Once again this week I am overwhelmed with both the quantity and quality of free educational web sites available. I enjoying finding and exploring these sites with my kids. I’m thankful for the homeschooling blog and social media communities for their time and efforts to share resources that add much to our homeschooling studies.
Below are a few of the links to free learning sites that I saved to my teaching resource files this week.
Human anatomy interactive (This was bit difficult to catch on to, as they do not have written instructions, but once I got the hang of it, I thought the technology was amazing and will be a great teaching resource) http://www.zygotebody.com/
It’s my hope that these links will be a little something extra that you can add to your homeschooling studies, and that you and your kids will not just learn from them, but have some fun as well.
According to the special days in September calendar, the 19th is Talk Like a Pirate Day! And on our planner, it’s the last day of our pirate unit study that we have been working on a couple of days a week for the past several weeks. It’s been a fun and interesting study. Below are some of the resources we have been using.
How to tie knots was also a valuable pirate expertise, so we gave that a try as well. This site has step by step knot tying instructions http://www.netknots.com/rope_knots/
September 17th (1787) is the anniversary of the United States Constitution and the start of Constitution Week. So often we hear or read about “Constitutional Rights” and freedoms being debated, taken away, or altered in various ways.
This week my kids will be reviewing, researching, and notebooking all things constitutional so it will be clear to them just what our constitutional rights are.
Below are some of the resources we will be incorporating into our Constitution Week homeschool studies.
This song is from my childhood (from Saturday morning cartoons) and it is how I’ve always remembered the preamble to the constitution. This is also how my older kids have learned it. Now it’s time to pass it down to the youngest two. School House Rock – The Constitution https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0EfnNUt_nwY&list=PLKt00sUUapAJAcxUs2rp75ymjPMki6noW
Mini posters of how a bill becomes a law, the Bill of Rights, and branches of government (you will need an account to get the downloads, but it isn’t complicated and it’s free) http://www.kidsdiscover.com/celebrate-constitution-day/
I doubt that anyone needs a special day calendar reminder that September 11, 2001 is the anniversary of a major historic event. As homeschoolers, we learn about important events. Usually it’s not stressful to teach history, even though some of the world’s past is tragic, we still learn about those times. But, teaching the history of 9-11 is the most difficult subject that I’ve ever attempted to teach. It was such a horrible and painful day and that horror and pain is still fresh for so many.
Home educating parents are asking, ” How much are we supposed to expose our children to about the events and aftermath of this day?” I’m asking that myself. Even the minimal historic account is overwhelming. However, I don’t think we should just continue with school as usual.
My older kids remember vividly watching the news and seeing the devastation. They have had this topic come up in their current event studies dozens of times throughout the years. However, that won’t make reviewing this day any easier for them. My J isn’t going to be able handle much of this topic, just the bare minimum facts and a coloring sheet. Z, at 8 years old is going to have questions that I don’t have answers to. And this time there is no link to follow for answers.
As I’ve researched for 9-11 study helps, I’ve found these links. I’ve reviewed them, and parts may be helpful, I’m not in complete agreement with any of them. I will not be recommending these or perhaps even using them in our 9-11 studies, but thought I’d share what I found. I do stress that as a parent you pre-view before just pressing the play button and leaving your kids to watch.
An animated documentary explaining the timeline of 9-11 events
I browse for educational sites that offer teaching resources both for my family’s homeschool and for others. Researching and collecting these free educational links is one of my hobbies. Below are my favorite finds from this week.
This was not such a great week. Car troubles, a broken faucet in the kitchen sink, a broken drain pipe in the bathroom sink, hurt bodies, snotty noses, sore throats, upset tummies, blown out tennis shoes, and heat index temperatures over 100 degrees. Gee, I’m glad the week is over.
This was one of those weeks when I was happy to have some flexibility with our schedule. E, B, and I decided it would benefit us if we switched to economics instead of algebra (for this week only). Algebra is challenging enough without stuffy heads. We only took notes instead of writing essays and watched extra educational tv in place of reading. And, of course, added some extra health lessons as we’ve sought natural remedies, disinfected our germ areas, and changed up our diet while fighting our summer colds.
The highlights of the week were again from our pirate unit study. This week we learned about ships and sailing, and added a bit more to our lapbook board.
And the chalkboard wall mural is probably finished. We are still kicking around a couple of ideas to improve it, but for now this is what has been done.
According to my special days calendar, August 28th marks the anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.s speech “I Have A Dream” at the 1963 March On Washington.
Below are some wonderful free resources I found to create a one day mini unit study. These resources will cover the subjects of language arts, art, music, and history.
“I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.” – Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
I have that same dream for my five (not so) little children.
The past couple of Mondays, I’ve had my early morning coffee while reading something funny about homeschooling. It’s been a nice way to start off the week, and just maybe, Monday coffee with giggles will become a habit. I’m sharing what’s making me smile as I start my Monday and I’m hoping it adds a little fun to your Monday, too.
This was our third week of the new school year. E17 had her 12th Day of the 12th Grade photo taken for our yearbook.
Now that the kids photos in front of the chalkboard wall are finished, we’ve been able to start on the next mural. We’ve got a lot left to do on it, but so far we’re liking it.
J10 and Z8 have been working on their pirate lapbook. I like to put the booklets on the bulletin board as we make them. Later, they will be transferred to a file folder.E17 and B15 have been researching pirate facts and superstitions for their notebooking assignments. Some of the things they are learning are pretty strange. For example, when a pirate said “Shiver me timbers” it was actually a request for another pirate to shave an especially difficult to reach portion of his back ( “shiver” means “shave” and “timbers” means “lower back”). Now if only the research could help us in answering why would a pirate need his lower back shaved because that was the question we had.
We’ve been reading more pirate themed books. Our movie of the week was Muppet Treasure Island.
The movie lead us to our next pirate lesson, music! We all enjoyed the soundtrack as we listened to identify instruments and applied what we have been learning about music theory . This was the most popular sing along of the week. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ltWirB6jKh0
Next week we’re looking forward to more pirate adventures as we continue with our first unit study of the school year. And I’m looking forward to finishing the mural and getting the dust mess cleaned up, argh!
We have finally completed our pirate unit studies. Our lapbook board is full and ready to be put in file folders.
We attempted to make a treasure chest cake, but it didn’t quite turn out like it should have. Although it tasted great!
Still Learning Something New 