Animals & Farms – Pandemic Homeschooling, Theme 7

This is a tricky theme right now since zoos are closed, the Museum of Science is closed, the Harvard Museum of Natural History is closed, Mass Audubon sites have closed (except for hiking, get out there and take a walk in nature), and there aren’t many farms reachable by public transit, and who knows if they’re open….But we’ll do our best!

Activities

Make your own music video to “Baby Monkey”
Some art stores might be open, get some paper mâché animals and decorate them at home
Ideas for Dairy Cow Learning Activities from Ohio State University, a list of possible activities for learning about this important animal in our food supply. Written for 4H but applicable for anyone interested!

Virtual Field Trips

Farm Food 360 offers 11 virtual tours of all kinds of farms, from apple orchards, to pig farms to grain farms. Check it out!
San Diego Zoo‘s live animal cams: penguin, baboon, polar bears, panda, koala, giraffe, burrowing owl, elephant, tiger, and condor.

Books

“Zoology for kids : Understanding and Working with Animals, with 21 Activities,” Josh Hestermann, Overdrive
“Birdology : 30 Activities and Observations for Exploring the World of Birds,” Monica Russo, Overdrive
“Who was George Washington Carver?” Jim Gigliotti, Overdrive

Online Learning

Animal Behavior at MIT’s Open CourseWare
Dino 101: Dinosaur Paleobiology at Coursera

Field trips

Head to your nearest pond or park and watch the ducks and other wildlife. I am at my closest pond right now and there are ducks, geese, doves and woodpeckers!

Space – Pandemic Homeschooling, Theme 1

Here is my first themed group of books, activities, and snacks to help you get through this period of Social Distancing at home. Click here to return to the list of themed posts.

Books

“Catstronauts–mission moon : CatStronauts Series, Book 1,” Drew Brockington, on Overdrive. This is a series of 5 books, that look SO CUTE! All 5 are available on Overdrive
“Life on Mars,” Jennifer Brown, Overdrive

For older tweens through adults:
“The Martian,” Andy Weir, Overdrive
“Packing for mars : The Curious Science of Life in the Void,” Mary Roach, on Overdrive
“Mission to Mars: My Vision for Space Exploration,” Buzz Aldrin, audio book on Overdrive

At home activities

Watch “We’re NASA and We Know It” and make your own version
Create your own constellations on a picture of the night sky. Instructions, Blank star map.
Explore space with NASA’s Micro Observatory
Make cardboard telescopes
Build a model of Mars rover Curiosity, a space station or rocket ship
Go stargazing at night
Here’s a whole online class about Astronomy that looks like it’s for middle school and above: https://msdagostinoastronomy.weebly.com/
For older teens and adults, check out one of EdX’s courses on Astronomy:
Two MIT OpenCourseware classes: Introduction to Astronomy or Hands-On Astronomy: Observing Stars and Planets

Theme snacks

Astronaut Ice Cream (Amazon link, no affiliation)
Homemade Moon Pies

Free Online Learning for You!

One of my favorite parts of this homeschooling journey has been the opportunity to fill in gaps in my own education. I love learning about history, culture and science.

Over the years I’ve used some online education portals to pursue some amazing classes. Not only is it a great way to pass time while my kids are doing their own work, it’s also a powerful way to demonstrate to them my values around education.

Two textbooks. "Philosophy in the Flesh: The Embodied Mind and its Challenge to Western Thought" by George Lakoff and Mark Johnson. A geology textbook, "Understanding Earth, 5th Edition" by Grotzinger, Jordan, Press, Siever. — *Books I used with online courses, Source: BBHS*

Here are my fav online learning portals, let me know of your favs in the comments!

EdX.org – This platform was created by Harvard and MIT and hosts courses from colleges and universities around the world. Most courses you can take for free. The first amazing course I took was “The Science of Religion” from the University of British Columbia. I’ve also taken courses on Chinese History, the basics of Neuroscience, Ethics, History of Architecture. Most EdX courses do not require any outside materials or text books, though classes may suggest optional readings. The site is user-friendly, and you can go at your own pace.

MIT OpenCourseWare – From their site: “MIT OpenCourseWare (OCW) is a web-based publication of virtually all MIT course content. OCW is open and available to the world and is a permanent MIT activity.” I’ve taken an introductory course on Geology through this platform. Compared to EdX.org, OCW isn’t as user friendly. The courses available, however, are actual college-level courses! You will often want to buy or borrow the textbooks for each course. I bought my textbook off eBay for less than $20. If you can get your course’s books from the library, these courses are truly free and high quality.

A few years ago, a homeschooler was in the news for using MIT OpenCourseWare for his entire homeschool education and getting admitted to MIT at age 15.

Coursera – This platform is a lot like EdX. The biggest difference with Coursera is that you need to keep up with each course’s timing. It’s not as relaxed as EdX, but I do think the courses are at a slightly higher level. I haven’t successfully finished a class on Coursera because of the timing issue, but have found some really great topics, such as entomology and fair use copyright law for blogs!

Do you use these online platforms yourself? Do your kids learn from them? Please share your experiences in the comments below!