Homeschool Hacks

Free Online Virtual Fieldtrips

I found a wonderful site with free virtual field trips!

Here is the list of all the topics-

Art Art Gallery Basilica of the National Shrine Byzantine Art Nobel e-Museum Sistine Chapel The Louvre Visit France! Fun Fireworks! Grades 4-12 Roller Coasters Online Whale Watching Geography Great Buildings Part 1 Great Buildings Part 2 Oregon Trail Virtual Antarctica: Glacier Invitation History American Presidents Ancient Egypt British Monarchy Deep Undercover! The FBI Gold Rush The Pentagon The Pentagon 2 The White House Titanic World War II Literature American Sign Language Treasure Island William Shakespeare Math Bureau of Engraving and Printing Mathematics! Music MIDI Classical Music Symphony for Kids! Western Composers Science Aeronautics Learning Laboratory Anatomy and Physiology Benjamin Franklin Forces and Weather! How Stuff Works! - Email and The Internet National Zoo Oceans Alive Sea Lions The Inside Story Submarines! Secrets and Spies!! The Human Body!

If you need me, I'll be playing on this site for the rest of the day! The boys can play learn tomorrow!

Fun Weekend Activities

How to garden with the kids.(Parenting.com)

How to plant hanging upside down tomato plants.(Instructables.com)

Great ideas for displaying your kid's artwork.(Parents.com)

Wonderful St. Patrick's Day activities.(familyfun.com)

You'll Love This- Discovery Channel's Human Body Series

I am officially in love with the Discovery Channel's new series. Discovery Channel's- Human Body premiered tonight. It was the BEST teaching tool I have found for Science in ages. You will love it. My nine year old and I watched the premiere episode tonight and loved it. I can not say enough good things about this new series. It will be known as a must have for teaching the boys in my house.

Here is a snippet about tonight's premiere episode-

"Episode 1: "STRENGTH"
Premieres Sunday March 2, at 9 p.m. ET/PT

The human body is engineered for strength, power and endurance. Bone is sturdy as concrete but flexible enough to resist breaking and light enough to allow us to be quicker off the mark than a racehorse. Our muscles, ligaments and joints have far greater strength and endurance than we know. In this episode, we feature extraordinary tales of human strength told with stunning see-through "anatomy in motion."

• A young man is sucked up into a tornado, only to be spat out a quarter of a mile away, unharmed.
• Pinned by a massive boulder, a climber finds the strength to lift it off in a seemingly impossible muscular feat.
• A college football player sustains what would normally be unbearable injury and pain, yet has the mental stamina to continue playing at full output.

Plus, how does a swimmer tap the remnants of our distant ancestors' extraordinary stamina to swim across the English Channel in 14 hours? How do marathon runners keep the pace on their grueling 26-mile run?"

Click here to watch the full episode!

My son and I also watched the second episode- Sight. It was amazing. The human body just comes to life and I learned things I never did as a kid. My son was fascinated with and understood concepts that would have taken a year to study and be forced to do the dreaded worksheets about. Can you tell my sons won't touch a worsheet unless forced?

The rating was PG-13. It was fine for my 9 year old and I am very picky about what I let him watch. It was very graphic, but not in a gratuitous manner.

When you watch, be sure to let me know what you think of the series!

Mini Unit Study in One Amazing Afternoon

Amazing Afternoons is a new service that offers worksheets providing a complete "afternoon" of special activities designed around a favorite children's book or bible story. Targeted to preschoolers, each worksheet includes an introduction to an excellent book and author or information on the bible story, craft idea, creative snack, a hands-on science project, fun math, games, questions to chat about, and places to find even more resources.

The worksheets are offered on a subscription basis and are emailed to you weekly. Check out a worksheet sample here!

I personally love this idea. It's a great way to get preschoolers excited about reading and show them how a book can be a springboard to so much more.

Homeschool Pringles Challenge

I received an email yesterday from a homeschool Mom who is starting up her own annual "Homeschool Pringles Challenge." The challenge? To engineer a mailable package to have the smallest volume and smallest mass that will protect the chip so that it arrives at its destination undamaged.

According to the Mom organizing the challenge, "This challenge has been done with public school students, at colleges of engineering, and many other science/engineering classes. So, I thought WHY NOT with homeschool students." There are no corporate sponsors or affiliations for the program and the prizes are listed as "pending." (Maybe someone reading this wants to donate a prize?)

You can register here by February 10th and your Pringles package must be postmarked by February 26th.

Home Science Tools

For a list of fun and educational do-it-yourself science projects, check out Home Science Tools. Make your own pinhole camera. terrarium, volcano, fossil cast, water wheel and much more. The site offers extensive science project instructions, plus lots of kits and supplies you can buy online or through their free catalog.