An Art Resource~

We have been DRAWING! Its been fun working on 3D Shapes and Figures. My younger teen is trying his hand at a bunch of different techniques and fun from Mark Kistlers Online Art Lessons.

photo credit

I have another resource for you to check out. Its called Awesome Arts it has a bunch of unique resources for learning and practicing art. ( more links to follow soon!) I don't want to overwhelm my readers with all my artsy finds, but they are coming!

To start out, my plan is to create a lapbook from  The ABC's of Art section ( download the one in color) and as each is introduced add work of theirs to that particular sections or topic/skill/concept.

Happy Creating!

Strive & Thrive: Biology Learning

We have been working through Apologia Biology and my son finds the reading very interesting. As he reads he is working on written narrations explaining what he learned, what he found interesting and his own opinions on different topics and material.

Serendip

As he works I really wanted to increase his activity level and understanding with specific concepts with more hands on experiments, data collection and incorporate more Inquiry Based Learning to make things even more interesting while studying Biology.

I found this really great resource that really helps me do just that. The resource link is called Serendip and is by Dr. Ingrid Waldron and Dr. Jennifer Doherty who are out of the University of Pennsylvania.

Their topic sequence can be used for Biology learning and/or used in conjunction with a spine you have chosen for learning these principles. I thought it might work nicely with what we are doing and I am looking forward to having my teen work through this site.

You can also subscribe to their list so that when new activities become available you will be emailed of them at that time.  Also be sure to check out the Additional Activities to see a plethora of things to explore.

We just can't wait to get started on some of these. And if you really want to dive in deeper check out the other topics; Playground, Brain & Behavior, Complex Systems, Science Education, and Science & Culture. I hope you find the site as interesting as we do~

*update: one more resource I would like to share is a non profit organization that is called The Teaching Channel. It has videos to view for all grade levels (including highschool) and is free when you sign up. It is funded by the Gates Foundation.
Other Resources to use:
Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute: yourgenome.org
Biology Web
Lehigh University: Biology Web links ( pls note, there are a few that are no longer valid but many are still very useful) 

Happy Science Learning!

Strive & Thrive: Combining Subjects When You Can

We have had a really interesting couple of months. Because we are homeschooling year round we decided to take "breaks" from certain studies and focus more attention on other areas. By doing this I am finding that is becoming increasingly easier, (as my teens get older especially) to combine subjects.

our Reconstruction Lapbook we started with an outline for an essay

When working on our focused studies we are able to easily bring in and review "Skills Learning" (grammar & usage, writing, comprehension, current events, art and much more). So far while working more closely with History and Science as our focus I have been able to bring in other areas and I am really happy and am learning how to really condense our studies so that we are covering much more material, and covering with a great deal of more depth and we love it.

The one thing we hated was taking our mornings and jumping from one subject to the next~ having to take out the writing program and then its time for history or science and sneak in grammar etc.. this really felt disjointed and having tried this more focused learning we are really enjoying things and my teens are seeing much more relevance in their learning. I suppose its giving a reason why we have to do something. And for teens that really seems to help make a difference with boredom or the lack of interest we see in teens so often.

I have found it takes just a bit more time to organize my resources we will be using but I am finding tricks to organizing by using a written outline and/or planner to help me. We are making use of more books that sit on our bookshelf and I think its a worthwhile option to try out. I am considering switching completely to working this way from now on especially where I have older learners and many of the "skill subjects" (excluding math of course) are mostly learned and reviewed at this point in their learning.

If any of my readers are interested in more information on how I am doing this feel free to post and ask and I can explain things in more detail~

Happy Learning!