Donna Young's Blog - DY Updates

Updates to DonnaYoung.org: September - April 2012 [2]

Donna Young — Sun, 08 Apr 2012 18:35:45 GMT

This is a repeat of the recently sent yahoo group update, except with pictures.

Hello,

It has been a long time since I've sent an update to this group. I have just finished a long bit of work on the site-cd. I redid the entire cd website and that job took several months of work. Meanwhile I added a few items to donnayoung.org and I will list them below.

Image: closeup of Site-Cd label graphic

An RSS Feed for donnayoung.org; not the blog, but the website. I write items into the feed myself when I add things to the website.
http://donnayoung.org/feed.xml

--In Homeschool Planner > V Planner

V Planner V2.5 (also called V2.5 DT)
http://donnayoung.org/forms/planners/v-planner.htm
The newest version of the V Planner is finished. The new V Planner is more automated in that the date column on all 36 student subject sheets fill as soon as the school calendar is set up. The term column fills as each one is set up in a sheet called "Terms." Class sequencing, as in how many time a week a class is scheduled or if a class needs to be delayed, is managed with a column called "Bump." There is a short video about those new features here: http://donnayoung.org/forms/planners/vp-vid-dt-intro.htm

--In Homeschool Planner > High School--

I made a new high school diploma. It's a bit fancy. It is a typeable pdf.
http://donnayoung.org/forms/planners/diploma.htm

--In Science > Lab--

I worked on this page and I made some new lab sheets.
http://donnayoung.org/science/labsheets.htm

I also wrote a short article about using a composition notebook for a labbook.
http://donnayoung.org/science/lab-notebook.htm

--In Art > Color--

I edited the pages under Art > Color. I also added some new pages.
The home page, linked below, has a list of objectives for color study for the grades K-6
http://donnayoung.org/art/color.htm - That is new content on an old page.
The assignment page is new, but contains some content that I had before. I added to it and edited what I had.
http://donnayoung.org/art/color-assignments.htm
I added 3 color related "visuals" with paintings and color wheels and the first one is linked at
http://donnayoung.org/art/color-hooper-cc.htm

While writing the objectives, I realized that I should add an "in-between" color wheel, so I added two of them
http://donnayoung.org/art/color-handouts.htm

--In Homeschooling > Games--

Math Bingo
Addition and Multiplication
Sometimes I go overboard with things - this might be one. You can choose from files that have either 12 bingo cards or 72 bingo cards. Why 72 bingo cards? I don't know. There are 6 each of those files and that makes 504 addition bingo cards and 504 multiplication bingo cards. http://donnayoung.org/homeschooling/games/math-bingo.htm

--In Math > Math Facts

40 New Drill Sheets
http://donnayoung.org/math/drills.htm#medium

--In Art --

For years I intended to make a booklet like the one that I made for my daughter when she was young and I finally did it. It is called Animals of the World and it is at
http://donnayoung.org/art/animals-of-the-world.htm
"Animals of the World is a printable 1/4 sized booklet that has 4 pages for each continent. For each continent, the student should list a few animals on the continent's list page, and at some point, draw at least 3 of the animals."

In high school art (when I was in high school, art 3) the art teacher assigned one drawing homework each week. The assignments had a general theme. I still have most of my drawings, so I gathered them and made a list of themes for drawing assignments.
http://donnayoung.org/art/themes-drawing.htm

Speaking of high school art, I've long had my list of topics online that I made up for my daughter's high school art class. The list has not been prominently linked so it is possible that no one has ever seen it. Recently, as I was redoing the site-cd, I decided to get my notes and add a couple of the lesson plans that goes with the list. I can't add more yet because of time. I hope to do that later.
http://donnayoung.org/art/drawing-class.htm

--In Science > Apologia--

When I was checking my files I found a checklist schedule for Exploring Creation with Physics 2nd edition that was donated by Kathy from Tasmania almost two years ago. She emailed the schedule to me just before we started our 3-month home repairs that put my office out of commission. I placed the file in the Co-op schedules even though it is not a co-op schedule. I don't have a physics page.
http://donnayoung.org/apologia/schedule.htm#phy2

This is getting long. I have two more to add. I'll keep it short

New filler paper:
http://www.donnayoung.org/penmanship/filler-paper.htm

Keyed Gradebook updated to remove the div/0 errors
http://donnayoung.org/forms/planners/grade-book.htm

Thank you for reading.

Happy Homeschooling,
Donna Young

This may be shared, distributed, and republished.
Text file: http://donnayoung.org/new/updates-9-11--4-12.txt

Ruled President Paper [2]

Donna Young — Sun, 17 Jul 2011 21:10:14 GMT

I'm working in the handwriting > paper section of DY and I test printed a file to get the rule height. Well, it printed black. That is really a terrible thing for me to see. That last thing that I want to do is to waste your ink.

This 'black background" on the pdf's showed its head a few months ago on some of the ...

More 100-Number Charts at donnayoung.org [1]

Donna Young — Thu, 09 Jun 2011 22:01:38 GMT

I'm slowly creeping over the website, day by day, redesigning each page for good or bad; that is what I am doing. Sometimes I see an opportunity to improve content. While at the Charts for Math: 100 Numbers a couple of days ago, I saw the need for more 100-number charts. I didn't have nearly enough selection and it is possible that after adding 51 files, that I still do not have enough selection.

New 100-number charts at Charts for Math: 100 Numbers

V Planner V.2 is Available [19]

Donna Young — Mon, 23 May 2011 16:00:35 GMT

After many delays caused by things such as rotting floors, plumbing problems, and tornadoes, I am finally able to release version 2 on my V Planner.

If you are unfamiliar with the V Planner -- it is an XLS file [a spreadsheet] and with it you can manage your lesson plans, grades, attendance, and a few non-school things for up to four children. I made the file in Microsoft Excel and that is the program that it works best in, and while it might work in other spreadsheet programs, I cannot personally vouch for that.

The new features in version 2 are

Complete control over exactly which lesson plan shows where in the planners
Ability to have different grade weights per grading term
Ability to record minutes spent in class per student
Ability to include Credits and GPA per student
Grade Reports
Transcript for one year
Additional Lesson Planners [the "DP*" planners]
A column for Teacher's Notes
A Journal [ Notes tab ]

These features are in addition to version 1 features

Generate a 5 day or 1 day plan
The Today sheet reminds you of the things that you entered into the calendar and the random sheet
Maintain a fluid school calendar
Keep attendance
Grades can be entered along-side of the lesson.
A running grade average is given
Each class can have up to four grade weights and extra points
Generate a course of study based on your input

At the last minute I added an additional sheet to receive 7 days of the events that you have added to your personal calendar columns. That sheet is name "7-Day" and on it, choose the first date and everything else will fill in. If your V Planner has this "7-Day" sheet, then you know that you have the latest version of the planner as of May 2011.

To learn more about the V Planner, visit its help pages and watch the screen-shot videos.
V Planner
Videos

Dated Row Homeschool Planners Updated

Donna Young — Mon, 23 May 2011 15:17:31 GMT

Recently I was working hard to update YoungMinds cd-rom when I noticed that the "Surrounded by a Calendar" row homeschool planners were about to expire! We can't have that!

I dug out my files and made more the odd little planners -- up to the year 2025 for the cd-rom. A little while after that, I updated donnayoung.org with not quite as many years ahead of files - up February 2014. -- I suppose it would be more helpful to us Homeschoolers to say up that online the "Surrounded by a Calendar" row homeschool planners are currently online through the school years of 2011 - 2012 and 2012 - 2013.

"Surrounded by a Calendar" row homeschool planners

XLS Homeschool Term Dates Calculator [3]

Donna Young — Thu, 07 Apr 2011 01:23:19 GMT

I'm always rushing to write these update posts, or more accurately, I write rushed posts and they sound like "I gots this fer you, go get it."

So how about a new thingy for planning? An xls file that after you go through 5 semi-easy steps, it spits out your term dates? And if you don't like the dates it gives you, you can tweak them! It'll even give you an estimated last date for your homeschool year.

Wow, Donna, where can I get that XLS file?

I am so glad you asked!
XLS Homeschool Term Calculator

52 ZB Cursive Handwriting Lessons [2]

Donna Young — Mon, 14 Mar 2011 05:12:12 GMT

Amid all the ruckus I have managed to eke out a few more cursive handwriting worksheets. I didn't give these a lot of thought, but I did make a formula for the lessons, so maybe I did give them some thought, at least the first one had thought and the rest followed the formula.

Each printed worksheet has two lessons about one letter. The first lesson is letter practice for both uppercase and lowercase of the the letter. The second lesson has a few lines of practicing the letter with other letters.

Points

· The letter style resembles Zaner-Bloser.
· This is cursive handwriting practice.
· The letters are approximately 9mm tall, in American, that is 5/16ths of an inch.
· The letters are dark gray; the ruled lines are blue and pink.

For now, the worksheets are directly accessed from the "By Style" web page that is relatively new and in the handwriting section. Later, when (or if) I add more worksheets to the set, ZB Cursive will graduate to its own web page or pages.

Here is the link to the section: Handwriting > By Style

ZB Handwriting Worksheets [1]

Donna Young — Wed, 02 Feb 2011 19:47:40 GMT

Last year just before we had to rip out 500 square feet of floors, wood, etc. in our home, I started working on a new project -- a large handwriting worksheet set. I am calling this set ZB because it resembles Zaner-Bloser. I probably already had enough handwriting worksheets that resemble ZB at donnayoung.org, but now I have one more and it will be a large one.

I have made about half of the (around 400) manuscript handwriting worksheets for this set, the part that I am working on now are the web pages for the set. I decided that since each letter will have several worksheets, I'd make a separate page for each letter.

I will add the pages in alphabetical order, and at this time, pages for A and B are complete enough for manuscript handwriting worksheets in size 14mm.

The links to the two pages:
ZB - Letter A
ZB - Letter B

62 Manuscript Handwriting Animations

Donna Young — Wed, 02 Feb 2011 03:06:11 GMT

DonnaYoung.org has 62 more manuscript handwriting animations. You can see them starting here: ZB Handwriting Animations. Once at the page, please use the links on the right hand side of the page to view the animations.

Updates to DonnaYoung.org, November 2010

Donna Young — Tue, 23 Nov 2010 01:24:53 GMT

Updates to DonnaYoung.org, November 2010

This is the yahoo group update that just went out. Some of the items listed have already been announced in the blog, so please overlook those.
Sincerely, Donna Young

--In Homeschool Planner > Lesson Plan Forms--

In an effort to make the lesson plan forms easier to browse, I've started a another section for the forms. So far, I have two pages that are based on the number of rows and columns that the forms have.
http://donnayoung.org/forms/planners/planner-5x7.htm
http://donnayoung.org/forms/planners/planner-5x8.htm
More pages along this new sorting method should be added next year.

The 5x7 Grid Lesson Planners web page has some new forms.
5×7 Ruled Edwardian Planner
5×7 Snowman Planner
5×7 Spring Thaw Planner
5×7 2-Page Lesson Planner
5×7 Lesson Planner for Two Children #1
5×7 Lesson Planner for Two Children #2

--In Homeschool Planner > Administration--

G&A Points, Version 2
http://donnayoung.org/forms/planners/g-a-pages/p-gpa.htm
A requested item: G&A Points Version 2 is based off of the 10-subject G&A Points and will allow you to record AP, Honors, or regular Quality Points to each subject. Additionally, you can choose one of two grading scales for each subject.

--In Art > Books--

Week Six - AOP LifePac Electives Art, Principles of Color
http://donnayoung.org/art/aop-art-week6.htm
This is not a new page, but the printable files added to this page are new.
And under the files is a link to an short how-to for the color comparison boxes ("Juxtaposing Colors")
http://donnayoung.org/art/comboxes.htm

Planning Guide- AOP LifePac Electives Art - Unit 7 Comics
http://donnayoung.org/art/aop-art-unit-7-comics.htm
This is a planning guide with supplies, book contents, class estimates, and a schedule to edit. The planning guide is on the web page and in a downloadable word document.

--In Household > Half-Sized Planners --

2011 Half-Sized Dated Block Planner is online
http://donnayoung.org/household/halfsize/dated-b-planner.htm
The dated 2011 Half-Sized Block Planner refills are ready and uploaded. These files are designed to be printed on a regular sized printer paper, then cut in half. For notebooks that use 5.5" x 8.5" filler.

--In Handwriting > Fonts--

SS-Left Handed Font
http://donnayoung.org/penmanship/ss-left.htm
A homeschooling parent, MaryEllen, skewed a lined handwriting font to make handwriting lessons for her left-handed child. She is providing the font so that other parents can use the font to make worksheets for their children.

--In Math > Money--

Larger Store Tags
http://donnayoung.org/math/store.htm
Larger tags on the "Playing Store to Learn About Money" web page.

--In Blog--

A fix for the XLS Chore Chart Maker at
http://donnayoung.org/blog/dy-updates/chore-chart-maker-cal-chore-fix
The cal-chore sheet will not pick up persons 5-8 without this fix. The current online file has the fix applied.

Thank you for reading.

Happy Homeschooling,
Donna Young

This may be shared/redistributed/republished.
Text file: http://donnayoung.org/new/update-11-2010.txt