Special Connection Homeschool

In our World of Science book we are learning about atoms so I logged on to Easy Peasy All-in-one Homeschool to find some supplemental ways to explore them. On their Easy Peasy Chemistry and Physics page I found links to these fun interactive helpful tools! At Molecularium we played in the Nanolab. There you could build molecules, zoom in to see their size, and check them out in the different states of matter. Then at Learn.Genetics we found a cool tool that lets you get a feel for the real size and scale of a cell. Use the scroll bar along the bottom to keep zooming in. It's really cool! We followed up with this video showing the size by continuing to look at things that are 1,000 times smaller than the object we are looking at. The music is just background and has no context, so we muted it as we watched. It's really hard to wrap your head around how really tiny an atom is, but these sure do help give us some perspective.

With Gess now being in what many call middle school it has been hard for me to find appropriate curriculum. She can read really well and her comprehension is even pretty good, but it is not yet ready for middle school level. Couple that with her inability to read small print and it makes finding a text book hard. We have also been all over the place on science. It has turned out to be Gesserine's favorite subject and many times I have let her choose the topic. Her fascination with weather comes alive every spring and in the winter when she is often sick she focuses on human anatomy and biology. While we have done some studies on plants and animals and various other things, I fear there are some things she has missed. So this year we are doing a full science review. For that I purchased the book The World of Science from Master Books . The book is divided into 7 sections. It covers 6 majors areas of science with the final section being experiments that correspond with the oth...

By now my readers know that Gesserine is a weather nut, so last year I took her to the Storm Fury on the Plains presentation put on the by the National Weather Service out of Wichita. She sat through the entire 2 hours and couldn't wait to go again. They do this annually so last night we attended it again. I am glad we did because last year I had no idea how much information would be in one of these things and I forgot so much of it when I got home. This year, I took notes! The Storm Fury on the Plains is an official weather spotting training session. They offer these in every county because Kansas has the second highest number of severe weather events in the country. Only Texas tops us simply because it is bigger. Per 1000 miles, we are just barely behind Oklahoma. Basically statistics confirm what we already know, we are in the heart of tornado alley.  The information they give you is fascinating and of course educational.  We were quizzed on trying to determine ...

I am sure if you have been on Facebook, Pinterest, and other such places you have seen the Oreo cookie moon phases. Gess is learning about space right now and her text book suggested using paper plates to make the phases of the moon, but I decided to go this route since it seemed a bit more fun. It's really easy: Step 1 - Break the cookie apart leaving the middle in tact. This is the toughest part. Gess broke a few and the middle isn't always in tact but we were still able to use those for some of the moon phases. Step 2 - Use a butter knife to carve the cream out into the desired shape of the moon. Step 3 - Place it on your chart. Repeat until you have all the phases done. We put it on a paper plate. Most people label it, but I did not. Instead I would have Gess tell me what they are or ask her a phase and have her point to it. The phases are: 1. New Moon 2. Waxing Crescent Moon 3. First Quarter Moon 4. Waxing Gibbous Moon 5. Full Moon 6. Wan...

For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. ( Rom 1:19-20) I had just memorized these verses when I was received my latest review from Purposeful Design . I was extremely eager and have been very blessed to use the Purposeful Design: Understanding the Creation in our homeschool. Jay Schabacker does a wonderful job explaining how God did exactly what Paul said in Romans. Our world was not simply made by an intelligent designer, but with a very specific purpose. It was designed for us . God made each one of us to have a relationship with Him and He made this planet for us to live on. He gave it so much love and care and in it we can see His eternal power and divine nature. It was purposefully designed. The Purposeful Design: Und...

Library and Eductional Services is a family owned wholesale distributer. They offer books, DVDs and other CDs that are in line with Christian principles. In addition to offering these wholesale prices to resellers and large groups such as churches, schools, and libraries they also offer their services to homeschoolers. It is certainly refreshing to be able to buy high quality content at discount products. I really love that I know the videos I purchase will have the values I hold dear. In fact, all of their science products are evolution free. As you know, my daughter loves science. It is her favorite subject so when we had the opportunity to review their newest Series 2   Go Science DVDs , I jumped at the chance. Having reviewed and loved the first series of Go Science  I knew my Gess would be excited to learn more about science with these. For the purpose of my review I received two videos from the  Go Science DVDs  Series 2 : Volume 2: Life Science / Weathe...

My daughter Gess is a very curious little girl.  The fact that she has special needs makes me even more thrilled that she is always asking questions and trying to figure things out.  It sure makes it easier for me to teach her.  Lately she has been curious about the food that we eat.  We will be eating something and she will ask, "where did that come from?"  We then have the joy of explaining the method of how we get our food.  When its a fruit or vegetable that is fun.  When its meat, well, we try to be as accurate as possible without spoiling her dinner.  So when I saw that I had the opportunity to review some DVDs titled Curiosity Quest I knew that would be right up Gesserine's alley.  I was even more thrilled when some of them pertained to food! For the purpose of my review I recieved the following DVDs from Curiosity Quest : DVD Combo Pack - Produce  - Mushrooms, Orange Packing, Cranberries DVD Combo Pack - Swimmers of the S...

My daughter Gess was thrilled when I announced that our first Schoolhouse Crew Review this year was from Science4Us.com .  Science happens to be her favorite subject and this review actually allowed her to study it more independently.  Since Gesserine has special needs she often needs a lot of teacher interaction and instruction during text book reading and of course experiments generally need to be supervised as well.  However, the Science4Us.com Online Subscription was a mixture of classroom instruction, hands on experiments and interactive video lessons which allowed Gess to work more independently. Science4Us.com offers interactive, standards based, online science instruction for K-2nd grade and also works as great review for grades 3-5. They have over 350 online lessons through which you can explore earth and space, physical science, inquiry, and life science.  They base their material on the 5 E Instruction model: engage, explore, explain, elaborate, and ...

Were you aware that on February 4th Bill Nye "the science guy" has agreed to debate Ken Ham, the founder and CEO of Answers in Genesis and the Creation Museum?   That is one week from today!  I am excited that we are finally getting a few moments in the media to publicly make our arguments for creation known.  I have heard statements from Bill Nye and I am amazed that he has no idea who or what he is even debating.  He seems to be under the impression that creationists don't "believe in science."  That, however, couldn't be further from the truth! You can watch this debate live online for FREE!  It will also be available on YouTube shortly after it has aired live.  They are not sure how long that will last so if you can't watch live, tune in soon.  A few days after the debate digital downloads and DVD copies will be available for purchase.  Be sure to check out debatelive.org for more details!  I will not be able to catch it live...

Ever since Gess saw the video Dinosaurs, Genesis and the Gospel she has been fascinated with dinosaurs.  Every time she picks up her bible she is in Job reading about the Behomoth and she keeps looking up songs from the show on Youtube.  So for Christmas we got her a few new products from Answers in Genesis so she could learn more about dinosaurs. To add to that theme I  thought I would also introduce Gess to paleontology, in a very hands on sort of way.  After watching I Dig Dinosaurs she got to dig one of her own with another Christmas gift we got her: a Geo World Dino Excavation Kit of her favorite dinosaur T-Rex. (The kit does come with evolutionary information inside, but we just ignored that.) Gess really had a blast digging for the dinosaur!  It was hard and tedious work but she was so diligent.  I tried to tell her it didn't need to be completed in one sitting, but she was not giving up until she had discovered all the bones! ...