Oh, Netflix. I adore Netflix (even after the price hike – we use it enough we’re still getting a good deal.)

One of the many things we watch on Netflix are documentaries. I adore documentaries. So do my kids. Mostly.

We use documentaries to supplement in areas we’re already learning about, learn about new things we’re just curious about, or my favorite-for educational “entertainment” on teacher sick days. Yes. You heard that right. Having a sick day? Pick out a documentary. Everyone find a cushion, open your ears, clothes your mouths and enjoy!

Documentaries can be a bit tricky though… you never know when you’re going to end up with a total dud. But mostly they’re good. We’re only on Week 8 of school but we’ve already watched many this year. Here’s a list of some of the things we’ve watched (or have in our queue, I’ll mark them.)

Science & Nature Documentaries

Saving the Ocean: Shark Reef

Secrets Beneath the Ice: Nova

National Geographic: Seas Monsters: A Prehistoric Adventure

Deadly Dozen (A series of episodes about the deadliest animals on each continent.)

The Vanishing of the Bees (I’ve watched it, it’s in our queue for the kids to watch.)

Tornado Intercept (In the queue.)

National Geographic: Incredible Human Machine (I’ve watched it, it’s in the queue for the kids.)

Coral Reef Adventure (In the queue.)

400 Years of the Telescope (In the queue.)

Disney Nature: Oceans (In the queue.)

God of Wonders (In the queue.)

Historical Documentaries

National Geographic: Lewis & Clark: Great Journey West

America: The Story of  Us

National Geographic: Jamestown

The Great Ships: The Pirate Ships

China’s Terracotta Warriors

Greeks: Crucible of Civilization (In the queue.)

National Geographic: Alexander the Great (In the queue.)

Wild China (In the queue.)

Discover Atlas: China Revealed (In the queue.)

Ancient Mysteries: Forbidden City -Dynasty & Destiny (In the queue.)

The Revolution (In the queue.)

Biographical Documentaries

George Washington: American Revolutionary

In Search of Beethoven (In the queue.)

Marco Polo (In the queue.)

Here I Stand: Martin Luther (In the queue.)

History’s Mysteries: Lincoln: The Untold Stories (In the queue.)

The Lincoln Assassination (In the queue.)

Paul Revere: The Midnight Rider (In the queue.)

Previously Watched in 2011:

National Geographic: Secret Yosemite

The March of the Penguins

National Geographic: Ultimate Cat

The Blue Planet: Seas of Life: Ocean World/Frozen Seas

The Blue Planet: Seas of Life: Open Oceans/The Deep

The Blue Planet: Seas of Life: Seasonal Seas/ Coral Seas

The Blue Planet: Seas of Life: Tidal Seas/Coasts

The Natural History of the Chicken

Incredible Creatures that Defy Evolution

Science of Dogs

Atlas: Uncovering Earth: Atlantis

Esther: The Bible

National Geographic: Great Pyramid

National Geographic: Egypt: Pharoahs

As you can see, we really use Netflix to our advantage. Our favorites are clearly science and nature related – Little Prince will choose shows about animals without any prompting whatsoever – Deadly Dozen is one of his favorites! We also do like some history (though the kids are generally more skeptical of those because we’ve seen a few dry and boring ones!) We also like to watch shows that show you how things are made or work or done, like How It’s Made, Storm Chasers or Dirty Jobs. We’re either very curious over here or we just like to know many things to be know-it-alls.

Documentaries.

Don’t knock’em ’til you’ve tried’em. ; )

This is a part of the ABC’s of Homeschooling series by Dawn @ The Momma Knows. You can find all of my ABC posts here.

So if you haven’t noticed already, I have a thing for books. I’m building our library with good supplemental and living books to keep on hand. Having kids from age 5 – 11, here’s a list of anatomy and health related books for my library. I’ve marked the books that we have already and the others are books that I hope to add to our library soon.

The Kingfisher First Human Body Encyclopedia (Kingfisher First Reference) (We have this one already. My 5 year old science guy goes through it again and again and again!)

Inside Your Outside: All About the Human Body (Cat in the Hat’s Learning Library)

Oh the Things You Can Do That Are Good for You!: All About Staying Healthy (Cat in the Hat’s Learning Library) We have this one, too. It’s a good one. Oh yes, and it does mention exercise. Ouch, my toes.

Eat Healthy, Feel Great (And we also have this one, too. I figure while we’re studying the human body it’s a good time to talk about good nutrition to fuel it!) =)

Good Enough to Eat: A Kid’s Guide to Food and Nutrition

Supermarket

The Healthiest Kid in the Neighborhood: Ten Ways to Get Your Family on the Right Nutritional Track (Sears Parenting Library)

The ABC’s of Homeschooling started back up again last week (and I missed it I was so busy!) but tomorrow is the B post so you know what that means — I need to get my A post written so I don’t skip one! =p

At first I wasn’t sure what I would write about but then I realized that “A” is actually quite easy. Now that we’ve been back to school for six weeks, we’re a few chapters into our Apologia Anatomy book. I have to say… I LOVE IT!

I knew that I would.

I had no doubt.

I mean, it’s Apologia. And we LOVED their Astronomy. So I had high hopes and I’ve not been disappointed. Why do I love their books? Well, let me tell you:

1.) It isn’t boring and dry. They can even be considered “living books” since they’re written by one author who is passionate about the subject and they can be read out loud in story fashion. In fact, this is our preferred method. The kids gather round and I read to them, sometimes stopping for questions or to further explain something but often reading a whole section and then discussing it together.

2.) It’s a good option for teaching multiple ages together. Soon, probably next year, my oldest one will have to break out and do some higher science.. but all of the younger science books are good for teaching across the grades as a group. I don’t expect my 5 year old to get as much out of it, but he often does! (And sometimes he remembers more than the girls because he’s my little science guy!)

3.) The notebooking journals are great — especially now that they’ve come out with the junior notebooking journals. When we did Astronomy last year I just didn’t require my then 7 year old to do as much as her older sister. This year she has the Junior notebooking journal and that’s a better fit for her. (And I made copies of the copywork and coloring pages for the 5 year old so that he can join in, too!) The journals provide a variety of ways to go over and practice the material they’ve just learned. In addition to hearing it, then talking about it, the kids can then write about it and draw about it, too. I like things that incorporate multiple learning styles. = )

4.) It’s written from a Christian point of view — but it still addresses non-Christian theories and ideas so that we can discuss them and know what they are. The very first chapter of the book taught the history of Anatomy & Physiology, in which we discussed how Ancient Egyptians (though they believed in an afterlife and were trying to prepare the Pharoah’s body for traveling to the other side) are one of the first examples of people studying the human body… and though some of their ideas were wrong (they thought the brain was useless and threw it out!) their practices of removing some organs for the canopic jars is evidence of early study of anatomy.

5.) The book is full of pictures.. very colorful and interesting pictures! (This is one of the things that helps keep my little guy in my lap while I’m reading.) And if often has suggestions for other books to read or websites to visit.

6.) The experiments are easy enough but educational AND fun! That’s just a win/win all over the place.

We also have Apologia’s worldview Curriculum, “Who is God? And Can I Know Him?” — Yeah. Love that one, too. I plan on continuing with that, as well as their sciences, all the way through high school. I’m happy. And you know what? “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” right??

Also, you can click here to see a list of supplemental anatomy science books that we have.

This is a part of the ABC’s of Homeschooling series by Dawn — brought to you on HER NEW BLOG!– at The Momma Knows. You can find all of my previous “ABC” posts here.

I’m so happy to have such a great report for our second week of school! This school year is going really well so far (And I’m loving THAT of course!) Even with lots of running around to do — sorting the organic co-op produce on Tuesday morning, visiting my grandma and aunt on Wednesday, some seriously needed grocery shopping on Friday morning, canning on Saturday,… we still managed to get our school work done and have fun learning, too.

We started the week off with a “Back to School” party (We were supposed to have a first day of school party that kind of didn’t work out, so I made up for that on Monday.) The kids got back to school outfits, I made a special breakfast and I made another attempt at taking some back to school pictures. I got a few decent pictures but I’m getting really tired of messing with my dying camera. I need a new camera!!

Just as much as we enjoyed last year’s Apologia Astronomy, we’re really enjoying this year’s Apologia Anatomy & Physiology. What’s a mitochondria? I really had no idea – did we learn that in school?? I know now! And so does my 5 year old. My FIVE year old. Yes, he’s the science nut.. but the fact that he understands and picks up a lot of this with his two older sisters makes me smile. Two science highlights of the week.. first was making our edible jello cell. The second was when we were reviewing and I asked the kids to name parts of the cell. Princess said “the nucleus” and Little Prince added, “the nucleolus! The little one inside it!” That’s right.. the NUCLEOLUS.. something we talked about on ONE of the four lessons. Man that kid has a memory.

Speaking of that kid… he’s really become all fired up for reading. I’ve been patient, not pushing. He’s had all of the tools and knowledge he needed to begin learning to read, but he hasn’t had any interest. A month ago or so he told me he wanted to start learning how to read and we’ve begun working on that. He amazes me at how quickly he’s picking it up now that he’s ready. I’m so proud! As for the other two, I have noticed a HUGE improvement in Drama Queen’s handwriting since only a few months ago and her spelling is really taking off, too. Princess still despises math and it’s still a lot of work for her, but I’ve noticed some increase in skill and speed there as well. Here’s hoping that all three of those continue to progress smoothly!

Another thing I’ve been working on this year: papers and grades and records, oh my! I’m not required to keep any certain amount of records or grades or papers, but I do want to keep some. And I’ll need to keep records for a high school transcript when we get there. So I’m trying to hammer out a good system. So far I have a weekly folder, a 6-week folder and some places to record grades, but I’m really working on the “how to” aspect of getting it all done and staying on top of it. I don’t want to make it too complicated but I want to do it justice. I’ll keep working on that.

We capped off our school week with a sewing project for Princess and a “date night” with the boy as the girls left early for separate sleepovers. It was a nice week. =)

This week is a double whammy of ABC goodness. Dawn wrapped W and X together in the same week and gave us the option of doing either – or both!! And yes, I cheated a little bit with the “X” part… but with our new “Experiment Box” and our first experiment of the box landing on TODAY.. on “X” week.. how could I pass it up??

In the past, I’ve had trouble being prepared enough to do right by our science experiments. It has been hard to make sure that we had all of our materials. It’s been difficult to make sure that we had enough time to do it. Ugh.

No more!! This year I determined that We.Would.Get.Our.Experiments.In! To help us meet that goal, I’ve set up our first ever “Experiment Box.” Simply put, it’s a plastic file box with supplies. Specifically, I have envelopes for each experiment in the book with a copy of the directions and all of the supplies that I can fit inside the envelope. Other supplies we’ll need such as tubing and iodine are also in the box in front of the file folders. Large everday items like knives or mixing bowls will be handy enough as is so I’m not worried about those. There were a few items I couldn’t prepare in advance (such as a cooked chicken wing!) but I’ve made a note and hopefully I won’t forget it!

Everything is ready and waiting. I’m so excited!

Today was our very first experiment, too. We made “edible cells” for our first Apologia Anatomy lesson. The kids really had a lot of fun and they turned out well — and they were rattling off which ones were the mitochondria, lysosomes, centrioles, etc, just as quick as you please. I’d say they all deserve an “A,” don’t you think? ; )

When it was (finally) time for the experiment we pulled out our Experiment Box and got to it. Fortunately I remembered that we need to make and refrigerate the jello beforehand so we did that at the beginning of our school day. Later, we pulled out our envelope and dumped out our ingredients and our directions. After gathering some plates and spoons and a knife we were ready to go — in MINUTES! That was pretty cool.

It’s amazing how a little preparation can go a long way….

I’m looking forward to fitting in all of our science experiments this year. They may not all be as tasty as this one, but the success will be just as sweet! Yay for preparation! And experiments!

This is a part of the ABC’s of Homeschooling series by Dawn @ 5 Kids and a Dog. Check it out! You can see all of my ABC posts here:

• All Year
• Books
• Choices
• Differences
• E & F ~ “Everyone Together” and “Flexibility”
• God
• Housework & Homework
• Imitation
• Joy
• Kids
• Lead By Example
• Methods
• Not Comparing
• Overwhelmed
• Planning
• Q & R ~ “Questions” and “Relaxed”
• S & T ~ “Supplies” and “To Do’s”
• Unpredictable
• Virtues
• Workcharts/Workboxes

If you happen to read my blog AND follow me on Twitter AND are privy to my private facebook page, you would notice that I’ve been talking a lot about bugs lately. We are in, what I like to call,.. BUG SEASON.

Translation: We are up to our ears in bugs.

We have good bugs, bad bugs, small bugs, big bugs, pretty bugs, ugly bugs… bugs, bugs, bugs.

And as a general rule: I don’t really like bugs.

But some of them are actually pretty cool! With some of our recent outside (and inside) discoveries, the kids and I have been online looking and learning about some of the bugs in our yard. It’s like “extra credit” for homeschool science.

With all our looking and learning, we’ve found a few (or 13, ya know Thursday Thirteen) really cool bug websites. Here ya go:

Thursday 13: The Good, The Bugs & The Ugly!!

1. Butterflies and Moths of North America
2. How to Make a Caterpillar House
3. Discover Life (Identification for plants AND bugs!)
4. Bug Guide
5. What’s that bug?
6. BugInfo.com
7. Free Spider Identification Chart (dangerous and poisonous spider pictures, first aid for bites, color poster from termite.com)
8. All about spiders at KidZone
9. Common North American Spiders
10. Pest Identification at Terminix.com
11. Ticks in Texas (sorry, you’ll have to go look up your own state.) =P
12. Scorpion Facts at Animal Planet
13. Bugs and Invertebrates (not ALL bugs, but ya know, worms and stuff) at National Geographic

Interesting things I have learned in the last couple weeks:

~Some moths don’t have a mouth. At all. They don’t eat! They live off stores of fat from their caterpillar days, live a week or so, lay eggs like crazy, and then they die.

~Female non-eating moths are too busy laying eggs to be attracted to porch lights – those would be the guys: “OOH, BRIGHT LIGHT!!”

~Scorpions with more potent (a.k.a. deadly) venom have bigger thicker tails and smaller, thinner claws.

~Scorpions with weaker (it’ll HURT but not KILL ya) venom have bigger claws because they can’t rely only on their venom and will have to use their claws to grapple their prey. GOOD TO KNOW.

~Moths spins cocoons, butterflies make a chrysalis (I can’t think about either of those things without images from Cocoon and Silence of the Lambs popping into my head..I’ve been warped..)

~Caterpillars hibernate over winter!

~Wolf spiders don’t spin webs – they hunt for prey. *shudder*

~A large percentage of caterpillars found “in the wild” have parasites which aren’t harmful to humans but fatal to caterpillars.

~Ticks are carriers for more than Lyme Disease and Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever, they also transmit tularemia and babesiosis and all four of these are carried by ticks in our part of the state!

~Want to know if a “Daddy Long Legs” is a spider or not? If it’s a Pholcidae (also known as Cellar Spider) then YES. If it is an Opiliones (a.k.a Harvestmen) .. then NO. So now you know.

~Also, apparently some people call Crane Flies as “Daddy Long Legs”.. but why? That’s not a Daddy Long Legs, I’ll have you know it’s a “Mosquito Eater.”

Wasn’t that fun? Now you know all kinds of things you may or may not have wanted to know about BUGS.

This bug post “lovingly” dedicated to our caterpillar for 2 days, Fuzz, who apparently died of parasites and didn’t live to become a non-feeding Arctiidae moth.

On the plus side, we now have a caterpillar/ladybug/otherbug house we can use to gently observe and then release God’s mysterious creatures. (But not spiders. Or scorpions. Or ticks. Just sayin’.)