Teaching Anatomy with Online Games

Anatomy Arcade makes basic human anatomy come ALIVE through awesome free flash games, interactives and videos.

Anatomy Arcade is perfect for the novice teenager in the classroom, right through to students and professionals of health care looking for a fun way to review.

Anatomy Arcade comes highly recommended by other homeschoolers and nursing students!  

http://www.anatomyarcade.com/

Teaching the Moon's Phases

So, I found this idea on teaching the moon's phases and am definitely going to do it this school year!
Use Oreo Cookies, with cream taken away, to mimic pictures of the moon's phases!

Science Bob's Link 

Find out your Child's Learning Style to Enhance Learning

Find out your child's learning style to enhance their capabilities! 

Visual, Auditory or Kinesthetic?

Visual

It is estimated that 80 percent of what we learn is through our vision. From an early age, a child acquires valuable information about his surroundings through his or her eyes. Because of this fact, normal schooling makes use of methods that favor visual learners. Children who are primarily visual learners tend to get information through reading books. They can also learn more from pictures and other visual materials. If you notice that your child is tidy and organized in their learning habits, then he might be a visual learner.

Auditory

For some children, their sense of sound allows them to gather large volumes of information and have them processed accordingly. A child is most probably an auditory learner if he or she is good at listening to instructions and is very sensitive to variations in spoken words. They excel in gaining knowledge from conversations and lectures. Because listening requires more concentration than seeing, students of this learning style can be more discerning. They are usually more attentive in class and can distinguish different ideas just by listening to them. Because information revealed through speaking are not usually recorded accurately in class, the memory capacity of auditory learners exceed those of visual learners. Children of this type also enjoy studying with music in the background.

Kinesthetic

A child who has a kinesthetic learning style cannot just sit still and wait for information to be given. They surpass in finding out things for themselves without any needs for guidance. Explorers at heart, kinesthetic learners are known to be quite active even before a lesson proper. Their natural curiosity drives them to make new discoveries, making it hard for regular schools to limit their movement. Children of this learning style are often mistaken to be rowdy and undisciplined. That however, is a grave misconception. Kinaesthetic learners always seem to be moving around because they see their surroundings differently. For them, the world is just a huge playground full of wonderful things they want to discover and explore.

The entire article can be found at:

http://www.child-central.com/learning-styles-children.html

Spring is Coming! Learn About Plants

 Spring is right around the corner!  Use this opportunity to teach young ones about how things grow and where we get our food!

Plant a bean in a cup and observe the growth.  Beans sprout very quickly and children will be able to appreciate how a plant grows.
This is not a complicated experiment, but it IS an important one for young ones to learn!
Here is an alternative to what you may know about growing these simple beans! 

States and Their Capitals Online Game

My son is in 2nd grade and learning States and their Capitals, to gear up to learn all about the U.S.A. next school year.
So, we found this game, which he is enjoying.

VectorKids - State Capitals Game

Rainbows- What do they Mean?

Roy G. Biv- Remember this mnemonic for learning the order of the colors in a rainbow?

1. Red
2. Orange
3. Yellow
4. Green
5. Blue
6. Indigo
7. Violet

Here at Wonderopolis, you can show your kids why rainbows even appear.
Then, here is an easy, do-at-home science experiment on how to make a rainbow!

Donna Young's Homeschooling Resource Page

Have you ever visited Donna Young's Homeschooling Resource pages?
They are incredible and extremely useful! 
*Nature Journal Sheets
*Chore Makers
*Handwriting Worksheets
*Book Lists (according to subjects)
and so much more!

DonnaYoung.org is a printable and information provider of items which are of use to those who homeschool, teach, run a household, and work in an office. DonnaYoung.org offers free homeschool planners, homeschool planning tips, calendars, household planners, and printables in various subjects.

U.S. Mint Lesson Plans

Did you know that the U.S. Mint provides Lesson Plans for your classroom?
All grades, many subjects, many ways of learning something new!
Language Arts, Math, Science, Technology and Social Studies are covered, as well as Grades K- 12!
Very nice resources provided, too.

Time Management Tips

Time Management Suggestions

Set your priorities. The first milestone was the realization that teaching my daughter to read was the most important thing to focus on at that time. Her two big brothers could afford to take a break, if necessary, while I concentrated on her for awhile. I found that my children who are not struggling can catch up in a short time. You may decide that it is necessary to ease up on the amount of curriculum you cover with them during the school year and spend some of the summer break working to pick up the slack.

Realistically look at your daily schedule. What activities could we drop, or at least put on hold for a while? Music lessons, sports, field trips, even extra church activities may need to be set aside. Remember, this is not a permanent situation. It is often more difficult for us as mothers to give the extra activities up than for our children.

Extend your teaching time. For me this meant getting up earlier in the morning. It is much more productive for me to get myself to bed earlier and have more hours in the morning than to plan to get things done after the children have been put to bed. The energy I hope to have in the evening hours is somehow nonexistent. As for my children, I began making sure they were up, breakfasted and ready for the school day by 8. Look at your schedule to see what works best for your family.

Delegate within the family. My husband encouraged me to look at my daily tasks and determine which of my responsibilities I could turn over to the children. For example, we set up a simple breakfast and lunch menu and my three older children (10- and 8- and 7-year-olds) were each responsible for one day a week. As a mother, your time is more stretched. It is important to free yourself from some of the more repetitive tasks. Generally, our children can take on a lot more responsibility than we give them credit for. Once the initial (rather messy) training period is completed, this turns out to be a real blessing.

Delegate outside of the family. Recently, someone suggested hiring a homeschooled teen in the area to come over for an hour a day to do some of the teaching with the other children. It is important to note that I, as parent, am the one who needs to be focusing on my struggling learner. If funds are tight, consider instead checking history, science, and literature videos out at the library to keep your other children productively entertained during the tutoring session.

Typing Tutor: FREE Typing Program

Rapidtyping.com - Learn and Practice Typing

Fast typing is a skill that is extremely useful in life, although not all children get properly trained in typing. While many schools often try to offer typing to some degree, usually funding and resource limitations either limit or prevent typing classes.

Why Does Salt Help with Snow and Ice?

Ready for a really simple, really cool experiment?

• Take an ice cube from your freezer and place it on a plate.
  
• Sprinkle a pinch of salt over one half of the ice cube.
  
• Put the plate with the ice cube in the refrigerator.
• After about 10 minutes, take the ice cube out and observe what has happened.
  

My 8 yo son and 11 yo niece did this today and they made their observations, now, what do you notice about the salted side of the ice cube?

Thank you to Wonderopolis! Wonderopolis.org is a great site that introduces a new idea to your kids everyday!