SKS Science: Science Supplies for Homeschoolers

Many of us shudder at the prospect of teaching laboratory sciences to our kids. I know I am guilty of this. In my mind, I remember the chemistry lab at my high school. Rows and rows of cabinets full of glassware and plastic bottles, Bunsen burners, sinks, and a back room full of bottles of powders and liquids. Thinking of trying to reproduce that at home is frankly overwhelming, and I think it is for a lot of homeschoolers. But here are a couple of things to remember:

1. The stuff that requires beakers and flame, gloves and goggles, and dangerous chemicals? That is the COOLEST stuff. That is the stuff that makes balancing equations bearable! Kids all love to measure and pour, combine, make things fizz and pop. This is why chemistry sets have been a toy drooled after by generations of children. So saying "I can't manage it" means that you're foregoing a major part of what makes science awesome for kids.

2. You don't have to stock your lab all at once. Think of your kitchen. When did you acquire your pots and pans? You probably accummulated things over a long time, as you needed it. A set here, a piece there, a collection over here, until you filled your cabinets. Now you have everything you need, but you didn't have to go to the "buy a whole kitchen" store and in one step anticipate every single thing you'd need for a lifetime of cooking. Supplying your home science lab can be the same slow process.

SKS Science is a supply company that sells home science supplies to homeschoolers, teachers, schools, labs, and whoever needs a quick beaker or a sudden petri dish. Their prices are very reasonable, their site is logically organized by brand, by type of science, by product. They have everying you need and even stuff you didn't need. But the best part of their site, in my opinion, is the section of the site where they suggest science experiments and list exactly what you need to do each one. There's a pH indicator experiment (with photos, video instruction). There's an experiment to test the porosity of membranes. Along with each experiment you get a supply list, so you will accumulate your equipment bit by bit.

Yes, you can muck along through homeschool science using mixing bowls and coffee mugs. You can measure stuff in your plastic measuring cups and stir with a salad fork. But if you're serious about science (and you better be), with a small investment in proper tools you can inspire your kids! Can you make a shelf in your cabinet for some graduated cylinders and transfer pipettes? If you grow your collection little by little, I think you'll find your home science lab will be far less painful to construct than you (or I) originally thought.

Ten Things I Have Learned Climbing Stairs

Having just finished my first stair climbing workout, where I marched up and down my own stairs in my own house for 30 minutes, I have these things to say:

1. My dog is so dumb, he followed me up and down the stairs for 20 of the 30 minutes. Seriously.
2. It is very boring to climb up and down stairs for 30 minutes. Very boring. Way more boring than a stair stepper. Way more boring than I imagine it would be to climb up a super tall staircase for 30 minutes.
3. I do need to wear shoes.
4. Dire Straits is not good music to help you climb stairs.
5. It is really hard! I was sweating and panting and everything.
6. That thing up in Benny's room that's smelling strange? and we can't figure out what it is? It has GOT to go. I could have climbed all the way to the third floor if not for whatever that awful thing is. Smells like a rotten warthog made of urine. WHAT is it?
7. Wearing just whatever I am wearing on the day of the workout is not a good idea. Needed workout clothes on.
8. There is a railing on the bottom part of the stairs but not the top part.
9. I tend to start out stairs on my right foot. How about you?
10. The fact that I am already dreading my next stair climbing practice bodes ill for my future as a stair climber. It was REALLY boring. So boring.

Green Olive Tree: Reliable Web Hosting

In most homeschooling families I know (including mine) the dad works and the mom schools. In fact, I know a lot of moms very well but would probably pass their husbands on the street without recognizing them because I hardly see them. Not that there is anything wrong with this -- I and my other mom comrades are very glad we're able to homeschool because our husbands work. However, I always find it very cool when I see a dad that's involved with his kids' activities and present for the school aspects of his kids' lives. One way that homeschool families sometimes work this out is by engaging in entrepreneurial ventures like owning their own business.

Green Olive Tree is an internet company owned and operated by a homeschool family here in Portsmouth, VA. I know both the mom and the dad in this family/company equally well! Running their business takes a lot of their time, but when they come to the park, or to co-op, or to another event, they are often together, or they're taking turns doing the leg work. Dad is there with the kids -- yes, often on his laptop or phone, but still there -- and that's very cool. This is a family who has found a way to prioritize their children *and* run a very successful business -- an amazing balancing act. So I was happy when Green Olive Tree sponsored the science fair, so that we could spend some time promoting the company.

This web hosting company also 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 (yes, their daughter Sarah is in my co-op classes and I adore her!) and making an exceptional business out of hard work and excellent service.

What I Talked About in 2009

Here's my Tweet Cloud for 2009. It's a graphic generated from my most-repeated words in my Twitter feed. I kind of love this. I can see all the elements of my life here. You can get your own Tweet Cloud here. You can follow me on Twitter here.

Happy Homeschool Science: One Photo at a Time

Have you met The Happy Scientist? Robert Krampf is a former museum geologist and instructor turned science showman. His special million-volt tesla coil is the star of his traveling show, and he has taken his show all over the country, including the Discovery Channel and David Letterman. You don't have to travel to see Krampf light up the stage, however. His site, The Happy Scientist, delivers online science lessons right to your computer. Divided by subject matter and also organized by state science standards, the videos and experiments on this site are kid-friendly and homeschooler-approved. Let your science-happy homeschooler off the leash in this site and be prepared to lose them for hours. Here are some links to just a few of his free videos. Members have access to all the content on the site, including many special members-only areas and features, and membership is only $20/year.

• Contagious Yawns
• Square in the Grass
• Insect Hunting
• The Hole in Your Hand

Free experiments:

• Sorting Salt and Pepper
• Light from a Lifesaver
• Broadcasting Radio With Your Socks

What I like best about the site, though, is the Science Photo of the Day. This is not just a "Look at this interesting bug" or "Here's a neat nebula." Krampf engages his young readers daily with a question to think about, a problem to research, a mystery to dive into with every post. Everything from "Have you ever eaten one of these?" to "What strange thing happens when you put a sponge in a blender?" When I first came upon this site, I must admit I got very engrossed in clicking around for the the daily answers.


Checking the science photo of the day every day is a great way to integrate science into your homeschool schedule in a fun way that will expose your child to a ton of different topics and ideas without overwhelming them in reading. It's always something to think about, but sometimes will spark a train of thought or inquiry that will take your child deeper into a specific topic. Who knows where it might lead?

Jungle Book Week 11

Namaste.

Quiz:

The quiz this week is about henna, the ancient art of dying your skin with smushed up plant juice. Please tell me which of these statements are true?

1. Henna is a flowering plant .
2. Henna can be used on skin and leather, but must not be used on hair, or it will cause the hair to turn green and wrinkly.
3. The Pali District in Rajasthan has the most henna growers and sellers in India. There are over 100 henna processors in one city alone.
4. Henna has been used for thousands of years to decorate skin in intricate designs and motifs.
5. Henna dye is applied as a paste made from the leaves of the henna plant. There are two parts to this paste: 1. The crushed leaves ground into powder. 2. A slightly acidic liquid like lemon juice or tea.
6. Henna tattoos are applied by piercing the skin and placing the dye underneath the top layer of skin.
7. The longer you leave the henna paste on the skin, the more lawsone molecules will penetrate the skin and stain it.
8. The henna stain disappears as the skin cells die.
9. People apply henna decorations to cast spells on their enemies and bring rain to parades.
10. Henna artists use traditional motifs, flowers, lines and dots, spirals, and bands of color to create their designs. .

After the quiz got started immediately on our henna project. We wanted to give ourselves the maximum time possible to let the stuff dry, so Ms Ashleigh and Ms Deva came in to help us get the dye on as quickly as we could.







For more pictures, visit our Flickr set and scroll down to the bottom. We also had some fun with henna at the park a few weeks ago, test driving it on the moms. Ms Deva decorated Louis and Miranda for their Halloween appearance as an Indian prince and princess!







Story: In the enrichment class we talked about the story quite a bit, to make sure the kids are following the plot and ideas. For next week, I'd like them to read the poem at the end of "Tiger! Tiger!" Mowgli says these words as he stands on the council rock after bringing back the hide of Shere Khan, and I want to focus next week on the difference between the village and the jungle, the idea of fitting in, and with the older class some notions of Mowgli's character as an archetypal man, too beastly for the village, too civilized for the jungle. So we'll be focusing on that.

Song and Dance: Next week I told the enrichment class that I am bringing in my prize bag and everyone who can sing or say the first stanza of "If" from memory is going to get a prize. They will have another shot at it the week after, too. I'm going to extend the same offer to the older kids, but they have to say the whole thing! WHAT? THE WHOLE THING? Yes. The whole thing. If they know "Mandalay" too, they can have a prize for that as well, but I'd rather they focused on memorizing "If."

Assignment: The children should be reading the rest of the Mowgli stories to finish the book in the next few weeks. I would like them to be at least through with "Tiger! Tiger!" for sure on Tuesday. After that, the pace is up to you. The fast facts are about the Gond tribe. Next week we'll be doing part one of a project where we make Gond tribal paintings. I'd like them to look at some of these links and start thinking what they'd like their painting to look like. On Tuesday they'll make a sketch of their design which I will transfer as faithfully as possible into a dark outline on posterboard. The following week, they will do the painting part and fill in all the color.

Here is a video made in the Gond art style from a Gond creation myth story:



That's How I See Things is a book illustrated in the Gond style.

A gallery of Gond Tribal Paintings.

Here's just one example:

Latin Club Week 11

This is a class report for week 11 of my Latin class at Homeschool Out of the Box co-op. Our textbook is Latin for Children Level A from Classical Academic Press.

Meet and greet. There was no quiz! Chapter ten was review, so we had a review day today. I gave everyone a stamp who attempted the monstrous crossword, and they all shared war stories about how awfully difficult it had been.

Songs. We sang our usual songs. We were missing some people, but managed Dona Nobis Pacem as a round anyway. Since we missed a week due to the storm and I am recovering from losing my voice this week, I don't think we're going to be able to swing another song. But there's always next semester!

Translation: We worked on Adeste Fideles and tried translating from the Latin to our own English interpretation. It is hard! We learned that a literal translation is almost incomprehensible in English. What I want the kids to take away from this whole exercise is an understanding of how different Latin really is. When they are studying Spanish or French or German, more closely related to English, they can expect to translate each word and then read it off. However, in Latin it doesn't work that way. It's going to be a long time before we learn enough about word order and the various tenses and moods and whatnot that we're able to really confidently translate it. The best we could do at this point was to get an idea of what the verses meant, and you know what? That's pretty good! The high point of this part of the lesson was when the kids realized that videbemus is a future form of video. That was some smart thinking.

Stamp: Today's stamp was the "surprise" sum chant and everybody got it! Very well done.

Games: We played Hot Seat today since the children were so well prepared, and we had a new champion in the hot seat: Stephen got his first Hot Seat Sticker today and he was very proud! Well done! Must be the flame retardant underpants.

Virgil: This week we worked on lines 3 and 4 in the Aeneid. This is very very hard work, and not to be taken lightly. Here is a link to a page where the lines are read properly, and also a translation is read -- it happens to be Dryden's translation, which is one of the ones we'll be looking at in Aeneid class next semester. By listening to the recording, the kids will be able to see what I was trying to get across in class -- that the line breaks do not necessarily coincide with the pauses. It would be great if they could listen to this a few times, so they can hear the rhythm of the words, independently of how they're arranged on the page.

Homework: Chapter 11 is aboute adjective endings. The good news is that adjective endings are the same as noun endings, so this is kind of like another review chapter. The big new concept is matching the adjective to the noun in gender, number, and case. A noun only has one possible gender, but adjectives have three. This is going to take lots of practice, and I suggest asking them to pair one adjective with multiple nouns of your choice. The homework is chapter 11 in both primer and activity book, and the chant will be the adjective endings chant, which is basically all three of the noun endings chants in one.

GUESS Homeschool Science Fair: How Can You Help?

Thank you for participating in the science fair this year! It was a great day, and you and your children helped to make that happen!

It’s time to look ahead to next year, and part of that is thanking our sponsors so that they’re happy to help us out again in the future. There are several ways you can help us do this and also spread the word about our fair.

1. Do you have a blog? Go to this post: http://www.littleblueschool.com/2009/11/please-steal-this-post.html You’ll find instructions on how to copy and repost that information, spreading links to our sponsors’ web sites and improving their Google ranking.

2. Do you have Twitter? Here is a list of our sponsors that have Twitter accounts. Please follow them, retweet them when you can, promote their feeds:
http://www.twitter.com/RobertKrampf (The Happy Scientist)
http://www.twitter.com/esciencelabs (eScience Labs)
http://www.twitter.com/brookssystems (Brooks Systems)
http://www.twitter.com/greenolivetree (Green Olive Tree)
http://www.twitter.com/folkmanis (Folkmanis Puppets)

3. Do you use Facebook? Here is a list of our sponsors that have Facebook accounts. Please join their groups, become fans, link to their pages on your wall:
http://www.facebook.com/TheHappyScientist (The Happy Scientist)
http://www.facebook.com/eScienceLabs (eScience Labs)
http://www.facebook.com/vascnews (Virginia Air and Space Center)
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=131416466288 (Green Olive Tree)
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1184826284 (Folkmanis Puppets)

4. Did you receive a prize specifically from one of these donors? It would be great if you wrote a thank-you note to the donor. It would be even better if you blogged about the donor. It would be even better if you blogged with pictures! For example, if you received a bookstore certificate from Book Exchange, can you take a picture of your child with the books they choose? If you received a puppet, can you snap a photo of your child with his/her puppet? Maybe you took a picture at the fair with the puppet – Folkmanis would love to see it.

5. Visit all the science fair sponsors here: http://www.guesshomeschoolsciencefair.com/sponsors.htm Click around on the links and investigate these homeschool-friendly businesses, and let them know that we are grateful for their support.

Thank you so much for helping us out as we wrap up the fair. We really appreciate YOUR support too!

Best,
Lydia and Shez

Steal This Post

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.

Virginia Air and Space Center was host to the homeschool science fair this year, and delivered awesome science classes for homeschoolers from their education department. The VASC is the educator resource center for the NASA Langley Research Center.

GUESS Homeschool Science Fair 2009

When Shez and I first talked about organizing a science fair for homeschooled kids, we were actually sitting in a bowling alley. Our kids were in a homeschool league, which they loved, and we were suffering through waiting out the bowling, which we did not love. Being the supportive homeschooling moms that we are, we drove the kids to bowling on a weekly basis, and as we sat there, nodding and smiling and not really looking up when one of the kids would say "I got a spare!" we hatched this idea for the science fair.

On Monday, November 9th, my children, and Shez's children, and about sixty-five other children, were again engaged in something they really love. The cool thing is, it was something that I love too: thinking, questioning, reasoning, testing, finding out. In short, science! So instead of being the nice supportive mom and nodding mildly while the kid scores a point in sparring, or draws a comic, or climbs a pole, I can listen to my five-year-old talking about her control group, my nine-year-old defining his constants and variables, and let me tell you, *that* is something that gets me excited as a homeschooling mom!

Here's Sadie talking to the judges:



Here's Benny, very proud of his work:



A lot of people have thanked us for doing the work that went into turning out the science fair this year. It was a lot of work, but the excitement in our own kids' faces, and in all the other kids' faces, as they were rushing around from the classes to the judging to the movie, standing proudly beside their projects and explaining their work so articulately to the judges, chattering to each other about the details of their work... made it very worthwhile. Some people are inspired by athletes, artists, musicians. Of course, I'm inspired by those things too. However, I find myself getting really choked up, emotionally touched, at spelling bees, geography bees, and science fairs, than at anything else. The earnest, uncensored nerdiness; the fact that these kids are oblivious to the fact that their interest in science might be considered nerdy; the degree to which these really young children have immersed in their ideas... is very awesome to see!

That being true, I have to say, we absolutely loved every minute of the science fair! We were very lucky to have over a dozen excellent judges, both museum docents and community volunteers, the hospitality of Virginia Air and Space Center staff, who set up really engaging classes and a very cool movie, and generous sponsors who provided great rewards to the kids.

Here's a look at the third and fourth grade projects, as seen from above:



Here are some links where you can find out more:

Our updated web site, where you can find all the results, pictures, links, and info you can handle: GUESS Homeschool Science Fair.

Our Flickr photo pool, where you can see pictures from all angles, from five different moms. GUESS pictures on Flickr.

Our sponsors:

Green Olive Tree
Book Exchange Norfolk
Mad Science of Hampton Roads
eScience Labs
Norfolk Karate Academy
Moore Expressions
Folkmanis Puppets
Brooks Systems
The Happy Scientist
SKS Science
Mariner's Museum
Virginia Air and Space Center

There will be many ways that you can help us bring about GUESS 2010, so stay tuned on the web site and on our blogs for more information.