Looking for a quick science lesson?

 If so, you can check dragonflies and damselflies on my other blog. I posted this a while ago, and it's lots of fun!

Playing in Google Docs today

I'm not sure how I feel about this Google Docs thing. I love the idea, but I find it really difficult to use. I'm pretty good at PowerPoint and such. Maybe I am missing something?

Anyway, I thought I'd publish a freebie and see how it goes. Frogs- Facts or Opinions is available. There are many facts and a few opinions in the text. Students can choose to write facts and opinions down on the chart, or they can use a highlighter.

It's pretty basic, but I've worked on it for a while. All that work should be for something! Plus, I've taken advantage of a lot of freebies myself. (They are much, much better than mine!) The goal is to get really good at it. We'll see.

Hope you enjoy!

Choosing curriculum

Since we've announced (Ta-da!) that we are homeschooling next year, I've gotten several questions about which curriculum we plan to use. I've probably mentioned before, but I'm not using a commercially created homeschool curriculum. There is nothing wrong with them. Some of them look really cool, in fact. But there are several reasons why they aren't right for our family (at least this year.)

1. They are expensive. Oh my stars, are a lot of them expensive. While I'm sure they are worth the money, they are out of our current budget.

2. They have limited flexibility. If my kids decide they want to learn more about red foxes, we have the ability to learn all about them, without having to worry about staying on a schedule. On the flip side, commercial plans have really well-structured activities.

3. They bring my inner hippie down.

4. We can be less like "school" and more like "home."

5. I love the idea of creating lesson plans for us. We'll see how long that lasts.

Like I said, there are a ton of really great materials available. And if you use one, I'd love to hear more about why you chose it, and why it works for you!

Celebrating the first day of summer vacation- with homeschool!

Ahhh, summer break. It brings to mind long, lazy days...cookouts....jumping in the swimming pool....and if you live in our house, a science field trip and lesson!

I based this lesson off a plan on the Smithsonian Education website. I used this activity as the base of our learning. Instead of using a meter square and the worksheets, we used a jump rope and some paper and markers.

To begin our activity, we posed a question. (Well, I did.)

Where is plant life more diverse in Bledsoe Creek State Park? Then we talked about diversity and how it applied to plant life.

Then we each made a hypothesis. Anthony predicted that there would be more plant species where there were lots of deer. Normally, we see tons of deer, but no such luck today. Jerimiah predicted we would find more plants at the bottom of the park, about 50 feet from the lake. Mom agreed with Jerimiah's prediction. Dad predicted we would find more plant species around a tree in the forest.

With our prediction in place, we began exploring. To gather our data, we made a circle with a jump rope in four locations. In each location, the kids and Dad counted the different types of plants in the circle. Anthony recorded the data for us.

The boys making their circle to begin counting the number of plant species.

 Anthony counting 

 Making the circle around a tree to test Dad's hypothesis.

 Counting at the top of the "mountain" at Bledsoe Creek.

 Jerimiah counting the types of plant species at the bottom of the "mountain" near the water.

Anthony diligently recording our data.

So, after all the data was compiled, we made a graph to show our results. 

Our data.

Dad helping to create our chart

Our graph

It's not a perfect graph, and the spelling is not perfect either. But today we covered several subjects. Our hike covered P.E. We discussed the scientific method and ecosystems for science. We built a graph from a table of data, which made an excellent math lesson. Most importantly, we had a great time. 

And nothing makes Dad happier than being right. :)

Technology and Homeschooling

Remember your parents telling you, "When I was a kid...." Well, when I was a kid, we read these things called books. And when we went to the library, we pulled a drawer to find a listing of all the books available on a subject. Now they have these new fangled things called computers that do all the work. And it's great!

All this information is great, but it can also lead to over stimulation and lack of focus. Even though we haven't officially started homeschooling yet, I'm trying to put together as many unit studies as I can before the kids are home all day.

I want to teach my kids everything. I want them to know about the Bible, U.S. history, world history, chemistry, biology, literature, algebra, geometry, red-eyed tree frogs...well, everything. And the Internet lets me do that. The Internet also lets me spend hours looking up different ways to teach them everything. What ends up happening is that I lose focus on what I was originally looking to find, because I'm chasing that next thing. Then I find that hours have passed, but I've accomplished very little.

There are some really great resources out there. These are ones that I especially like:

Edsitement

Homeschooling A to Z

Lesson Pathways

Smithsonian Education

American Museum of Natural History


I also really love Pinterest. I've found a ton of great ideas there.

The Internet is a great tool, when used properly. I'm still a big fan of books, and there is a lot of book reading in my lesson plans too. I just have to make sure I'm not letting the Internet take over. Creating a list of learning goals is helping me with that.

How do you use technology in lesson planning/lesson delivery? I'd love to hear from you!

Introducing....Me!

My name is Amanda. I'm kind of a hippie. No really. I have another blog that says so. This year my husband and I decided that next school year, we would homeschool our hooligans. (They aren't really hooligans. They are actually the best kids in the world. Please don't tell them I called them hooligans. They prefer the term monsters.)

Why did we decide to homeschool? Because seriously, there are days I forget. It used to be that I couldn't wait til Monday. Spring break was a nightmare. Summer vacation was great the first few days, but then....well....not so much. Sounds like we are the perfect homeschooling candidates, right?

Well, we are. Here's why. My whole perspective on parenting changed. God opened my eyes and my heart to the fact that instead of enduring my kids' childhood, I should be enjoying it. So I did some prayer and soul-searching. And then I did some more. Turns out, I'm crazy about my kids. And they are (most days) crazy about me too. So why not spend more time with them?

Without further ado, my top reasons for homeschooling my boys:

1. More individualized attention- My oldest son needs more individual instruction. He has an amazing teacher this year. She is seriously awesome, and I know that she has done a great job. But J isn't getting what he needs. He needs more one-on-one time. I can do that with homeschooling. After regular school, he is too tired to do much reviewing. It pushes past the frustration point. Most adults don't want to work after work, so why would a kid?

2. Learning at the perfect pace- My oldest, J, needs a bit more review time. Schools now have to be so focused on standardized testing that they can't slow down as much as they might like. My youngest, A, needs less review time. Homeschooling lets both guys learn at their own pace.

3. Plenty of family time- Lots of parents have 9-5 jobs with weekends off. That works great with traditional schools. My husband is a restaurant manager. He does not ever work 9-5, and he hasn't had a weekend off in 3 years. Homeschooling allows us to spend time together with the whole family.

4. Choosing what we learn- I have always enjoyed teaching my kids stuff. We love to learn things together. Let's take advantage of that! If we want to learn about Indigo Buntings, we can!

I'm sure I could list another million reasons why we chose homeschooling. But no one would read them. And my fingers would get tired from typing. We'll leave it at that for today.

I also want to point out that while we won't start homeschooling officially until July or early August, I'm working hard at putting some lessons together. I hope this blog will be a place where we can talk about homeschooling, share ideas, and laugh about the crazy in our lives.