Mohr Adventures in World Schooling

How to make your own "Milky" Way Galaxy. Pour some milk in a shallow bowl or saucer.  This works best with any milk other than non-fat.  Add a few drops of liquid water color or liquid food coloring.  Use a toothpick to move the color about as you wish.  The real fun happens when you add a drop or two of liquid dish soap, or put soap on the end of your toothpick.  The fat in the milk is repelled by the soap, so you should get some fun movement in your liquid, swirling about like a galaxy.

While we have been playing sight words Bingo for quite some time, we recently decided to try out a few more reading inspired games.  They are perfect for early readers, but with a few adjustments I was able to play them with our younger son too. Slam Ships For this game, you need one "reader" to call out words, while the other players man little suction cup space ships.  The words are all on circles which have different colors based on reading level.  Rather than have it be a race or a competition, we take turns because both of my kids are at different reading levels.  They like to have words from all the levels out at once.  For my 6 year old, I call out a sight word and have her look for it without too many hints.  We may practice sounding words out to help identify the word.  I usually use the word in a sentence too, although I try to prevent setting out homophones.  For my son, I read the word and then list the color it is on and give hints ab...

Objective: We continue my daughter's requested tour of the ancient world, this time into the world of the Celts.  This was a fun diversion from the paths typically taken by schools, but there was a challenge finding age appropriate books to read along.  We chose to study this in March, to tie in with St. Patrick's Day.  While exploring the ancient world, we wanted to examine some myths, and learn about some of their contributions to science, math and the arts.  I create daily worksheets dealing with the days topic and a daily chore.  My daughter gets five or six questions while my son gets three or four.  If there is room, I may include some math (simple equations or word problems) or language arts questions (like rhyme, syllables, synonyms). Spelling List and Sentence of the Week for K/1st grader : Language Arts lessons include some simple questions about the spelling list, like finding the nouns, making rhymes or counting syllables.  We read and ...

Home Science Tools is one of my favorite sites to look for science projects to do with the kids.  They have a number of science curriculum available, guides to help you select the best curriculum for your needs, and kits to help provide some of the tools needed for experiments.  They have also created their own topic specific curriculum for early elementary.  Topics include scientific skills, animals, plants, seasons, space and states of matter.  Guides include adaptations for advanced/older students, younger students, special needs students, and small group settings.  We tested out space and plants. Explore Science: Space This teacher's guide creates four lesson themes.  Some supplies are provided including an inflatable globe, and activity pages are included in the back.  Topics covered include the relationship between the Earth and the sun, revolution versus rotation modeling (year and day), lunar phases, Earth's layers, and the solar system....

I love board games.  As a kid, I often set up board games to play by myself and I still do this sometimes today.  But now that I have kids, I can share games with them.  And board games are great for teaching so many different skills.  For those that I tired of Candy Land and Chutes and Ladders, I highly recommend games by Peaceable Kingdom.  We have a few. Hoot Owl Hoot This game is designed for ages 4 and up and for 2-4 players.  It is a nice, short, cooperative game.  I love cooperative games in general, but its great for younger players to encourage teamwork.  The goal of the game is to move all the owls (you can choose the challenge level, but my kids love all 6) from the start into the nest before the sun rises.  Players are allowed to talk and collaborate to create strategies.  Each player will have three cards.  They can choose whichever card they would like to play, unless they drew a sun card, in which case they have to...

Many parents are facing a struggling reality during corona virus lockdowns.  They suddenly have been put in charge of their children's education and day to day, 24 hour well being and entertainment.  This is a daunting challenge to have thrown on us.  Many are tempted to label it as homeschooling, but it doesn't really fit any label as we know them, because this is an entirely different experience.  Parents didn't make this decision for themselves or with the child.  Parents have not been given time to prepare.  Some school systems are using video conferencing, while others have resorted to homework packets.  When parents aren't faced with homework they may not understand and setting their child up for a video conference, they have another challenge.  Do I schedule everything and try to keep everyone busy?  And what do I do when my schedule falls apart, and my kids inevitably tell me "I'm bored." What do you say?  Some parents would be...

Objective:   My daughter requested a tour of the ancient world, starting in Greece.  While exploring the ancient world, we wanted to examine some myths, and learn about some of their contributions to science, math and the arts.  I create daily worksheets dealing with the days topic and a daily chore.  My daughter gets five or six questions while my son gets three or four.  I include questions about the activity of the day and if there is room, either math (simple equations or word problems) or language arts questions (like rhyme, syllables, synonyms). Spelling List and Sentence of the Week for K/1st grader : Language Arts lessons include some simple questions about the spelling list, like finding the nouns, making rhymes or counting syllables.  We read and write our sentence of the week every weekday. Greece, stars, triangle, volume, hope, fear, olive, boat, space, horse Athena is wise. Hermes is fast. Ares is mad. Zeus is strong. Iris loves rainbo...

Our family uses three main learning resources online: ABC Mouse, PBS Kids, and the Khan Kids app.  Both PBS Kids and Khan Kids are free resources, while ABC Mouse has a free trial period but does require payment after the first month. ABC Mouse: The Positives:  The learning path makes it easy to track your child's progress through age appropriate learning goals.  If you are really interested, there are assessments available to further customize your child's learning and test their school readiness.  These are available for an additional fee.  Many of the puzzles can be adjusted to your child's level.  The games are fairly easy to understand and replayable for those who are interested.  Students earn tickets for completing lessons, which can be used for virtual pets, customizing an avatar or decorating rooms.  Students have the freedom to leave the learning path and choose their own activities as they wish.  Although most of the site requir...