Happy October! With Fall in full swing now is a perfect time to enhance your homeschooling with festive and timely lessons. Here are some ideas, plans and links for each day in October.

1st- World Vegetarian Day- In honor of this vegetable friendly day, offer a meat free selection of meals for your homeschooler and family. Enlist your child's help in finding a new vegetable or fruit to prepare, like Chinese broccoli or eggplant. For aspiring chefs, challenge your older homeschooler to create a vegetarian themed dish or meal for the family. If you are in a co-op have a vegetarian tasting, and enlist each family to bring a dish created by his or her homeschooler, as well as the recipe to share. Check out Vegetarian Times, www.vegetariantimes.com for a huge database of recipes.

2nd- World Card Making Day- World Card Making Day is the first Saturday in October and was dedicated to be a day to celebrate the creativity and fun of card making. Take this opportunity to create handmade cards with your homeschooler, no matter what age they are! Create holiday cards ahead of time, thinking of you cards for faraway family members or cards for one another. If you have a homeschool group get together to create and deliver cards to a local nursing home or to send to the US Troops.

3rd- National Popcorn Month- Celebrate National Popcorn Month today and visit the Popcorn Board website for complimentary teaching guides and materials.
www.popcorn.org/ForTeachers/tabid/55/Default.aspx

4th- Start of Fire Prevention Week- Start this week off with a lesson on fire prevention as well as a family fire drill. Check out the article on the Homeschooling page here at BellaOnline here to find ways you can teach fire safety for free! www.bellaonline.com/articles/art46871.asp

5th- National Dental Hygiene Month- Check with your local or family dentist to arrange a group field trip to learn about healthy teeth. Your younger homeschooler will feel reassured after visiting the ADHA's site on what to expect when visiting the dental hygienist: www.adha.org/kidstuff/games/visit/visiting.htm
Your older homeschooler will enjoy a trip to the drugstore or market to choose a new toothbrush, toothpaste and floss to promote healthier dental habits.

6th- American Craft Week (1st-10th)- Visit Family Fun magazine's site (you can find the link at the end of this article) to get lots of fun craft ideas. Their easy to use searchable database offers age related and holiday themed searching capabilities. If you have a local crafting store, like Micheal's or Joann's Fabric check with them about any "Craft Month" events.

7th- World Space Week (4th-10th)- Check out the World Space Week site for information on local activities and fun ideas- www.worldspaceweek.org or take a field trip to your local planetarium or Science museum.