G'day! This year (and possible the next!) one of our major homeschooling goals is to attack US geography in a hands-on, go there, do that manner. We actually began last week, but a friend wisely suggested that a blog would be a great way to keep track of our journeys. And so we start, branching out from our homebase of Gettysburg PA…. Destination? America!
Yeah crustaceans! Another great week of dissections. The kids did an especially great job of identifying and sketching the external anatomy as we started.
I was also impressed with how well they coordinated using their forceps and scissors to remove the legs with gills still attached.
The earthworms were as popular as a dead annelid can possibly be.
The kids did a phenomenal job on the dissections, as well as the more theoretical followups on Linnaean nomenclature and clasifications.
I was impressed with how much they remembered from week 1 as well!
This week we began a homeschool biology dissection lab. The Grantia (natural sea sponge) was a bit anticlimactic – even under the microscope – but the kids enjoyed breaking out the bag of dead critters and seeing what was yet to come.
We also had a chance to overview classification of living organisms and what exactly was the purpose of each instrument in our dissection kits.
It’s not often nice enough weatherwise for a 2 hour hike through Civil War battlefields in January, so we took advantage it and headed off to Antietam.
The visitors center presentations and film were interesting, but the real hit was a walk around the Corn Fields in which the soldiers fought.
So, what do you do with those extra parts the butcher sends back when you buy your lamb organic and "on the hoof"?
Obviously, homeschool dissection class!
Adventures of the Family Siviy