Riparian Preserve Field Trip

Our first field trip with the Biology class was to the Riparian Preserve in Gilbert.  We needed to collect some pond water to grow different microorganisms in and there are not a lot of natural ponds and/or lakes around here.  So when several moms told me about the Riparian Preserve, I went to check it out.  It is really beautiful and educational.  There is a main lake where you can actually fish.  And we saw many ducks and a turtle in the water.  The Riparian Preserve is a place where they reclaim groundwater and pass it through several different marsh-like bodies of water in order to clean it.  Then it is used for all different purposes.  We also saw a great blue heron and many white egrets, as we explored the area.

The kids seemed to have a good time, as they found a pool of water with some fish left in it.  They caught 2 of them and decided to return them to the lake.  Not sure if they both made it into the water, but....

We did collect the water we needed for the experiments that we will be doing this coming Friday and the kids seemed to enjoy the time.  The weather was perfect - cloudy with a nice breeze - very odd for the middle of August.

We are also talking about going to the Botanical Gardens when we are studying the Plant Kingdom, and Biosphere 2 during our holiday break.  So far, this Biology Co-op is going well and we all seem to be enjoying it.

Watching the Olympics

The Winter Olympics are my son's favorite. He has been waiting expectantly for 2 years for these Winter Olympics. We enjoy all the downhill events, as well as snowboarding. My daughter loves figure skating and I can't help but be fascinated by curling. I know, it is a strange sport, but it is alot like playing pool and for some reason I can sit and watch a whole match (IF the USA is playing:-). I have read to learn more about the rules and the stones used. Strange, I know!

We are looking forward to watching the Flying Tomato tonight (Shawn White) do his new signature move on the half pipe. Since we are in a close time zone to the Olympics and they are airing during the day and evening, I decided we would watch the Olympics for school this week. My kids have to watch at least 3 hours of Olympic events each day and they have to select a sport to write a report about by Friday. Are you using the Winter Olympics in your homeschooling? If so, what are you doing? Would love to get more ideas - there is a second week of them after all:-)

This is too funny - my NEW homeschool motto!

I found this over on Why Homeschool and just had to share! I always liked the song "I Will Survive" sung by Gloria Gaynor, but this is just too hysterical - the HOMESCHOOL MOM version! Thanks to Natalie

Cool Off with Arctic Animals Study

Last week, I spent a day with a friend of mine and her children doing a unit study on Arctic Animals. We had a blast (that would be a cold arctic blast:-) and I just wanted to share some of the things that we did. First of all, most of the ideas and material came from Sea World's Educational site - did you know that they had great unit studies online? The material included some great experiments as well as tons of information. I also went to the library and picked up about 15 books on different animals from the Arctic, and ordered a DVD from Netflix called Growing Up Arctic.

We started the day by reviewing the sequence of Creation from the first chapter of Genesis to discover when the arctic animals we were going to study were created. Then we started on our cooking craft and mixed up and baked some cupcakes that we would later turn into Polar Bear "Cub"cakes. We read some books, watched the DVD, the older two children, Sam and Charis, wrote reports about their favorite Arctic Animal. Then the kids made walruses out of paper plates and had a lot of fun creating and naming their own walruses. It was a wonderfully fun day and I think the kids really enjoyed doing school in this manner. I am a huge proponent of unit studies, especially when you have multiple children of all different ages to teach at the same time. I did this project in order to "show" my friend how we do unit studies at our house and how much fun, yet very educational, they can be.

I would like to encourage you, if you have never done unit studies or at least not very often, that you consider this approach very seriously. The retention and relaxed fun of learning that results is amazing and school will not be a drudge to be endured each day. We are currently using literature-based unit studies at our house and my children actually beg me to do school during the summer when I like to take it a little easier. So we just do a couple days a week to keep everyone happy.

For more homeschooling ideas and encouragement, visit the Carnival of Homeschooling - The Boy Scout Edition hosted over at Consent of the Governed.

Nature in Your Own Backyard

No matter where you live, there is always something interesting to be found in your own backyard. That's why nature is such a great thing to study in homeschooling. Every place that we have lived, there has always been some new creature to learn about. Like tree frogs in Myrtle Beach, hummingbird vines in Memphis, and now Desert Iguana Lizards in San Luis. We have a multitude of these guys in our yard, which is great because they eat spiders! And we have had lots of them, including black widows. But these two are the largest and they are obviously in love:-) and I think the female is pregnant (or just ate something rather large).

Don't miss the opportunities right in your own backyard to explore some of the wonderful creatures and plants that God has made. Take time to study nature in your own backyard! Let me know what interesting things you find.

Also, for more great homeschool ideas, check out the 133rd Carnival of Homeschooling hosted over at the Red Sea School.

I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE This Unit Study!!

Did I say I LOVE it? I have been so happy with this unit study that we are using next year that I decided I just wanted to share about it with you all. It is called A World of Adventures by Learning Adventures. It started with Ancient Egypt and continues through the Age of Exploration. It is so well laid out and so much research and information is included that you could just read what Dorian Holt wrote and get a great education. But when you add videos, DVDs, and books from the library, as well an online resources, you come away with an incredible amount of learning and adventures!! What an appropriate name!

You can go over to the Learning Adventures website and even view some Sample Lesson Plans just to give you a good idea of how much is included. She very adequately covers Bible, Literature (it is a literature-based unit study using some incredible classics), Language Arts (including Spelling, Grammar, Writing and more), Social Studies, Science and Fine Arts. The only thing that I supplement is Math and Typing!

This curriculum is geared to 4th-8th graders, but can be altered to accommodate youngers and even olders, too. I have used MANY unit studies over the years (because that is all that I use) and have never found such a complete package as this one is.

Each year costs about $90-$100 for the full curriculum! That is a great price, too! And for about $20-$26 you can also order the Student Pages which are a tremendous help with Spelling, Grammar, etc. This curriculum is worth every penny and we have had a tremendous year learning with Learning Adventures. We are going to continue with A New World of Adventure this coming year and we (my kids and I) are really looking forward to it.I also made up my own Lesson Plan pages to go along with this curriculum, and that has made it so much easier. I don't know why I didn't do this sooner (it didn't take much time at all). I have my notebook with the unit we are studying, plus my lesson plan pages, and each child has their notebook with their Student Pages, writing assignments, projects, maps, etc. It is so convenient and easy to begin our school day each day with this.If you decide to buy Learning Adventures, please let Dorian know that I sent you. I don't get anything from it, I just want her to know how much I appreciate the work she has put into this great curriculum. I am going to email her today and let her know how much we have enjoyed it, too!

Check out the Carnival of Homeschooling hosted by Po Moyemu this week.

Sometimes You Just Gotta Have Fun With Your Kids!

As my kids get older, it gets more and more important to me that we take time every so often to just play and have fun. The academics are getting more and more involved and we spend every day together doing school. We need time to "play" every so often. And that isn't as simple as pulling out some toys now that they are almost teenagers. So last week we were able to go to the county fair and just play!Yes, that is us upside down on some crazy ride that they talked me into going on! But a "carney" standing nearby bet me two stuffed dolphins that I wouldn't do it, so I was the winner in the end!We didn't do anything educational, we just had a blast riding crazy rides and hanging out together. It was a great day of bonding. We didn't even look at the animal exhibits or any of the science exhibits. I know, I should have taken advantage of the "learning" opportunities available at the county fair. But you know what? I think for this time in our relationship and lives, this was much more valuable than anything else. I feel blessed that my kids aren't embarrassed to hang out with their mom in public and that they actually like to do stuff together. I pray that will never change!As your kids get older, what are some of the things you do together just to spend time having fun? I would love to hear other ideas and experiences. For more homeschooling related items, please visit the Carnival of Homeschooling over at The Nerd Family's blog.

Our Home School Science Fair and Science Show

Each year, our homeschool support groups hosts a science fair, complete with science show. One of our dads is a Chemistry teacher and he puts on quite a fun show for us all! This year, he even did the Mentos in Diet Coke things (from Mythbusters - a favorite show in our home)!
There were a number of entries in the science fair and all the kids did a great job!
What a fun way to promote science among our home school groups!
Does your group have a science fair? And if so, is it judged? Do you feed into your local county science fair? As a support group leader, I am interested to hear how your group does it. And how large is your group? Thanks for your input!

My Favorite Homeschooling Moments...Reading To My Kids

My favorite time that I spend home schooling with my kids is when we snuggle on the couch and I read to them. I try to do this daily, but it happens usually 3 or 4 evening a week. To me, this is my favorite time and I hope they never outgrow it. I had a friend back in Myrtle Beach who told me that even when her kids were high school age, they still wanted her to read aloud to them together. That is my hope! And now my kids are 13 and 11, and they still beg me to read almost every night. I love it! It is the most precious time to me. It makes me stop the busy-ness of the day and just be with them. We have read all kinds of books - some that make me cry, some that make me laugh, some that are difficult to get through (written at very high levels) and some that are just quick and easy. I hope we never lose the closeness that we share when we read together!

Go on over to Heart of the Matter to see what others have said about their "Favorite Homeschooling Moment."

Want to Know What is Happening in the World of Homeschooling?

For quite a while I have been checking Homeschoolbuzz Blog Buzz on a daily basis to keep up with what is going on around the country (and world) as it relates to homeschooling. Well, yesterday my blog was added to their blog roll and now my posts will be featured on their page! I am so excited about the added exposure this gives my blog and the fact that I can reach so many more potential homeschooling families with words of encouragement about living frugally and healthy, as well as homeschooling and missions. Go over and check it out! It's a great place to gt an overview of alot of different bloggers and what is happening in the homeschooling community.

Having Fun With Science

This wonderful book, The Burgess Bird Book for Children, is a wonderful story about Peter Rabbit and all the bird friends he meets and makes throughout the year. Through this story, and it's beautiful illustrations, children learn all about birds, the sounds they make, their habits, what they look like and more.
I happened upon this book at a library used book sale for $3.00! I had originally borrowed a newer copy from a friend in order to use it with my kids and they just loved the story! But in the newer version, the pictures are in black and white, not the lovely watercolor illustrations in the original. So when I came upon this old book, I was ecstatic! What a lovely treasure and a great keepsake for the kids!


This week we have been studying volcanoes, so we built our own. The kids built a "volcano" of dirt (sand in our case) around a water bottle. We put 1 T of baking soda in the bottle, then poured about a cup of red-colored vinegar into the bottle and watched the volcano erupt! It was very fun!

Take the time to do some of the FUN science stuff with your kids! It will payoff big when their enthusiasm returns and you have fun together! They will also learn and retain better when projects are involved.

New Freebie Directory 2008 from The Old Schoolhouse

Here are some great homeschooling freebies from The Old Schoolhouse! Alot of them are samples of great products, curriculum, books, etc. Check it out! You don't have to subscribe to the magazine to get the Freebie Directory, but check out the magazine anyway - it is really great!

Some of my favorite homeschooling links

I decided I wanted to share some of my favorite homeschool links with you today. So check them out when you have the time. I hope this is a helpful resource for you.

Homeschool Math - online games and resources to help with math
National Library of Virtual Manipulatives - virtual help with all types of math and all levels
Living Math! - literature for learning math concepts
Figure This! - math challenges for families

Learning Through History - great history resources

Discovery School - great learning adventures and much more!
Cool Science for Curious Kids - great resource for exploring science topics
Plant Quests - great resource for studying plants
The Great Dinosaur Mystery - fun and educational site by Christian Answers
4 2 explore - great for unit studies or just researching a topic

Unit Studies for Homeschool - great list of topics and resources
Internet Directory of Unit Studies - by the Four Wheelers and another great resource

Free Homeschool Stuff - links to all kinds of freebies
Easy Fun School - tons of great resources

WebMonkey for Kids - teaches kids how to build a website

Well, that's just a sampling of some of my favorite resources for homeschooling. Let me know if you find something you like. I will post another list with more resources from time to time. If you are looking for something in particular, just let me know and I will post a link to help you find what you are looking for.

Weird, but True...Homeschooling and Real Life

We are currently studying earthquakes, and guess what just happened?!! We had an earthquake!! No kidding!! It was centered about 25 miles away in Baja California and was 5.1 on the richter scale. I was typing on my computer and the whole table started moving!! My husband said the walls even moved! Yikes!! My son, standing a few feet away didn't even feel it, but he saw the water in the cooler moving and the hanging basket in the kitchen swinging.

So I went online and found the info about it from the U.S. Geological Survey site, and sure enough, there it was! Within the last hour! They have a place for you to report what you experienced, so I filled out that page and submitted our info. How cool was that to be able to participate in their research? We have felt a few small earthquakes here in the 5 years we have been here, but thankfully nothing really big.

Well, that was enough excitement for one day:-)! Hope there isn't anything bigger!

Tuesday is Carnival Day!

And I'm not talking about Mardi Gras! For those of you who didn't know, Tuesday is a day when there are lots of blog carnivals about many different things. There are a few I love to check out every week:

Carnival of Homeschooling is over at About.com:Homeschooling

Kitchen Tip Tuesday is always hosted by Tammy's Recipes

Festival of Frugality is at BeingFrugal.net

and you can find the Make it From Scratch Carnival at Stop the Ride!

This is the first week I was able to participate in all of these, so check out my posts!

Studying "The Messiah" by Handel

As part of our unit study on Ancient Rome, we have been studying and listening to The Messiah, by George Frederick Handel. My sister-in-law sent the 2 disc set to me for Christmas and while I thought it was a nice gift, I wasn't particularly excited about it. But little did I realize (since I didn't look ahead much) that we would actually be studying and listening to the entire production as part of our next unit! How excited I was when I realized how God had used My dsil Karen to provide exactly what we needed!

And I want to tell you that is has been so wonderful! Over the last couple of weeks, we have been listening to several parts each day and reading the scriptures they were taken from and discussing how the music "acts out" the words. It as been so educational, as well as beautiful! I want to thank Dorian Holt (author of Learning Adventures) for including this incredible study in her curriculum.

The Continual Joy of Unit Studies: Renaissance Faire and Growing Crystal Candy

Since day one of homeschooling (some 9 years ago now), I have used unit studies because they are fun, educational, easy to incorporate all subjects and we can all work together! And did I say FUN? We are currently studying ancient history with A World of Adventures by Learning Adventures and have been able to incorporate alot of fun activities into our schooling. This past weekend we went to the Two Rivers Renaissance Faire and the kids learned to juggle and fence. There were many funny, educational and entertaining shows as well. The renaissance festival season is well under way across the country and continues throughout the year, so check your area to see if you can take advantage of attending one of these to add zest to your homeschooling. And make sure you count that day as a homeschooling day! The schools sure do (there were many yellow buses there, too.)


Since we are studying rocks and minerals, we finally got to use a kit that the grandparents gave us a while back to grow crystal rock candy. My daughter can't wait to try it (she had to wait 7 days!!). But it has been very interesting to watch the growth and changes each day. I would encourage you to include as many fun learning activities as you can into your homeschool and make it memorable and exciting for your kids to learn.

Talk About "Walking on Eggshells"!

We have been saving eggshells for over a week now for an eggshell mosaic project coming up next week in our curriculum. I started washing and cleaning them out, but it takes a LONG time! Any hints, tips, tricks anyone would like to share? I will post pictures of the kids' mosaics when they are completed. This is for our study of Ancient Rome. We are also studying volcanoes, like Pompeii, so that should prove to be fun! Right now we have Rock Candy growing in a jar on the counter. Oh, the fun and joy of homeschooling!!

Library books galore!

I don't know about you, but whenever we start a new unit I visit the library (or my husband does like this time) and get LOTS of books on the topics we are studying. This month we are studying Ancient Rome and Rocks & Minerals, Earthquakes and Volcanoes. There are DVDs, videos, activity books, fiction books, and non-fiction books. Hopefully , these will last for 3-4 weeks. And that cute crate? Found that at a yard sale a few months back for $4.00!!

We are using Learning Adventures "A World of Adventure" this year and I LOVE it! It is laid out day-by-day and covers everything except math (for that I use Math-U-See). During this unit we are also studying and listening to Handel's Messiah. That has been really great, too. There are plenty of hands-on activities like cooking, science experiments, etc. It also includes Spelling, Grammar, Writing, Vocabulary, History, Science and more! I am very pleased with this curriculum.

And BTW, this doesn't include all the personal reading library books that we have out right now. Good thing our library lets you check out as many books as you want:-)!