We've used Delta Education's Science in a Nutshell as part of our homeschool science curriculum for a while now. While I do like them, I can't give them an unqualified thumbs up.
The kits come with most of the supplies you need to perform the experiments. However, you must check the experiment ahead of time to make certain you have the other supplies needed. They aren't always simple items like tape & scissors.
I also recommend that you carefully check your kit when it is received. I ordered several kits. There were broken, missing, or expired parts in some of them. Delta Education was really good about replacing the parts, but it would have been hard to take care of it I hadn't check the kits until I was ready to use them.
The projects can be done by homeschool families, but all are written to be done by small groups in a class room. As homeschoolers, we've seen this before, so it's not a deal breaker. It's just nice to know that you may need to adapt some.
The projects and learning activities require parent involvement. Unless you have an older learner who is fairly self-motivated, plan on doing these along with your child.
If you want to use the work book, you have to make copies, which is a hassle. Individual workbooks aren't available. However, the book is spiral bound, so it's not difficult to make the copies.
The text/workbook organization is jumbled and confusing. It's not a straightforward approach. It is designed to be used by a teacher in a classroom. I can see that a teacher who plans on using something over & over, would put the time into figuring it all out. But, I want something easy to open up and use.
However, I do like the kits. The experiments are easy to do. My kids get excited when I pull one out.
There are plenty of supplies for more than one child to use the kit. The kits come with most of the hard to find parts and supplies.
I love that they come in nice, tidy, easy to store boxes. The boxes stack easily and are easy to move around.
We've used them to best success when I've set up a co-op or "summer science camp" with four girls. Even numbers are better since many experiments put the students into pairs.
Delta Science recommends these kits for grades 2-6, and I agree that this is a generally appropriate range.
Showing posts with label homeschool. Show all posts
Showing posts with label homeschool. Show all posts
Tuesday, July 19, 2011
Friday, July 15, 2011
Homeschool School Room
Sometimes I am asked what our homeschool room is like. The whole world is our school house. We go on field trips and learn from a wide variety of teachers. We watch spiders hatch in our back yard & study ecosystems at the beach.
You can find my children reading all over the house. Ballerina prefers her bed. Princess & Little Red like to curl up on the couch. Farmer girl reads everywhere including in her garden. We have books stashed in most rooms. I try to sneak a variety of educational books in, and I never comment when I catch the kids reading them.
But, that's not really what people want to know. They want to know where we do our book work. So, here are some pictures of our "school room." And, yes, it usually does look this messy or worse.
Each girl has her own desk with space to store her books and other assorted junk. Farmer Girl's desk, on the left, is graced with a paper mache dragon head right now. It's a model of a dragon from the book she is writing. Ballerina painted her desk a bright and very pretty pink, which doesn't go with anything else in the room, unfortunately. But, she likes it, and that's what matters. Princess has the desk on the right.
My desk and computer are in the background. I'm not known to share either very often.
Since I am stingy with my computer, we have a family
computer station set up in the living room. The internet is locked on this computer, so the kids only have access to pre-approved sites. I unlock access when they need to be able to view a broader range of material.
We used to keep this computer in the dining room on the shelf next to Little Red's desk. The noise level in the dining room made it hard for Farmer Girl to work on her on-line Latin class. So far having the computer in the living room is working well.
Those are the "official" school spaces. We spend a couple of hours every day using these areas. The rest of the time is spent actively involved in hands-on learning. But, if you ask my kids, they'll say it's just play.
You can find my children reading all over the house. Ballerina prefers her bed. Princess & Little Red like to curl up on the couch. Farmer girl reads everywhere including in her garden. We have books stashed in most rooms. I try to sneak a variety of educational books in, and I never comment when I catch the kids reading them.
But, that's not really what people want to know. They want to know where we do our book work. So, here are some pictures of our "school room." And, yes, it usually does look this messy or worse.
Ta Da! On the left you can see one of three desks lined up on that wall. Baby Boy has a red and blue "tool bench" in front of the sliding doors, On the right behind the table is one more desk and shelves. The blue covered chair in the right front is mine. It's on rollers so that I can zoom around the room to help each child.
Little Red uses this desk. She doesn't really need a desk yet, but she likes to have her own space just like the older girls. The rest of the unit holds assorted books, paper, paint, crayons, other supplies and rewards (aka bribes.)
Despite the fact that each child has her own desk, the dining room table is everyone's favorite place to do work.
My desk and computer are in the background. I'm not known to share either very often. Since I am stingy with my computer, we have a family
computer station set up in the living room. The internet is locked on this computer, so the kids only have access to pre-approved sites. I unlock access when they need to be able to view a broader range of material.
We used to keep this computer in the dining room on the shelf next to Little Red's desk. The noise level in the dining room made it hard for Farmer Girl to work on her on-line Latin class. So far having the computer in the living room is working well.
Those are the "official" school spaces. We spend a couple of hours every day using these areas. The rest of the time is spent actively involved in hands-on learning. But, if you ask my kids, they'll say it's just play.
Thursday, June 23, 2011
Free Homeschool ID Card
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Homeschool ID Card! |
I've participated in the Homeschool Buyers Co-op for several years now. They have wonderful buys on homeschooling resources and they offer free homeschool ID cards for teachers & students. You do have to sign up to get the ID card. However, they don't send spam and don't sell your email. Membership is free and gives you access to all kinds of great deals.
Sunday, June 12, 2011
Preschool at Home
In my earlier post, I stated that I don't believe that formal preschool is really necessary for most kids. However, preschool aged children do need to learn preschool skills. Fortunately, preschool skills aren't very complex.
What should they be learning
Preschoolers should be learning about their five senses and learning how to take care of their bodies. They should be learning to recognize and write letters and the sounds they make. Many preschoolers will soon be sounding out simple words. Counting, sorting, relative positions (up, under, beside...) and shapes are important to learn. In addition, preschoolers should be learning about their community and society.
Easy, Everyday Lessons
Most preschool learning should be part of everyday life. Preschoolers are naturally curious about everything. Daily activities can be turned into learning activities without much effort on Mom's part.
For instance, at the grocery store, explore the colors and smells in the produce section. Count apples as you put them in a bag. Talk about healthy foods. Review how to stay safe in public and what to do if lost.
Everywhere you go, ask lots of questions and encourage your preschooler to politely ask questions, too. Ask questions at the post office, dry cleaner, store, library, and every where else your errands take you. Allow some extra time in your schedule to move at a preschoolers pace.
Explore the outdoors. Your yard is good enough. Watch insects. Describe what is happening as you plant a seed and watch it grow. Observe the weather and talk about differences between seasons. Talk about what clothes a person would wear for each season.
Read, read, read, and then read some more. Read about our country's history. There are wonderful books about our nation's founders and about holidays. Read about other nations and other cultures, too.
Hands-on Activities
Give your child an old magazine, some scissors, and a gluestick. Let him cut and paste to his hearts content. It's not terribly messy and develops needed motor skills. Help him write a story to go along with his picture.
Use chalk to write letters a big as you both are able on the sidewalk. Form letters with playdough and cookie dough. Use your bodies to form letters. Draw letters in a bowl full of rice.
Once your child has learned to form letters, she'll probably want to write notes to friends and labels to pictures. Help her sound out the words. Don't stress if she spells things phonetically.
Get out the button jar & let your child sort the buttons into an egg carton. Sort by size, color, shape, or any other characteristic that you fancy. My kids love to get into the button jar. They think that they are getting away with something.
Most Importantly
The most important part of schooling a preschooler is to have fun. Enjoy each other. Take time to answer questions. And, don't make it harder than it should be.
Resources
Starfall - Lots of animations. (I've never used the paid part.)
Enchanted Learning - Not all is available for free. Free stuff has ads. But, lots and lots of good things here.
Worksheet Lab - Fun, colorful worksheets. I just found this recently.
Handwriting for Kids - Writing skills.
Most "Preschool" or "Kindergarten" workbooks. Just look through it to make sure that the work is about right for your child.
My all-time favorite resource is my public library!
What should they be learning
Preschoolers should be learning about their five senses and learning how to take care of their bodies. They should be learning to recognize and write letters and the sounds they make. Many preschoolers will soon be sounding out simple words. Counting, sorting, relative positions (up, under, beside...) and shapes are important to learn. In addition, preschoolers should be learning about their community and society.
Easy, Everyday Lessons
Most preschool learning should be part of everyday life. Preschoolers are naturally curious about everything. Daily activities can be turned into learning activities without much effort on Mom's part.
For instance, at the grocery store, explore the colors and smells in the produce section. Count apples as you put them in a bag. Talk about healthy foods. Review how to stay safe in public and what to do if lost.
Everywhere you go, ask lots of questions and encourage your preschooler to politely ask questions, too. Ask questions at the post office, dry cleaner, store, library, and every where else your errands take you. Allow some extra time in your schedule to move at a preschoolers pace.
Explore the outdoors. Your yard is good enough. Watch insects. Describe what is happening as you plant a seed and watch it grow. Observe the weather and talk about differences between seasons. Talk about what clothes a person would wear for each season.
Read, read, read, and then read some more. Read about our country's history. There are wonderful books about our nation's founders and about holidays. Read about other nations and other cultures, too.
Hands-on Activities
Give your child an old magazine, some scissors, and a gluestick. Let him cut and paste to his hearts content. It's not terribly messy and develops needed motor skills. Help him write a story to go along with his picture.
Use chalk to write letters a big as you both are able on the sidewalk. Form letters with playdough and cookie dough. Use your bodies to form letters. Draw letters in a bowl full of rice.
Once your child has learned to form letters, she'll probably want to write notes to friends and labels to pictures. Help her sound out the words. Don't stress if she spells things phonetically.
Get out the button jar & let your child sort the buttons into an egg carton. Sort by size, color, shape, or any other characteristic that you fancy. My kids love to get into the button jar. They think that they are getting away with something.
Most Importantly
The most important part of schooling a preschooler is to have fun. Enjoy each other. Take time to answer questions. And, don't make it harder than it should be.
Resources
Starfall - Lots of animations. (I've never used the paid part.)
Enchanted Learning - Not all is available for free. Free stuff has ads. But, lots and lots of good things here.
Worksheet Lab - Fun, colorful worksheets. I just found this recently.
Handwriting for Kids - Writing skills.
Most "Preschool" or "Kindergarten" workbooks. Just look through it to make sure that the work is about right for your child.
My all-time favorite resource is my public library!
Sunday, May 29, 2011
Preschool?
As a homeschooler, I'm hardly the person to ask about preschool. But, I have opinions anyway.
Generally, I'm not one who thinks preschool is all that important. Yes, the skills learned are important. Kids need to learn colors, numbers, letters, how to wait their turn, and basic classroom behavior. Any involved parent can teach these skills at home and by involving the child in church or some other program.
However, two of my children did attend a formal pre-school. Both Keegan & Dawnlynn have developmental delays. After participating in the Birth-to-Three early intervention program in our area, they each attended our local public school district's special education preschool. I can state with conviction that early intervention works.
At school they received speech and occupational therapy that I couldn't provide at home. Keegan went for approximate two hours a day, five days a week.
Dawnlynn went for the same until January of this year. She'd begun begging to stay home and crying about going to preschool. In addition, her development is at target, with the exception of a few speech sounds. Finally, she was showing a great interest in the schooling we were doing at home. Over Winter Break, Dawnlynn was much happier staying home with us. Now she goes to preschool one day a week to continue speech therapy.
As for my other children, Kathleen was a bright child who was always ahead. She would have been bored in preschool. She joined a public school strings class with no problems in 5th grade. Due to her developmental delays, Constance would have benefited from the early special-ed program. Baby Benjamin isn't old enough to make the preschool decision yet.
For a typical child, I wouldn't worry about preschool as long as Mom is playing with and teaching the kiddo. We count stairs while we are climbing them, talk about colors in the produce section at the grocery store, and read together. We also attend church weekly where the children learn what's expected when in a group.
Socialization is always a question. But, how much socialization does a three, four, or five year old really need? If s/he's an only child, there's an argument for getting some extra outside socialization. But, if there's more than one child of somewhat similar ages in the family, playing with each other and with other neighbor kids some is plenty of socialization for that age.
Finally, I don't think that preschool is bad. I don't think that parents who put their kids in pre-school are bad. There are lots of good reasons that families make the choices they do. I just don't think that a child who doesn't go to preschool is doomed.
Wednesday, May 4, 2011
Animated Hero Classics: The Wright Brothers
Let me start by stating the I really don't like cartoon versions of history (don't get me started on Pocahontas), but, I was *very* impressed by this. The characters were drawn to actually look like the real-life Wright brothers. The video included real science and discussion of what breakthroughs the Wright brothers accomplished. It also brought in additional related characters and events from the time period. Finally, there were no made-up animal friends!
The video told the story in a straightforward, easy way to follow. My 4 yo, 7 yo, and 11 yo all sat down to watch and enjoyed it. Although she won't admit it, even my 13 yo was caught peeking. I, also, learned new things. (I had no idea what wing warping was or why it is important. But, now, the whole family knows.)
After watching the video, we took the quizzes that came on the DVD. The multiple choice questions gave me the opportunity to evaluate how well my kids understood the video. Each question has the option to watch a small snippet of the DVD again to learn the answer.
The video has language tracks in English & Spanish, and has subtitles in both languages. It's available through the Whatcom County Libary System.
Evidently, this is part of a full series of DVDs. To be honest, I'd probably not checked this out had I known it was part of a "character building" series. It's not that I object to character building; it's just that often they tend to be too sappy for my taste. After trying this one, I'm going to check out some more from our library.
The video told the story in a straightforward, easy way to follow. My 4 yo, 7 yo, and 11 yo all sat down to watch and enjoyed it. Although she won't admit it, even my 13 yo was caught peeking. I, also, learned new things. (I had no idea what wing warping was or why it is important. But, now, the whole family knows.)
After watching the video, we took the quizzes that came on the DVD. The multiple choice questions gave me the opportunity to evaluate how well my kids understood the video. Each question has the option to watch a small snippet of the DVD again to learn the answer.
The video has language tracks in English & Spanish, and has subtitles in both languages. It's available through the Whatcom County Libary System.
Evidently, this is part of a full series of DVDs. To be honest, I'd probably not checked this out had I known it was part of a "character building" series. It's not that I object to character building; it's just that often they tend to be too sappy for my taste. After trying this one, I'm going to check out some more from our library.
Friday, April 22, 2011
Homeschool Books Reviewed ~ Jane Goodall & The Chimpanzee Family Book
Book #1: Jane Goodall (Scholastic News Nonfiction Readers: Biographies)
by Jo Kittinger
I'm afraid I don't have a picture of this one. This is a simple, very basic biography of Jane Goodall. It's a nice introduction to her & her work. However, it is far too simple to be used with any but the younger grade school children. It's published by Scholastic and is available in the Whatcom Co. Library.
Both books can be used for a study of Jane Goodall. Her story provides a great launching point for lots of learning and discussion. Here are a few suggestions. They aren't all appropriate for all ages of children.
Personification: Jane names the chimps rather than using the typical numbering system. She also attributes human-like actions and feelings to them. Is this a good thing? How does it affect our views about the chimps?
Tool use: Before Jane's observation of a chimpanzee using a stick to obtain termites to eat, it was believed that making & using tools was an ability only possessed by humans. How does scientific discovery progress? what happens when we learn something that doesn't fit with currently held beliefs? How do we currently determine what is a human? What traits are uniquely human?
Treatment of animals: Do animals have rights? If so, what are they? Do humans have responsibility to animals? In what way do humans affect wild animals? What about the Frodo's attack killing a human baby? (Don't read this if you're pregnant; you'll cry. http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0304/feature4/online_extra2.html) Should he have been "put down?" How much interaction should people and animals have?
Science: What did Jane expect to find? What did she learn over time? Did any of her theories change? (For a long time she thought the chimps were kinder than people. Then she learned that they can be very violent too. Females at the top of the social order, sometimes snatch and kill other females babies. Different groups of chimpanzees battle.)
History: What has happened to baby Galahad in the last 20 years since the book was published? (He died in a disease outbreak.) What has happened to Jane Goodall? (She's still alive and lecturing. You can hear her greet you in "Chimpanzee" at http://www.janegoodall.org/media/videos/jane-goodalls-chimp-greeting)
I hope you enjoy learning about Jane Goodall and chimpanzees as much as we did!
by Jo KittingerI'm afraid I don't have a picture of this one. This is a simple, very basic biography of Jane Goodall. It's a nice introduction to her & her work. However, it is far too simple to be used with any but the younger grade school children. It's published by Scholastic and is available in the Whatcom Co. Library.
Book # 2: The Chimpanzee Family Book by Jane Goodall is a delightful story of one day in the life of a mama chimpanzee and her baby. Jane follows them for one day & tells us all about what they do. When I first flipped through this book, I thought I'd have to summarize the pages because there is quite a bit of text. However, when I started reading it, I found that it was written in story-book fashion. My kids enjoyed listening to it and looking at the pictures.
Both books can be used for a study of Jane Goodall. Her story provides a great launching point for lots of learning and discussion. Here are a few suggestions. They aren't all appropriate for all ages of children.
Personification: Jane names the chimps rather than using the typical numbering system. She also attributes human-like actions and feelings to them. Is this a good thing? How does it affect our views about the chimps?
Tool use: Before Jane's observation of a chimpanzee using a stick to obtain termites to eat, it was believed that making & using tools was an ability only possessed by humans. How does scientific discovery progress? what happens when we learn something that doesn't fit with currently held beliefs? How do we currently determine what is a human? What traits are uniquely human?
Treatment of animals: Do animals have rights? If so, what are they? Do humans have responsibility to animals? In what way do humans affect wild animals? What about the Frodo's attack killing a human baby? (Don't read this if you're pregnant; you'll cry. http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0304/feature4/online_extra2.html) Should he have been "put down?" How much interaction should people and animals have?
Science: What did Jane expect to find? What did she learn over time? Did any of her theories change? (For a long time she thought the chimps were kinder than people. Then she learned that they can be very violent too. Females at the top of the social order, sometimes snatch and kill other females babies. Different groups of chimpanzees battle.)
History: What has happened to baby Galahad in the last 20 years since the book was published? (He died in a disease outbreak.) What has happened to Jane Goodall? (She's still alive and lecturing. You can hear her greet you in "Chimpanzee" at http://www.janegoodall.org/media/videos/jane-goodalls-chimp-greeting)
I hope you enjoy learning about Jane Goodall and chimpanzees as much as we did!
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