Walk Like and Insect

Reading school books can be boring. Everyone knows this. Memorizing a bezillion facts can be tedious and usually the memorization is only temporary at best. Few kids truly retain the bulk of their education. I have found that when the kids are having fun and reinforcing things outside of the box that they truly remember it for the long term. Because of that we try to do something crazy and fun at least a couple times a week.

Right now our Science segment is on Insects. To be honest, none of us are all that big of a fan. It's ranked slightly above Plants and the Human Body both of which we struggled to complete last year. We're more Earth Science, Technology, Chemistry and Physics fans than that of the Biologies, and with exception to First Aid, that seems to be a pretty true fact for ALL the TERDS. But alas, somethings you just got to learn anyway, so insert a little fun......

Topics being studied
Insect anatomy - Parts of an insect and Parts of insect legs. Plus how insects move and how they walk up those walls without falling.

What you need
3 kids and a roll of duct tape (you know those 2 go hand and hand! LOL)

The Project
Begin with a discussion of the insect parts. We covered this earlier with a basic print out from Enchanted Learning. In this project we reinforced this with Bethany modeling our "head", Hope sitting in as our "thorax", and Roman as our obvious "abdomen". We reviewed all the basic parts. This time we went into more detail regarding insect legs though, identifying each of the 3 leg parts and how they function together.

Next the kids lined up in order of their designated insect part to create our insect model. 3 kids with 2 legs = 1 6-legged insect ready to go!

Now, insects do not walk like us humans. It is very different actually and very coordinated. There are actually various patterns that different types of insects walk in. To designate which leg moves we first need to label them. Right legs will be R1-3 starting from front to back and left legs L1-3 also from front to back. Now we walk.... R1, R3, L2, R2, L1, L3......

One thing they quickly learned is that humans aren't quite as coordinated as insects, but then we had to remind them that a real insect only has one brain to coordinate all those legs, not 3. In the end their attempts to walk like an insect tended to end up like this:

However they had a lot of fun trying and they have a new found appreciation for bugs!

You're probably wondering where the duct tape came into play noticing we did not actually duct tape our insect parts together! After this we took duct tape and wrapped around their shoes with sticky side down and let them walk around to get a feel of how insects have sticky pads on the bottoms of their feet that allow them to stick to walls and walk around places that we as humans can not.

A New Year, A New Adventure

I've been toying with the idea of starting a new homeschool blog beginning with our adventures effective today. However, although there has not been much posted here as of yet, it does in a sense showcase the start of our homeschool journey which I find is quite typical of a normal homeschool family coming from the public school system.

Transition takes time. The homeschool world calls it "de-schooling". Changing your mindset from the regimented world of Public School to the anything is possible life homeschooling offers is a shock to the system. It leaves one feeling disoriented and turns your world upside down. It is a transition, always evolving.

Then there's the curriculum yo-yo game. Few homeschoolers find what truly works for them on the first try and that has largely been our case as well. Next month marks the 2 year anniversary since we pulled our son from public school. Two years sounds like a lot and yet it still feels like yesterday. So where do we stand 2 years later?

In fall 2010 heading into the 2010-11 school year we brought Hope and Bethany home and became a true homeschool family. The grove James and Roman had begun to establish quickly fell apart. Last year was like a roller coaster ride with its ups and downs, but we survived and I dare say better than a lot in their first year. The kids passed their respective grades and we headed into a new year, but life happens!

For us, as public school peers headed back to school we found ourselves facing much turmoil. Not within our immediate family, but the affects greatly impacted us and left little time or energy to properly homeschool. But alas, that is just one of the many benefits to homeschooling! Throughout the 2nd half of 2011 we stuck to the bare minimal with math, independant reading and the occasional writing assignment or a bit of science or social studies, but overall it's what I'd call "homeschool lite". But that's okay, cause with homeschool we have a lot more flexibility than formal school environments and plenty of time to round out our year successfully.

That brings us to present. After much review and consideration we have largely switched up most of the girls curriculum and are considering a few changes for the boy as well. We're focusing more on the Bug too, who quickly picked up ALL of our planned "light preschool" topics for the year before Thanksgiving and is ready to move on or at least be stimulated with self guided learning. More of that to come.

Because of the changes we're making and because sometimes life just happens and things don't go as planned, we are officially declaring this week as our new start to the 2012 school year. Who knows, we may love a calendar year scenario. Who says we have to go off the public school calendar?

For us, homeschooling is fluid. There is nothing set in stone. If a child needs more time alotted to grasp a concept, it is freely given. If a child excels at a rate faster than I have planned for, then we supplement as necessary. At the end of the day the point is to see the kids learning and being successful in their endeavors. Not everyone does so based on my schedule, and that's okay, that's homeschooling!

While I have decided not to remove my posts up till this point, it should be noted that today begins a new chapter for the TERDS and with it I will make a pointed effort to keep current on this blog and truly showcase our adventures in homeschooling!