Mohr Adventures in World Schooling

Ice Cream in a Bag This science minute will take longer than a minute, but you end up with some sweet rewards.  You only need 7 things:  Half and Half - Whole milk will make a less creamy ice cream.  Mixing whole milk and cream can make a creamier ice cream.  Half and half is the easiest blend, but feel free to experiment to find the texture you like. Vanilla extract Sugar Salt - You can use any salt you have around the house, but the chunkier salts are easier to keep out of the ice cream. Ice Two sizes of high quality plastic bags like Ziploc - You want a good seal, especially on the smaller bag to help keep the salt water from getting into the ice cream mix. Inside the smaller bag, pour 1 cup of half and half, 1 Tablespoon sugar and 1.5 teaspoons of vanilla extract.  As you seal the smaller bag, squeeze the air out.  Fill the larger bag half way with ice and add about 1/4 C of salt to the ice.  Put the smaller bag inside the larger bag and then top i...

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.

Objective:   My daughter requested a tour of the ancient world.  The second stop was ancient Rome, which we tied in to St. Valentine since it was also Valentine's Day this month.  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. Love, Heart, Red, Pink, White, Pretty, Rome, Volcano, ...

As many parents face the prospect of finishing the school year with their kids at home, many businesses are offering ideas for lesson plans to help educate and entertain your kids.  But as we are inundated with emails and news, many of these opportunities may pass us by. Science NASA  has a variety of free lesson plans designed to cover math and science skills.  Some may require more materials than others.  The site includes a search feature, so that you are able to sort the activities by age, topics, and subject. Cincinnati Zoo  has a home safari series.  For each video available on YouTube, there is an activity on their website.  Some  activities are science based like slime, others engineering like making cat toys or using tools to negotiate a home made obstacle course like primates use tools. Arizona State University has coloring pages available for a number of topics including biology , earth science , and  anthropology . M...

The world right now is a confusing and scary place.  Our kids have had their schedules completely changed and they can't even depend on home to be a normal place as many parents have had to turn to working from home, declaring certain areas or times to be work zones.  They may suddenly have to have video classes and are may be hearing new words like pandemic.  For those interested in teaching about germs, we have tested two different products. Magic School Bus The World of Germs I grew up with the Magic School Bus, both the show and the books.  Its been fun sharing the Magic School Bus with my kids.  They have many of the books, from bees to the waterworks and we own the complete original series.  The Magic School Bus also has a number of science kits and they are some of my kids favorite kits.  We keep the cards or booklet to repeat the experiments as we like.  My kids loved using the kits to study flight, weather and space.  We have the ...

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...

Objective:  To prepare for a family trip to Yellowstone by studying some of the science and history behind Yellowstone.  We chose to explore a native group - the Shoshone, one of the states inside - Wyoming and the founder of the National Parks Service - Teddy Roosevelt.  We discussed things we might find at the park like geysers, calderas, wolves, and petrified wolves. Learning Goals: Language Arts - Listen to a variety of texts, both fiction and non-fiction. Social Studies - Learn about Native Americans.  Discuss famous Americans.  Be familiar with maps and globes. Science - Become familiar with animals - beginning zoololgy.  Be able to describe the basic composition of the earth. Where is Yellowstone: To learn about where Yellowstone could be found, we read Yellowstone: A True Book .  Using what we learned from that book, we found the states where Yellowstone could be found in our puzzle of the United States and while playing The Scrambled ...

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...

There are many different types of school styles for the homeschooling set.  Unschoolers use child-led activities, realizing the educational value of many interests children have.  Parents can also use their child's interests and life around them to create units in Unit Study homeschooling.  For more classical styles, parents can set up their own school room and try to run a more typical school in their home.  Charlotte Mason, Thomas Jefferson, Montessori and Waldorf are each styles inspired by their namesakes, some relying more heavily on a large variety of reading materials and others more hands-on involvement.  Almost any homeschool parent may start with one style and then find a combination of styles that fits their life and family best. We currently are a family of one military parent, one house parent, and two children - preschool and elementary age.  While we are home, we tend to use a few worksheets, several on-line options like ABCmouse and Khan...