Marc and I often talk about how we'd dearly love to both be at home all the time with the children. Unfortunately Marc has to spend his days at the local hospital. Pathology is not a field that allows for working from home and fitting work into your life schedule.
I am always envious of families who have managed to organize their lives in a way that allows both parents to be home and to be actively involved in their children's homeschooling.
This means that I am exceedingly envious of the Berry family. Jon and Julia have an enviable homeschooling set up. Jon works from home running a successful web hosting business that allows him to be intimately involved with his children's education.
Sometimes I feel sorry for poor Jon. He's generally the parent who brings their children to park day. Just imagine the single male amongst a host of knitting, crocheting and kibbitzing moms. He's made of stern stuff. Jon takes everything in his stride. Sometimes he interacts with us, sometimes he's on his phone doing business, all the time calm and collected.
This web hosting company provides all kinds of server management, virtual server solutions, and dedicated servers. If you need complicated internet stuff, they are your answer. Don't go with a big company that treats you like a number -- Green Olive Tree's customer service is unparalleled and their record is spotless. Even if you're just looking for reliable web hosting, and you don't want to pay a lot of money, how about this: $25 a year for web hosting for a personal site. That's wicked cheap. Find out more about their web hosting plans and prices here.
If you're reading this and you appreciate their support of our science fair, their support of their kids, and their involvement in the community, please follow their Twitter feed and fan them on Facebook. These are good people, doing a great job raising their children and making an exceptional business out of hard work and excellent service.
The sponsors of our 2009 GUESS Homeschool Science Fair generously provided our young scientists with exciting prizes for the winners. Their donations also allowed us to underwrite the cost of all the kids' science fair day at the VASC, including an age-appropriate science class, an electricity demo, and an IMAX movie. Part of what we do to thank our sponsors is generating links for them on homeschool blogs and sites, pointing to their web presence from descriptive anchor text, to boost their Google ranking on those search terms. That's where this post comes in!
We need your help to spread these links across the internet, to say thank you to these businesses for supporting our young homeschooled scientists. If you have a blog, or site, and you can help us, please steal this post! For maximum impact on search engines, it's very important that the links go along with the post, attached to the appropriate text, so if you need the plain HTML to put into your blog, click here for a .txt file.
So, how can you help the GUESS Homeschool Science Fair?
1. Copy this post, or the .txt file with the HTML. 2. Post it to your blog. 3. Let us know when you've done it so we can link back to your blog!
Here's the part of the post we want you to "steal":
Thank you to the following homeschool-friendly businesses for supporting the GUESS Homeschool Science Fair and the young scientists of Hampton Roads!
Green Olive Tree is an internet company based in Portsmouth, Virginia and owned and operated by a homeschooling family. They offer a broad range of internet services, from reliable web hosting to corporate infrastructure solutions and server administration.
SKS Science supplies homeschoolers and other educators with all the science supplies you need to turn your dining room table into a proper laboratory. Browse their site for test tubes, bottles, face masks and other lab supplies and books.
Book Exchange is the largest used bookstore in Eastern Virginia. Unlike most musty and confusing used stores, this one is clean, bright, inviting, and has a huge selection of used homeschool books. There's always an interesting curriculum find on these shelves!
Folkmanis Puppets makes the most delightful animal puppets available outside Santa's workshop. Meet their most unusual creations like llamas, Chinese dragons, ostriches, flying squirrels. Unusual materials create realistic textures, and they all move in very realistic ways. Irresistible.
The Happy Scientist, Robert Krampf, hosts an online wonderland for budding scientists. With online science lessons, experiments to try at home, a science photo of the day, and new content added all the time, you'll love setting your kids loose on this site.
Mad Science is Hampton Roads' premier provider of science enrichment classes for children. Summer classes include "Crazy Chemistry" and a space camp developed with NASA! New homeschool science classes are being offered in Norfolk and VA Beach, with more planned for fall.
Moore Expressions is a homeschool bookstore in Virginia Beach, VA. They sell used and new homeschooling curriculum, host a support group, and publish a newsletter called the Bayith Educator. They are the premier source for homeschooling books in the Hampton Roads area.
Norfolk Karate Academy offers classes in Tang Soo Do (Korean karate) and Gracie Jiu Jitsu (Brazilian grappling and self-defense). With classes for children, teens, and adults, it's a great way for anyone to get in shape and kick things in a socially acceptable way!
Brooks Systems offers standalone software and web applications that check legal compliance in all municipalities in all fifty states, and create truth-in-lending documents for residential lenders. Using Brooks for your automated mortgage compliance, you can be sure your loans are safe.
eScienceLabs creates boxes of joy for science loving homeschoolers. In each kit is a complete science experience -- from individual lessons to full years of high school labs. Hands-on science kits are the answer to your laboratory woes. Everything is in there: test tubes, goggles, and fun.
Mariner's Museum has amazing programs for homeschoolers learning about maritime science, history, and even pirates! Their spring homeschool series features lessons about the Civil War. Visit Mariner's Museum for historical exhibits and educational programming.
The Science Fair is nearly upon us. On Monday, 9 November, close on a hundred homeschooled students descend on the Virginia Air and Space Museum to show off their scientific prowess.
We have really great sponsors this year.
Robert Krampf, The Happy Scientist has donated 10 memberships to his website. We've been members of his website for a few years. My kids love nothing better than to spend an afternoon surfing his website. He makes science come alive in his videos and his experiments are easy for the children to do. Best of all, they don't require any special materials. The kids don't need me to run around buying obscure items, they just raid the pantry and cleaning supplies to make science magic. Our annual subscription of $20 is some of the best money I spend for our homeschool.
My favorite used book store, The Book Exchange in Norfolk is repeat sponsor. I've found homeschooling gems in this store. My entire library of books on American government and American history was bought at the Book Exchange for a fraction of the retail value. Everyone at this store understands homeschoolers and their needs. They go out of their way to help us. One of my deepest wishes is that every homeschooler in Norfolk would recycle their homeschooling materials and libraries through the Book Exchange which would make it an even better resource to our community.
Another repeat sponsor is Mad Science of Hampton Roads. These guys are a hoot. They are all about the drama of science while still providing instruction. One of the neatest things they do is to come into your home and do a scientific presentation with drama and flare at your children's birthday parties. What's not to love about an organization that entertains while it teaches?
e-Science labs is once again providing science kits to our winners. If you are looking for the best hands-on science kits available at the middle school, high school or college levels, e-Science labs is your best bet.
Their hands-on science kits are designed to fit with any curriculum or teaching style. Engaging online content is provided to supplement a complete series of hands-on labs and to reinforce key concepts.
Their kits are designed to be safer for students and friendly for the environment. Each kit is complete and contains everything a student needs to perform all of the experiments. Their PhD-level educators and scientists have written manuals that are clear, concise and easy to follow.
In both their hands-on and online content, they show how fundamental scientific concepts play a role in our daily lives. By making science relevant, they engage students and enable them to better understand the world around them.
Norfolk Karate Academy provides the best karate instruction in Norfolk. Mr Odom understands that squirrelly young children need gentle care to keep them focussed but at the same time, he allows no misbehavior. His karate classes provide the perfect mind/body balance by exhausting the young homeschoolers while at the same time teaching them mental discipline. I promised my kids that they could start karate with the Norfolk Karate Academy in the fall but life has conspired against us. I've had to swear on my life that as soon as we return from Key Largo in December, that they can sign up for Monday and Wednesday classes. It's going to be good for Mr Ben. He needs another male teacher in his life, especially one who takes no crap from bright young boys.
I count myself very lucky to live in Norfolk. We have many of the facilities you find in a large city without the stress of living in a large city. One of the biggest draws, for me, is that we have such a large, active and diverse homeschooling community. Best of all, we have our very own homeschooling bookstore, Moore Expressions.
I've had reason to thank them twice in the last few months. I needed to change both our math and our English curricula. I did tons of research online, but that only helped me narrow the list down to 2 contenders for each category. I can't tell you how much it helped me to be able to tootle off to Moore Expressions and page through my options. It particularly helped me to be able to page through many Singapore Math books as I couldn't work out where to place Ben and Shira. I ended up buying books two levels too low because we had not covered everything Singapore did. We spent a week barreling through the work and then when we were done, i took the books back to Moore Expressions where they gave me a store credit and sold them on to another homeschool family.
This is one store that Ben and Shira don't mind tagging along to as Moore Expressions has a great children's play space and they always meet fellow homeschooled children when we go there.
Puppets have always played a huge part in my children's creative play. Our favorite puppets are those from Folkmanis. I'm always blown away by how realistic and CUTE their puppets are. These puppets are in a world of their own. You want to hug and stroke their puppets instead of giving them to the kids to play with. I've lost count of the number of naps I've had while snuggling a Folkmanispuppet.
There are going to be more than a few happy children at the Science Fair as Folkmanis has again donated puppets as prizes for the younger set.
Are you looking for petri dishes, pipettes, tubing, test tubes or any other lab equipment? Look no further than SKS Science, yet another returning science fair sponsor. Their website helpfully allows you to search for equipment by scientific field. It's a little late for this year's entrants, but SKS Science has an entire section on their website devoted to science fair projects. I truly appreciate doing business with a company that is not just out to make a quick buck. They provide info for free to the community.
We have great museums in the Norfolk area. One of my favorites is the Mariner's Museum. I love spending time looking at the beautiful replicas of small craft from around the world. Their homeschool days are well worth it. Read all about the last one I attended over here.
Fellow homeschoolers Jon and Julia Berry are the owners of Green Olive Tree a web hosting and internet services company. They offer web hosting, dedicated servers, virtual private servers, enterprise anti-spam solutions, VoIP servers, hosted exchange, and server administration and security.
They also provide consulting for companies with complex infrastructure needs. Jon has been working in the Internet Industry for over six years and has the expertise to evaluate your needs and come up with the most cost effective solution possible.
Another returning sponsor is Brooks Systems. Brooks Systems has been a provider of cutting-edge technology for the residential finance industry for over 20 years. Brooks Systems has serviced and supported over 10,000 clients in all 50 states, Puerto Rico and Canada.
They offer products that help maintain TILA and Predatory Lending Compliance. Customized solution programming is also available to solve many additional lending problems.
To all our sponsors, a great big thank you. Our children thank you for helping make this science fair possible.
What are two homeschooling moms to do when they want their children to do a science fair and they can't find one for love or for money? That's right, they arrange one themselves.
Lydia and I had no experience in arranging science fairs, but then, we had no experience teaching kids (at least I didn't, Lydia taught college level English) before we started homeschooling. We've seen how easy it is to teach our kids so we figured that arranging a science fair would be a doddle. It wasn't tough, but it was a lot of work. Work, though, that was well worth it. I highly recommend that more homeschool parents take the bull by the horns and arrange their own science fairs. Lydia and I would love to mentor you through your first fair.
After less than 3 months of planning and arranging, the G.U.E.S.S. Homeschool Science Fair took place on May 5th in Norfolk VA, where smart young scientists shared their research and conclusions with their peers, their families, and the judges. Fun was had, friends were made, hypotheses were proven, and prizes were awarded!
We kept the fair small at around 30 children, for this, our "beta" year. Contestants were all by invitation only. Why did we do this? As confident as we are in abilities, we figured we should walk before we run. We wanted a situation where if we made mistakes, the contestants and their parents would be very forgiving. Our "beta" year was a huge success and we are now confident that we can successfully open the fair to the entire homeschooling community next year. Current interest indicates that we can probably expect 200 or more children next year. Now that's what I call a success!
This was my first ever science fair, I grew up in a country where they were unknown. I read a zillion websites and books, spoke to tons of people and thought I had a good idea about what a science fair should be like. All my third hand experiences did for me was give me an understanding for the mechanics of a fair. They did nothing to give me a feeling for the energy of a science fair. The buzz, the excitement, the sheer exuberance of the little scientists as they showed off their experiments had to be experienced to be believed.
It was such a pleasure watching the children earnestly explain their experiments to each other and listen to each other with rapt attention.
To entertain the children while the judges tallied their results, Mad Science, one of our sponsors demonstrated that science can be fun.
Bubbling carbon dioxide
Playing with fire
Another highly gratifying part of the entire experience was realizing how many businesses have the best interests of homeschoolers at heart. Everyone we approached for sponsorship willingly sponsored us. As a result, our children walked away with great prizes. This really helped cement the idea that science is fun, and rewarding.
If you would like to help us thank the generous science fair sponsors by boosting their links on key search words, please steal this section of this post, links and all, and republish it to your blog. When you've done this, email guess@littleblueschool.com and let us know, so that we can add you to our "Science Fair Bloggers" and give you some links and traffic too! You'll get a link on Little Blue School, Homeschooled Twins, and on the homeschool science fair web site. Need the code? Click here to get the .txt file with all the links in place. (right click to save the txt file and open it in notepad to see all the html)
Moore Expressions is a homeschool bookstore in Virginia Beach, VA. They sell used and new homeschooling curriculum, host a support group, and publish a newsletter called the Bayith Educator. They are the premier source for homeschooling books in the Hampton Roads area.
Art of Dance Academy is a dance and theater school on the border of Norfolk and Virginia Beach. They offer "Tiny Tots" toddler dance classes, youth classes for ballet, tap, jazz, and hip-hop, and adult classes too. Most importantly, the host the famous summer princess dance camp.
Norfolk Karate Academy offers classes in Tang Soo Do (Korean karate) and Gracie Jiu Jitsu (Brazilian grappling and self-defense). With classes for children, teens, and adults, it's a great way for anyone to get in shape and kick things in a socially acceptable way!
Nauticus is Norfolk's maritime museum and home of the USS Wisconsin battleship. The hot new exhibit is Seabots: Pilots of the Deep! Have you seen it? Nauticus is in the process of setting up a Homeschool Advisory Group to talk about homeschool science programs at the museum.
Mariner's Museum has amazing programs for homeschoolers learning about maritime science, history, and even pirates! Their next homeschool open house is on May 15th and features a class in pirate lore. Visit Mariner's Museum for historical exhibits and educational programming.
Homeschoolingbooks.com offers homeschool curriculum packages to take the guesswork out of selecting materials that compliment each other to create a whole year of learning for your homeschooler. Three collections are available for each level, and individual books are for sale too.
Brooks Systems offers standalone software and web applications that check legal compliance in all municipalities in all fifty states, and create truth-in-lending documents for residential lenders. Using Brooks for your automated mortgage compliance, you can be sure your loans are safe.
Young Chef's Academy is a marvelous kitchen classroom with amazing cooking classes for kids. Go ahead - cover yourself in flour! Most amazing of all: their summer camp offerings are themed around the Olympic Games. Cook for the Gold with Camp Can-I-Cook in Norfolk this summer.
Mad Science is Hampton Roads' premier provider of science enrichment classes for children. Summer classes include "Crazy Chemistry" and a space camp developed with NASA! New homeschool science classes are being offered in Norfolk and VA Beach, with more planned for fall.
eScienceLabs creates boxes of joy for science loving homeschoolers. In each kit is a complete science experience -- from individual lessons to full years of high school labs. Hands-on science kits are the answer to your laboratory woes. Everything is in there: test tubes, goggles, and fun.
Folkmanis Puppets makes the most delightful animal puppets available outside Santa's workshop. Meet their most unusual creations like llamas, Chinese dragons, ostriches, flying squirrels. Unusual materials create realistic textures, and they all move in very realistic ways. Irresistible.
Book Exchange is the largest used bookstore in Eastern Virginia. Unlike most musty and confusing used stores, this one is clean, bright, inviting, and has a huge selection of used homeschool books.
Thank you for your help in promoting these homeschool-friendly sites. They took a risk on sponsoring us in the first year of our science fair, and we appreciate their support.
Young Chefs Academy awarded a "Science of Cooking" party to 10 of our winners. I don't know about the kids, but I would love to do this class myself. I am fascinated by the "whys" and the "wherefores" in cooking. I once heard a chef talking on NPR's, "The Splendid Table" about the science of cooking an egg. I'd love to do a cooking class where I learn the science behind baking and cooking. Our young kids are very lucky. They are going to learn the science behind making cheezey bread sticks.
I spoke to Sarah about having Ben and Shira do some of her cooking classes. I wasn't holding out much hope because the food would need to be gluten, dairy and soy free as well as vegetarian. Much to my surprise, she told me that it would not be a problem. How's that for service? Her classes normally contain those foodstuffs, but if her clients have special needs, she makes a plan.
First Annual Young Chefs Community Awareness Day!! June 8th from 1-4pm!!!
Come on down toYoung Chefs on 22nd St. in Norfolk on Sunday, June 8th from 1pm-4pm. We here at Young Chefs have so many exciting events to kick off our summer theme~ The Olympics! Along with cooking stations featuring international foods, we will have relays, informational sessions on childhood nutrition and even some things for the parents to enjoy! We hope to make this an annual event here at Young Chefs. After all, it is all about keeping our kids healthy!! Calling All Kids~ Get Moving!!!! State Farm on Colley Ave. has graciously donated 100 pedometers! Come by Young Chefs and pick up a pedometer to use for the month before June 8th! Bring it with you to the event and win prizes for the most steps! If you see Melissa Harwood or Theresa Craig, be sure to thank them!
Share Our Strength Great American Bake Sale Young Chefs in Norfolk is going to do our part to help fight against childhood hunger. During our event on Sunday, June 8th, we will be selling delicious homemade goodies made by our members. All of the proceeds will be donated to the Share Our Strength organization. We have a goal of $500, so come hungry!! To learn more about Share our Strength, go to www.strength.org.
I hate it when I run across a concept that thrills me but for which my children are just too young. eScience Labs is just one such concept.
Far too often I hear homeschool moms of high schoolers lamenting their terror of teaching science and worst of all, teaching the labs. Far too many homeschooling parents have no knowledge about how to set up these labs and have a real dread about teaching them. eScience Labs appears to be the perfect product for all these terrified parents.
Just look at one of their high quality teaching videos
They even have a video that emphasizes safety in the lab, even if your lab is in the kitchen.
I really like their philosophy:
our primary mission is to expose students to the marvels of science, we don't want to exclude anyone.
For each topic presented we provide an online video introduction to help the student grasp and focus on the key concepts. Every lab is written with a carefully crafted, sequential introduction to lay the foundation for the experiments being performed. It is our intent that by the time they perform the lab, the student has the background and tools to ensure that it is a learning experience.
I know that these kits are for high school students, but I am seriously considering buying one to try with Ben and Shira. Ben, especially, is crazy about science and I wonder if some careful teaching won't make it possible that he'll thoroughly enjoy and learn from these kits.
As an educator, you are charged with providing effective learning experiences for your students. Your students are distance learners, however, and unlike in the traditional laboratory setting, your students' laboratory is their kitchen, their bedroom, or possibly their living room.
eScience Labs are far more than your typical "Hands On Kits". The broad academic and teaching backgrounds of our PhD level staff are focused solely on developing the best educational tools possible. We enable students to perform the same experiments they would find in a traditional "Brick and Mortar" academic setting; whether it is an AP high school class, community college or a 4 year college/university.
eScience Labs delivers:
Academically sound and thought provoking experiments
Flexibility
Real life examples
Supplementary online content
Online, email and telephone support
It is our philosophy that designing quality, well-structured labs takes a back seat only to safety. Some experiments require chemicals and other components that we feel are simply too dangerous for students to perform in an unsupervised environment. However, some of these experiments are important to understand. In these situations, we provide online video demonstrations that clearly and safely convey these concepts. The online content is also an engaging supplement to maximize the experience.
My geeky nature comes to the fore when I discover products like this. I'm almost wishing that Ben and Shira would hurry up their growing so that we could legitimately start using labs from eScience Labs. I love hands on science products that teach concepts hierarchically.
I can never get over what a great area Hampton Roads is to be a homeschooler. Unlike most cities, we don't have to rely completely on the internet to do our curriculum shopping. We have our very own, "brick and mortar" homeschooling store in Virginia Beach. Moore Expressions has proven to be a life saver for many an area homeschooler. The employees and owners are all very knowledgeable about homeschooling law in VA and about the various curricula.
I'm a true internet junkie. I do my grocery shopping, book shopping, clothing shopping, news reading and in days gone by, even did my dating on the net so I was surprised at how important a brick and mortar store was for me. I love how I can pop into the store to have a look at a curriculum I am thinking about buying. I still use the net to read reviews on curricula, but nothing beats being able to go into a store and to hold the books in your hands.
Lydia and I approached Moore Expressions to sponsor our Science Fair. Joy could not have been nicer to us. She immediately agreed to sponsor us and her sponsorship made it possible for us to be able to enlist the aid of Prof Gail Dodge and Mr Brian Butler from ODU to judge the fair.
Thank you Moore Expressions, you helped us give our budding scientists a memorable experience.
We've had high excitement in our home for the last few weeks. Ben and Shira got to participate in their first ever science fair. Choosing projects was a performance all by itself. Ben wanted to do something about weather and he wanted it to be of epic proportions. His first project idea had us traveling to the Eastern Shore a few times a day. He not so graciously agreed to temper his ideas some what so his second idea had us traveling to VA Beach 3 times a day. I finally had to step in and suggest that plants were a better idea.
In the end Ben did a great little project where he postulated that seeds germinate better in the dark than the light.
Here he is, all excited about his project. (notice the lack of teeth)
Shira had a great idea. She wanted to see if she could make cut flowers stay fresh for longer than they stay fresh in plain water.
She tests solutions of salt, epsom salts, bleach, sugar and Sprite. I assumed that bleach would be the winner, but it wasn't. Sugar and Sprite kept the flowers fresh for twice the length of time that plain water did and salt, epsom salts and bleach killed them quicker than plain water.
Here she is explaining her project to another Science Fair contestant
Here's another pic of Ben and Shira
We, that's Lydia and I, decided not to have the K-2 group be competitive. I think it is was a stroke of genius on our parts. LOL. This age group needs to focus on the concept of doing a science fair project and learning what is involved in doing one. I was blown away at the sheer exuberance of this group.
You can see our young ones with their medals and prizes.
The Harvey sisters won the prizes in their age groups.
Vienna tested whether organic food tastes better than non-organic food. She discovered that the people in her sample preferred organic bread and milk but regular apples and tomatoes.
Her sister, Rhiannon, did an experiment to discover if cats were paw dominant.
The 3rd-4th grade division was won by Claire Zanti, Shira's Nature Girl's Friend.
here's a pic of Rhiannon and Claire with their prizes
I asked Ben what he liked best about participating in the science fair. He said that he liked learning about graphs, how to do division (Marc had to give him a quick lesson in both before he could present his data) and the dry ice shower that Mad Science gave some of the kids.
My kids were so excited when I told them that they are starting a Mad Science homeschool science class tomorrow. Mad Science was one of our science fair sponsors and they did a science demonstration for the children at our fair. Jen and Heath have the mad scientist routine down pat and the kids lap it up. It's amazing how a little bit of lunacy goes a long way to help children learn fairly sophisticated concepts.
What does a homeschool mother do when she wants her children to take part in a science fair? She, and a friend organize one.
On May the 5th this year, our children will take part in the first ever, Get Up and Explore Science Spectacular (G.U.E.S.S.) Homeschool Science Fair.
If you are reading this blog from the Tidewater area and want to sign up for the fair, click here . This is our "beta" year, so we're definitely working out the kinks, including online registration, generating sponsors, acquiring judges, and refining our guidelines. Next year we're planning to go even bigger, and hold the fair earlier in the year so that our winner can go on to the regional event in this area. If you'd like to be a part, please register by Monday, so we can finalize our list of entries. Updates coming soon!
We've had great excitement in our house over the experiments. Ben is fascinated by the weather and his first idea needed me to drive him to the beach 3 times a day for 21 days. I tried and tried, but couldn't convince him that there were better ideas, ideas that didn't need so much of my time and gas but he wouldn't have any of it. So, in typical mean mommy fashion, I got him up at o'dark 30 on the first day and took him off to the beach, then I told him that we'd have to do it well after bedtime and that for the next three weeks I was going to have to wake him up in the dark. That's all it took. Ben now has a different science fair project. Can't say I am disappointed. It's still weather related but only needs an anemometer and thermometer on our deck plus an internet connection. Works for me. He's getting a crash course in data collection and graphing. He's testing whether the actual temperature and wind chill in our very protected back yard are different from the actual temperature and wind chill at a nearby weather station that is not surrounded by brick buildings.
Shira is measuring how different solutions effect the longevity of cut flowers. So far, we can confirm that unlike humans, cut flowers do not thrive or even like wine.
I'm loving how working on the science fair is developing a love of science in my children. Lydia did a great job explaining concept of hypotheses to the children. One of our current favorite car trip activities is coming up with hypotheses that we could test. I see many more experiments in our future.
I knew that I had to teach Ben and Shira how to differentiate between reality and "baloney" but wasn't quite sure how to go about it within the scientific sphere. I've found that by following Dr Nebel's advice, that I it's quite easy. it just needs lots and lots of repetition and I don't doubt that I'll still be reminding the children of all the issues for many years.
I've spent years researching science curricula for the early elementary years and struggled to find anything that taught scientific concepts hierarchically and integrated them with one another. I was beyond excited when I discovered Dr Nebel's book. It's everything I could ever have wished for in a beginning science curriculum. I like how he makes it easy for the teacher to understand why she needs to do something and helps her build the connections for the children.
I especially like how he provides free online support.. You can't beat the price for this science program either, it costs $24.99 at Amazon.com and you can find most of the supplemental reading at the library. So far, I've managed to do all the experiments using stuff I have in my home.
I hope he finishes the 3rd-5th grade book before we finish this one.
I believe there are more instances of the abridgement of freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments by those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations. - James Madison
A government is the most dangerous threat to man's rights: it holds a legal monopoly on the use of physical force against legally disarmed victims. - Ayn Rand
Marc and I often talk about how we'd dearly love to both be at home all the time with the children. Unfortunately Marc has to spend his days at the local hospital. Pathology is not a field that allows for working from home and fitting work into your life schedule.
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