food, hate Lima beans, have an older brother and younger sister? (Aren’t I fascinating!)

If you were able to go anywhere today, where would it be? International: Ireland; State-side: Seattle, WA

What is your mission statement for your blog or the reason behind your blogging? The purpose of paperbridges.net is to point you to  good books, warn you of the less than stellar ones and to encourage the homeschooler freaks free spirits (especially you of the unschooling/super-relaxed mindset. I want to lift you guys up to do Great Things.)

What is your favorite trait about yourself? I am not afraid to try new things.

What is your Twitter handle or Facebook page? I actually have two Twitter accounts. Most of you follow me as @monicabrand. Now I have an account for all my book related tweets as @PaperBridges. If you want to hear about my kids, homeschooling and what I had for breakfast, follow monicabrand. Follow @PaperBridges if you could care less about the little details of life. Or follow me both at both accounts, I’m trying not to give the same tweet twice.

I’m not as active on Facebook, but I will be your friend. Let me know in the invitation that you know my from my blog. My account is http://facebook.com/monica.brand

I pass the award and questions on to An UnTraditional Home,  Sparking Adventures, Growing Urban Wildflowers, The Path Less Taken, Almost Unschoolers, and Adventures in Unschooling (Girls, I hope you all play along; I’d like to see how YOU answer the questions).

Readers, if you don’t know their blogs, please take a moment to go visit with a nice comment.

For your Guardians of Ga’Hoole fan: Hoot Owl Cookies

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My daughter is a huge fan of the Guardians of Ga’ Hoole books, so this recipe for cutey owl faces in cookie form was a big hit. The recipe is from Hershey’s Chocolate and Cocoa Cookbook (which I’m guessing is out of print).

Hoot Owl Cookies

Makes approximately 2 1/2 dozen

3/4 cup butter or margarine

1 cup packed brown sugar

1 egg

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla

2 1/2 cups unsifted all-purpose flour

2 teaspoon salt

1/3 cup Hershey’s Cocoa

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1 tablespoon water

1/4 cup Reese’s Peanut Butter Chips

1/2 cup whole cashew nuts

Cream butter or margarine, brown sugar, egg, and vanilla in large bowl. In a separate bowl, combine flour, baking powder, and salt. Blend flour mixture into creamed mixture. Remove two-thirds of the dough to a floured surface. In small bowl combine cocoa and baking soda; add to remaining dough. Blend water into chocolate dough.

Roll half of the vanilla dough into a 10 x 4 inch rectangle. Shape half of the chocolate dough into a roll 10 inches long; place in center of rectangle of vanilla dough. Mold sides of vanilla dough around roll of chocolate dough. Repeat shaping steps with remaining dough. Wrap in plastic wrap; chill at least 2 hours or overnight.

Cut dough into 1/8 inch thick slices; lay two slices together side-by-side on a greased cookie sheet. Pinch a corner of each slice to form ears. Place a peanut butter chip in the center of each slice for eyes; press a cashew nut between slices for a beak. Bake a 350 degrees for 8 to 10 minutes or until set. Remove from cookie sheet ; cool on rack.

The Homeschool Village is swapping kids in the kitchen recipes. Add your recipe and find new ones for your family here.

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Can you believe I just now realized my girl celebrates 12 years today?? I am a bad mother.

Nah. If she were home, I would’ve remembered right away.

We haven’t heard a word from them at camp; no news is good news, right? I’m glad she and her brother are having fun, but I do so miss them. Especially today.