Free or Frugal Friday Homeschool

 Happy Free or Frugal Friday!  I am late, I know.  It is almost 11 PM, and I am just getting to this now.  It has been a crazy week, and tomorrow, and Sunday are crazy busy too.  First, I want to share two of my favorite apps.  The first one, Distant Suns, is not free, it is $5.99.  But if your kids love to look at constellations, planets and stars you will love this app.  Plus, if you do not have a super powered telescope this is fabulous. It is very detailed and gives tons of info.  The second one Google Sky Viewer, is not as fancy, but it is easy to see the constellations, and find them in the sky.  Plus, this one you can zoom in on the planets and get an awesome up close view.  We look at the moon a lot with this one, and the details are amazing.  Google Sky Viewer is free.  I share only Android apps, because I have an Android phone.  I do not have an Iphone or Ipad, so no Itunes apps here.  We used the Distant Suns app last year, for the International Observe the Moon Night.  This year that same event is on Sept 6th.  So, I will have to decide if I want to do a group viewing again, or just a family viewing. 

Today, I was looking through my Eclectic Homeschooler Pinterest Board, trying to find all the websites I saved for testing.  I still did not find them all, so I will share those on another Friday, but I did find Turtle Diary.  Which is one of the newer websites I had discovered, and saved, for future reference.  Now, the only option for 4th grade is Math games.  5th grade is being created, so I will be watching for that.  There is no History option, which is kind of disappointing.  But, all the other subjects look awesome.  I signed up for the free version, and I can not wait to have Caitlin give it a try.  The 3rd grade Science, and Language Arts could still be applicable to her, so that is nice too.

Then I found Playing History, which could easily make up for the lack of History in the above website.  I have not tried this one yet, but it is free, and if you sign up as a member you can review the games they play.  Both of my kids can benefit from this website, and the both love games, so it will be a win win.

Well that is it for this Friday.  Be sure to check back next week, to see what goodies I find. 

Kika Silva Planetarium

Yesterday, we went to the Kika Silva Planetarium for a field trip. The Planetarium is on the campus of Santa Fe College. This was our first class there, but we will return hopefully next month. The class was on stars, and DJ will be doing a writing assignment on stars, hopefully this week. We were only allowed to take one picture and as you can see it wasn't that great. But, after we got to ask questions to the Astronomer who did the class. If I did not mention it, last Thursday a meteor came right over Florida and caused a huge sonic boom and our house shook like we were in an earthquake. I so wish I had been outside with the dogs, like I normally would be, but alas I was not. The dogs got to see it, but I did not. I asked him why NASA could not see the meteor coming at us, and he said because it was not big enough. This particular meteor was about the size of a suitcase, but still not large enough for them to pick it up before it entered the Earth's atmosphere. No damage was done thank goodness. Then we went to the park for a chilly but not completely unpleasant lunch and play time.

Today, was a regular school day and so will tomorrow be. Next week we are visiting a Bee Farm.

The Moon and Stars Themed Unit

Tomorrow for Science, we will be doing a themed unit, on the Moon. You can get this free themed unit, at School Express They have tons of free themed units for you to download, or print. Plus tons of other helpful education links. Below is a short video, of the moon, and stars set to music. It is quite lovely, check it out. Plus you can join the Nasa Kids Club for all kinds of fun activities, for your kids to do.



Lesson Plans for 3/31/09:

Half day all this week, yay

Science: the moon
Writing: Write a story abut going to the moon
Spelling: Lesson 26- write each spelling word two times each
Vocabulary: Lesson 26- look up the definition of each word
Math: Multiplication, division, word problems