middleschool Archives - Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus

From Egg to Sea Turtle Nature Unit Study & Lapbook (The Nature Book Club Link Up 4)

April 20, 2018 | 5 Comments
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From Egg to Sea Turtle Unit Study & Lapbook

We made a detour on finishing up high school for a quick nature read about sea turtles. I chose Our Sea Turtles as a spine and we weren’t disappointed. Today, in sharing from egg to sea turtle nature unit study and lapbook, I’ve rounded up some awesome links and ideas for you.Also, I created a fun lapbook for about upper elementary to middle school for your kids. Of course, you can decide what ages to use the lapbook for because I never make my lapbooks baby-ish. I use cursive font and avoid baby-ish or goofy looking clip art the best I can.

First, let me show you how much we loved the book Our Sea Turtles. It is a 282 page reference book with beautiful color pictures on each page.

It has several sections, including:

The Species, Sea Turtle Form and Function, Life Cycle and History, Ecology, Our Sea Turtles on Land, Our Sea Turtles in Water and Saving our Sea Turtles.

One thing we learned right away that we did not know was that not all turtles in salty waters are sea turtles.
Sea turtles are truly marine animals and one of the things that makes them different is their shell. Sea turtles don’t really have the ability to pull in their head and limbs inside although they can still withdraw their neck.

Although we know that sea turtles are mostly herbivores, we did learn that they won’t pass up some easily captured prey.
Also, we learned about some of the predators of the sea turtle. The Northern raccoon, ghost crab, fire ants, laughing sea gull, bobcat, fish crow, dolphinfish, crevalle jack, tiger shark and bull shark a few of the sea turtle predators.

What was really interesting was learning what was inside an egg. Sea turtles have an amniotic egg.
The features of a sea turtle egg include a papery eggshell that protects but is porous (to air and water vapor), and an allantois (fetal membrane) which facilitates respiration and helps with waste.
The yolk sac supplies nutrients for the embryo and it shrinks as the turtle grows.
What we didn’t know was that the amniotic sac is like the equivalent to the placenta in mammals.

Sea Turtle Lesson Plans, Guides, and Background Information.

Along with reading the book Our Sea Turtles I really loved a lot of these resources.

This Sea Turtle, a Journey of Survival 12 page educators guide I found super helpful and used a lot of the information from here to do the lapbook. So be sure to download the guide to use for the lapbook.
This 22 page pdf educator’s guide has a great roundup of vocabulary words.
Grab this fun coloring page with crossword puzzle activity.
You love this Sea Turtle Inc. site for lots of lesson plans and hands-on ideas like make a sea turtle habitat, make a magnet sea turtle for older kids (cool), and a template to create your own hatchling for younger kids. So cute.

Then here is a free discussing and activity guide to use with the book Sea Turtle Science which is also good.

This 9 page elementary school guide has some great question and answers or facts about sea turtles.
A super nice 180 page educator’s guide with printable lab cards and hands-on ideas. Nice!
You’ll love this massive 160 educator’s guide One Ocean from National Geographic on who lives in the ocean which includes background information on sea turtles.
Grab this beautiful and colorful sea turtle poster.
Use these free maps to add in some geography to your unit study as you learn about tracking the sea turtles.

This Grenada Fun website has a wonderful graphic for teaching the parts of a sea turtle along with background information. It’s the one I used for making the minibook in my lapbook.
You’ll love this ultimate sea turtle guide.
Look at this fun prek sea turtle unit study over at Homeschool Preschool.

Sea Turtle EASY Hands-on Ideas and Activities

There is a fun and easy build a geometric turtle activity that is in the Sea Turtle, a Journey of Survival guide I shared above.
Build an origami turtle.
Grab all these wonderful printables over at U.S. Fish and Wildlife like fact sheets, coloring pages and posters.
Look at this fun hands-on idea for the littles over at Munchkins and Beans to learn about sea turtle life cycles.
Make this clay sea turtle over at Buggy and Buddy.

Make fun egg carton sea turtles over at Crafty Morning.
I love this easy sea turtle paper plate life cycle craft at Wikki Stix.
I love this tin foil turtle for some art.
Nice coloring pages and make great covers for your lapbook although I have created some for you too.
Sea turtle templates for sewing.

What a fun keepsake – do a hand print turtle craft.
Make a 3d turtle craft.

Sea Turtle Media:

How Baby Sea Turtles Find their Way Home.
This is a great graphic for Sea Turtle Facts.

Then also, our unit study reminded us of the co-op we had where my sister brought a turtle shell Native American craft made by one of her Native American friends. I love when we have a tie in to what we learned before in one of our co-ops.You’ll want to grab my free Sea Turtle lapbook and this is a facebook only follower freebie. Be sure you join my Homeschool Dynamics by Tina Robertson facebook group.

You’ll love my free lapbook. The minibooks include:

What Makes a Turtle a Sea Turtle?
7 Species of Sea Turtles layered book.
What Are the Sea Turtle Parts?
The Anatomy of a Sea Turtle.
Sea Turtle Tagalongs trifold book.
From Egg to Sea Turtle Life Cycle Circle book.
The Struggle to Survive.
Predators petal book.

If you’re looking to do any spring nature studies, you’ll want to get a few of the NaturExplorers. I love those studies for multiple ages.

Welcome to The Nature Book Club Monthly Link Up No 4.

The Nature Book Club is a monthly link up beginning on the 20th day of each month.

It’s a monthly book club devoted to connecting children to nature.

There is a theme for each month in 2018. We welcome your nature book and activity related links!

The Nature Book Club theme for April: Eggs

The Nature Book Club is brought to you by these nature loving bloggers which are your co-hosts! Are you following them? If you don’t want to miss anything, be sure to follow each one.

Here are the co-hosts, their choices of books, and activities for the month.

Bird Nest/Eggs nature study pages from Barb at Handbook of Nature Study

From Egg to Sea Turtle Unit Study & Lapbook from Tina’s Dynamic Homeschool Plus

Free Gustav Klimt Artist Study Pages from The Usual Mayhem

Felt Bag Handicraft from Wind in a Letterbox

Clay Eggs Project from Table Life Blog

An Online Book Club choice from Hide the Chocolate

Egg Scavenger Hunt with an Egg Carton from Rule This Roost

A Mermaid’s Purse: A Surprise Discovery Within from Eva Varga

Citizen Science – Nest Watch from Eva Varga

Egg Identification Nature Bingo {Free Printable} from Freshly Planted

Eggs Nature Study Free Printable Word Search from Faith and Good Works

You’ll also love these other nature studies:

Upcoming theme: May The Nature Book Club Theme – Wildflowers

Party Rules

Choose an engaging nature book, do a craft or activity, and add your post to our monthly link up.
The link up party goes live at 9:00 a.m. EST on the 20th of each month and stays open until 11:59 p.m. EST on the last day of the month. Hurry to add your links!
You can link up to 3 posts.
Please do not link up advertising posts, advertise other link up parties, your store, or non-related blog posts. They will be removed.
By linking up with us, you agree for us to share your images and give you credit of course if we feature your posts.That’s it!
Let’s party.

An InLinkz Link-up

Hands-On Middle School Math: The Pythagorean Theorem

April 6, 2018 | Leave a Comment
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Written by Sara at Classically Homeschooling.

One important mathematical concept kids run into sometime in middle school or high school is the Pythagorean Theorem. Pythagoras, an ancient Greek philosopher and mathematician, who was born around 569 BCE is credited with the discovery.

The Pythagorean Theorem is that theorem you probably remember from your own middle school and high school years: a² + b² = c². Today we’re going to teach our kids the theorem with a hands-on activity!

But first let’s take a look at what a mathematical theorem is.

Hands-On Math: The Pythagorean Theorem

A mathematical theorem is a statement that can be shown to be true by accepted mathematical operations.

This means you can’t just make up a proof and say it works. You have to use logic, reasoning, and accepted mathematical operations to show the theorem is true. Today we’ll be using squares and areas to show the Pythagorean Theorem is true.

So what exactly is the Pythagorean Theorem?

Pythagorean Theorem: The square of a square drawn on the hypotenuse of a right triangle equals the sum of the areas of the squares drawn on the other two sides.

Put another way: a² + b² = c².

In other words. If you have a right angle and measure each side, the square of side a plus the square of side b is equal to the square of the long slope we call the hypotenuse.

What You Need for This Activity:

Graph Paper
Ruler
Scissors
Pen

Directions
According to the Pythagorean Theorem, if I draw a right triangle, the square of the two sides added together will equal the square of the hypotenuse. Let’s see if this actually works!

Step 1: Pull out your graph paper and draw a right triangle on it. I’m going to use sides with the length of 3 boxes and 4 boxes.

Step 2: Measure the hypotenuse.

Step 3: Remember square of a number is the area of a square with that length of side. So I’m now going to draw and cut out my squares. One square will have sides the length of 2 squares on the graph paper. One square will have sides the length of 3 squares, while the third will have the length I measured!

To make the next step more clear I’m going to highlight the squares in different colors. The small one will be yellow. The medium will be green. And the large one will be blue.

Step 4: Let’s see if the area of the two small triangles will equal the area of the large triangle! We’re going to do this by laying the medium square on top of the large square.

Now you have a choice. If you count the squares left over on the large triangle, you’ll notice there are 9 squares. And what’s 3²? 9! Or you can do what I did and cut the square to fit the left over area.

As you can see, the square of the hypotenuse is equal to the sum of the squares of the sides. The Pythagorean Theorem works!

Now let’s run through all 4 steps again with different numbers. This time I’m going to use sides with lengths of 6 and 8.

Step 1: Again we create the right triangle.

Step 2: Now measure the hypotenuse.

Step 3: Create the squares.

Step 4: Do the squares of the sides equal the square of the hypotenuse? The highlighter caused the sides of my squares to curl, so I used a touch of tape to force the squares to lie flat. Even so, as you can see the answer is yes!

Try the activity yourself using varying lengths for the sides.

No matter what the length of the sides of your right triangle, you’ll discover the squares always equal the square of the hypotenuse or a² + b² = c².

You’ve shown the Pythagorean Theorem works!

So what lengths did you use for your right triangles?

Teach math with these other fun homeschool activities!

Hands-On Middle School Math: Everyday Math Scavenger Hunt (Printable)

January 31, 2018 | 1 Comment
This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

Written by Shawna at Not the Former Things.

I have said it before and I am sure I will say it again and again.

My children learn best through hands-on activities.

So far, I have managed to easily incorporate experiential learning into our history, science, and language arts studies. Math, however, has been a different story.Finding age appropriate and relevant hands-on math for my middle schooler has been a challenge. Add to this the fact that he doesn’t see the point in doing his math work at all, and it becomes clear that I need to find an out-of-the-box approach to this subject.

Hands-on Math for Older Learners: Everyday Math Scavenger Hunt

I knew that the first thing I wanted to incorporate was an activity that would take math out of the textbook and into everyday life.

Too often, I find myself trying to simply tell him all the ways we use math everyday.

I am pretty sure he hears about 10% of what I say and then I become one of the adults in the Charlie Brown movies. Rather than lecturing him about everyday math, I decided it was time to save my breath and create an activity that would allow him to explore it on his own!

What you will need for this activity:

Everyday Math Scavenger Hunt Printable (included)
A Pen or Pencil
Time to Explore and Think

It’s super simple, to be sure, but I found it to be super effective as well!After printing out the scavenger hunt, I reviewed the different types of everyday math listed with my son.

The hunt requires the learner to look for examples of:

Temperature
A Recipe with Fractions
A Decimal
Numbers Written in Word Form
A Number Greater than 200,000,000
Height and Weight
Percentage
A Price
Volume Measurement
A Repeating Pattern
A Graph
Date and Time
An Angle

It also asks the learner as a bonus, to find three examples of everyday math on their own.The only rule for this activity is that no textbooks or typical “school materials” can be used. The learner must find examples of math in everyday places. In order to make it a little more challenging and also a bit more fun, I asked my son to first try to find as many of the items as possible outdoors.

Hands-On Middle School Math

My son did really well, and he really had to think a bit to find some of the items. (Let’s just say percentages are not all over the place in our home – an old grocery receipt, with savings listed, did the trick, but it took a while to find.)Overall, this was a great way to help my son understand why we learn math in the first place.

It also allowed to him to see first hand, how critical basic math skills are for his success in life.Having to critically think of how these math examples are present all around us, combined with having to come up with three of his own examples made for a math filled afternoon (with zero complaints!).

If you’re looking for a way to bring math to life, you’ll love the book, Loving Living Math for homeschoolers. This how-to guide for parents will help you understand and implement living math principles at any grade level.

We gave this activity an A+.

For more hands-on math fun, try these learning ideas!

How to Teach Limits: Hands-on Middle School Math

December 31, 2017 | Leave a Comment
This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

Written by Sara at Classically Homeschooling.

Eventually kids run into the concept of limits during their math classes. In traditional classes, it’s common to use graphs to explain this idea. But when you homeschool, you can make learning a bit more hands-on, which is how I prefer to teach my children.

This fun hands-on math activity is a great (and simple) way to explore this concept with middle school students!

How to Teach Limits: Hands-on Middle School Math

Sometime around 450 BCE, Zeno of Elea, one of the ancient Greek Philosophers, gave a puzzle to his students.

A tortoise came up to Achilles and proposed a race.

You know who Achilles is, right? The hero of the Illiad (think Trojan War). The guy who died of an arrow in his ankle. The mighty hero himself!

Well we’ve met the tortoise in Aesop’s Fables. He’s a pretty smart guy.

So the tortoise comes up to Achilles and proposes a race. Achilles fell down laughing. A slow, crawling, reptile is challenging ME to a race?

Why yes. However I need a head start. 10 meters should be enough.

Achilles laughs harder, even with a head start he’d quickly catch the tortoise!

Then the tortoise begins to explain.

No matter how fast you run, you will only catch up to where I WAS, not where I am now. After you’ve run the 10 meters, I will have moved farther ahead.

No matter how fast you run, you will only run to where I have been. Not where I will be. I will have always added a small distance before you reach where I am. So you can never catch up to me.

Achilles sadly conceded the race.

So let’s take a look at this concept on the kitchen table.

Pull out your Achilles and Tortoise. We used two different Lego minifigures.

Set the Tortoise ahead of Achilles. Place a piece of tape or use a piece of posterboard to mark the spot where the tortoise is standing.

Now move “Achilles” to the designated spot, but move the “tortoise” slightly ahead.

Do this again and again and again. No matter how fast Achilles runs, he always ends up where the Tortoise WAS, not where he is.

In the pure world of mathematics, Achilles will always run the where the Tortoise WAS, not where the Tortoise IS. Achilles will get close to the Tortoise. He may be atoms away from the Tortoise, but he will never catch Achilles.

The tortoise is the limit for Achilles in the race.

A limit is the value that a function or sequence approaches as the input, or index, approaches some value.

Achilles can approach the tortoise but never quite reaches the tortoise. The tortoise is the Achilles limit!

Isn’t the pure world of mathematics fun!

Let’s take another look at limits through a joke my math professor once told us.

An engineer, physicist, and mathematician were placed on one side of the room. A line was drawn on the other side. They were told they could only go halfway each time.

So the engineer whipped out a calculator and measuring tape. After a few measurements and calculation, he quickly crossed the room.

The physicist pulled out a slide rule and a yard stick. After a few measurements and scribbled calculations, she quickly crossed the room as well.

The mathematician…. well the mathematician has yet to arrive!

So again, we pulled out the LEGO figure to take a look at what’s going on.

First you place one figure at one end of the table. Now measure the table and go halfway.

Measure the table and go halfway again!

As you can tell, if you only go halfway each time, you’ll never reach the end of the table.

The measurement of the table is the limit of the infinite series 1/2(table) + 1/4(table) + 1/8(table) + 1/16(table) + 1/32(table) and so on. Once you reach infinity, supposedly you’ll have reached the end of the table.

But not until then!

Hence our poor mathematician is trapped trying to get to the other side of the table.

Try again moving the mathematician 1/4 or 1/8 of the way each time. Does it change the limit or does the limit remain the length of the table?

Limits is a fascinating and fun concept to explore with kids!

Check out these other math activities for homeschoolers!

How Animals Cope With the Cold (Easy Nature Study)

December 29, 2017 | 2 Comments
This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

I was given this product free because I asked for it and couldn’t wait to use it. ALL opinions are my own and for sure I will always tell you what is on my mind. When I do accept a product it’s because I’m giddy to tell you about it. Read my full disclosure here. Now on to the fun stuff!

Winter is a wonderful season for learning about animals with kids. Animals go through so many different behavioral changes to adapt to cold temperatures and, when you can study those changes in your own backyard, it really makes scientific concepts come alive.

So I was excited to try the NaturExplorers ebook “Coping With the Cold”. I’ve been wanting to add in nature studies to our homeschool but didn’t need anything that requires a lot of fuss.

NaturExplorers ebook “Coping With the Cold” is a Charlotte Mason-inspired nature study program for learning about how animals adapt to winter temperatures. And it’s loaded with simple DIY projects, science activities, and plenty of notebooking pages too!

Take a look at what all is included in this excellent science curriculum!

NaturExplorers Review: Coping With the Cold

Since NaturExplorers is a Charlotte Mason-style program, the curriculum includes plenty of nature study activities and hands-on learning ideas for studying winter animal behavior.

And, along with all the printed activities for kids to complete, there are loads of notebooking pages and drawing prompts so they can record what they observe outdoors.

What I really like about NaturExplorers is that the program encourages kids to spend plenty of time outside in nature, finding out what animals do for themselves.

For example, the activities about bird migration were really informational and geography-based too.

Did you know that birds actually follow “flyways” – a version of bird highways? I didn’t!

This migrating animal research planner was such a neat idea, because it’s a great way to help children plan a research topic, organize their ideas, and outline an essay.

This is an excellent activity for middle school language arts.

By the way, these are just some of the notebooking and journaling activities in the program!

Easy Nature Study!

Charlotte Mason strongly encouraged art and journaling and NaturExplorers does a fantastic job of prompting kids to draw what they see and note what it tells them about animal behavior.

It’s art and science in one activity!

And, because I always love to encourage reading, I was thrilled to see that the program featured an activity for kids to complete using a nonfiction book about winter animals they choose from the library. (My favorite place!)

Even if you can only observe one or two different kinds of animals (depending on where you live), the idea of adaptations is so thoroughly covered that kids will be able to spot other adaptations in animals they read about.

Some of the other notebooking pages include questions for kids to answer, based on their own observations, and charts for them to fill out.

I also loved that NaturExplorers is so open-ended. There’s no weekly schedule or layout included, so you can pick up and pause as you need to. It’s a very relaxed curriculum and you adapt it to your own schedule.

Perfect for us eclectic homeschoolers!

I’ll be sharing a few of the NaturExplorers activities in upcoming posts, but – trust me – this is a fabulous winter nature study program that you’ll love as much as the kids do!

How to Purchase It.

►Product Name: Coping With the Cold.
►Website: Our Journey Westward.
►Type of product: Ebook instant download.
►Ages: Multiple grades 1st to 8th grade.
►Price: $12.00

See even more ways to include hands-on science in your homeschool!

Hugs and love ya,

Hands-On Math: Factoring and Balancing Chemical Equations

December 22, 2017 | Leave a Comment
This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

Written by Kim at The Learning Hypothesis.

Hands-on Chemical Equations Fun!

Chemistry requires a lot of algebraic thinking in order to be successful and it’s easy to incorporate hands-on chemical equations. Chemistry includes formulas, proportions, and the basis of the balanced chemical equation includes math concepts like the lowest common multiple, factoring, and the distributive property.

Balancing equations is necessary to satisfy the law of conservation of matter and simple means that what goes into a reaction comes back out.

The number of atoms on one side of the yields sign will equal the number on the other side.

Learning this kind of advanced math can be a bit tricky for students, so I like to make it as hands-on as I can.

This hands-on balancing chemical equations activity was a great way for my kids to visualize the concept as they learned.

How to Factor and Balance Chemical Equations

Let’s talk about the 3 mathematical concepts that are necessary to balance these equations:

Lowest common multiple
Factoring
Distributive property

The lowest common multiple (LCM) is the smallest number that 2 (or more numbers) are factors of.

Factoring is the process of determining what combinations of numbers can be multiplied to create a specific product. It looks like this.

Distributive property says that multiplying a number by a group of numbers added together is the same as doing each multiplication separately.

In the case of balancing equations it means that when we add (or change) coefficients that the change will impact all of the elements in the formula.
Example

In this equation, there are 2 atoms of oxygen on the reactants side and 1 atom on the product side.
Reminder: the only thing that can be changed is the coefficient.

The LCM of 1 & 2 is 2. The factors of 2 are 1 & 2 so 2 is the first coefficient to try.

That 2 will multiply the 2 hydrogens and the 1 oxygen atom resulting in 4 hydrogen and 2 atoms.

Now the hydrogen are unbalanced. There are more hydrogen on the product side.

The LCM between the two sets of hydrogen is 4. The factors of 4 are 1 & 4 and 2 & 2.

To make the hydrogen on the reactants side equal the number on the products side we will use a coefficient of 2 on the reactant side. This results in 4 hydrogen atoms on both sides.

All balanced.

Now if all of that math, made your head spin. Let’s look at a hands-on way to work through balancing these chemical equations.

Hands-On Activity for Balancing Chemical Equations

Make Factor Trees:

Do a quick lesson/review on creating factor trees. This is something many students have done since upper elementary. This is a great review of factor trees.

I like to actually multiply the number of atoms to get a common multiple and use factor trees to determine the lowest common multiple and the coefficients needed for that number of atoms.

This is a quick example…

The factor trees make it easier to determine both the lowest common multiple and the coefficients (the factors of the LCM will be used in conjunction with the subscripts in the formulas

For instance if you were trying to balance an element with 4 atoms on the reactant side and 6 atoms on the product side, you can multiply those together to get 24.

Do a factor tree and quickly discover the lowest common multiple is 12 and the factors of 12 that will be used as coefficients.

Create a Chemical Equation Balance

Supplies:

ruler
paper clips (colored are best)
binder clips
pencil

Directions:

Place the binder clips on the opposite ends of the ruler.
Count the type of atoms in your equation.
Now count the number of each atom and add it to the corresponding binder clip (Use a different color for each element)
Use the factor trees to help determine how to best balance the equation by adding atoms (paper clips)
The ruler will be flat (balanced) when the number of atoms is balanced.

Using the example from above. This is the balance in action.

Unbalanced equation:

This balance activity uses green paper clips for the hydrogen atoms and blue paper clips for the oxygen atoms.

To balance the oxygen, we added the coefficient to the product side to balance the oxygen.

The result is that hydrogen is now unbalanced. There are 4 atoms (paper clips) on the product side and only 2 on the reactant side.

The balance is leaning to the right.

To completely balance the equation add the coefficient to the hydrogen on the reactant side.

Changes the number of hydrogen from 2 to 4 which completely balances the equation and the balance.

Make learning math fun and easy with these other hands-on activities!

7 Educational Movies for Kids About Westward Expansion

December 8, 2017 | Leave a Comment
This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

Whether you have visual learners like I do or just want to add a fun twist to your day while learning about westward expansion, your kids will love these 7 movies about westward expansion.

There are one or two that are documentaries and one or two of the movies that I really love which I feel are both entertaining and educational.

Also, we watched all of them on Amazon Prime which we love.

There are so many advantages to Amazon Prime that we’ve loved while homeschooling, but that is another thread. It has been worth the membership for our family.

Fun Movies About Westward Expansion

Pop some corn, grab the blanket, and enjoy these westward expansion movies!

Heads Up. Most, if not all of the movies I recommend here, we’ve watched.

Obviously, things can change over time. So always preview the movie before you let your children watch and if you see something that has changed to not family rated, let me know.

ONE/ The History of the Oregon Trail & the Pony Express.

This is much more documentary like but the pictures, maps, and narration is educational and has quite a bit of background information.

Here is the review from Amazon: Ride along with the pioneers who suffered hardships and victories to forge The Oregon Trail, America’s longest and most famous trail. Then discover little known facts about the legendary Pony Express riders and their part in the Civil War. Breathtaking photography, live re-enactments, illustrated maps and rare photos make these two award-winning historical adventures come to life for all ages.

TWO/ Sacagawea.

Out of all the movies, I think this was one of our favorites. It was narrated by “Sacagawea” but it was more movie like than documentary.

From beginning to end, it held our attention as it showed her life, talked about her marriage, and joining the Corps of Discovery. A beautiful way to tell this part of American history.

It mentioned a lot of the Native American people and showed what Lewis and Clark learned along the way about plants and animals.

If I had to choose chose one movie for a middle school kid, it would be this one. It covered quite a few topics.

Here is the review from Amazon. She was an expectant mother, but she endured every hardship these seasoned soldiers experienced. Without her the Corps of Discovery would have failed. This program re-enacts her journey in her words. Sacagawea will save Lewis and Clark time and time again on their expedition from negotiating for horses and show them which plants are edible.

THREE/ Ghost Town and America’s Historic Inns.

This one talks about how the the great California gold rush impacted American history.

It has nice older black and white pictures along with views of the modern places pioneers panned and mined. What is very interesting in how different people made their living from the gold.

Here is the review from Amazon: Indulge your sense of passion for history with two programs that offer a fascinating link into America’s past. Visit eleven Gold Rush-era ghost towns. Then, bask in the hospitality of America’s most storied inns, taverns, and hideaways.

FOUR/ The Wild West Uncovered.

This is a cool documentary about Virginia City after people flocked there and it flourished.

I loved seeing all the old pictures, the way they lived, and the history. Heads up: They do mention there was child prostitution by then, but no pictures. But it’s so cool to learn how the city grew in riches and with so many people of different backgrounds. I never knew the diversity that lived there.

Besides that, the pictures and relics they find and seeing the old saloons, some still intact, makes this a very informative movie.

Too, it was really interesting that Mark Twain wrote there before he was famous. This documentary is not baby-ish and could certainly be viewed by a high school kid too.

Here is the review from Amazon: Discover the real Virginia City. Hollywood has forged our vision of the legendary Wild West through Westerns like the TV show Bonanza. This vision of the west conquered by cowboys, miners and outlaws all hit by gold fever has filled our imagination. Mark Twain’s colorful writings of larger the life characters has also contributed to the picturesque perception of the Wild West and Virginia City.

FIVE/ How the Wild West Was Won by Ray Mears.

A beautiful documentary and certainly one that your high school kids will like alongside your middle school kids. Beautiful scenery and I love the fact it starts off with being in Washington D.C. and showing how Americans wanted to go west. He takes a different slant about the west by focusing on the mountains and terrain. Kept our attention the whole time.

Your girls will like it, but I think especially good for boys who may like learning about survivor skills.

Here is the review from Amazon: Bushcraft expert and survivalist Ray Mears explores the awe-inspiring landscape of that shaped the story of the Wild West. How did the mountain ranges, great plains and the deserts challenge westward expansion? Discover how extraordinary topography, extreme weather and ecology presented both great opportunity and even greater challenges for Native Americans and early pioneers of the Wild West.

SIX/ Wildlife of the West.

Beautiful images, scenery, and animals of the west bring this time period in history alive. And you can add a bit of science to this topic while watching this movie.

I especially love the fascinating facts about each animal that is on the side as you watch. I’m tempted to do some notebooking pages for each animal. (ha)

Here is a snippet of how it looks below. But, the movie could be paused so that your kids could write a few facts about the wildlife of the west because no doubt the animals would’ve been the same kind the earlier settlers encountered.Here is the review from Amazon. Experience the wonder of more than 2 dozen of the West’s most intriguing animals. Wildlife of the West takes you stream-side and mountain-side, to dizzying heights and stunning habitats.

Seven/ Manifest Destiny: The Lewis & Clark Musical Adventure.

This was goofy but had great music. But this movie musical would certainly appeal to a different learner who appreciated the humor, but had a lot of great facts while they’re singing and acting.

It’s too silly for a high school kid and some more mature middle school kids may not like the humor, but you could include your younger kids with this one if you had a middle school kid who loved movies with a spoof.

Here is the review on Amazon: This cult musical comedy turns the tale of Lewis & Clark into a romping spoof of American history. Follow the explorers out on the trail as they discover that destiny may be anything but manifest. With bold, stylized visuals and ten memorable songs — this is an adventure you’ll never forget.

I know you’ll find or two movies here to make your westward expansion unit study come alive!

Also, you may like these other helpful and fun resources:

Hugs and love ya,

How To Homeschool Middle School – Why Eclectic Of Course!

November 26, 2017 | 1 Comment
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Whether you’re utterly excited or fear that you’re woefully inadequate to homeschool middle school, one thing is for sure. Homeschooling middle school can be some of the best years to homeschool.

From homeschooling a 6th grader who is still so full of eagerness to a 8th grader who is ready to debate on a moment’s notice, there are no dull moments in the middle school years.

Besides watching the unfolding of a young child into a teen, it’s also the time your child is still flexible. It’s the perfect time to try an out of the box approach.

First, let me back up a minute. When I approached the middle school years I had thought it was my time to have it easy as the teacher.

Knowing that kids are more independent at this age, I wanted relief in the way of a boxed curriculum.

3 VALUABLE TIPS WHEN TEACHING HOMESCHOOL MIDDLE SCHOOL

However, as each son entered the middle school years, I learned several valuable lessons,

one was that the eclectic homeschool style approach was needed now more than ever before;
that I shouldn’t have listened to naysayers who said we needed to give up hands-on learning or lapbooks;
and I should have dabbled more into life skills and high school credits.

From teaching Mr. Senior 2013, I learned that subjects like the three Rs are the mainstay of these grades too.

Subjects don’t change significantly in middle school, but the approach to how you choose curriculum does.

For example, just because you used one math program with your child up to this point doesn’t mean it is the right one for middle school.

You need to take more time choosing curriculum and subjects.

Here is a very valuable piece of seasoned advice.

Up until middle school, you should choose curriculum based on your teaching style because you are wearing the teacher hat exclusively. Now, you need to choose curriculum based on your child’s learning style.

Beginning in about sixth grade you want to gently turn over the teaching reins to your child.

I can’t recall an exact moment with each of my sons where I could unequivocally pinpoint a time and say, “This is the exact moment my sons were independent.”

Middle school independence is a gradual process.

This is the time to explore alternative options.

Don’t wait until high school for out of the box elective where you don’t have as much flexibility to change courses in midstream.

HOMESCHOOL MIDDLE SCHOOL SUBJECTS GUIDE

Look at these subjects and options for curriculum that worked for us or that we currently like.

Homeschool Middle School Reading

Kids in the middle school are at varying maturing abilities.

Unlike the early grades where you focused on phonics, at about the fourth grade a child should be ready to move away from direct phonic instruction.

Don’t worry if your child is not, I just want you to have a rule of thumb. I had two that were ready to move away and one not so ready.

Look here at How to Transition a Child From Reading to Literature.

I focused on about 3 or 4 books with direct reading instruction. This means we delved deeply into them.

On their own, my sons read way more from my list, but about 4 books was all I could do each year where I questioned them significantly.

Remember there is a difference between a child narrating back a story and learning the elements of fiction and figures of speech.

Understanding where I was headed in the middle school grades helped me to see what teach in reading.

For example, in high school your child will be focusing on certain authors and literature in specific time periods.

In middle school, focus on learning genres and the basics of elements of fiction. This tool he will use as lens to pull up close and examine literature in high school.

Look at what you want to zero in on and use this free page which explains a bit about each one.

Plot
Setting
Character
Theme
Style
Point of View

The point I’m making is although it’s important for them to read at this age, it’s equally important to delve deeply into a book and expose kids to a variety of genres.

Homeschool Middle School Writing

If you chose to teach cursive writing like I did, then you’ll want your child to practice daily.

Writing journals, hands-down has been the best tool I’ve used to encourage writing. The focus is on writing creatively and free from a judgmental eye.

Most of the time my sons chose to share their daily sentences or paragraphs with me, but I didn’t ask or didn’t grade them, only praise them.

Composition is quite a different thing. For example, although we may brainstorm one day and not do much handwriting on our current topic, writing in their journal each day ensured continued practice.

Again, the best way is to mix and match curriculum to suit your child’s strengths and weaknesses.

Resources prepared and used by other homeschool teacher moms is another secret at this age.

If I’m going to start handing over the teaching reins to my child, I needed resources by homeschool families who understood my need.

We loved using WriteShop because it’s written specifically with homeschoolers in mind.

Not only did it have lots of teaching background notes for me, but it was the first top notch writing curriculum my first middle school son used on his own.

Homeschool Middle School Arithmetic

Don’t get discouraged if your middle school kid is behind in math. I had one like this and two ahead at their grade level.

For the one son behind, I added in straightforward practice.

Although math apps can be helpful for drills, my struggling math guy needed to write and see the work.

The Key to . . . Math Series have been some of the best no fluff straight forward practice books I’ve ever used. They’re such timeless helps.

The books are a set of consumable non-overwhelming books on one math topic, like fractions, which progress from the easiest concept in Book 1 to the hardest concept in the last book.

Some packets have 10 books others are smaller.

Middle school was the year I switched from Teaching Textbooks, which I thought was ahead of Math U See, and back again to Math U See. Teaching textbooks was not ahead in my experience from K to 12th grade math.

Although Teaching Textbooks explained step by step, mastery is my goal and Math U See taught mastery. I guess the main difference is that Math U See does not go by grade level but by concept. That is my preferred way of teaching.

Choose what is best for your child at each grade. I didn’t use MUS or Teaching Textbooks at the lower grades.

Also, remember to add in fun hands-on math to teaching. Kids this age can still be cuddly and cute. (ha, ok.)

Look at Making Math Count for Middleschool When You’re Not the Math Mom and 25 Creative and Tasty Edible Math Activities that Keeps Learning Fun.

And then living math is one of the best ways to incorporate it into every day learning.

Kids want a reason for why they have to learn math. Don’t make it boring and humdrum.

Grab an idea from this living math book below from another talented homeschool mom which makes teaching middle school a cinch.

Homeschool Middle School Life Skills and Electives.

And one of the BEST parts of homeschooling middle school is the time to explore and even get credit in middle school. Yes electives are something fun and doable at this age, so explore them.

Middle school is also the time to narrow down what your middle school kids may want to jump into deeper in high school. The only way to do that is to do a wide range of fun and practical skills.

Give them time to explore while making it practical. For example, teach your child how to write out a check.

Yes, my young adult kids still need to use a check once and a while and remembering how to do it can be a struggle.

It’s easier to use a debit card, but that’s not always great for record keeping. How to change a tire and check a vehicle’s oil are important skills to teach them as they approach driving age.

We also love to explore different types of art. We love doing chalk art.

We’ve used another resource by a homeschool mom which is Chalk Pastel because of the variety of books and teaching helps she has on her site.

Even cooking has been added as part of our science and history and a new one we’ve been trying out is SkillTrek.

It gives us a set of life skills from A to Z. Now is the time to learn this stuff before your kids tell you they know everything.

Wait, I mean now when they still do what you say!

I wanted to give you this quick glance at the middle school years. Soon, I’ll be adding more specific posts to help you.

What are you wrestling with right now in middle school?

Also, look at these super helpful tidbits:

Hugs and love ya,

From Egg to Sea Turtle Nature Unit Study & Lapbook (The Nature Book Club Link Up 4)

From Egg to Sea Turtle Unit Study & Lapbook

Sea Turtle Lesson Plans, Guides, and Background Information.

Sea Turtle EASY Hands-on Ideas and Activities

Welcome to The Nature Book Club Monthly Link Up No 4.

The Nature Book Club theme for April: Eggs

Upcoming theme: May The Nature Book Club Theme – Wildflowers

Hands-On Middle School Math: The Pythagorean Theorem

Hands-On Math: The Pythagorean Theorem

Hands-On Middle School Math: Everyday Math Scavenger Hunt (Printable)

Hands-on Math for Older Learners: Everyday Math Scavenger Hunt

Hands-On Middle School Math

How to Teach Limits: Hands-on Middle School Math

How to Teach Limits: Hands-on Middle School Math

How Animals Cope With the Cold (Easy Nature Study)

NaturExplorers Review: Coping With the Cold

Easy Nature Study!

How to Purchase It.

Hands-On Math: Factoring and Balancing Chemical Equations

Hands-on Chemical Equations Fun!

How to Factor and Balance Chemical Equations

Hands-On Activity for Balancing Chemical Equations

Create a Chemical Equation Balance

7 Educational Movies for Kids About Westward Expansion

Fun Movies About Westward Expansion

Heads Up. Most, if not all of the movies I recommend here, we’ve watched.

How To Homeschool Middle School – Why Eclectic Of Course!

3 VALUABLE TIPS WHEN TEACHING HOMESCHOOL MIDDLE SCHOOL

HOMESCHOOL MIDDLE SCHOOL SUBJECTS GUIDE

My Middle & High School Geography Curriculum Luv & Career or College Help! (Oh Yes)

My Middle & High School Language Arts Luv (Because it works!)

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