Circling Through This Life

Today's theme for the Back to School 5 Days of Homeschool Encouragement  is Work It In Wednesday! Today I want to share about how homeschooling isn't just form of education but a way of life.  One of my big goals for home education was to instill a love of life long learning in my children.  Just because it isn't a school day or we are on vacation doesn't mean that education doesn't happen. We live in a state that requires instructional hours.  Something equivalent to 5.5 "instructional" hours a day for 180 days.  Thankfully my state recognizes that home education can be more efficient than classroom education in a public school. We tended to do 'year round' schooling taking breaks as life thew its punches.  During the summer we did more "fun" school like hands on science but my favorite thing about "homeschool as a lifestyle" is that going on vacation didn't mean a break from learning.  It meant a break from forma...

Thank you Northwest Treasures and the Homeschool Review Crew for the opportunity to review Rocks and Minerals for Little Eyes  from their Geology for "Little Eyes" series. Many years ago when I was trying to finish up my Associate of Arts degree I needed to take a science with a Lab or another math class.  I looked at the math classes and went nope. Not happening.  I looked at the science classes. Remember it had to have a lab.  I quickly crossed off Biology. I was not about to dissect anything.  Chemistry was the next to go as it had too much math involved.  I settled for something called Physical Geography.  It was listed as a science. It had a lab.  It met the requirements I needed.  I fell in love.  Physical Geography is part of the Earth Sciences.  It's geology that focuses on the physical characteristics of the Earth's lithosphere, hydrosphere, atmosphere, and biosphere.  I mostly remember the lithosphere stuff....

Many years ago when my girls were still very young, I was introduced to Apologia Educational Ministries through their Elementary Science Series of books.  We used Exploring Creation Through Astronomy and followed it up with Exploring Creation through Botany.  As the girls grew we continued to include Apologia Science in our home school and in high school all three of the "big" girls used Exploring Creation Through Biology. Recently, as part of my role with the Homeschool Review Crew, I received Marine Biology 2nd Edition Advantage Set .  Apologia generously included the Marine Biology 2nd Edition Audio CD . If you're a regular reader of my blog you'll know that I don't have any high school students anymore.  Boobear graduated from University in May.  In June Tailorbear graduated from our home school high school.  Turtlegirl graduated last year and is away at college. All of them said the same thing "oh man, I wanted to study Marine Biology when I w...

My Turtlegirl loves science. She completed a physics course early in high school but neither of us have been confident that it provided enough of the math part of physics. Since her high school career is winding down and we’re in the college app and h.s. transcript stage I began to panic wondering what to do about her Physics credit. Last year, Tailorbear had the opportunity to try the biology course from Fascinating Education . When the crew offered the chance to review Fascinating Physics , Turtlegirl and I decided that we needed to check it out. Fascinating Education Dr. Marguiles, a neurologist, developed Fascinating Science. He sees learning as a neurological issue and uses his education, training, and experience to help kids understand how our world works. Fascinating Education uses an audiovisual technique. Students hear science explained in a step by step manner that breaks down complicated science into easy to understand “plain English.” While hearing the lecture, the stu...

Each month I’ve been writing a blog post about Homeschooling High School and participating the Blog Hop.  This month I want to share about the Math and Science resources that we have used. It is overwhelming to think about teaching subjects like Math and Science. Thankfully there are many resources and curriculum choices for parents to consider. Some require more prep work and knowledge of the parent and others essentially teach the material, leaving mom to just facilitate learning and record grades. Math My absolute favorite program for teaching Algebra from Pre-Algebra concepts all the way through Algebra II is VideoText Algebra .  We were blessed to review this through the Schoolhouse Review Crew and we are still using it. Yes, sometimes I have to watch a lesson a time or two and check the solution guide in order to help Tailorbear but essentially it is a program that teaches her and I am only there to administer quizzes and tests, encourage her to complete her work daily...

The longer I home school the more I appreciate being able to utilize different approaches to learning. Supergirl doesn’t learn in the same way her sisters did. Being able to watch a video clip, interact with that video clip and complete activities related to the content of the video works much better than the the methods I used with her sisters.  This is why I wanted to try Digital Online Science from Visual Learning Systems . We received both the Digital Science Online: Elementary Edition (Grades K-5) and Secondary Edition (Grades 6-12) . Visual Learning Systems Visual Learning Systems is an educational science publisher. Their mission is to provide high quality content that instructs, challenges and inspires students.  Their videos, interactive graphics, animations, and images provide a visual based way to learn which is very appealing in this age of technology. VLS offers content in both DVD, and Digital formats or you choose a digital subscription . Digital Science On...

I am not a science oriented person. I did not take a single science course in high school. I avoided Biology completely. I did my best to avoid chemistry as well, choosing to meet my college science with a lab requirements by taking Geology classes. Dissecting a rock is much easier than dissecting a frog! As a home school mom I’ve learned to love science, but even though I’ve had two high school students complete biology in my home school, I still prefer that someone else teach it. Tailorbear loves biology. The options I used with BooBear and Turtlegirl require more independent study and so are not as suitable for Tailorbear’s temperament. We were excited to see Fascinating Biology offered from Fascinating Education . Dr. Margulies is the founder and creator of Fascinating Education. He is a neurologist, author of three educational textbooks and currently holds the title clinical assistant professor at two universities. As a neurologist he understands the brain. He understands how...

I love literature based home schooling! In 2013 we had the opportunity to review two packages from Moving Beyond the Page so when they came up again this crew, Tailorbear expressed super high interest. I mean she was super excited and did the research to give me her first and second and even a third choice! She chose her language arts package based on the book that interested her most and she chose the science package that coordinates with it as her first choice.  I wish I had a picture of her reaction when I told her that we would be reviewing Language Arts Package - The House of Scorpion /Online and Science Package – Genetics and DNA . Program Overview Moving Beyond the Page is a research based, comprehensive, integrated curriculum with activities designed so that students not only understand the materials but learn how to apply them. It can be used alone as a complete homeschool curriculum for Language Arts, Social Studies and Science, or it can be used as a supplement. ...