March 5, 2009

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If you’re looking for a fun idea for school these next couple weeks, try following the Iditarod Race which starts in two days – Saturday, Mar. 7th.

Learn about and follow the race at:

• The official Iditarod Website
• Why learn about the Iditarod?
• All about the Iditarod Trail
• The Iditarod Webquest - a fun project outline with lots of ideas.
• What about the dogs?
• Dog Sled Anatomy

And don’t forget the great E-Iditarod Project that starts every year in January and involves the kids making a map of Alaska, selecting a musher and team to follow, and following the progress of their team on the race by posting to a blog as ‘their’ team reaches each checkpoint.  Here we are making our map of Alaska for the project:

Enjoy!

Posted under Homeschool Activities, Social Studies Websites

January 26, 2009

Last month, we found the Iditarod Project (thanks, Beth!), and the kids have been having a blast working on it - always a great time in homeschool life.

The first activity is to make a map of Alaska and the Iditarod Trail.  After considering the daily danger to all fragile items in our boy and toddler-heavy household, I wasn’t so excited about making a large paper map.  It didn’t take much imagination to see ripped map pieces, corners disolved by drool, and chunks of paint being pulled off the wall by tape gone crazy.

Good thing someone more creative than I suggested using a bedsheet to make the map. 

Whalah!  We did a quick math lesson on scale, made 8 x 8 inch squares out of cardstock, and the kids got busy marking a grid on the map in pencil.  (Hey, that laundry in the background is clean, at least)

The next day, we transfered the outline of Alaska, the rivers, the Iditarod Trail, and the cities.  After a discussion of map legends, my oldest designed a cool symbol for the cities, including one with a star in the middle for the capital.  (Since everyone has to be involved at our house, the 3-year-old made his own unsupervised permanent marker line across the scale line – at least he didn’t get the carpet!)

We outlined everything in permanent marker.  To remove the pencil marks, we washed the sheet with the regular mountains of laundry.  And finally, we hung the map proudly on the banister in our entryway.  (Who needs interior decorators when you homeschool?)

We’re also reading Dogsong by Gary Paulsen together to get more of a feel for Alaska and some of her culture.

We’ll keep you posted on our progress. 

Meanwhile, check out these other homeschoolers who have also done/are doing the Iditarod project:

• Go Alongs Homeschool Blog
• Delighting in His Richness Homeschool Blog
• Chai School Homeschool Blog
• Green Timber School Blog

If you’re also joining in, post a comment and link about your progress and experiences!

Posted under Geography Websites, Homeschool Activities, Social Studies Websites

January 3, 2009

A fellow homeschool friend Beth, pointed me to this great site:  The Iditarod Project.

It is aimed at helping students ‘virtually’ join in the famous Iditarod dog sled race held every year in Alaska.  If you don’t know much about the Iditarod, check out the official Iditarod website.  It is an amazing race over 1150 miles long across the rugged Alaskan wilderness that takes around two weeks of grueling endurance to complete.  It’s history goes back to the routes the dog sleds took to bring supplies in from to coast to the mining towns in the interior.  There are even heroic stories of dog sled teams bringing medicines along these routes in time to save many lives.

All you need to participate in The Iditarod Project is be a public, private, or home school and join by January 9th.  The project includes the following activities:

• study the trail and musher biographies
• create a wall-sized map of the trail
• select a musher to follow in this year’s race
• track the selected musher’s progress as the race occurs
• post to each checkpoint’s blog as the selected musher reaches each stop on the trail
• complete the problem solving tasks you find at each checkpoint’s blog
• arrive in Nome vicariously with your selected musher
• receive an official 2008 eIditarod class certificate for completion of the trail!

We’ll be joining for the first time this year – let us know what team you choose!

Posted under Geography Websites, Social Studies Websites

December 18, 2008

Check out another great internet resource full of craft projects, worksheets, and lots of printables: LessonSense.com.

If you’re looking for some Christmas craft ideas and printables, see their Christmas craft page for projects to make Christmas trees, stars, and even a cute stable with Mary and Joseph. 

Or check out their Christmas worksheet page which has the following:

• Christmas Memory Game
• Christmas Flashcard Matching Game with colored pictures and matching words.
• Mary and Jesus printable
• Really cute Nativity Printables
• Plus more!

Share With Us:

Have you incorporated holiday lessons into your homeschool? (Whichever holidays you celebrate)  Do you have any tips or ideas that might help the rest of us.  Please share by making a comment!

Posted under Homeschool Crafts, Social Studies Websites

October 9, 2008

With politics everywhere you look today, what a great opportunity to discuss and teach about the election, voting, democracy, women’s suffrage, The American Revolution, taxation without representation . . . ok, this is like the joke about how many homeschoolers it takes to screw in a light bulb:

One to hold the ladder while discussing stabilizing forces, one to check out a biography of Benjamin Franklin, one to analyze costs of turning on the light and the resulting monthly electricity bill, one to role play how to motivate the group effort . . .

Life is learning.  It’s really lots of fun, and not that hard

Back to the vote.  Here are some fun resources:

1. Inspired by memories of being taken to the voting booths by their own parents, Take Your Kids 2 Vote is an awesome website dedicated to helping instill the desire to participate and vote in our children.
2. PBS Kids has a site about the process of voting and how important each vote is.  Also, if you’ve seen PBS’s show Zoom, check out this “Zoom out the Vote” page for more election learning and fun.
3. For lots of great info and lesson plans find your local affiliate of Kids Voting USA.  If there isn’t one nearby, browse through some of the other websites on the page, most of the sites have a link to activites or lesson plans like these on Ohio’s Kids Voting USA site. 
4. CurrClick is having a mock election for kids.  They are a company that sells lots of high quality curriculum for decent prices and is also having specials on all their election time material.  (Plus, if you sign up for their email newsletter you’ll get a free downloadable product each week.) 
5. Texas Public Schools have a “Project Vote” and have posted some of the curriculum here.  (It is around the 8th grade level)
6. Washington State has a mock election and great election curriculum posted here that is sorted into three grade ranges.
7. Finally, check out the National Student/Parent Mock Election for more great information on how to get involved.

(And for the parents who are looking to untangle all the rhetoric, I just discovered FactCheck.org, which seems to offer unbiased and referenced clarifications of the issues, voting records, and accusations on all sides.)

I hope you enjoy these resources.  Do you have any ideas on teaching children about the election process?  Please share with us in the comment section.

Posted under Social Studies Websites