My Yahoo Groups

Okay, now may be the time to let you all know what an e-mail addict I can be. I really don't spend ALL day on the computer, but I probably do spend more time than I should! LOL As I was talking with Kathy (a real life friend I might add versus an on-line friend) yesterday she asked me, in a rather incredulous voice I might add (LOL), "How many groups DO you belong to anyway??" My reply - a lot. LOL (actual number - 26 - about six are announcement lists with no chatter.) Here they are in no particular order.

I am owner or co-owner of four groups. The first is called Christian Weight Loss Support or CWLS for short. This group was started around the first of 2007 in response to the need that was expressed on a larger group I was part of. Many of us were trying to loose weight so I began the group as a means of supporting each other. It's not high volume, but it's there. :-)

The next group I co-own with a good friend of mine, Deb. We met on-line years ago (about six now I think). We used to belong to a rather large on-line scrapbooking group & we had made quite a number of friends there. Then "management" changed & the group started to change so we left & started a new one just for fellow & talk. It's not high volume either but it's great to know that we've all "known" each other for a really long time. The name of the group is Christian Women On-Line Fellowship or CWOLF.

The other group that I own was really just started so that my sister & I along with our great friend, Tammy, could all chat & share things without having to remember to cc each other. This way we just send a post to our group (sorry not going to share that link here) & we are good to go. We have known each other for about four years now I think. I first met Tammy at a monthly scrapbooking group I used to organized at my church. She worked with some of the ladies who came. We hit it off & Beth soon got addicted to scrapbooking as well & the three of us were soon best buddies. Now that the group no longer meets (I moved two hours north), the three of us having a standing date each month to scrapbooking together. We all look forward to it.

The last group I am "owner" of is really just to help out with approving new members & messages. It's for the Maine Homeschooling Group. I like this group in that it helps keep me up to date on things going on around the state. The majority of people on it seem to be from further south than where I live though. It is a very diverse group & sometimes we have issues come up on there when Christians & non-Christians clash over things. Overall it's a great group for good information on homeschooling in the state.

Oops, I miscounted. I own one other group. I set it up for my local homeschooling group so that communication would be easier. It's called Western Mountain Homeschoolers or WMH for short.

Now the rest of the groups I belong to are either for curriculum that I use or some other reason. :-) Four of the groups are all for one topic...making file folder games. I belong to the main group which has quite a bit of discussion & sharing called ABCFileFolderGames1. In order to be in any of the other groups they have, you have to be in this main group. The other groups are for storage only. They are by age level. I originally joined the group when I was hosting a file folder game swap on a group I am no longer a member of. See I don't always stay in all the groups I join! I was able to get some great games though from all these groups & my boys are having fun playing with them. They make great gifts for the preschool & early elementary crowd as well.

As I mentioned earlier, some of the groups I belong to correlate to the curriculum I am using. One of my favorite finds in the last few years has been A Child's Geography. You can see the first three chapters of the first two books for free at this link ACG Home Page.
The Yahoo group is called A Child's Geography. I've used the first book - Explore His Earth. This is really almost an earth science book as it talks about the atmosphere, oceans, continents, volcanoes & more. If you like the Jeannie Fulbright science curriculum put out by Apologia, than you will like these as well. They are set up in a very similar way & written VERY well. The second book int he series is called Explore the Holy Lands. The author posts & answers questions at the group. I love that about my Yahoo group specific to a curriculum. If you decide to do book two, Mellisa Telling of Lilliput Station (listed below) has even done up a free set of maps to correlate. They are on the Lilliput Station site as well as the ACG site.

Another one that is specific to curriculum is Elem_Apologia_Science.This one is for the Jeannie Fulbright Apologia elementary series of books. I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE these books! We've used Astronomy, Botany & Zoology 1 (birds, bats & insects). We'll be starting Zoo 2 in the next few weeks (ocean animals). These are written so that an older child can easily do them on their own. Jeannie has also written FREE notebooking pages that correspond with the books. Any time there is a notebooking activity in the book, there is a page to go with it. Jeannine herself posts here & answers questions. :-) If you are looking for a Biblical account of creation, animals, & the world around you, these books do that to a wonderful extent. They can easily be done alone by an older child, but I look forward to doing science with my boys almost as they do since I learn just as much.

Here is one I was telling Kathy about yesterday: Lilliput Station. There is not a lot of chatter on this one although it does seem to be picking up quite a bit. It's owned by a woman named Melissa Telling. She uses Mystery of History for history & started making notebooking pages to go with that. I used to use MOH so I joined. Since then she has expanded. If you join this group, you just need to go check out the files. TONS there for notebooking & all free.

My next two groups have to do with the free on-line curriculum called Ambleside Online. This is a completely free curriculum put together by a wonder advisory board. If you go here, you can see everything they offer. It is a classical Charlotte Mason approach to homeschooling. I don't follow their schedule but I do use a lot of the extras they offer. My plan is to use their resources for an artist & composer study this year. The Yahoo group, Ambleside Online, is only for discussing how to implement & get help with the AO curriculum. They have some off shoots for other things.

As I mentioned, I'm going to be doing an artist study this year using the list I found at AO. I discovered they have a group called AOArtPrints. I think this is a relatively new group. In year's past, you could buy a set of all the prints used in the artist study for all the terms of that year. This is still an option. However, now that they have this group, you can see them for free (pdf downloads) & either print them yourself or just view them on your PC screen. I was really happy to find this. For their composer study, I didn't find a different group, but they have links to their music & you can also do some low cost MP3 downloads of the music as well.

I've mentioned that I am a scrapbooker. I love scrapbooking. I used to be extremely addicted. I was in multiple on-line groups & I scrapped at every opportunity. I've been doing this hobby now for about eight or nine years. In the past year I've slowed done some. I mentioned earlier that the large group I used to belong to had started to change focus & content, so I left. I have yet to find another really great group on-line. However, one of the ladies who used to be on the other group with me, started this one... Christian Scrappers & Stampers. It's not very high volume, but they do have swaps & chat about scrapbooking. It's a great group of ladies.

Many of you probably already know about this one... Eclectic Homeschool Online Newsletter. This is one of my announcement only lists. There is not chatter & I get about one e-mail a month or whenever their new newsletter comes out.

And then there are my Free Cycle groups. What's Free Cycle you say?? Click this link to get to the Main Group. You can search by city & state or by county you live in. I belong to two of them as I live in one county & quite close to another one. The premise of Free Cycle is to post things you want to get rid of - for free. I think they only time you can charge is for shipping. Other than that, it's free. You can post "wanted" posts as well but some of them have rules as to how often. It's a fun site. Mine are both low volume.

In one of the book reviews I posted in the last few months, you may remember reading about one of my favorite authors, Diana Gabaldon. Well, no surprise, there is a website devoted to her - the "official website" mind you! They also have a Yahoo group you can sign up for (are you REALLY surprised) when they will post every time the website has been updated. I get an e-mail every once in a while about this. There are over 11,000 people on that Yahoo group waiting for those updates. :-)

On to more curriculum sites...many out there use Math-U-See for math. I, myself, am making the switch this year. Of course there is a yahoo group for using the program, but ::gasp:: I have not joined it...yet. There is also one called MUSSwap. This is for selling & WTB (want-to-buy) posts. I was able to get one of my sets here. I bought Primer, Alpha & Beta teacher books & videos. During the year there have been a lot of WTB posts, but I've noticed an increase in FS (for sale) posts in the last few months as people get ready for the new year.

A really fun site that I like to read posts from is simply called Notebooking. Notebooking is a fun form of homeschooling. Basically the child creates pages that typically go in a three-ring binder, hence the name notebooking. This particular group is sponsored by the Estes family from Hands & Hearts History Kits. They promote notebooking in their kits. If you've never heard of notebooking & need to see what it is I'm talking about, click here. One of my other groups is actually a sister site that was set up for the notebooking group to help store all the great forms & such that people share.

Now this next group is my absolute favorite but the one that costs me the most money. How may you ask? It's a used book sale site! It's called Read It Again Books. It's run by Chris Brock. It's an announcement only list. What she does is sends out lists of books she has for sale. The first person to respond to her asking for the book, gets it. The prices are fantastic & she has some really great books for sale. Shipping is very reasonable - always media mail - so it's not too pricey. I just cleaned off a bunch of bookshelves & the other day I received a rather large box of books I had ordered from Chris. I have NO clue where they are going to end up.

Yet another curriculum group I am on. This one is growing & right now it's still pretty small. Although, it has doubled in size since I first joined a few weeks ago. It's for the Diana Waring History Alive! history program. Diana herself is on the group & it's been great. She readily answers questions about how the books work & the best way to handle things. As I've said before, I love it when the author is there to help out the users. The name of the group is Sharing D Waring.

Now here is THE group. The one I sign in every morning eagerly anticipating seeing what's been posted. This one is chock full of great advice. There are women on here who have been homeschooling for years - as in 20 or more. There are some who have successfully graduated all their children & they stick around to help encourage the rest of us. There are over 1700 people on this group & it's closing in fast on 1800. This is one group I would never willingly give up. It's called Support For Home & School or SHS for short. My friend, Deb, is the one who told me about it. I've been on here for at least three years & maybe four. I'm not sure at the moment. It's great. Because it is support for home AND school, other topics are readily & easily discussed as well.

The last one on my list is another local list called Swap Maine Homeschooling. This is a good place to list FS & WTB items if you live in the state. I've had some good luck doing both here. It's not very high volume, but every little bit helps when it comes to buying & selling curriculum.

So there you have it, a look at all the Yahoo groups I belong to & why...from one addict to another. :-)