Decisions

Since our hs'ing journey started I followed all the typical steps. I got into a K-12 program locally so I wouldn't miss anything and because I wasn't sure where to start. It is quite overwhelming at first. My boys got to the point halfway through the yr where they really disliked k-12. We were going to do it on our own but I chickened out and went half-time with k-12. Honestly we really didn't do it. Although I clicked off the subjects like a robot saying well we did this today on our own in our own way we just didn't do k-12 books or whatever. Colin did love doing the Art and actually still remembers a lot of the stuff. Conner loved the field trips they put together but that was it.

This yr again there is talk of going it alone. Or I thought about trying another online school that is local here called Branson. The thing about that school is that they are quite involved and call at least once a week. Hmmm I'm not so sure although if I can't explain something then this might help, I like that option. Here is the catch they do a lot of it online. They send no books, if you want to print a worksheet or reading material they have you can do so or you can go buy it but otherwise it's done online. There will be the obvious reading, science experiments, writing and worksheets for math that they will obviously not be doing online but other than that I gather the rest is. I only have one computer. Plus that is an awful amount of time in front of the computer.
I suppose we could give it a try and if it doesn't work for us then we just dis enroll the problem with that is by the time you figure that out you are well into the school yr and then it almost feels like you are starting all over. It is very disruptive to my school yr.

Then comes that niggling feeling that if I do it on my own that I will miss something and of course even more daunting is having to put it together on my own. Last yr we did a few lapbooks and I found that they were great especially if you did them across the curriculum they would cover everything, mostly. I really liked the idea of studying something intensely for about 2 weeks and covering all the subjects- math, reading, writing, science, social studies, history and art. I was immediately hooked of course I am a scrapbooker so it is no surprise I love it. My kids really liked it too but towards the end of the school yr Colin was beginning to ask "Another lapbook, groan". I told him the alternative was the wonderful stack of books and doing assignments in each and it not really being tied together so making them less memorable. I'm not sure he believed me.

The two older boys are in middle school this yr, with Colin entering 6th grade. So I wonder if perhaps they are getting a bit 'old' for lapbooks?????? I looked into notebooking and really liked that idea since it is essentially the same concept except you can continue to add to it when you restudy said subject. Then I came across a great idea, someone (genius) put lapbooks and notbeooks together, oh what was it called........oh got it lap-n-note (I think). It puts a little of the cutsie fun stuff into notebooking. How fantastic is that. But can I really do an entire yr of school based on these ideas and how do I project that into a sensible curriculum that makes me feel good about what I am teaching my children and that I am not letting them down (screwing them up). I have alot of ideas from our summer that could really cover alot of across the curriculum stuff and alot of the school yr. Is it enough?

I would still keep their math books. I would integrate all the rest. We could do all sorts of writing projects for all of them, try a couple experiments of nature walks or such , uncover the history and the relevance to the world. I mean the list goes on. All in this compact little unit that relates to everything they are doing for 2 weeks integrating it all. Can I really base my hs on such ideas and will they encourage my kids to learn and want to learn and learn how to learn so they can learn for the rest of their lives??? (phew that is 5 "learns" I counted) What happens if they go back to ps one day and find they didn't learn this or that and come home mom why didn't you teach me that or the teacher frowns upon my "experimenting on my young children's minds without proper education for myself to teach them 'properly' ". Yes I know in ps there are plenty of kids who can't remember from yr to yr gobs of stuff . In my case though I bet it would be construed as part of the problem of hs'ers. When we all fully know it's not.

Okay now that I got off track, again, Austin is also supposed to join us this yr again. I have mixed feelings on this. We have seen Austin change in many different ways as he is transitioning into a young man. Some of those changes have been good and even fun while others have us in the grips of anger, sadness and loss for words. We feel it is due to the influences of his peers. Or is it? Could it perhaps be that he is turning 13 this yr and well a lot is changing for him and he needs to figure out how to work that all into who he is. I feel like I have hs glasses on and see the awful effects on my baby from that ps. And I can't take the glasses off, I see things very differently now then when my kids were in ps. I'm not suggesting I am perfect and fixed it all and we have no problems I'm just saying that now I can fix the problems sooner then when they were in public school and I had to wait around for a teacher to say there is a problem. By which time the problem has been there for some time. Then we have to talk a plan of action and such and try to coordinate our schedules and then something might get done to solve said problem. Sorry have gone off on yet another tangent. So are Austin's behaviors those of the transition into teenager or are they that of his peers. What happens when Austin goes back to ps, will he be asked to smoke? do drugs? pressured to have sex? I cringe at all this and want to put him into a protective bubble to ensure no wrong will ever find him. Since that will not actually happen I must plan other options. Hs him is number 1. A friend said this the other day when we were discussing this subject (sort of). "Alot of mom's do hs for the early yrs and then when high school comes around they let their kids finish school 'properly'. I think if you are going to hs then high school is when you want to do it, because that's when they make bad decisions and get into trouble". Now this is not word for word but you get the idea. And that idea struck a cord in me that rang so very true. Yet when I look at Austin he seems to not like the idea of hs'ing again. He only did it that first yr when we were with K-12 and it was all miserable very hectic.
It was not a good yr to base a decision on if you liked hs. This yr would be different especially if we did it on our own. My hope is he would like it but if not I would of course consider letting him go back to ps.

Some big decisions to make and not sure how to sift through it and come out a winner.

Vanessa

Is it a fish?? or a frog??

Frogs are just great fun aren't they. I finally managed to get the camera to the pond to take pictures of the tadpoles. It was a wonderful evening and we spent quite a bit of time at the pond although if you ask the kids they will say we snatched them away just as soon as we got there (I know we stayed for at least 45 min). That's kids for you when they aren't having fun it seems to drag on forever and when they are we are whisking them away an the most inconvinient times.

The boys are all looking hard for tadpoles, it's a bit harder in the twilight.

Conner is searching around while colin goes off to a different area where the tadpoles haven't all been scared away Austin isn't so good at this, he says "they're slimy". Umm yeah you did get then out of the water didn't you. Where they supposed to be dry?

The kids had been told (goodness knows where thye heard this and how acurate it is) that if you shine a light in the frog's eyes he will be blinded momentarily and you will be able to catch him. Of course they had to try this out. Hmm can I consider this an experiment too?? Flashlight in hand they went a hunting and Colin (of course) was first up, again (groan from all the other kids). There were several families and a few other kids doing much of the same as us. I didn't manage to see a bullfrog they are quite huge but the cattails are so big and it was getting dark that I couldn't find any.

Here are some pictures of the boys' catch. My dh thought I enjoyed it almost more than they did, I admit it was fun seeing all those little guys and all their differences its my kind of learning. I was enjoying the kids enjoying it, you know what I mean. It is so fun to watch their faces in concentration, bewilderment and amuesment. They caught many tadpoles and had a blast.

Isn't he cute? Okay I don't know if it is a he or she but still.

Look at the tail, it is so neat to see the transformation in person rather than in some dusty ole book. This little guy was very nice.

I am astounded by how very different they are from each other. In color, size and their tails all seem to be at a different stage.

Take this guy for example he is practically still a fish. No wonder Austin thinks he is slimy. I talk to the boys about the differences we are seeing and how very neat it is to watch this progress.

This frog had the longest tail so far. He even has extra skin on it to help him swim in the water, at least that is what I think.

We got lucky and Colin somehow caught two at a time and we got a picture of three of them. You can see the differences in them. Too bad that 3rd one didn't cooperate and let us see his tail because as you can see one has an extrodinary long tail while that front one seems to be just about done with his tail.

Of course I couldn't finish this up without a few great links I found about frogs and their life cycle. I feel a unit coming, lol.

http://www.tooter4kids.com/Frogs/life_cycle_of_frogs.htm

simple outline with a great diagram

http://allaboutfrogs.org/froglnd.shtml

Wow. Don't miss this one it has everything all linkable and cute and fun. They even include a frog joke of the day, who wouldn't love this.

http://www.exploratorium.edu/frogs/index.html

A muesum in California that is definetly for the higher up levels. There is some really good stuff here like the different types of skin or feet a frog has. It is a definite in depth look at frogs.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00005C0VD?tag=thewholemagila&camp=14573&creative=327641&linkCode=as1&creativeASIN=B00005C0VD&adid=028WV2MWRPEAS2607JPZ&

for those adventurous enough to watch the metamorphasis at home, you can order a kit online for about $20

http://www.bry-backmanor.org/gardenfun/frogclips.html

Some clipart if you want to put a unit together yourself.

http://search.enchantedlearning.com/cgi-bin/uncgi/search?key=frogs

Enchanted learning has a good collection of stuff on frogs as well.

http://www.kidzone.ws/lw/frogs/activities.htm

Very cute lower level to medium level

http://www.eduref.org/Virtual/Lessons/Interdisciplinary/INT0025.html

For me, thematic unit.
http://www.homeschoolhelperonline.com/lapbooks/frogs.htm

Lapbook on frogs, various levels.

http://www.homeschoolshare.com/Frog_Lapbook.php

Another lapbook

Vanessa

Impromptu Science

Yesterday we walked to a pond in our neighborhood that my boys have lovingly termed "the lucky pond". The boys have attempted fishing several times and were not what you would call big successes at it. Austin (the oldest ) had no paitence for this type of hobby within minutes he would look like he had been there hours and was bored through his eyeballs. So it came as a surprise to us when he caught a fish at lucky pond and then the other two did as well all within litteraly minutes of their first cast. All of a sudden going fishing did not seem so boring and we have gone quite a bit.

In spring the city, I think, burned the dying grass and stuff around the pond to prevnt a bigger fire from occuring naturally. My boys didn't understand this at the time. The good thing was we discovered out pond had bullfrogs. Which had the boys and I thinking about the other sorts of wildlife there. Then we discovered a turtle and looked for him on our following adventures.
Now the reeds and grass have grown back and look very strong and hardy. I told the boys that it was the cycle after a burning this generally happens and the vegetation usually likes the extra ntrogen in the soil. (it is nitrogen righ??)

Upon arriving yesterday the vegetation was very dense and I was afraid that we would not be able to see the bullfrogs. The boys went right up to the edge and all of a sudden there were bursts of hopping and splashing all around. We had found the frogs and they were everywhere and we even saw tadpoles. Colin, of course who else, was the first to capture one of the slippery creatures. The cutest thing was it still had a tail, I mean it looked like a frog but it had quite the tail. They release him and caught a few more marveling how not one looked like the other and all their tails different lengths. There were just barley nubs to about 3 inches long. It took some time going around the pond and I could have kicked myself for not bringing the camera but we were just out for a walk. Therefore I have no pictures but I told the boys we would go back because I think it would be a great thing to be able to have pictures of them to compare once we were home and we could find out what types there are and all about them. In short we would have an impromptu science class on our hands.

Vanessa

My grocery bags

Ok here they are. Please don't laugh as they are my second attempt at sewing at all. I never took a class. As a matter of fact my dh had to show me how to thread the sewing machine and figure out the bottom part(what is that second thread thing under there anyway??) Other than that I just have been practicing and I am getting better but it is most definetly a work in progress.

I followed the moresebags instructions. Unfortunatly I made the handles out of old jean material thinking they would be great sturdy handles but I found that my machine could barley handle the thickness and then they wanted me to fold it back up and over and sew it again. I understand the concept behind it, making the handle stronger but I don't think my handles need that extra. Plus my poor machine for sure couldn't handle it. So my handles are sort of on the inside of the bag and my stiching is showing and it's not so pretty or straight but the point is it's one less grocery bag to need at the store. One less in a landfill or in the ocean or wherever. And I created it on my own with my two hands , okay the machine gets some credit.
I still want to make the bags preetier with some sayings in fabric paint but for now I just want to make as many as I can to use for future shopping. Then it's embelishment time.

Do you just love my stitching?? I hope this will get better with more practice.
The handles all sorts of wierd. It's funny actually but I love it cause I made it.
The second bag is much prettier. I changed the directions a bit by sewing the way you normally do with the seam on the inside without the french whatever that was called seam I think.
Conner sporting my bag. It is a good size. I thought it would be small at first but when I think about it it works really well.

Making a little dent in my footprint

I am an enviormentalist. I get pretty emotional about some of that stuff, beware. I have seen the grocery bags for sale at all the supermarkets and even saw the cutest ones of all at Target. They were heavy canvas and had great sayings like "I don't do plastic". Alas they were $10 each and I couldn't bring myself to do it especially being the crafty person I am I can totally see doing that myself. I mean really a little craft fabric paint and vola.
Going through our stuff to get rid of excess and put into a yardsale I came upon old curtains. I looked at them and came up with a new use. I mean how more perfect do I want it. All I have to do is rip a few seams, cut and sew. Yeah it sounds oh so simple and yet I am terrified since I have very limited sewing abilities. But I can do this I can.
Googling came up with this great website. I know there are more but this one is pretty good.

http://wisdomofthemoon.blogspot.com/2008/01/cheap-easy-fabric-grocery-bags.html

A while back I also saw the idea of using old t-shirts to make grocery bags out of. What an intersting way to use up old t-shirts that you love but have outgrown. You could even line them if there are a couple of wears which would be a great idea anyway since cotton will wear out quite quickly. Good ol Martha has a great video for it here it is.

http://www.marthastewart.com/portal/site/mslo/menuitem.3a0656639de62ad593598e10d373a0a0/?vgnextoid=37b1b744dd165110VgnVCM1000003d370a0aRCRD&xsc=eml_crd_2008_04_16

So I'm off to attmept my bit at making less of a footprint on earth. I will of course share the pictures with you guys and involve my kids to make it an impromptu educational lesson. Great idea huh??
After alot of hassle I got better bag directions here and simpler too. Plus all sorts of facts and stuff to share with hs'ers.

http://www.morsbags.com/


Vanessa

Lesson Planning

Do you really need teacher training in order to plan and excecute a good lesson plan?? I wonder because I seem to have issues planning lessons in that format. I can make one heck of a good to do list of what I want to cover for a certain subject or as I love to do Unit. So where does that leave my planning it for my homeschool tracker? I love the homeschool tracker I do, but the lesson plan section on it is somewhat dubious. ok I admit very dubious. Why does it always seem like I am missing something?

So if you have homeschool tracker plus (basic version does not have the lesson planner part)how do you plan those lessons. I am trying to get all my great ideas into lessons that I can translate out over the coming school year.
It has been my experience not to get to detailed on these because I have spent hours planning and looking up great books and stuff only to find my library doesn't have said book. They do have ones on the subject so I get those and supplement. Now I don't want to write those down I would just like to see what my library has on the subject.

Vanessa

My boy and his cat

I am stealing this from a friend , thanks Kathy. Aren't they cute.

Too cute. It still amazes me that this cat loves conner as much as conner loves him.

Turtle is one cute cat.

Historic Savnnah

Ahhh ye ole streets. I simply adore old cobblestone or masonry. It's a sickness really. I mean think about how much it takes not to make brick buildings and stone walls. Now think back to a time when half the equipment wasn't motorized but simply your own sweat and tear, perhaps a bit of blood. At one time bricks were made by hand and to see a whole building made out of them is simply mind boggling. I ask How long did it take? What were these extraordinary laborers paid for all that work?


We walked around some of the historic district but since old brick and cobblestone didn't interest my children (ye jest surely how could they not???, no I don't need a life mine is just fine thank you) we only spent a few hours to indulge mom. Of course they didn't seem to mind going into the shops in hopes of getting something. We did end up at a candy store and it had a train running along the ceiling through the shop, it was so neat. The kids enjoyed picking candy while I marveled at the walls and floors and old time metal signs. We found the river and walked along and it looked as if a fest of some sort was getting ready.


We also found "Lady & Sons" and tried to grab lunch there but lunch at 9:30 at night did not seem appealing. I would have loved to go eat there even if it was expensive. We watch Paula Deen on Food Network all the time. Although she isn't my favorite I do enjoy her warmth and southern hospitality even if I can't bring myself to make the millions of thing she does that look oh so yummy but you can tell entirely that it is without a doubt fattening. Don't get me wrong I don't mind putting away calories and I love really good food. You know the kind where you just have to learn how to make that because it is simply marvelous? OK now I'm getting of the subject.


There are tours for everything. Ghost tours, historic tours, pirate tours, dolphin tour, culinary tour you name it they probably have it and then you have to choose how you want to travel by foot?, by horse drawn carriage? or trolley? And everything was incredibly expensive. The walking tour would have cost $70 for us 5. I thought OK I'm walking and I'm paying them for what ? to tell me about Savannah? Not to sound horrid but how much are they embellishing on and how did they come by the information? I mean I can walk up to a building and say this is so and so building built in whatever yr and so on. So while we sprung for the dolphin tour by Tybee Island we didn't do any of the tours in Savannah.


We had a great time though exploring all on our own.

Just look at that, where can you find this in Colorado? No where!

My Dh and Ds crossing the cutest bridge
Wonder if these were stables once upon a time?
Isn't this just stinking cute? It's a model at eye level on a pole. Very well made.
My boys find a little play area. Photo Op.

The streets of Savannah.
Look at this trolley. The rate was outragous.
Old Cotton exchange and Masons building

More along our walk
A Lion fountain in a garden enclosed by a beautiful iron fence. Each segment of fence has a circular picture of someone improtant.

This is one of those pictures in a segment of fence. This particluar one is of Benjamin Franklin.

The back of some of the buildings by the river.

Friends everywhere

Ok I know this isn't necessarily homeschool related but I just had to share. Besides I could make it hs related by doing a unit on friends and friendship. Hmm that's not such a bad idea.

Anyway.....

We went to the pool a couple of days ago and it just so happens I found one that had a great slide attached and so instead of going to the pool I usually went to we went there. I brought my latest book, I am so wrapped up in it but that is a whole nother post. I am sunning and intermittently dipping in the pool since it is in the high 90's, it' hot.

Conner comes up to me and says "hey mom I just saw Jeannie and her brother". Huh who are you talking about and then in the back of my mind I can only think of one Jeannie and her brother,although why they remembered her name and not his is still puzzling. So I say "you mean Matthew and Jeannie?? and he says yeah. At this point I'm thinking it has been at least a yr since we saw them, we are at the pool he must be seeing kids that look like them.

To make a very long story short I got up went in the pool to investigate further and sure enough here are some dear friends we haven't seen in at least a yr. There are few people in the world that just touch you and you want to remain friends, this is one such lady. Anja is an incredible person, she is so giving and creative. We would come over and I would feel so welcome and she would have baked something, she was forever baking, and her kids would be making some sort of craft. She made me want to bake and be more creative and do great things with my kids. I felt inspired from her on so many different levels. Anja opened a daycare and well we lost touch a bit and then I moved 45 min south and we just never managed to reclaim that wonderful friendship.

I was so surprised to see her and we caught up on everything. It was just amazing. What was a frustrating morning turned into a fantastic afternoon and I realized something. I miss this. I miss hanging out with my girlfriends and chatting. It is the best stress release I have found to date.

I gave her my new number and we promised to get together and well I intend on keeping that promise.

Also this week I was invited to go to meet up with some hs'ers for park day about 30 min. west of us by my dear new friend Kathy. Kathy again is one of those people that just never ceases to amaze me. She finds these cool places to go visit and makes friends wherever she goes. Of course she has one of those great personalities that well most people adore. It's fun to watch her in action too. We went to a place together and she starts talking to a person that works there the next thing I know is we get a free cd. Umm why does this not happen to me?? Of course hanging out with kathy it has been happening to me much more. You think there is a correlation? Nah (big grin). Her boys are just great and my boys and hers get along and it just makes me all so blissfully happy. She also has this great blog with just the best lesson plans, really check it out on the sidebar-it is what it is. Great music too.

We end up at this park way where I never would have thought there was a park and all the ladies are just so sweet. I had just such a fabulous time. The kids had a great time although they didn't make new friends they had the option since there were kids their age there. A guy from the local paper came up and asked permission to take photo's of the kids, all the mom's said great. Of course my boys decided to be camera shy. I got to talking to this one mom about a sourdough starter. I've been wanting to do one but am scared to. She made it sound so easy that I think I'll give it a shot. If it works I'll be sure to share pictures of the bread I make with it.

The greatest little place where hs'er connect

View my page on The Homeschool Lounge

Homeschool conference giveaway

If you haven't heard of this by now get out from under that rock and check it out. Heidi from Review's by Heidi is giving away 5 tickets to go to this wonderful conference. This conference sounds so wonderful and the best part is you don't even have to leave your home and find daycare for your children or any of that. It's a virtual conference. How cool is that. You can check out more of it here
http://www.hotmconference.com/
And of course if you would like to enter Heidi's contest here is the link for that as well.
http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/ReviewsbyHeidi/
Wish you guys lots of good luck.
Vanessa

Tybee Island

I just thought this was plain cute. There were little turtle statues all over the island. It was cute. I don't believe I got a picture of them though.

Tybee beach

Colin having a blast with some minnows and small clams.

Conner trying to get the hang of the boogie board. He had a really good time with it. He ventured some into trying to surf along the incoming waves ,I forgot what it was called, and he never did get the hang of it although he probably would have given just a few more days at the beach.

Austin comes in for a bit of suntanning. He tried the surfing too and fell and his back hurt for a few days. But he did try again after that.

What a great little place to find. It was either this beach community or Myrtle beach. I found all those tall skyscraper type hotels on Myrtle beach a bit "not what I have in mind for a beach". Then I happened upon this little community. It was just great. They don't have a wal-mart and we only saw one fast food joint. I think they are trying to preserve the island and not have it as commercialized. I loved that. There were still a million people there during the weekend we went but the beach is just so big that there is so much room.

The boys immediately head out into the water coming in only when we call them. Although Austin did come in once or twice to lay out in the sun-not that he needed it. I tried to talk them into building a sand castle but after being left to do it on my own it was just not as much fun. They tried boogie boarding and surfing along the incoming tide very close to the beach. It was quite hard and although they got much better at it they still didn't quite get it. I'm sure if we had spent just another week at the beach(alone) then they would have it down.

We walked along the beach and had sort of a school session, not really but now come to think of it yes it was. We talked about the tide going out and how far it had gone that it revealed a sandbar. How the sandbar had all these ripples and how the ocean current had formed them. We walked out quite a ways and lucked out and found several animals. We found a urchin(dead unfortunately) a sand dollar (dead also, fortunately for Austin who kept it). Chris showed them how to find sea snails which they did for about 45 min, I still can't believe they kept interest in that so long. Chris also showed them something else. Have you ever seen those holes in the beach close to the water and sometimes they sort of bubble???I never thought about it but apparently there are small little clams in there. So the boys dig and dig, they get quite good, and find the clams. Then Chris shows them something else that had me just dumbstruck. It was sooooo cool- I am such a big kid. If you put these little clams, no bigger then say your finger nail, you put them on the wet sand sort of sitting up and wait. It is the most bizarre thing. After a bit the little clam starts to shake and ,here is the craziest part, it shakes and that creates a hole and it disappears into the sand. How cool is that. Please stop laughing at me, okay it does sound ridiculous that I could be so astounded at such a simple thing and here my hubby says I'm expensive. The boys and I had the best time finding these clams, poor clams, and digging them up so we could see them dig/shake/rattle and roll(lol) their way back into the sand. This honestly kept us occupied for over an hour.

At one point we do head to the Marine Science Center. They have hands on exhibits. They do alot with the Loggerhead Turtles that nest there.The kids get to hold all sorts of neat stuff and they love it. They hold a sea star, sand dollar, horseshoe crab, hermit crab, sea snail among other things. They get to see several different turtles and what was once made with them back when it was still legal to kill them. The Center isn't all that big and it's right in front of the pier at the beach. But it is such an important resource. It helps find the nest of the loggerhead turtles and protects them. There are no lights allowed on the beach past 9 at night so the females coming on shore to lay their eggs will not be scared away.

We did walk down the pier and it was cool. People fish from there although it seems the fish aren't biting. The pier has several different concession stands and is really cute. The beach has lifeguards , which we assumed were paid by the community which was in turn getting that money from the revenue of the parking. It was $3 for I think 4 hours but hey I don't mind when I see life guards and good streets and a quaint community.

So many ideas came to from just going to the beach. WE could study any of the numerous animals/marine life we found and saw. We could look at the beach and its ecosystem or the tides and temperatures and such. What about the lighthouses?? that would be fun as well.

Beach

http://www.tybeemarinescience.org/

Tybee Marine science center

http://www.wetlandsinstitute.org/education/teacher/Beach_Exploration.pdf

Lesson plan for the beach

http://www.soest.hawaii.edu/SEAGRANT/bmpm/coastal_ecosystems.html

Lesson plans based from hawaii beach, looks like upper level

http://www.nationalgeographic.com/xpeditions/lessons/14/g68/beachshark.html

National geographic lesson plan for going to the beach, shark related

http://www.atozteacherstuff.com/Themes/Ocean/

A to Z Ocean theme lesson plans. there are several different ones here at a few different levels encompasing all sorts of things ocean related.

http://www.teachingheart.net/beachteach.html

A fantastic resource for beach related things. Very well put together. The time it took I can only imagine.

http://search.enchantedlearning.com/cgi-bin/uncgi/search?key=beach

Enchanted learning- great stuff find what you want. I love this site.

http://www.learningtogive.org/lessons/unit85/lesson1.html

Why we should clean the beach lesson plan, real cute has some virtues we can teach to our children

Loggerhead turtles

http://www.kiawahturtles.com/Loggerhead%20Facts/Lifecycle.htm

A bit about loggerhead turtles

http://www.dnr.sc.gov/seaturtle/

Great info and links about loggerhead turtles and other turtles as well. There is a wealth of info here.

http://www.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/turtle/Seaturtlecoloring.shtml

Enchanted learning label of a sea turtle

http://savannahnow.com/node/361547

Scroll down and click on the interactive video, it has terms and it is very neat

Dolphins

http://homeschooling.about.com/od/unitssubjsci/p/sealesson6.htm

A whole lesson plan made by Beverly Hernandez. It's got really good stuff here

http://teacher.scholastic.com/dolphin/weblinks.htm

Some really great links to discover about dolphins and whales

http://www.enchantedlearning.com/themes/dolphins.shtml

Enchanted learning dolphin stuff

I could go on and on but I'm sure you would be bored stiff, that is if you are still here. Anyway there is all sorts of great information out there. If you have found some outstanding stuff relating to anything here please let me know in the comments section and I will take a look.

Vanessa

Homeschool planner give away

At the homeschool lounge one of my friends noted this and so I am passing it on, Hurry the contest ends soon. I love these things. Thanks Angela and the Old schoolhouse.
http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/byourlove1
Vanessa

Ft. Sumter

My boys and I at the entrance of Ft. Sumter.
A galley of cannons

Father's Day took us to Ft. Sumter National Monument. Being on vacation I actually forgot till we got on the ferry, oops. Chris didn't seem to mind although I know he would have loved to go sunning on the beach. He seemed to enjoy the Ft. as well. The Ft. is in the middle of Charleston Harbor and is only accessible by boat. Before taking the ferry we visited the Visitor Education Center which has great interpretive displays and a great little shop. There is also the Aquarium right next door, but we did not have time for it. It took only about 15 min to get to the Ft. while we enjoyed the scenery of Charleston Harbor. The Ft. surrendered shortly after being attacked, about 34 hrs.It is bigger than Ft. Pulaski and has a museum on the grounds. You can see for miles from the top. There is officer's quarters they re-created and looked quite sparse.( gosh I sound so snobby). It's a beautiful Island. They still have several of the spots where cannons were fired and lodged or left a big dent in the fort. It truly transpires you back to that time.

You get a limited amount of time due to having to take the ferry there and back. Although 2 hrs seems like forever when you are walking the perimeter of the fort from the top and going through the museum that talks about the history of the fort it seems as though it took just minutes. It went very fast.

We rented John Adams from blockbuster. HBO made it and it is quite terrific. Be cautious though because there is nudity, it was made by HBO after all. If I had been taught history through this type of breathtaking film I would probably have had a lot more interest in the subject. As it stands I am intrigued by the films. The first one is leading up to and the writing of the Constitution. I think it would make an wonderful addition to any Revolutionary War history class/unit.

http://www.nps.gov/fosu/

Main website for ft.

http://www.nps.gov/fosu/forteachers/curriculummaterials.htm

Curriculum

http://www.charlestonscrealestate.us/

Web cams of Ft. Sumter and Charleston

http://www.sonofthesouth.net/leefoundation/battle-fort-sumter.htm

Great resource for a few different wars including the civil war

http://www.civilwarhome.com/ftsumter.htm

Has detailed official records and a breakdown of events.

http://www.tulane.edu/~sumter/

Vanessa