Beef Up Your Homeschool with the Internet & Scrapbooking
Easily Beef Up Any Curriculum
- I turn the lessons into thematic unit studies. Instead of one lesson in history, science, math and language arts daily, we do several science lessons science on for one or two days then several science history for one or two days (with Bible, math and language arts daily).
- I incorporate the Internet and videos.
- The boys scrapbooked the information they learned.
Scrapbooking to Learn
My boys love to document what we learn with digital scrapbooking techniques. We spend one day learning from the links & videos (gathering images as we did research) below and David spent the next day creating the scrapbook pages.
Learn how you can make pages like this FREE
with Heritage Makers at Scrapbooktolearn.com
Example: Sea Port Cities
This week our 4th grade history/geography lesson was on Seaport Cities. The lessons included Sydney, Australia and Hong Cong, China.
Sydney, Australia
The Sydney seaport lesson include references to the Opera house, Sydney Harbor Bridge, Australian animals, seasons, bushwalking, etc. We found Sydney on our globe and then checked out the topics on the Internet. (After we watched the silk worm video I showed the boys a silk blouse which they responded to with moans groans and rolling on the floor.)
Here are a few sites we discovered (some are linked):
- a map of Sydney
- Tour of Sydney (National Geographic Kids)
- photos and articles about the Opera house
- video Geography of South Australia
- video History of Australia
- video Discovery Atlas: Unique Creatures in Australia
- video on Captain James Smith (first explorer to Australia)
- video Australian Penal colonies
- video on Port Jackson (Sydney Harbor)
- video on Portuguese Man-of-War
- video on Portuguese Man-of-War attack at Bondi (Sydney beach)
- videos on kangaroos, wallabies, dingos, lyre birds, wombats, and platypuses.
- video on Royal Easter show
- video on Sydney-Hobart Yacht Race
- video on bushwalking
Hong Kong, China
The next lesson was on Hong Kong. It began with Hong Kong history as British colony importing tea, silk and opium. We found Hong Kong on our globe and then turned to the Internet.
Here are a few sites we discovered (some are linked):
- a map of Hong Kong
- site Welcome to China (National Geographic for Kids)
- blog Touring China (National Geographic for Kids Blogs)
- Thinkquest site Welcome to Hong Kong
- video Hong Kong’s Location
- video Hong Kong Shopping and Food
- video Hong Kong’s History
- video Asia Global Influence: the Islands of China
- video Hong Kong: The New Territories
- video Hong Kong Housing
- video Hong Kong Religion
- video From Cocoon to Silk (silk worms)
- videos on tea farms and factories
- videos of the Hong Kong harbor
- video of a panda bears, Chinese Tigers, Golden Monkeys, and snow leopards
- videos of China armies
- video on sampan boats
- videos on cricket
- articles on Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism.
- videos on China missionaries
- Began listening to an audio book on Hudson Taylor
Incorporating Living books
Our China study lead to listening to an audio book on Hudson Taylor. A friend on Facebook recommended the book Between the Dragon and the Eagle. Its about oppertunities and dangers of the China silk road. I ordered the book used from Amazon for $1.50 and began reading the book from Google book search.
A few weeks ago we studies whales. I had several books on whales in my library so we read them and began reading Moby Dick. I downloaded the audio to my iPhone so we can listen to it on the 1.5 hour ride to school Thursday.
Note: All the information was fascinating but we really enjoyed the lyre birds and silk worms videos.
Tips for Searching the Internet
The Web is not indexed in a standard manner so finding information can seem difficult. Without a clear search strategy, using a search engine is like wandering aimlessly in the stacks of a library trying to find a specific book.It is important you learn to use Boolean Logic.
Use your research findings to find more information.Once we found out Portuguese Man-of-War was also called Blue Bottle we search Blue Bottles. Through the Alpha Omega book we learned a famous Sydney beach was called Bondi. This information lead us to the very interesting video Portuguese Man-of-War attack at Bondi.
Research Links for Educators
- Heart of Wisdom Link Library
- Google Video Search
- How Stuff Works Video Search
- National Geographic for Kids
- Google for Educators
- Discovery Channel
Internet Warning
Always supervise your child on the Internet you never know what will pop up. (Researching leather was horrific experience.)
Science links and videos may refer to evolution- use this opportunity to explain to your children such theories are taught in public school.
The Boston Public Library has put together a list of eight questions your child should ask before using Internet research in for school work.
- Who put the information on the Internet?
- When was it put there? Is there a date on the page?
- Is the information meant to be serious, or is it a joke? How can you tell?
- How do you know where this information comes from?
- Is the information biased? Does it only give one opinion?
- For whom is the information meant?
- What type of information is it? Is it a home page or an email message?
- How should you list information from the Internet on your bibliography?
Learn More About Scrapbooking to Learn Here
Do you use your curriculum as outlined or do you enhance lessons?
