Book Review: The Birchbark House
THE BIRCHBARK HOUSE
by Louise Erdich
I discovered Louise Erdrich in college and quickly became a huge fan, collecting most of her books and following her career, which is studded with awards and honors. I think her prose is beautiful and her subject matter and characters fascinating, but what I have always liked best about her is her humor. When I found out that she had written a series for young adults, I knew I had to read it to my boys. And I’ve just finished the first book: The Birchbark House.
Both my boys loved this book. However, they didn’t think they would like it. My 10-year-old son took one look at the cover and groaned. I let my 7-year-old play instead of sitting on the sofa to listen, but he was in earshot. About halfway through the book, he began to sit still and listen with his brother and me. I knew they were both listening when they burst out laughing at a very funny part near the end of the book.
They were captured by the main character’s spirit. She’s a young girl, named Omakayas, or Little Frog, because her first step was a hop. She has a special way with animals, befriending two bear cubs, and she even has a crow for a pet. We learn how her family, members of the Anishinabe (now called Objibwe or Chippewa), build their homes and feed themselves. We spend a full year with them, including the very tragic winter of 1847, but the beauty and messages in this book are uplifting. We are carried along as Omakayas learns important life lessons and discovers whom she really is.
This book had everything in it that I hoped for and felt was important for my two boys to hear. First, it helped them see how the Native American tribes were affected by the arrival of white settlers. (I trust we will continue to learn about this as we continue the series.) Second, it has strong female characters. Third, it allowed them to hear beautifully written prose—something that I haven’t found in every young adult fiction book. This book also deals with loss and grief and healing in a beautiful, sensitive way.
This book would make a perfect readaloud in your homeschool because it’s a story that every age can enjoy, but even if you don’t have young children to read it to, you should read it. It’s that good.
Citizen Science Project #11: Project Implicit
This month I stumbled upon an interesting citizen science project that anyone can participate in from his or her computer. Three scientists from Harvard University, the University of Washington and the University of Virginia founded Project Implicit in 1998. According to its website, “Project Implicit is a non-profit organization and international collaboration between researchers who are interested in implicit social cognition - thoughts and feelings outside of conscious awareness and control. The goal of the organization is to educate the public about hidden biases and to provide a ‘virtual laboratory’ for collecting data on the Internet.”
Once you register on the site, you can return again and again and take several tests, but if at any time you decide you would rather not participate, you can just close your browser to quit. The site is secure and will protect your privacy. According to scistarter.com, there are more than 90 different topics being tested. They seem to appear in a random order.
So far I’ve taken two of the tests, and the first one took me about 15 minutes. The second one took less than 10 minutes. They were not difficult tests, although figuring out what they were testing was a puzzle. Although I was given results at the end, I still wasn’t sure what it was about. However, I’m happy to help research as I continue my year of citizen science projects. Speaking of which, I have one to go! If you’ve enjoyed participating in any of these projects, I’d love to hear about it.
The Gift of Story
As we make our lists and fill up our shopping carts, let’s not forget that stories are also great gifts to give. My children may not think of stories as being their favorite presents, but I do plan to pepper the season with stories that hopefully will become special to them as they get older just as they did for me.
When I was young, my grandmother told me stories about her childhood living on a Georgia farm. I can still remember the sound of Granny’s voice, her laughter and the way she used her hands when she talked. Since she was the youngest of three daughters, she wasn’t needed in the house, so she became the leader of her three brothers and cousins as they played around the farm and did a number of “tricks.”
Once when they were bored, they spent a day taking the pine needles off a pine tree that stood by itself out in the middle of a field. When my great-grandfather drove by it on his tracker, he couldn’t figure out what in the world happened. He “fetched” his wife and family to look at the pine tree that “had shed its needles,” and they all looked at in awe. My grandmother and her brothers didn’t say a word.
There were so many stories. There was one about the time they had a water-drinking contest, and she said that almost drowned her littlest brother, James! My favorite story is about how they took a bite out of every peach on a peach tree because they were told not to pick any of the ripe peaches.
My Granny also told me how my grandfather liked to play practical jokes. One Christmas he wrapped a huge box for my grandmother and put it under the tree in early December. He wouldn’t tell anyone what it was, so everyone had to wait a long time to find out. All he said was that it was very practical. On Christmas morning, everyone wanted Granny to open that box first. What was in it? Toilet paper.
As you can see, I come from a long line of tricksters and practical jokers, and if it weren’t for these stories, I would never know that. True family stories tell children where they come from, and they teach them lessons that their elders learned the hard way. But young children love stories whether or not they are true, and I think every parent should make a point to tell stories to their children. Trust me – it doesn’t matter how bad you think your story is – you’ll have a captive audience.
When my eldest son was four, I began making up stories for him. For several years, I told him a story every night before bed, and it got to a point where he wouldn’t let me go without his story. Somehow, these stories were so much more special than reading him a book. I didn’t think I could always tell a good story, but my son loved them anyway. I would let him pick the main character – usually an animal – or I would use one of his favorite toys to be the hero. Sometimes, I could throw in a little bit of wisdom that I wanted him to learn too. These stories were more personal and pertinent to his life even if they weren’t worth writing down.
This holiday season, I hope you’ll think about starting a storytelling ritual with your children. You’ll be amazed to see that made up stories or family stories can be the best entertainment, the best way to share your values, and the most rewarding gift you can ever give your child.
Stuff We Like :: 12.9.16
Nature & Art
- With all the depressing news in the media lately, I’ve had to start looking for stuff I like to peruse online. For example, instead of following the news on Twitter, I mostly follow wildlife photographers. I especially love this and this and this.
- And even though I’m not on Instagram, I tend to find myself on the Audubon Society’s Instagram page anyway.
- Oh, and I follow lots of super talented artists too. (Check this one out. And this one!)
- And it’s always nice read about good news.
- I also learned about this cool new resource on migration for kids from 5-12 years old. It’s over 50 pages of activities, information, resources, live links & so much more. Can’t wait to dive into it. (Note: It costs $10.)
Home | School | Life
- Home: Enjoying a bounty of apples as we always do this season, and I’m making my favorite apple turnovers with them.
- School: My favorite little find has been all these short educational films available on Amazon Prime. Sometimes in the mornings I have my boys watch an episode of Symbols of America as I throw in another load of laundry. (I count this as social studies!)
- Life: My family was happy to find out that a local homeschooling mom has started a chapter of Classical Revolution in a nearby town. If you want your children to experience classical music in an informal setting, check their website to see if there’s a chapter near you.
Books
- My ten-year-old recently finished reading Jeff Corwin’s The Great Alaska Adventure, and now he’s digging into I Survived the Nazi Invasion, 1944. He is also hooked on Garfield comic books.
- My seven-year-old is begging me to read Garfield comics to him every night, but if I whine a little, he might let me read Make Way for Ducklings or Alligator at Saw Grass Road.
- I love starting our homeschool mornings with a read-aloud, and right now we’re into The Birchbark House by Louise Erdrich.
- I also read to my ten-year-old at night. We just finished reading my favorite book from when I was a kid, My Side of the Mountain, and now we’re into its sequel On the Far Side of the Mountain.
- For myself, I am digging into some nature/science books. I found Ravens in Winter at a recent library book sale, and I love it.
Documentaries
Here are a few of my recent favorites. (If you want more, I try to pin everything we watch here.)
- Nova’s Great Human Odyssey (PBS)
- Wild Europe (Netflix)
- Nova’s Super Tunnel (PBS) – A must see for all those budding engineers out there!
- Nature’s Super Hummingbirds (PBS)
- Nature’s My Congo (PBS)
Citizen Science Project #10: mPING crowdsourcing weather reports
It’s that time of year when I am making an extra effort to check the weather report everyday because I never know if there’s going to be a frost, so I need to bring some plants inside, or if the day will be unusually warm, so I need to pull out some T-shirts for my boys. This is why I am happy to help the National Severe Storms Laboratory (NSSL) with their Meteorological Phenomena Identification Near the Ground (mPING) project.
That may be a mouthful of a project name, but it’s actually quite simple. The NSSL created an app called mPing so that everyone, including you, can quickly report the weather in your area. The information you send is completely anonymous. This is helpful because weather radars cannot see the ground level. According to their website, these reports are used by the NOAA National Weather Service to fine-tune their forecasts, and the NSSL uses them to develop new radar forecasting technologies and techniques.
I downloaded the app onto my smartphone, and I was happy to see that it’s very easy to use. You simply tap “Report Type,” and pick the appropriate report, such as “Rain” or “Hail.” You may be asked more specific questions such as the approximate size of the hail, etc. After that is done, you simply tap “Submit Report.” This is especially helpful to do before, during and after a storm.
You can get the mPING app at the App Store or on Google Play.
For more citizen science project ideas, click here!
Mindful Homeschool: It’s Not Balance, It’s a Cycle
The reason I wanted to take charge of this magazine’s “Balancing Act” is because I, like you, am seeking balance. If you have to write about something, you truly learn it, and I thought maybe this would be a good exercise for me. But to tell the truth, I don’t always feel up to the task. My life doesn’t feel very balanced at the moment.
For example, today. It's a few days after our summer issue came out, but I still have a long list of things I would like to accomplish for the magazine and myself. Those things take up room in my head, but I tell myself I deserve a break, and I try not to think about them much. So then plans for our homeschool start to bubble up, and I try to stifle those too.
The truth is I feel a little zombie-like today. My mind can't focus well. I'm grateful my husband suggested we go hiking, and it's the perfect weather for that. We go to a beautiful state park, and after that we take the long way home, driving through some historic towns and making some stops, includ- ing a meal at a restaurant. It's a great day.
When we get home at4 P.M., I am so sleepy all I can do is fall into bed for a nap while my boys play games on their tablets. I can't sleep well because my four-year-old cries out in frustration several times at his game.
When I finally get up, I ask the boys if they are hungry. All my seven-year-old wants to do is play on that tablet, and while we usually only let him play for about an hour, I decide we had a full morning, and I didn't care if he played longer. My four-year-old got bored of the tablet and started to do other things.
I'm still in a fog. I do a little straightening up in the kitchen, but I don't think about the time. I don't think about much. It’s actually just what I need, but later my husband comes home from a jog, and he questions why my son is still on the tablet. He’s been playing for four hours. Oops.
Believe me, I prefer that my boys do other things besides screen time. I used to imagine that our whole day would be about books and creating things. A little screen time is okay, but then my husband loves watching T.V. He introduced the boys to different shows and those games. I decided I needed to trust his judgment. I even did some research about screen time, and I realized that it's not so bad, especially in reasonable doses. Especially when I'm tired.
The thing is, there are days like this. I feel like a zombie. I don't want to think. And then when I finally give myself permission to not think, I get in trouble for it.
There's a lot I don't do in order to get it all done —cooking, for example, though I’m trying to get better at that. My house doesn't get a good cleaning very often either. My memory is the pits. I can’t remember anything anymore unless I write it down.
My personality type is someone who likes to organize and plan. But while homeschooling little boys, freelance writing and editing, and with a work-at-home husband, my life is beyond planning. I get jealous of families who have extended family who help out. Once I heard my neighbor's mother came by every week to do their laundry. Really? There are people who do that?
I am doing too much. Plain and simple. Even when my husband helps me, and with the shortcuts I take, I can't seem to catch up or feel like I have a handle on everything. The truth is, there are days I feel full of energy, and I get a lot done, and then later I crash and become zombie-like. There are things I can do to "relax," but none of it feels sufficient. I keep plowing through my to do list, though maybe a little slower. Then, at some point, I get my second wind.
- This is what I’ve realized. It’s not so much about balance as it is about going through the cycle. The cycle is something like this:
- Busy Mama has too much to do, deadlines, homeschool projects, events to attend, you-name-it. She’s getting overwhelmed.
- Mama starts to feel like a zombie.
- Suddenly, there’s an unexpected day when Daddy takes the boys to the park and Mama catches up. Mama feels better.
- It’s manageable for awhile. Mama tries to keep it here, but things start to pile up a little. More dates on the calendar. Usually last minute stuff she can’t control, and then it snowballs, and she’s back to feeling overwhelmed.
You can change the Mama to almost any person, and you can change the work to any work, and what you’ve got is a thing called Life. I remind myself that I’m actually lucky because I’m not stuck in a dead-end job I hate. I love the things I have to do. I have a creative life. I love writing and editing. I love being a mom and a homemaker. I love the family culture we’ve fostered of making time to spend in nature, read, create, and have long conversations even if all of it together can make me too busy sometimes.
Living a life worth living isn’t always easy. It’s downright exhausting and overwhelming sometimes. I’m learning that when I start to feel a little zombie-like, I just have to let it all go for a while. Watch a movie, read a book, take a walk, get a good night’s sleep. I know I’ll get it all done somehow. I know I’ll get my second wind.
This essay was originally published in the fall 2014 issue of HSL.
Citizen Science Project #9: Project Squirrel
I know I have claimed past citizen science projects as easy to do, but Project Squirrel must surely be the easiest. That is, if you live in an area with squirrels. There is a guide on the website that will help you identify the kind of squirrels that live in your area. In my yard, we only have grey squirrels.
All you need to do is fill out a quick form online stating your location, the number of squirrels you see, and a little bit about the habitat. It literally took me less than five minutes while I was sitting on my porch watching the squirrels forage around in the leaf litter. The hardest part will be remembering to do this four times a year, which is what the researchers at Project Squirrel hope you’ll do. I put some reminders on my calendar.
Why study squirrels? Well, for one thing, squirrels are easily identifiable, and most people are familiar with them. They are found in most American cities. Squirrels are also diurnal, and they don’t hibernate during the winter. This makes them easy for citizen scientists to study.
Scientists want your data on squirrels because they can tell a story about the ecosystem you live in. Many other animals depend on the same food that squirrels depend on. If there is a predator in the area preying on squirrels, that predator is probably preying on other animals too. The more people who contribute to this study will help researchers learn about local and regional ecosystems.
Like I said, it was very easy and took very little time. Just walk outside, count how many squirrels you see, and fill out a short form online. Done!
Have you participated in a citizen science project this year? Please tell me about it.
At Home with the Editors: 4th Grade and 1st Grade Curriculum
This year, my eldest son enters 4th grade, and my younger son enters 1st grade. Here’s a snapshot of the curriculum resources I’m using with them this year.
Language Arts
- My main goal has always been to read good literature to my boys, which I do regularly, so we’re continuing with that. At the moment, I’m reading The Birchbark House by Louise Erdrich to them.
- My 4th grader is dusting off an old, unused Star Wars Brainquest workbook to practice handwriting and spelling. It may say that it’s a 2nd grade workbook, but it’s basically just creative writing prompts, which I am adapting for our needs.
- I am also making him learn how to type this year, and I’m using this free online program. You can also pay a little to have the ads removed, if you prefer.
- My 1st grader is learning how to read. I have used Starfall.com, Star Wars workbooks, and now I’m beginning again in Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons. (I tried it last year, but he wasn’t quite ready for it yet.)
- My 1st grader is almost finished with his Handwriting Without Tears workbook too.
Math
- My 4th grader refuses to use anything other than the Life of Fred books, which is okay with me. We’ll work through Honey, Ice Cream and Jelly Beans this year, and then I’ll decide if we need to do more.
- For my 1st grader (who likes math!) I use Singapore and the Star Wars workbooks.
- I am also working with both boys on memorizing the times tables.
Science
- This is the first year I began a science curriculum with my ten-year-old. He always loved science, and we learned plenty about science through child-led activities in the early years. But I thought it would be a good idea to round that out, so I am using Biology for the Logic Stage by Elemental Science. (This is a secular program.) I’m adapting it for his needs too.
This is the core of our homeschool lessons, i.e. those formal lessons that I plan for my boys. However, our day doesn’t end there. My eldest son is studying classical piano, theory and music history because this is his major interest right now. My younger son is learning about birds. As a family, we watch documentaries everyday, and sometimes I throw in lessons on art and civics too. Learning never really ends in this house! The curriculum is just a supplement. ☺
What are your favorite curriculum resources?
The Embarrassing Things I’ve Tried That Haven’t Worked
As a homeschooling mom who blogs, I try to be as honest about our lifestyle as I can without invading the privacy of my family members, but I admit, when it comes to writing about our life, I tend to write about the successes more than the failures. It’s not that I don’t want to be upfront about what doesn’t work, but when it comes to the work of writing it all down, I tend to pick topics that I think will be useful to other people. And that’s usually what works for us.
I would be remiss if I didn’t sometimes share what hasn’t worked because that can be helpful for others too. Please tell me there are other moms out there who had “brilliant” ideas with the best of intentions, but when she tried to implement them, she fell flat on her face. Kids can be unpredictable, and even when we think we know what we’re doing, we really have no idea what we’re doing. We are simply trying our best, and sometimes we succeed, but sometimes we fail.
Here is a list of some of my “brilliant ideas” that turned out to be not so brilliant after all.
- When my ten-year-old was about four or five years old, I thought giving him a “responsibilities” chart would be a great idea. To be honest, I can’t remember why I thought this was necessary or what I was trying to make him do at that point, but I had the idea to create a big poster board with all the “goals” on top, which I think were a reading lesson, numbers lesson, help Mommy clean, and help take care of baby, etc. Then I spent god-knows-how-long laminating stickers and putting Velcro on them so I could reuse them each week. (Boy, this is getting embarrassing.) Along the left-hand column, I listed the days of the week, and every day, I put a sticker under the things that were accomplished. I know I didn’t stress that he had to accomplish everything everyday, but ah-hem, that didn’t matter. Because how long did this last? Maybe two weeks? Almost as soon as I started it, I realized that neither my son nor I could remember to put up the stickers at the end of the day, and it wasn’t long after that that I realized doing a chart like this was pretty silly anyway.
- In a similar vein, when my son got older and we began to do more homeschool lessons, I wanted to let him know what to expect each day. I had read that this is helpful for kids. First, I tried using email. I gave him an email address, and each night before I went to bed, I would make a lesson plan and e-mail him a list of things we were supposed to do that day. In doing this, I could also include any links to YouTube videos or other online content we would be looking at. Unlike my responsibilities chart, this actually worked well and was very helpful except that my husband began emailing my son interesting videos and other online content that he thought he would enjoy. Although everything was educational, the emails from my husband took so long to get through in the morning that we weren’t getting to the homeschool lessons! Sigh. So then I decided we would look at his email less frequently, and I made a schedule board instead….
- I admit, I loved my schedule board. Since my son couldn’t read, I used clipart to represent the different subjects or goals. I laminated them and, yes, I used Velcro once again. My poster board was empty except for the Velcro where I could simply attach my clipart pieces in the order I wanted to do things that day. It was so pretty, and it did the job, except…. I soon realized that my son did not care whether or not he knew the agenda for the day. He wouldn’t even look at it! He preferred to just sit down and let me tell him what to do as we got to it. So what do I do now? I use a piece of scrap paper to jot down a lesson plan each night, and I refer to it in the morning. In other words, it’s me that needs know the agenda and no fancy schedule board or e-mails are needed.
- Another great idea I had about two years ago was to begin each morning with a little yoga and stretch time. I thought it might be a good idea to get the boys’ blood flowing before lessons and also help them with their flexibility. My determination to do this fizzled out fast. My eldest son, though he’ll run and play like any kid, cannot stand mandatory movement. (He’s not that interested in sports, either.) My younger son won’t admit to liking yoga since his older brother refuses to do it. It was quite clear to me that this just wasn’t going to happen no matter how much I think it should, and life is too short to torture myself trying to get them to do it.
- Every year I am determined to include a foreign language in our homeschool. I would like everyone to learn Spanish, but we’ve also tried out Chinese on Mango Languages, and we’ve done some Chinese calligraphy too. A foreign language is something that I still have not given up on including in our homeschool day, but so far, I haven’t been successful in keeping it a regular part of our schedule. There are just so many things I have to teach my boys, and there are so many things my boys’ want to learn that something has to give. That’s usually the foreign language. But you never know! I may just turn that around this year.
- What are other things I have tried and then realized it was either too silly, not worth continuing, or we didn’t have time? Plenty. I have bought books at library book sales that we’ve never read because the boys didn’t like them. I have bought teaching supplies on sale that I haven’t used. I have been given countless teaching materials (I know some teachers who are generous – thank you!), but many of these resources sit on my bookshelves unused. I will look through them every year to see if I might be able to use something, and sometimes I will put something in the stack by my bed…. that stack with good intentions. But I rarely get to it.
If there’s anything I’ve learned while homeschooling, it’s that you can’t be afraid to take risks. You never know what your child might embrace, though you have to be willing to ditch the bright ideas, if they aren’t working. Even though I have failed many times, there are other ideas, resources and books I took a chance on, and they did work. They tend not to have to do with Velcro, though.
At Home With the Editors: Our “Order of Things”
In the past, at the beginning of each year, I have sat down at my computer and made a rough schedule for our homeschool lessons. Although I’m not your ultra-organized homeschool mom, I have found that doing some pre-planning helps me from becoming overwhelmed. Even though I often veered off from this schedule, it was very helpful in those early morning hours before my brain turned on to look at this schedule and think, “Ah-ha. It’s math and spelling today.” Although I didn’t do every subject everyday, we did manage to get everything done in a week.
When I sat down to do that this year, I realized it’s a very different year. The boys are getting older, and there’s more work to do. The boys have more things they want to do too. Between that and our outside appointments, I could not figure out a way to get all our lessons done in one week.
Then I remembered what my friend Dawn Smith said when I interviewed her for home/school/life magazine’s Our Way department in the Spring 2014 issue. She said her family didn’t have a set schedule, but instead they had “an order of things.” They set goals for what they wanted to accomplish in a day, and sometimes they didn’t get to everything, but that was okay.
With everything we want to accomplish this year, I have decided to try “an order of things” as well. But I’m not thinking in terms of one day. Instead, I listed those subjects and activities we want to accomplish on a piece of paper that I keep right on my desk. In the mornings, I refer to it and decide what we’ll work on that day. In a sense, I’m simply rotating through the list, and it may take us a week and a half to get through all of it. But that’s okay.
It’s never been my purpose to try to get through a curriculum in a set amount of time. I want our days to be productive, but I don’t want to rush, and I don’t want to give up the memory-making activities for hard-core academics. I want the boys to take as much time as they need to understand a concept, and I want us to be able to achieve all our goals.
By implementing “an order of things,” it’ll be easier for me to not only rotate through math, science, and language arts, I can also rotate in days spent outside, creative activities, and the projects that the boys come up with. But I can also listen to that voice inside my head that might say, “You really need to keep working on this.” Just as I veered off my well-made schedules in the past, I can choose to make something a priority that we do everyday, or I can put it back into the rotation.
How do you decide what to work on each day in your homeschool?
Citizen Science Project #8: Bugs In Our Backyard
This month I focused on the citizen science project Bugs In Our Backyard, which, you can probably guess, is about finding bugs in your own backyard. Seems easy, right? Bugs are everywhere! (Except when you are trying to find them.)
I gotta tell you, this was a little more time consuming than my previous citizen science projects. In the end, it turned out not to be hard, so I don’t want to discourage anyone from trying it, but there are more steps to take.
For a busy homeschooling mom who would like to do things quick, quick, quick, I got a little hung up on the paperwork and the fact that one way to look for bugs is to find a tree or plant and then describe all the bugs on it and around it. You see, I went outside, found a tree, and I couldn’t find any bugs. Then I found another tree, and I found some bugs, but they were mostly ants, and I couldn’t identify the ant species. (They offer a field guide on their website for the most common bugs you might find, but, of course, I wasn’t finding any of those.) You also need to describe, measure and identify the tree or plant and take photos of everything.
I took photos of those first bugs I found, but then I put off filling out the paperwork. This probably had more to do with how busy I was at the time, but the form to fill out asked for my latitude and longitude, and sigh, I didn’t feel like trying to figure that out on top of everything else. So, I put this project off a month.
Fast forward, and I felt refreshed and determined to complete this project. I sat down and read all the fine print (which is 3 pages long), and I realized that I could just go outside and look for bugs that weren’t attached to any plant, but if I did that, I would have to fill out a separate form for each bug on their website. Well, okay, if I must.
They do have some pretty cool activities on their website for students, and if you have a child who’s interested in bugs, you’ll probably love this project and their teaching modules. I printed out some Bingo scavenger hunt pages for my boys, and they went outside looking for the items on their sheets while also helping me look for bugs. They had fun.
We found some cool bugs, but only one of them was on a tree. I took photos, and later at my computer, it was pretty easy for me to identify them by googling their descriptions. And I also found out it’s easy to find out one’s latitude/longitude with a quick google search too. So, ahem, I was just being lazy before.
I decided to report only three bugs because you do have to fill in separate forms for each. I found a large cicada, a Largus and a Saddleback caterpillar. It didn’t take long to fill out the forms and upload my photos.
Like with any citizen science project, when you do it once, you realize it’s not hard, and it would be easy to continue to help the project by continuing to find and report. I think Bugs in Our Backyard could be made easier by letting participants fill out one form per site (like a yard instead of just a tree), but I understand that there’s a reason the researchers need their data reported this way too. It’s a worthy project, especially if you have children who like looking for bugs.
Let me know, if you try out any of these citizen science projects, and tell me what your experience was like.
The Joys of Not-Back-to-School
On Twitter the other day, someone posted a series of photographs of parents who were jumping for joy while their children stood by, looking forlorn and ready for their first day of school. While I believe all these images were probably staged, and the children were probably told to look sad while the parents looked overly happy, I know that many parents do feel elated when it’s time to send the kids back to school.
As a homeschooling parent, I don’t get this at all. Sure, sometimes I dream of having a day here and there sans children, which I never, ever get. (Sigh.) But if I had to send my kids away from me every day? All day? I know I’d cry, and I’d never feel happy about it. Of course, I know that there are many, many parents who are not happy because they have to send their children away each day while they have to go to work. I am very sorry for these parents, and I wish our society was more pro-family.
Some parents may have a career they care deeply about, and I understand that. Other parents may not have the temperament to spend all day with children. For many, it may be that they get used to having their weekdays free without any children around, so when the kids come back from school, it’s a striking difference. And I’ve heard that kids tend to unleash their pent-up energy once they get home, so maybe they aren’t as well behaved with their parents as they are with their teachers. I don’t know for sure, but I think many parents have no idea the difference that homeschooling could make in their children.
For me, however, I am used to seeing my boys everyday, I get to watch them learn and grow, and I can’t imagine any other way of life. I get to teach them! What’s more is that we have time to rest and be flexible with our schedule. We have time to go interesting places, and we get to spend quality time together as a family, and we are very close because of that. That is priceless to me, and it’s worth the sacrifices we have to make to live this lifestyle.
Every day I get to hear my boys’ questions, and I get to help them search for their answers. I hear their excitement when they see something new and interesting on the Internet. “Mommy, you have to come see this!” my son will yell to me. “Okay! Just a minute!” I’ll say, and when I can I’ll go look at the weird animal, usually a sea creature, and I’ll act like I think it’s just as cool as they do even though what I really think is cool is their interest and enthusiasm for looking up the creature in the first place.
I am jumping for joy that we homeschool. I’m jumping for joy that I have two well-behaved boys who are each other’s best friend. I’m jumping for joy that we get to spend our days reading good books, watching documentaries, playing and working on things that we’re interested in.
This September we’ll be beginning our new school year, which is just a continuation of last year with a little bit of new stuff thrown in. We’ll start our weekly appointments again, dig in a little more into our books, and we’ll continue to learn and grow. The growing part is going very fast, and for me, I’m jumping for joy that I’m not missing any of it.
Sign up for our Free Newsletter Pep Talk
It’s my pleasure to announce a new service here at home/school/life, and it’s free for anyone who would like to sign up.
If you were a fan of Amy’s “Monday Pep Talks,” you’ll definitely want to sign up. Once a quarter (between the magazine issues), we’re going to send out the Pep Talks by e-mail. But this will be an ultra-pep talk like this one: click here.
Pep talks are full of inspiring things to do, delicious food to cook, book recommendations and other inspiration to rev your engines and put spice into your homeschool life.
We will also fill you in on some of the best blog posts from the last quarter and let you know what else is happening around here on home/school/life. And don’t worry, we absolutely promise we won’t spam you, sell your e-mail address, or send out a pep talk more than four times a year.
How can you sign up? Well, if you had signed up for our former monthly newsletter (which has been on permanent hiatus for awhile), you don’t need to do anything. You’re already signed up for the Pep Talk!
But if you aren’t signed up, you can use our sign-up form here:
If you don’t want to receive the Pep Talk, there will be an unsubscribe option at the bottom of each e-mail, or you can e-mail Shelli and ask her to remove your address from the list.
As always, thank you for supporting home/school/life! We couldn’t continue to expand without our faithful readers.
It Does Get Easier: Finding More Me Time as the Kids Get Older
This morning I met some long-time, female friends for breakfast at a quaint bakery-café in town. This was a luxury for me — both meeting friends and getting to eat at a quaint bakery-café.
I have been meeting with these women off and on for fifteen years. I met them when I was single, in my late twenties, and I taught a journal writing class for the adult community education programs at the university. Basically, for the four of us, the class never ended, but over the years, the group morphed from a writing group to a book discussion group to a woman's group. We just talk about anything! But the glorious thing is that it's an intelligent conversation, and it's not always about children's needs or the ups and downs of homeschooling. If the conversation does go in that direction, then it's me talking because all three of these beautiful women are older than me, and none of them have children.
For several years, we met every month, but then I had my boys. For a while, I tried to bring my eldest to the meetings, but that didn’t last long, and it was impossible after I had two boys. For a few years, we didn't meet at all, and I feared I had lost touch with these creative, insightful women. Then, when my eldest son was old enough to go to summer camp by himself, I asked my husband if he'd keep our youngest for the day so that I could arrange a meeting with my friends. He did. So for the last three years, we have met once a year during summer camp. Yes, only once a year, but that was better than not meeting at all!
This year I realized meeting during the week was a burden to one of the women who works full-time, so I decided to schedule a meeting on Saturday. And then it occurred to me…Saturdays would be good for me too since my husband is off and the boys are more self-sufficient. Hey, maybe I can do this more often.
I always tell parents of very young children that it'll get easier as they get older. I say that even when some things are still hard for me. Although my husband helps a lot, I'm still the major caregiver for the children, and for a long time, I was the only parent my youngest son wanted anything to do with. He is still a mama's boy, but finally he is okay with daddy taking over for part of the day. And my nine-year-old... well, he prefers his dad now. Mama is starting to get boring.
“On the rare days I find myself leaving the house alone, I have that heavy feeling of having forgotten something. But it’s really that part of me that wants to stay right here next to my boys.”
Before I get all choked up and sad and oh — pooh! *sniff sniff* — I have to remind myself that I actually kind of enjoy having a little more freedom.
But it comes very slowly, and it takes some getting used to. On the rare days I find myself leaving the house alone, I have that heavy feeling of having forgotten something. But it’s really that part of me that wants to stay right here next to my boys. Will they need something that only I can give them? What am I missing if I’m not here?
Then I start driving away from the house, listening to one of my favorite podcasts, and I sigh with relief that no one will interrupt it! It's then that I realize I can and will get used to doing things alone again.
I will start slowly because I am in no hurry for my boys to become completely independent of me. For now, I will begin to get my women’s group together more often. None of our schedules will allow us to meet once a month anymore, but I'm going to try to get us together once every season.
And maybe, with these intelligent, kind, inspiring women’s help, I will start to find my way again in the world...sans children.
Not Quite Citizen Science Project #7: Got Milkweed?
I’m calling this month's citizen science project “not quite” because technically, it’s not a citizen science project. That is, it is not supporting any kind of research, and there are no scientists or researchers involved in this. Instead, it’s a group of volunteers who are striving to help the Monarch butterflies, which studies are showing to be in decline.
As you may know, Monarchs are the only butterfly species who make a mass migration. They travel up to 3,000 miles! During the summer months, they live in the northern U.S. and Canada, and then they migrate to Mexico for the winter months. (We usually see them in our yard around October.) You can read more about this incredible phenomenon on this National Geographic page.
When my eldest son was seven, we raised two generations of painted lady butterflies. (You can read more about that in the Summer 2014 issue of home/school/life magazine.) Now I have plans to raise butterflies again, but this time, I’d like to raise Monarchs. I knew that before I do that, I’d need to grow milkweed in my yard because this is the host plant that the Monarch larvae or caterpillars feed on. This is how I stumbled upon LiveMonarch.com.
As it turns out, growing milkweed is a good thing because part of the reason that Monarch butterflies are decline is loss of habitat, i.e. loss of the milkweed plant.
LiveMonarch.com is run by the Live Monarch Foundation, a United Charitable Program. Their mission is to educate everyone about habitat loss and what they can do to assist the Monarch butterflies. For a $3 donation, they will send you 150 milkweed seeds! (If you don’t need that many seeds, you can donate some of them. See the different options on their website.) They will also make sure you get the proper seeds that you need to plant in your region and directions on how to grow the milkweed.
Click here to order your seeds.
Even though this isn’t exactly citizen science, I thought it deserved a place in “My Year of Citizen Science” because 1) it’s easy to order and grow the milkweed, 2) it’s a great project to do while you learn about the butterfly life cycle, which is part of any homeschooler’s science curriculum, and 3) you’d be helping the Monarchs, which researchers and scientists are trying to do too! And who knows? It might inspire you to raise butterflies too!
At Home with the Editors: My End of the Year Record-Keeping
When I first began to homeschool, I did a small “graduation” for my son’s Kindergarten year because so many other people were doing something similar, but after I did it, that somehow felt wrong. I think a graduation should come at the very end of one’s education. But I still wanted to mark the end of our year so that the boys could see that they were progressing and accomplishing good things. That’s when I decided to do an end-of-the-year review where I’d simply showcase everything we had done that year.
I consider July the end of our school year, but I don’t worry about finishing the curriculum we’re using. While we do finish some items, there are many resources I just put a bookmark in and start where we left off in September. Also, on the official paperwork, I say our school year is from September 1 – August 31. By law, my boys are supposed to have 180 days of school each year during that time. I know I go over that amount, especially when you consider how full of learning our daily lives are.
Most of the work I do to mark the end of the year is quiet work I have to do by myself at my computer. This year, I’ve been hard pressed to work up the motivation to do this, but I am slowly getting it done!
First, I create a progress report for each of my boys. This is required by law in our state of Georgia. Briefly, this is how I do it:
On a piece of paper I list and make each area of study a heading. Under each heading, I create bullet points and list all the applicable curriculum my boys have completed (if we haven’t finished something, I note the pages we’ve completed); apps they’ve used; field trips; library books read on that subject; projects; outside classes, if any; and summer camps that support that area of study.
I also make comments on their progress such as: “The nine-year-old’s reading skills have greatly improved this year.” “The six-year-old is showing a growing interest in math.”
By law, I have to teach reading, language arts, math, science and social studies, so I always list those, but since I don’t have to show this progress report to anybody, I consider it a keepsake, and I list the other things I’m teaching too: art, Spanish, and physical education. I also make a separate heading for my boys’ major projects that year. For example, this year my son has been learning how to play the piano and also studying the composers and listening to a lot of classical music. So I made a heading where I can go in-depth on this topic.
The progress report is usually about two pages long and once I’m finished, I print it out and put it into a 3-ring binder, which I call their portfolios. I make these binders at the beginning of a year, and I put any documentation I have about their school year into it, such as brochures to museums we’ve visited or the programs to the classical concerts we’ve attended. I also keep our daily work charts in the binder as well.
After the progress report is complete, it’s time to start on the fun ritual I do every year, and that is make a slideshow of all our photos from that year. I’m a photographer, so I take lots of photographs of our field trips and the boys’ projects and everything else. (Though, I have to admit, I got lazy this year and mostly used my phone camera!)
Making a slideshow with hundreds of photos and several video clips is quite a chore. That’s why I have not yet completed this year’s slideshow. Last year, my husband helped me by adding music to it. Once we’re done, however, we put it on a DVD and we can send it to the boys’ grandparents. They love it!
We actually love sitting down to watch it too. The boys are delighted to see photos of projects that by now they’ve forgotten about! (Sometimes this review inspires them to go back and work more on something!) If we took a vacation or had relatives visit us during the year, I include those photos too. Although it’s a lot of work, it’s worth the effort to have our photos in an accessible place and not lost somewhere on an external drive!
When it comes time to watch the slideshow (which is usually in late July or – ahem – maybe mid-August this year), I gather our curriculum, portfolios and major projects the boys have been working on that year, and I lay them out on a table. I take a photo of the boys standing in front of their work, and (in lieu of a report card), I give them a certificate of completion for that year and sometimes a small gift (something educational that will help them with a project). Then we watch the slideshow.
And that’s it. That’s our end-of-the-year ritual.
After this, we take some time off in August because it’s time to celebrate both my boys’ birthdays. They are three years apart, but their birthdays are exactly one week apart. (I didn’t plan it that way!) Then in early September, we start our new school year, continuing what we didn’t finish and/or sometimes getting out some shiny new curriculum. I do nothing special to mark the first day of school. I think our end-of-year ritual + birthday celebrations are quite enough!
Writing down my end-year-old work makes it seem like a lot, but I assure you, except for making that @#$%! slideshow, it’s not too time-consuming. ;)
If you’re interested in seeing examples of some of the print-outs I mentioned in this post, they are available as free downloads on my personal blog.
What do you do to mark the end of your homeschool year, or do you mark the beginning of the year? Or both?
Interview & Free Book Giveaway: Nature and Weather Studies
THIS GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED. CHECK THE COMMENTS FOR THE WINNER.
Dawn Smith has been a friend of home/school/life since its inception, and we’ve been a big fan of her and Annie Riechmann’s nature blog, Mud Puddles to Meteors for a long time. So we feel very good telling you about Dawn and Annie’s new book, Whatever the Weather, which would be a perfect addition to any homeschooler’s bookshelf.
Whatever the Weather is all about sparking wonder and excitement about the weather through art and science. It is filled with simple science experiments and art projects, and a section called “Science Behind the Scenes” accompanies each activity. This section provides families with the science related to the weather phenomena they are playing with in the activity. Dawn told me they did this because they wanted families to have easily accessible scientific facts about the weather phenomena so they would grow in their understanding of how the weather works.
I have my own copy of Whatever the Weather, and I have been having a great time reading through it and planning activities to do with my two boys. But I had to wonder: How does Dawn do it all? She’s a homeschooling mom, she writes books, leads nature walks, facilitates a nature lab, and is now working hard to promote her new book. I wanted to interview her about her book, writing life, homeschooling and more, and I thought readers of home/school/life would enjoy getting to know about this cool nature-homeschool mama too. So please enjoy the interview below, and then leave a comment so that you can get a chance to win a free copy of Whatever the Weather, compliments of Roost Books.
In addition, be sure to look for an article Dawn is writing for us about weather studies in our upcoming Fall 2016 issue.
What made you and Annie decide to write a book about the weather?
Well, Annie and I are fascinated with the weather. We both grew up on the West coast and moved to the east where there are different weather patterns and much more extreme winters (with the wild mix of weather that goes along with winter weather). This new weather made us realize what a big role weather plays in our lives, especially with kids. The weather had become a topic of study with our own children and it all just grew from there.
How did the journey of writing the book begin?
Annie and I had met while contributing to a nature blog that some friends had started, and we clicked. Once that blog started to wind down, we stayed connected and talked often.
One morning I got an email from Annie that said, “We should write a book!” I laugh just thinking about it. It seemed like such a natural next step.
I had quite a few half-started book projects already, and Annie had been creating Alphabet Glue for some time, so we tossed around some of those projects and came up with the idea to write a family guide to nature. We basically wanted to write the book we wished we had had for our own families when we first started exploring nature with our kids.
In a long and rather fun process a chapter of that book, about the weather, became an e-book on our blog, Mud Puddles to Meteors.
In the process of pitching our original book idea, editor Jennifer Urban-Brown at Roost Books, saw the e-book posted on our blog and wanted to see it. She had been thinking of a book about weather, and after seeing the e-book, asked us to write it.
I know you lead nature walks and also facilitate an online nature lab. Please tell us about those and how you got started in teaching nature studies.
I really got started with sharing nature studies by simply sharing our own discoveries with others online. When we first moved to Nova Scotia from California we did not have a car, or a friend network, so I relied on fostering online friendships with other homeschool families, and many of those families happened to also be involved with nature study. We shared and learned a lot from each other.
I started a “nature” version of my personal blog and things have grown from there.
The nature walks started because my local friend and I decided to do what I can best describe as a mini co-op. I took her older kids for a nature walk and taught them nature study once a week (while she did story time and activities with her younger children) and I dropped my kids at her house on another day for art lessons (while I went to the library for writing time). It worked out so well she encouraged me to start doing nature walks for our homeschool group. Now I do a Forest Friday program for our local group and it is wonderful.
The nature lab is an extension of that desire to share nature and nature study with other families. It grew out of a Fall Outside program I had done in the fall to encourage families to get outside for 30 days in November. So many people loved having a daily nature prompt show up in their inbox they asked me to continue. Now I offer the Mud Puddles Nature Lab and it is growing into a wonderful community of families (many of them homeschoolers).
You are a homeschooling mom, you write books, lead nature walks, facilitate a nature lab, and also co-author the blog, Mud Puddles to Meteors and help promote it! Whew! (Did I miss anything?!) How do you find the time to do all this? What is your routine like?
Whew! I am tired just reading all of that! Ha!
To be quite honest, I don’t find time for it all. There is an ebb and flow, just like with anything. Sometimes the blog sits for quite some time without a post, I am not always writing a book (although there are more books on the horizon), and the great thing about the nature walks is that we would be doing that anyway – we just get to take a group of families along with us, which is great!
Having so many things on the go could not be possible if it was not a family effort.
My husband works really hard for our family and cleans the bathroom (because it is my least favorite thing to clean). My kids pitch in around the house with their chores and are becoming more and more self-directed daily. I certainly could not do it all without the support of my family.
My son went to school this year for the first time (grade 4) so I only have my daughter at home now. That has certainly lightened the homeschool preparations and time. She is almost 13 years old and is very independent in her studies and projects. We spend time together each morning on lessons and project work and she works on her own for the rest of the school day until her brother gets home.
Most mornings I get up around 4 a.m. to write when the house is quiet. I don’t allow myself to go on social media during that time because I have to be really efficient with those quiet hours and I get the bulk of my writing done during that time. It is easier to catch up with the groups I have online, edit photos, and other tasks when the household is awake but for writing, I need to have quiet.
What does your style of homeschooling look like? What made you realize homeschooling was a good fit for your daughter?
We are fairly eclectic in our homeschool but mainly rely on project-based homeschooling. It is a really good fit for my daughter because when she has an interest in a topic she becomes consumed with it. She is an amazing researcher (I am sure because we have laid the foundation for her to be an independent life-long learner from the beginning) and loves to delve into even the most obscure aspects of a topic. Our librarians always know when she is on to something new because she puts every book the library owns on that topic on hold (thank goodness Halifax has an amazing library system).
What inspires you?
Other mamas inspire me the most.
While there are some really inspiring people out there who are making a big difference in the world on a larger scale, for everyday inspiration I look toward my little tribe of mama friends, people online who I have fostered relationships with over the years, and those mamas sharing the everyday life stuff on Instagram or Facebook. They are the ones I call when I am in tears because sometimes life is just too much, they are the ones cheering me on when I think things are too hard, and they are the ones who are right in the thick if it alongside me. It is such an inspiration to see everyday life play out in beautiful ways each day, even in the midst of piles of laundry, dinners being made, and crying kiddos.
I am also inspired by little details. Take one look at my Instagram feed and it would not take someone long to see I really like to tune into the tiny things that make the world go round.
It is inspiring when I see something small and think about how all of those little details make up the world. It makes me think of what is possible and realize that when things seem big and overwhelming tuning into small details can make life more manageable, in the same way that each letter makes a word, each word a sentence, and before you know it you have written a book.
Are you working on a new project now that the book is published?
There always seems to be at least one project, or more, in the works.
Right now my focus is on the Mud Puddles Nature Lab and reaching out to families who want extra support in getting out the door or to simply join a tribe of families moving in the same direction. It is in its infancy and is really becoming a lovely community.
I am also working on thematic, nature inspired activity guides that will include natural history, language arts, math, science, art and more. I am really excited about those too!
And, there are more books in the works. That is a very long process but hopefully there will be another book to share with you sooner rather than later.
Is there anything else you’d like to add?
I would just like to add that I really appreciate the homeschool community as a whole. It is amazing how even when we take different approaches to teaching our children and have different points of view on other matters, we can connect over our desire to homeschool our children, find the middle ground, and support each other. I feel very fortunate to be a part of this wonderful community.
Now here’s your chance to win a free copy of Whatever the Weather. Leave a comment here on the blog and tell us why you’d like a copy of the book, and we’ll randomly select a winner from the entries. We’ll choose a winner on TUESDAY, AUGUST 2, so please check back then to see if you won. Good luck!
Summer Has a Mind of Its Own
Let’s take a poll:
How many of you continue to homeschool through the summer or do a “lighter” lesson plan? And how many of you take the entire summer off from any homeschool planning?
Leave a comment below or on Facebook or Twitter. Let us know how you spend your summer.
Have you ever noticed that summer has a mind of its own? I usually plan to continue homeschooling throughout the summer, but with all the summer events, it’s hard to keep to a regular routine.
This year, I decided to let the boys pick what they wanted to work on, although they had to pick from a list I created. My elder son picked science, and my younger son decided to work in his Star Wars workbooks. I added some other “lessons” in there, but there has only been a handful of days so far that we’ve had time to sit down and work on these lessons.
First, our cousins decided to visit us for a week in late May. This was awesome. It was as if the boys had a one-week, non-stop play date! But after they left, it took several days to recover. My youngest son felt so sad after they left that it took a few days before he could entertain himself again.
Now as I write this, I’m recovering from a cold that helped me celebrate the summer solstice. This has been a big drag, and needless to say, I haven’t done any lesson planning.
My boys are also participating in a weeklong summer camp at the botanical garden. Summer camps are golden opportunities for homeschoolers to get to mingle with all kinds of kids and have some fun away from mom and dad. (It’s also a nice break for mom and dad.) This year we’re only doing one summer camp, so I’m very thankful it’s going well and the boys didn’t catch my cold!
Hopefully we’ll have time for lessons after the camp ends, but I know we’ll also want to get together with friends and enjoy the outdoors during the warm weather. Maybe later in the summer, we’ll visit relatives, or take another short trip. No matter what we do, there will be plenty of distractions from our lessons!
I am not sure where the summer will lead. I’m at its mercy. And I gleefully give in.
Stuff We Like :: 7.15.16
This week's edition of Stuff We Like comes from Shelli, who always likes such cool stuff!
Homeschool
We haven’t used it for very long yet, but so far my nine-year-old has been enjoying the science curriculum by Elemental Science we picked out for him. It was his first choice when it came to our summer homeschooling plans!
I also love that I stumbled on Carla Sonheim’s art website because it’s just what I needed to get my Art Fridays started again. She has a lot of cool online classes and a few free tutorials too. My boys and I especially enjoyed her Crazy Birds Tutorial.
Links
around the web: How do artists make a living? – I think this article is spot on because I’ve had a similar experience. Anyone pursuing a career in the creative arts should read it.
on the blog: We have a few years to go before we enter the high school stage, but I’m sure glad Amy is paving the way for me.
in the archives: I keep looking back at Rebecca’s review of a critical thinking curriculum because I really really want to buy it.
On my Wishlist
I’m also eyeing these awesome bird posters that I would love to buy for my bird-loving six-year-old. This one? Or this one?
Books
The nine-year-old and I finished reading The Long Winter (he loved it!), which is part of the Little House series. We’ve just started Little Town on the Prairie. We’re also reading Old Yeller, and I’m still getting my daily dose of Calvin and Hobbes.
For myself, I just finished reading I Am of Irelaunde: A Novel of Patrick and Osian. The author combined some of the known facts of St. Patrick and combined it with the folklore of Ireland to create a fictional account of St. Patrick’s life, and there are many beautiful stories within the larger story. It inspired me to read a little about the real St. Patrick and what is known of him.
T.V.
Our most current beloved documentaries: BBC’s series The Human Planet (Netflix) – Wow. Just wow. Perfect for social studies! (Parents with sensitive children may want to preview first.) AND Nature’s Jungle Animal Hospital (PBS) (Parents with sensitive children may want to preview first.)
Just for me: I finally finished the final season of Downton Abbey. If you like happy endings, you’ll like this show. (Sometimes, you just need a happy ending.)
Citizen Science Project #6: Citizen Science Soil Collection Program
Not sure you have time to do citizen science with your kids? Well, you have time for this project. It’s the easiest citizen science project ever!
The University of Oklahoma Natural Products Discovery Group is asking you to send them a soil sample from your backyard. All you have to do is go to their website, order a kit, which is free (although they welcome $5 donations to cover the cost of the kits), and once you receive your kit, follow the simple directions for how to collect the soil.
The kit comes with a short form to fill out, a scoop, and a small plastic baggy. Open the package carefully because it converts into a pre-paid mailer that you will drop back into the mailbox once you have collected your sample. It literally took my son and I less than 10 minutes to do this project!
Why do they want your soil? They are looking for the microscopic life in it. There are many kinds of fungi, and most of it we cannot see with the naked eye, but it could be life saving. They are using these samples to find molecules that might fight cancer or stop the spread of infectious pathogens or any other deadly disease. Since there are millions of different kinds of fungi on earth, you might have something they don’t have in your backyard.
Not only is this project easy, it will help your child understand the importance of scientific research, and you may be helping to save lives too.
Before you mail off your sample, you will write down a soil sample i.d. number, and with this, you’ll be able to track your sample on their website, find out how many fungi came out of your sample and also see photos of these amazing organisms! (It may take awhile before your sample shows up in their database, so be patient.)
Click here to read more and order your kit.
What citizen science projects have you participated in?
SHELLI BOND PABIS is home | school | life magazine’s senior editor. She writes about her family’s homeschooling journey at www.mamaofletters.com.