Inclusive Homeschool

I love homeschoolers. They are among the most supportive people I have ever met, especially in the online groups I belong to.

I was stressing out about a situation, and asked for help on one of my email group lists. It’s amazing the support and wonderful suggestions I received. As a single parent, it can be very challenging to homeschool your child, but while I’m responsible for putting together my curriculum, implementing it and supporting myself and my child, I’m not alone.

I’m fortunate there are two co-op groups in my area that I can participate in, but I also have 24 hour seven days a week support online from any one of my many homeschool email groups.

You don’t have to do this alone. If you’re considering homeschooling or are homeschooling, get on a homeschool list and let yourself reap the benefits of other people’s experiences. Plus, you deserve the emotional support. The curriculum reviews are valuable alone, but those encouraging words are priceless.

Yahoo Groups has tons of homeschooling groups for all topics and regions. There’s over 800,000 education and school groups alone! You can narrow down your search and find the group(s) for you.

So Many Uses
If you want to know about cyber schools, there’s a group. If you want to know about a specific cyber school there’s a group. If you’re interested in unschooling or Waldorf or classical education there’s a group. If you have a visual spatial child or you want to know more about lapbooking there’s a group. There’s actually more than one group on each of those topics and more.

Co-ops often have their own group to keep in touch with members and virtual co-ops exist online. There’s groups for virtual field trips, a valuable resource to find really awesome places to go to online, live cams, 3D museum tours and the like. There are groups for just about everything and anything. You pick. You choose. Or you can start one up.

I just read of a homeschooling family that created their own yahoo group for their family. This doesn’t take the place of family time, but really helped them to coordinate their school work and activities throughout the day. Plus, it was fun.

Just go there, type in your search and choose. I don’t know what I’d do without mine. Well, I do know…I did without before with my first two. I struggled. That’s what I did.

It’s still a challenge, but what a world of difference!

Tags: help, homeschool, network, online, Resources, single mom, support

Don’t forget, the Great Backyard Bird Count is in session now! You can still participate. It runs February 15 through the 18th.

And you don’t have to do it all four days. Just taking the time to stop once and really observe around you, to be mindful of the little creatures that share our space is worth the doing!

Tags: birds, network, Science

From February 15th through February 18th, you and your child have a fantastic opportunity to not only engage in a scientific research, but to connect with others across the continent. Adults and kids alike participate in this four day bird count, tallying their count online at http://www.birdsource.org/gbbc/ with other science and bird enthusiasts. It’s a wonderful online collaboration.

This from their website:

Participants count birds anywhere for as little or as long as they wish during the four-day period. They tally the highest number of birds of each species seen together at any one time…As the count progresses, anyone with Internet access can explore what is being reported from their own towns or anywhere in the United States and Canada. They can also see how this year’s numbers compare with those from previous years. Participants may also send in photographs of the birds they see.

Sparrow

Why Count Birds?
Scientists and bird enthusiasts can learn a lot by knowing where the birds are. Bird populations are dynamic; they are constantly in flux. No single scientist or team of scientists could hope to document the complex distribution and movements of so many species in such a short time.

We need your help. Make sure the birds from your community are well represented in the count. It doesn’t matter whether you report the 5 species coming to your backyard feeder or the 75 species you see during a day’s outing to a wildlife refuge.

The Great Backyard Bird Count for Kids

They have a section just for kids, http://www.birdsource.org/gbbc/kids that’s written directly to kids. It has clearly written directions on how to participate, various puzzles, online quizzes, coloring sheets, bird song identification, and bird guides.

My only confusion is that on the kids page the dates are listed as 16th through the 19th, which is a day later than stated elsewhere on the site. I will email the webmaster and inquire about that. I’d start on the 15th if you want to do the full four days.

We’re not studying birds right now in our science adventure, but that’s what’s so wonderful about homeschooling. We can switch our “curriculum” anytime we want, depending on what life presents us.

[Thanks to internetclipart for sparrow graphic]

Tags: birds, network, Science