Blog - The Happy Housewife™

Homeschooling and Pets

by contributing writer Tabitha

Growing up, we had pets. Some of my greatest animal related learning experiences were with the pets we had in our home. I had a kitten that I rescued, brought home, raised, and helped with two litters of her own kittens. We had birds when I was little. My mother had a hamster for a short period of time. I loved animals and I learned so much from being around them daily.

Now, as a homeschooling mother of 9, we have pets. Allergies prevent us from having certain kinds of animals, however, we’ve been able to learn a lot together about many different animals.

Here are some of our experiences, as well as some pros and cons to each kind of pet.

Fish

Our first pets were fish. We got them after an extensive unit study about the ocean. While only a tiny example of all the life in the sea, these little fish were a great thing to my small fry. They were named, loved, and mourned. They survived power outages, freezing temperatures, inexperience, and the occasional overfeeding by enthusiastic preschoolers. However, they did eventually die and another lesson was learned.

We have tried several other times to keep fish alive and we think we finally have it right. It is worth it to see little eyes light up and imaginations run wild about the many different varieties that swim in the lakes, oceans, rivers, ponds and streams around the world, just by watching their own living examples swim around our tank.

Fish are fairly easy to keep, if you make sure you keep their water right and have the correct chemistry. A little research goes a long way. Older kids can definitely keep fish alive by themselves, but younger ones need help, even after the initial set up.

Reptiles

We have a snake. I always wanted a snake growing up after experiencing snakes at school. When the opportunity arose to own one, we jumped at it. In fact, we traded a set of old encyclopedias for the snake and his set up.

This was amazing for the kids (and their parents). There were so many things to learn about the snake’s habitat, habits, feeding, watering, and other care. You can hold a snake (not fish). We could see his beauty, measure his snake skins, and even watch him eat. Predator and prey lessons as well as all the others.

Snakes do bite, but the only one in our house who has ever been bitten is my husband. Our snake also only eats live food, while some will eat frozen. It gets expensive and sometimes a little sad to see a little baby mouse get eaten every week. I wouldn’t recommend having a snake if this might be a problem.

Hamsters

My second son decided he wanted a hamster around 3 years ago. He was 12 years old and we felt that this would be a great experience for him. He did the research himself on what kind to get, how to set up the habitat, feeding, and many other things.

It was a great experience for the whole family. Hamsters can be friendly and interact so much better than snakes or fish. However, even with the best of care, hamsters have a shorter life span than many larger mammals, and again we mourned. A second hamster had an unfortunate accident and our son decided that was enough for him.

The best thing about having a hamster in the house was how fun it was for everyone to interact with the little animal. Whether in a hamster ball or being carefully held with supervision, everyone loved the hamsters.

Again, it didn’t cost much to set things up. The hamsters themselves were not expensive. My son didn’t mind the cleanings and checking for illness or injury. The wheel got noisy in the middle of the night, with hamsters being nocturnal, but it was just a fun quirk.

What about cats and dogs?

The most common family pets are glaringly absent from our short list. The whole family has experienced dogs and cats through friends and family and love them. We just can’t keep them in our home. We’ve also raised insects (and set them free), but while we learned a lot, there is so much more to be learned from having an animal be a part of your daily life.

Love is learned, responsibility becomes a habit, and memories last a lifetime. Our family loves our pets, both for the amazing things we’ve learned academically as well as the principles that last a lifetime.

Top 5 Free Online Homeschooling Resources

by Toni Herrbach

The following is a guest post from friend Debra Bell, Ph.D, who I greatly admire and respect.

I want to point you to some of the most amazing sources of support for your home school online, but first I want to tell you why these resources are free. The A2K movement (i.e. access to knowledge) is a global social justice movement that argues in the new economy (created by the Internet and globalization) access to a world class education should be available to all—free. Wikipedia was just the first prominent outworking of this mindset. (To learn more about this movement just search on “open knowledge movement,” “open culture,” or “A2K.”)

While most of us have not heard about A2K, all of us have come to expect information to be free. For instance, it’s a big reason you follow Happy’s blog – she is providing you with valuable information at no charge—information that I might have paid for in the “old days” of homeschooling by buying a magazine.

This ubiquitous sea of free data is a blessing and a bane, though. Finding the best sources of content is very time consuming and the Internet is yet to be well organized, though that is certainly the goal of companies like Google and Wikipedia.

While those two and others are completing that task, here’s a quick tour of some of the best places to find free content you can use in your home school:

Learner.org – I use to pay $400 or more for the courseware now available free as streaming video at Annenberg Learner’s website. These professionally-produced courses in many disciplines were originally broadcasted on PBS, so they are by far the most engaging lessons you will find anywhere on the web. My daughter used French in Action, I’ve used the literature courses for my online AP classes, and the families in my co-op used the world history together. You will find the companion textbooks often available used at sources like Amazon, Half or Follett Educational Services.
Khan Academy – this is the best source of supplemental videos for math and science (with additional subjects coming online every day). Even more beneficial, students can work through practice exercises which are scored and stored under the student’s account. Parents and teachers can access this information and track student progress – all at no cost.
Math.com –a great source of well organized, incremental math exercises and short explanations of key math topics (an indispensable source of knowledge for a non-math teaching parent!)
CK-12.org – the best source of organized and reviewed open textbooks for STEM (science, technology, engineering and math).
Academic Earth—a curated (managed) source of free video courses from top scholars and top universities around the world. It’s all here: from trigonometry to poetry to western civilization.

Can it get any better? Yes it will. Individuals and foundations are already starting to organize all these sources of a free world-class education into certificate and degree bearing ventures that will be accepted by forward-thinking 21^st century employers.

Just search on “MOOC” if you want to see what the future looks like. In the meantime you can get your kids ready to participate in this emerging global economy by showing them how to be self-educating with the free tools now a few keystrokes away.

Debra Bell is the best-selling author of The Ultimate Guide to Homeschooling, The Ultimate Homeschool Planner, and The Ultimate Guide to Homeschooling Teens, published by Apologia Press. Her four children—all graduates of homeschooling— are married, degreed and employed (and also love Jesus). After homeschooling, she completed a doctorate in educational psychology. She blogs about brain science and 21st century homeschooling at DebraBell.com.

10 Pool Noodle Activities

by Toni Herrbach

by contributing writer Stef

About this time during summer I’ve run out of fun outside activities. The hose on the trampoline looks like a dead snake, chains have fallen off bicycles, sun shirts are faded, and the slip & slide has curled up somewhere in a corner begging for a break.

It’s not even August and here stand two boys full of crazy summer energy looking at me for new game ideas and more ice pops.

If your fingers are blistered from water balloon torture, try these pool noodle activities. You don’t even need to be near a pool to enjoy this fun!

Tip: Get some packing tape or duct tape to put your noodles together.

10 Pool Noodle Activities

Ring Toss – Growing a Jeweled Rose
Pool Noodle Games– Parents
Light Sabers – Full Circle Living
Marble Run – Play Create Explore
Croquet– Inner Child Fun
Hurdle Run – I Can Teach My Child
Patterns– Mama Pea Pod
Basketball – Ever Never Again
Robots – Learn Play Imagine
Indoor Noodle Games – Educating Laytons

The only one we didn’t find … Giant Pool Noodle Hula! Tape two noodles together.

Milk Fireworks Experiment

by Toni Herrbach

Kids are fascinated when they see common substances do uncommon things. This milk fireworks experiment does just that.

All you need to complete this experiment is milk and food coloring. You probably have both of them in your kitchen right now.

Milk Fireworks Experiment

Supplies

Baking dish (9×9 pan works best)
Milk
Food coloring
Dish soap

Make sure you use the standard food coloring instead of the gel food coloring. The gel will not drop into the dish.

Pour the milk into the baking dish. You want to make sure the entire bottom of the dish is covered about 1/2 an inch.

Have the kids put a small amount of food coloring into the milk dish. Then dilute the food coloring and add the diluted mixture to the dish.

Kids are intrigued by the shades of colors that result when different dilutions of food coloring are dropped into a shallow pan of milk.

This is a good way to teach dilution and concentration without the kids even knowing it.

Dropping different colors of food coloring in a shallow pan of milk and then rippling the water or dropping in dish detergent makes the colors spread and explode. My kids call it “milk fireworks.”

I allow the kids to experiment with stirring, splashing, and dropping the food coloring from different heights to see what effects they have on the pattern of the colors.

This project is also good to teach color mixing. Does yellow and blue really make green?

Between each milk fireworks experiment you’ll want to change out the milk, or mix up the milk and food coloring. (Changing the milk works best)

If you have countertops that are easily stained (marble, formica) use an inexpensive plastic tablecloth under your baking dish.

The kids will love getting to “play” with food coloring and they’ll be learning at the same time.

More Homeschool Science from Marci

A Young Historian’s Introduction to Worldview: Curriculum Review

by Toni Herrbach

by Karyn Hostetter, The Happy Housewife reader

I was given the opportunity to review the curriculum A Young Historian’s Introduction to Worldview published by Brimwood Press and written by Marcia Harris Brim. This curriculum is designed for children ages 10-13 or in 5^th to 8^th grades.

The cost is $35 for the book or $125 for the complete worldview discussion set which is pictured above. It is a curriculum designed to show children the ideas that our worldview affects the way we think, how we act, and how our cultures are affected by differing world views.

As we started the curriculum, Lesson 1 introduces the definition of a worldview. The child is asked to look at a picture with the naked eye, then with sunglasses, and finally with 3D glasses . He is asked to fill out an observation sheet to show how the picture appears using these different glasses. It is used as an example of how we see things differently and how this affects the beliefs that we have.

Lesson 2 goes on to explain what all worldviews have in common. The similarities are the questions that we all ask. The lesson gives some differences of Big Worldview questions and just good questions to ask yourself.

Lesson 3 then goes on to show different worldviews and what each believes. An activity with cardboard boxes and how they are wrapped with different paper shows that some beliefs are clear to us and some a little hard to see.

Lesson 4 explains how worldviews have affected history in the past. Different beliefs drive different behaviors.

This curriculum has many different activities to show how worldviews differ, and what we believe affects how we live. Each lesson also has a table talk section that families can talk about at the dinner table.

I like the idea of having family conversations to discuss what was learned in each lesson. I felt this curriculum caused many discussions that we normally would not have in our house. This curriculum is very easy to follow with clear lesson plans.

You can purchase A Young Historian’s Introduction to Worldview from the Brimwood Press website. On the lower left side of the page under “Categories,” click on “Tools for Young Historians” to find the individual book or “Bundle Packages” to find the Conversations Worldview Kit pictured above.

Karen received a free copy of the curriculum to review, but all opinions are her own.

Interested in joining The Happy Housewife curriculum review team? If you have been homeschooling for 3 or more years, enjoy writing informative (300-500 word) reviews, can meet a deadline, and can take reasonably good photos, please fill out this short form.

Review writers will work within a 30 day deadline after receiving review product. You do not have to be a blogger to apply.

4th of July Robot Craft

by Toni Herrbach

by contributing writer Marci

Sometimes it’s hard to find a craft for boys. This 4th of July craft was so much fun for my little man to create, and it is useful, too! This patriotic robot can also be used to hold utensils at your Independence Day cookout.

Supplies Needed

4 tin cans (2 for feet, 1 for a body and 1 for the head)
paper for the arms and face
tape
hot glue
paint, glitter, stickers…whatever you need to decorate your robot

Instructions

1. Choose which cans will be which part of the robot.

2. Decorate the cans with paint, paper, glitter or stickers. Be creative.

3. Make facial features out of paper and glue or tape them on the head can.

4. Cut 6 – 8 strips of paper approximately. Form them into a circle and tape the ends together.

5. Tape 3 or 4 of the rings together along one side to form a bendable arm. Tape or glue them to the body can.

6. With the open end of the leg and body cans facing down, glue the cans together so the leg cans support the body can.

7. With the open end of the face can facing up, glue the head can to the top of the body. Fill with utensils and enjoy your usable art!

More Homeschool Science from Marci

4th of July Worksheets: Free Printables

by Toni Herrbach

by contributing writer Lauren

This month’s printable set features a Patriotic theme! This printable worksheet packet focuses on preschool to early kindergarten skills, including shape matching, ordinal numbers, and more.

In this 4-page printable set, you’ll find:

Red, White, & Blue Color Match – Follow the specific directions for each color listed.
4th of July Cookout! Patterns – Determine which object should come next in this cookout-themed pattern worksheet.
Patriotic Shape Shadow Match – Match each colored object with its black & white shadow match.
Practice Ordinal Numbers – Practice ordinal numbers with 4th of July-themed objects and prompts.

For more Patriotic and 4th of July Worksheets, visit Mama’s Learning Corner.

Fourth Of July Printables
Fourth of July Printables 2013.pdf

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Eric Carle: The Book Nook

by Toni Herrbach

We love Eric Carle books at our house. They are great for incorporating into different unit studies or art projects. They are also readily available at your local library!

In honor of Eric Carle’s birthday this month, here are some of our favorites.

Little Cloud

Mister Seahorse

The Grouchy Ladybug

The Very Hungry Caterpillar

The Very Quiet Cricket

The Very Busy Spider

The Tiny Seed

“Slowly, Slowly, Slowly,” said the Sloth

Rooster’s Off to See the World

Dream Snow

Raising Caterpillars and Butterflies

by Toni Herrbach

by contributing writer Marci

One of the coolest science projects of our school year was raising caterpillars and butterflies. We used Nancy Larson Science this year with my second grader (loved it!) and the butterfly kit was written into the curriculum.

Our butterfly kit came from Insect Lore. They sent a habitat, instructions, and a card to mail in to order caterpillars at the appropriate time of year for your location. The caterpillars arrive in a plastic cup with a lid and all they need to survive until they form their crysalises (more on this later).

When the caterpillars arrive, they are only an inch or so long. Within days, they grow to 2 -2 1/2 inches long. It is quite a change! This is the larva stage of butterflies. Caterpillars have to be the least gross larva of all the insects (just saying!).

After about 10 days of nothing but eating and growing, the caterpillars find their way to the top of the jar, attach themselves to a paper lining the lid and hang upside down. Within a few hours, the caterpillar is a hardened crysalis. Yes, crysalis, not a cocoon. A cocoon is spun with silk by moths. Butterflies do not spin silk, so they form a crysalis.

When the last caterpillar has formed their crysalis, we opened the lid, carefully removed the paper with the crysalises hanging from it and pinned it to the side of the habitat and waited.

It takes about 10 days for the butterflies to emerge from their crysalises. We sat the habitat on the kitchen island so we wouldn’t miss a thing. The kids watched each day for any movement at all. However, each of our 5 butterflies emerged while we were gone or in the other room!

Our beautiful butterflies stayed in their habitat for about a week. We fed them flowers laced with a little sugar water and a few pieces of cut orange.

When it was time to release the butterflies, we went out into the yard, my son opened the the top of the habitat and one by one they flew away – except for one. One butterfly had a crumpled wing and couldn’t fly. We used the opportunity to get up close and personal.

Have you ever seen a butterfly tongue?! It is so long and curled!

The life span of a butterfly is only about 2 weeks. In that time, they fly, drink nectar and lay eggs that will hatch into caterpillars. The entire butterfly life cycle takes only 6 weeks.

Watching our caterpillars metamorphosis into butterflies was a great experience that the kids want to repeat next year. It’s a great way to study the life cycle of insects or for young learners to build on a literature study, like The Hungry Caterpillar.

Here is a link to a time lapse video on the life cycle of a painted lady butterfly using a kit from insect lore just like we did.

Have you ever raised butterflies?

More Homeschool Science from Marci

See our Homeschool Curriculum Review for Nancy Larson Science here!

Fun with Eric Carle

by Toni Herrbach

June 25th is Eric Carle’s birthday and we want to acknowledge that here at The Happy Housewife. We have The Very Hungry Caterpillar Worksheets for your preschool to kindergarten aged children, and here is a roundup of links that will give you more information about Eric Carle as well as activity ideas.

Eric Carle FAQ – Have you ever wondered these things about Eric Carle: Which comes first, the story or the pictures? What’s his favorite color? Why does the butterfly come out of a cocoon, not a chrysalis? All these questions and more are answered on this page.

Eric Carle’s Collage Making Instructions – A printable sheet of instructions to help you and your kids make collages like Eric Carle.

Coloring Pages – Pring coloring pages to go along with Very Hungry Caterpillar, Seahorse, and Very Busy Spider.

Book List – A list of all the books by Eric Carle along with their cover images, the year published, and languages it is available in.

Printables – Printable worksheets from Eric Carl, such as mazes and matching.

The Very Hungry Caterpillar Activity Booklet – A booklet written for teachers that includes lesson plans and activities.

Eric Carle Activity Pages – Printable coloring and activity pages from Random House Kids.

The Very Hungry Caterpillar – Kinderblogger has a roundup of links to activities (mostly printables) centered around The Very Hungry Caterpillar.

Eric Carle Tissue Collage – Learn how to make a tissue paper collage.

Author:	Lauren Hill
Platforms:	Windows 98, Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7
License:	CC Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike
Date:	June 19, 2013

Homeschooling and Pets