Journey to Excellence

Science has been an area where we have struggled over the years. We tend to fit it in when it corresponds with another unit we are doing, but have not been able to stick with any formal science curriculum. This has worried me because I do not really have a way to assess if my kids are up to par on what they should know about science.  Science4Us.com is a web based science program that is recommended for Grades K-2, but it is also recommended for grades 3-5 as a refresher course. That is what caught my eye and what made me realize that this was a product I really wanted us to review. We received a six-month subscription to Science4Us.com Online Subscription   for both Eli and Brynne. I was able to register both kids separately in my class. We do grade level work for 3rd and 4th grade, so we jumped right into the program. We decided that we would complete one module per week and that turned out to be completely doable. Both of the kids were registered onto the program...

Our Science studies over the past couple of years have primarily centered around nature. Why? Because it's fairly easy to do. You go outside, see something that interests you, and learn about it. But other more technical and advanced Science studies have scared me. I guess since I don't feel like I know much about it that I won't be able to adequately teach it. And, where do we start? Thankfully we were given the opportunity to review e-Science by Supercharged Science . Al and Aurora Lipper have a true passion for science! I have received Aurora's free e-mails for a couple of years and we have tried some of her experiments at times. She also gives great webinars and a summer e-camp! The video instructions clearly demonstrate how to do the experiments and, scientifically, why things happen. She not only speaks to children, but to us parents, as well, who don't know the answers our children seek. My favorite thing about the Supercharge Science way is that...

Last year Dawson and I used an Apologia Educational Ministries product for Biology. And it did not work for us. It was too textbook ... too wordy ... too clinical ... to, well, school!  I even posted about how ashamed I was that we didn't like the curriculum. I received encouragement from many other homeschoolers that I should try the products for my elementary school kiddos. I was sure I wouldn't like it. Then, when we were given the opportunity to review some of the texts from the Young Explorer Series from Apologia Educational Ministries , I decided to heed the wise counsel of those before me and requested Exploring Creation with Zoology 1: Flying Creatures of the Fifth Day by Jeannie Fulbright. We received the hardback text and the Junior Zoology 1 Notebooking Journal  that accompanies and enhances the text. We decided to follow the suggested schedule set forth in the beginning of the notebooking journal, and did two days of assignments per week. This schedul...

Day 3 of the 2012/2013 school year happened on a SATURDAY! I recently posted about the Family Summer Camp provided by Bass Pro Shop . We attended three workshops: Wildlife Exploration , Backyard Adventures , and Archery . At the end of each workshop the kids answered four questions on their activity sheet and then went on a scavenger hunt in a designated area of the store to seek the answers to two questions. Once those were completed they received a pin for that workshop to attach to their lanyard. In between workshops, Eli and Brynne painted a ceramic bear track ... They practiced shooting guns, a bow and arrow, and casting a fishing pole ... And then they looked at all of the boats (a couple of times). Eli says he no longer wants to be a Ninja or a Golfer when he grow up. He wants to be a Boat Driver. Rick met us at the end of the day for dinner and s'mores. This one needed a shower when she was done. She enjoyed every bit...

A couple of months ago I was contacted by Susan Kilbride, the author of Science Unit Studies for Homeschoolers and Teachers about writing a review for the book. She had read my blog post on our The Secret Garden unit where I used her free Plant unit study downloaded from Funtastic Unit Studies . I told her that I would be thrilled to review the entire book that the plants unit came from, because we enjoyed it so much! Although we have not done any other full unit studies from the book yet, I have reviewed it extensively. I have even pulled out some relevant activities to do regarding delight-directed learning opportunities on which we had embarked. (Like our spontaneous Water Cycle unit . I just grabbed the book to see if there might be some activities on the Water Cycle, and voila! I found some great things in a snap!) I do, however, plan to use this book for many years to come. That's what's great about the book! It has designated activities for Ages 4-7, and ...

 This weeks letter at Blogging Through the Alphabet is "I". In a timely fashion, I is for "Ice Age". Ice Age is one of our favorite family movies. When we went on a Yellowstone trip a few years ago (60 hours in the car, for 9 days, through 7 states, with 4 kids, thank you very much ), I think we watched that movie at least 20 times. It's one of our favorite quotable movies. On July 13th, our family will be front and center, with our large box of popcorn and contraband candy, watching Ice Age 4: Continental Drift . And because there is no way to turn off my teacher brain (yes, I have tried), I thought I would do a unit study the week before the movie to prepare us for it. That way, when the characters are throwing around terms like "continental drift", "plate tectonics", and "Pangaea", my kids will have some background information, instead of just watching the movie to see what kind of trouble Sid the Sloth is in this time...