13Mar
4

Our top 5 homeschooling resources

I was pretty excited to see that The Homeschool Classroom just started a new series of writing prompts for homeschool bloggers. The first one asks, “What is your favorite homeschool resource that you’ve used?”

Well, I thought about that for a little bit, and it’s funny; we’re new to homeschooling, but the resources I’ve come up with aren’t new to our family. That feels good – because I feel like it means we’ve been open to learning in a variety of forms all along!

Being so new, though, I hate to pick just one resource, so I decided to do a “Top 5” list. Number 1 is definitely our super-most favorite, but the others are in no particular order.

library-sarah1. Our local library system. The York County Library System is, in a word, phenomenal. I’ve gone to the same library – albeit in different incarnations – since I was three or four years old, and it’s great to take Ashar there as well. Our “library ladies” are always wonderful to us, too. Coming up in the summer, there’s a program in which they partner with our county parks to provide a reading-and-hiking “letterboxing” challenge (think geocaching, with written directions and not coordinates.) That’s an entirely local effort, and we have participated since the inception of the program. Added bonus: ALL our library’s programs are free!

2. Our local park system. Speaking of parks… we’re amazingly lucky to live in an area rich with township/city parks, county parks and state parks, all within minutes of our home. We love spending time outdoors as a family, and when we travel, we’re often reminded that other areas don’t have nearly the wealth of parkland that we enjoy (again for free… love it!)

3. National Geographic. Not just the magazine, though that’s cool; Ashar loves NatGeo’s website, its books, its interest in wildlife conservation, its photography… everything. It’s really broadened my world and Chris’s, too; we read as much as Ashar does from their catalog of works and are always learning something new.

The Complete Book of Algebra and Geometry4. “The Complete Book of…” series. I mentioned this before; we’re big fans of this workbook/textbook combo-style approach. Ashar isn’t much for workbooks in general, but these really keep her interest in social studies, history and, yes, even math. I only wish they had more for middle-schoolers and even high-schoolers; I plan to write to them as soon as I can to suggest as much!

5. 4-H. We are members of an awesome local “Wildlife Watchers” club, and hope to join another club in our community shortly. This has enriched in our life in so many ways – trips and activities we’d never have known about on our own (like soapmaking); great friends from a variety of backgrounds and of all ages; a chance for Ashar to really shine and to get to know people who share her passion for animals and the outdoors. Can’t say enough good things about the leadership and the program, which in many ways serves as our main science “curriculum.” Total cost: Our $11 membership fee. LOVE IT!

So that’s our “Top 5” list. If you’ve got your own favorite resource, head over to The Homeschool Classroom Thursday to share; I’m excited to see what everyone else is using.

11Mar
0

Triops, Celtic Nights and Ashar’s own blog

Two things of particular interest happened today. Well, three if you count that we slept in, which was of particular interest to ME, but I guess that doesn’t count.

First up, our triops have grown like crazy. We have three, and they’re most easily explained as some combination of a really little horseshoe crab and a really big brine shrimp. There’s a fun website, triops.com, where you can read more.

We’ve been growing this set for about two weeks, and they’ve gotten huge. The triops have provided some great science conversations, including some about what diapause is and others about how crustaceans compare with other types of life. Seeing them molt their exoskeletons has been one of Ashar’s favorite parts.

Here they were when we first started hatching them (from the kit pictured). I will warn you; this photo was before we tried hatching the FIRST half of our eggs, and while they hatched, none made it more than a few days without dying.

Growing triops as a homeschool project

Meanwhile, the live ones from the second half of the batch, apparently a hardier lot, got their water totally changed today, a process not unlike changing goldfish water, but with a little more maneuvering required to catch them and transfer them from container to container. Then I tried to take their picture, which was hard to do in their little plastic tank. Here’s the best I was able to get.

Triops

If you look closely, you can see two of the eyes on the one at left; the word triops means three eyes, so there’s another eye there somewhere as well.

In much “prettier” news from our world today, we went to a concert at one of our two local colleges today for the group Celtic Nights. Ashar actually enjoyed this show even more than the Celtic Woman concert earlier in the week. I have some photos to share tomorrow; in the meantime, though, Ashar wrote a post on her own blog about the show, so check that out to learn more about what her favorite part was!