Comments on Science Education at Home...Anyone can Homeschool: Homeschool Science Education

CAUTION!!! THIS POST IS FOR THE MOTHERS OF BOYS!!!...

2006-11-16T04:38:00.000-08:00

CAUTION!!! THIS POST IS FOR THE MOTHERS OF BOYS!!!
I wanted to alert you to a little known condition that has no apparent cure.
I live in a testosterone-dominated environment. Our only daughter, the oldest of 5, left me in this dilemma while off to pursue a career in medicine. Daily, I move through a house where physical contact happens between brothers even without intention. They seem to carry some type of magnetic field that draws them toward each other causing unexplained lifts, pushes, fake fights (sometimes real fights) and the lack of ability to return a toilet seat to it’s original position. I originally thought this to be a condition unique to only those males that have not yet attained full growth, but have had this theory proven wrong when the adult male leader of the tribe enters the environment and without explanation is often drawn into the contact. Whoops of laughter, squeals and an occasional crashing sound often accompany his entrance into the household at night. Upon investigation, I often see one of the younger males holding him in a headlock while the others perform various mock Ninja moves on and about his torso. Pleas to stop the action seem to incite additional forms of facial contortion often accompanied by strange sounding battle type cries.

Other symptoms of hormone overload include:

1) Placement of various plastic bugs, spiders, snakes and other realistic looking items under the covers of the bed or in the shower
2) Small action figures hanging from lampshades, kitchen cabinets and sometimes on maneuvers in the dryer
3) Missing single socks or socks with holes that came from no where
4) Items being knocked off of tables, shelves etc. when no one is in the room!! I know because I always ask and none of them were even in the house when the item generated some sort of internal energy and fell all by itself!
5) A weird, almost unearthly fascination with sounds that may or may not have been generated from the body.

Seeking a cure is at best a trial and error process. I often purchase items thinking that the hours of academic stimulation involved in completing the project will somehow redirect the energy fields. I have found that if I work with the affliction instead of against it, they tend to learn more along the way.

Imagine how excited I am about some new products being carried here at onlinesciencemall.com. My boys assure me that these are harmless and will not be used for anything except scientific inquiry. I am sure that the WHOOPEE CUSHION (TSG9716) has numerous Physics related principles. The SPLAT EGG (item #TSG8392) is a perfect example of nutritional concepts integration. As a self-professed Naturalist, the benefits of learning the anatomy and physiology of the HATCHIN GROW LIZARD (TSG8535L) are high on my list of priorities. One item that I know has multiple scientific benefits that will only be realized with practice is the NOISE PUTTY (TSG97155). This item, which makes noises similar to escaping body gasses when you attempt to return it to the container, must have a multitude of absolute solid scientific concept skills. When I was showing the list of potential items to order for our sons for Christmas to my husband I received a phone call. After completion of the call, I returned to find the list on the counter. The quantity to order for the NOISE PUTTY had been changed from 4 to 5. While not a math genius, I do know that we only have 4 sons. Apparently my husband has decided to become more involved in the science instruction in our homeschool!!!!

Enjoy your boys!!!!

FOR A HOST OF FUN ITEMS TO GIVE AS GIFTS, PLEASE CHECK OUT THE GIFTS, TOYS, NOVELTY ITEMS CATEGORY at onlinesciencemall.com!!!!

As I encounter something that is of great use to m...

2006-10-29T04:54:00.000-08:00

As I encounter something that is of great use to me in homeschooling my children in science I will share my experience with you here.
I am currently teaching several science groups through a homeschool coop. One of the groups is a middle school age variety of learning styled boys and girls. We are using Apologia General Science and cover it in 2 years. This breaks it into basically earth science and life science. During the last few weeks, we have been studying human reproduction. Keep in mind the 6th thru 8th grade age of this group. I approached this from first a clinical standpoint, then what I would call more of a practical stand point. Kind of like "this is how it works and this is why you should not be using it right now" kind of approach. When we got to the fetal development unit,we covered the text, looked at my development charts, watched the discovery video showing conception to live birth,colored in the anotomical coloring pages and then I had one of the coop mothers who was 38 weeks pregnant come in. Using complete modesty, I used the dual head stethoscope (Item #STE102) and allowed each student to listen with me to the baby's internal heartbeat. WHAT A REACTION FROM THESE KID'S!!!! They were in awe of the strength of the heartbeat!! All of them took a great interest in the mothers progress. Baby Isabel was born this week and the entire class went to see her! They all are bonded to her and act as if they love her. I have overheard discussions during lunch about things like "I never knew a baby's heart was beating while it was inside the mother" and "when I get married (silent parent cheer) and my wife is going to have a baby, I want to go the the doctor with her". My 12 year old who is in this class has even picked a name for his future daughter since this experiment! Could it be that simple human experience and interaction can help these children understand the enormity of what this is all about? We will see as I follow each of these young men and women through the cycle leading to adulthood. Note, I used a similar approach before with my older children and their peer groups, but used a goat instead of a human. I did not have the dual head #ST102, just a standard stethoscope (#ST101). They all loved it so much,but the lady with the goats moved and the coop mother was right there and did not mind at all. Since then all of the other children from preshool on up have used this dual head #ST102 to listen to their hearts, lungs etc.! I carry it with me every week and let them pull it out if they want to!! It is very sturdy and even if worse case scenario one of them happens to break it it is not expensive at all. It is worth the price for the excitment I see. The General Science group wants to listen to baby Isabel's heart when she comes to class and is as they put it is "on the outside" Just wanted to share!
Donna

Hi Anna,I was excited when I read your post!!! I w...

2006-10-10T12:32:00.000-07:00

Hi Anna,

I was excited when I read your post!!! I would love to see you pursue this topic!

Our oldest, who is a junior at Mercer University is a great example of a homeschooled student who did well in spite of
her physics impaired mother/instructor. We used a program called Apologia Science by Dr. Jay Wile for all science related topics. His Physics and advanced Physics courses are excellent. I never took Physics myself, but felt it would benefit our daughter. This program is very easy to understand and conversational in the teaching approach. The books are available from Children's Books -1-800-344-3198 and the onlinesciencemall.com has kits made up for all of the materials you need to do the labs/experiments.
The program by Dr. Wile must have worked well, our daughter took college Physics,got an "A" and is now the professor nominated Student Instructor for this course at Mercer. The college actually pays her for this. For once they are writing her a check instead of the other way around!!!!
It has been my experience that a parent who is homeschooling their children is so motivated to make sure that the child gets what they want or need that they become very involved in learning subjects that they either never advanced to or never felt comfortable with. Homeschooling is such a big commitment of the parents life that the last thing the majority of them want is for their child to leave the homeschool enviornment unprepared for whatever their next level will be. I think it would be a great research project for you to poll some of the college sophmores,juniors or seniors who were homeschooled and find out from them how they feel they stack up against their peers in the science area. BTW- I educate all of my children in all of the science disciplines necessary for a
college prep diploma with very little expense. It does not hold true that the more money you throw at a subject the better the student will do!

Donna

Hi Nancy,I found your posting very interesting and...

2006-09-10T12:29:00.000-07:00

Hi Nancy,
I found your posting very interesting and motivating. I am a graduate student and I was thinking about doing my thesis on homeschooling physics. Virtually all the information and articles that I found were pointing to the fact that homeschoolers do fairly well. My focus was really on parents and how they would teach physics to their children if they weren't well versed on the subject. The comment that you posted regarding workshops on how parents are either very competent or afraid of science built my confidence a bit more.
Since my thesis has to be of some value, meaning that someone out there will profit from it, I was going to focus it on parents with no previous knowledge on physics. Now that you are the first posting in which I found that there are parents out there who do not feel too comfortable with this, I was wondering if perhaps you had any materials that would help me with my project: any websites, books, recommended magazines,etc.
Thank you for your encouraging message.
Anna