Forensic Science and Homeschool

When I went to graduate school I was lucky enough to choose a master's program in forensic science.  Forensic toxicology to be specific.  So after I graduated I was thinking to myself, what do I have to offer in the way of homeschool curriculum and of course, forensic science immediately came to mind.  Kids LOVE anything and everything to do with crime scene investigation.  It just perks up their interest when you start talking about solving a crime. 

Realistically, I knew that this type of course is not for all ages, and so that is why I wrote the Simple Schooling Forensic Science course for upper middle and high school.  This is an elective course.  They can take
it in addition to biology and another year of CORE science, but realistically they cannot take it in place of those important subjects.

I did decide to leave a few topics out, such as blood spatter and graphic details about body appearance after certain types of death (because in school I was forced to see these and I will say, I am not easily grossed out but burn and drowning victims, not very palatable.)

So the REALLY gory details are left out but included in the text are CSI, death investigation, solving a case study, ballistics, toolmarks, arson, poisoning, toxicology, DNA analysis, the autopsy, fingerprints, and much much more. 

It is a great course, one of our most popular in fact.  And that is why I added it to The Simple Schooling Classroom as part of the yearly subscription rate.  It comes with the full printable student textbook/workbook and 6 interactivities for each unit (20 separate units total).  If you are a Simple-Zine newsletter subscriber you will get a free sample of it in the upcoming weeks. ;)

What is it with Boys and Writing?

Just the title alone is enough to make homeschool moms with young boys cringe. Yes, I'd say 99% of us have the same problem.

Boys.

And Writing.

I have tried several curriculums over the years, most recently Jump in Writing, which I love and am keeping for the future. But he's so resistant.

About two weeks ago we were finishing up the unit on the 13 colonies in Simple Schooling American History and the assignment (which I wrote, mind you) asks for a report on their favorite colony.

So he picks Georgia.

And sits there.

And moans.

And whines and complains and makes a nasty comment or two about how stupid this is and how he will NEVER ever need to write in HIS career and finally cries.

LOL. I was like, you've got to be kidding me? I asked for 500 words on the colony of Georgia not a dissertation with footnotes.

So I get it together and say, OK I'll help you. We brainstorm all the things we can say about Colonial Georgia. We've got it all on the board in bullet points. Alll he has to do is turn them into sentences.

He freaks out. Finally, after about 2 hours he manages 150 words.

I declare success and let him read.

This was an eye-opener for me. The kid shuts down when he has to write. So I did what all homeschool moms do - I go to the computer and search for the "perfect curriculum" to make it all better. I find Writing Strands and order it in a hurry. 2 day shipping even.

It arrived last week and we got started right away. By day 3 he says "I think this is actually helping me."

Praise the Lord and I'll give ya big Amen.

My son will write.

President's Day Unit Study

The Simple-Zine Freebie newsletter is going out in - Oh, about 30 minutes - and I just wanted to put the freebie up for you Googlers! The President's Day Unit Study is the very first interactive/printable from Simple Schooling and is a glimpse of what is to come for many of our printable courses for next school year.

I know - is it too early to think about next year?

I was counting up the lessons left in our math book last week and I told my son we have to finish the book and he replied "Sheesh mom, I still have 4 months! Leave it alone!"

I was like - yeah, Ok. Point taken.

But us moms know that we start planning for the next year once Christmas is over and I bet many of you are making plans right now. So for your benefit (don't tell the kids!) here is what Simple Scholing will have for the 2010-2011 school year:

• American History Part II - From Constitution to Civil War


• Middle School Physics (Interactive)


• Middle School Chemistry (Interactive & Printable)


• K-3 Science full year course (120 lessons -includes mammals, bugs, amphibians, reptiles, sea mammals)


• Ancient History (4-8th grade Egypt, Greece, and Rome)


• Middle Ages and Reformation (4-8th grade)


• Plus new interactive unit studies every week at The Classroom!

Kick The Bums Out!

Ya know, I try to keep my blogs on track by making sure that I only write things relevant to homeschoolers, but today I am so unhappy with our government that I must make an exception. Senator Micahel Bennet's office in DC just lied to me and then threatened to call the Capitol Police on me if I continued to call and ask my question. I know what you're thinking - what kind of question warrants that reaction? It must have been a doosey.

Yes, it was. The question was how does Michael Bennet feel about the new spending bill.

Their reply - "What spending bill?"

I asked to speak to someone who knew what I was talking about and she said no. So I ask for her name and she hung up. That's great isn't it? She is sadly mistaken if she thinks I'm giving up that easy so I call back. She threatens to call the Capitol Police on me if I call one more time.

Now, it really isn't her fault that I am always up for a challenge, and obviously she's severely underestimated the American people's resolve, so I call back and she lets it ring for several minutes before doing the age old junior high trick of "pick up - hang up".

Nice one. I give it another try. She answers and says "Don't call here again!"

I'm sorry, what? Don't call MY SENATOR'S office so I can comment? I ask to speak to a supervisor, she replies there isn't one there and hangs up.

Boy, she's getting far fast isn't she?

I call again, the process repeats itself. Yet again, same thing. And one more time and guess who I get? A supervisor.

Oh, I thought there was no supervisor? Mike over at Michael Bennet's office in DC is pretty annoyed that I'm now asking why they condone threats to citizens in addition to why they are spending my money like its not their's?

The problem the people of Colorado have with Michael Bennet is that he was never elected. He was appointed by Governor Ritter to be his pet and act like a good in-the-pocket democrat. He doesn't care about the People because he's never been accountable to them. He never ran for Senator. He never had to LISTEN to us. And boy - that has never been more apparent than it was today.

I hope Michael Bennet and Bill Ritter stay good friends because they'll be seeing each other a lot next year when they are both out of a job. And Ritter can pretend it was for "family reasons" but we all know who Corey Voorhis is and we all know the lies they told about him.

Does Yahoo Answers help kids cheat in school?

I asked this of the Yahoo answers community and my question was deleted by the Yahoo powers that be. If you have not yet been to Yahoo answers it works like this: You post a question and people who have logged in answer it. You can also help the community be answering a question.

If you go to the homework help section of Yahoo answers it takes only a few seconds to see that kids ARE cheating in school by using Yahoo Answers. Many times kids post entire homework assignments - including the multiple choice answers. And surprisingly enough, many times people actually answer them! I have seen entire essays posted at Yahoo Answers. In fact, some kids don't even try to hide the fact that they are cheating - they say "Please tell me the answers, I am failing!!!!!" or "I need Help NOW! Homework Due Tomorrow!"

What kind of service is Yahoo Answers? Was this the original intent of the Yahoo Corporation? To make cheating easier? I mean, it is no secret that the internet holds the answer to almost any question, but typically a kid would have to do that research themselves and along the way they would learn a thing or two. Not so with Yahoo Answers. They just plug in their question and by magic Yahoo spits out the information, while they hurry up and copy it down to their paper.

I have even seen kids who "homeschool" on Yahoo Answers. I put it in quotes because the ones I've seen are all doing those "online public schools" and it seems almost "club-house" like over there at Answers. "Quick! I need answers for Connections Academy Chapter 2 in Physical Science!"

And sure enough, there would be answers for those specific Connections Academy questions right in the Yahoo Answers Homework Help section.

Connections Academy, by the way, advertises itself as a "Free online public school providing a nationally certified K-12 home schooling curriculum." Many homeschoolers are wary of these "public school at home" options, and as you can see - there is reason. They don't change curriculum, or tests, or homework assignments like traditional teachers do. They recycle everything. That's their way of "being green" I guess.

But I get a little off point here - Does Yahoo Answers contribute to kids cheating in school? In fact, I could go one step further and ask - Has Yahoo Answers contributed to the downward spiral of American public education? I don't know but just yesterday this title - ironically enough posted in Yahoo news, caught my eye:

"Colorado barely passes teacher-quality evaluation"

Not only is Colorado barely passing with a D+, it seems that the highest ranking sate (Florida) only gets a C - and most schools gets D's and F's. But how do teachers in traditional public schools fight against the intellectual corruption of children by a Global Corporation such as Yahoo Answers?

It seems a little off base not to ask whether we are promoting an environment that accepts cheating. Now I must give credit to the general Answers community because often they will either be rude to those asking for answers or they will refuse to do their homework. In addition, there are kids there who genuinely seek to understand and not cheat or copy. But it is obvious to me that the reason my question "Does Yahoo Answers Help Kids Cheat in School?" was deleted because it hits a little close to home.

Just another way they are dumbing down America I guess.

Independent Workers - He's On His Own Today!

I have to work at the Farm Show today as part of work, so I am leaving DS (12) to work alone. He's not home alone, mind you - just working alone. We do this a lot when I am working, which is only part time and seasonal. And I'm pretty happy with how he takes responsibility for his work. He gets himself up - later than usual of course - and checks off his work on the board as he does it.

Today he's doing Japanese (2 sections in RS and 1 page in his Hiragana workbook)

Teaching Textbooks Math

Simple Schooling American History

Simple Schooling Interactive Unit Studies (Space - he's done a LOT of space this year - but it is so easy and I just made it - plus it is fun - so he won't mind.)

Reading

Yesterday he wanted me to time him to see how long it would take him to do school if he didn't complain! What a good guy! :)

Free Interactive Unit Studies!

I have heard that mid-year burn-out is high this year, mostly because we've fallen behind or the kids are giving us trouble - so I would really like to help by offering some exciting and fun interactive unit studies to my most loyal readers.

So I have transferred dozens of high interest, time saving, and energizing units into one complete low cost package that includes tons of cool stuff!

I have placed all of these interactive unit studies on a membership website that allows me to sell them for just $7 each. That is such a steal, but I totally understand how tight money is right now so what I want to do is offer every single one of them at a significant discount. Instead of paying $7 a piece for the first 36 units I'm practically giving them away at $57 for ALL OF THEM! That is about a $1.50 each and a total savings of $195.00!

Plus, your membership is good for an entire year and new units are added every week.

In fact, entire courses will be uploaded over the next few weeks and every week thereafter.


But that's not even the end of the deal here, I also have tons of printable Simple Days Unit Studies and Simple Days Free-4-Alls that are just hanging around on my hard drive, so I'm throwing those into the mix as well.

That is a more than a $50 value for FREE! If you subscribe before February 3rd you will receive more than $241 worth of homeschool curriculum for just $57. Plus you'll get more interactive unit studies each week!

I don't think a better deal exists, to be honest.

In addition, I would like to let you try them one more time so I am offering TWO MORE additional unit studies absolutely FREE! I know you already received the Forensic Science Freebie unit this month, and I hope you enjoyed it, but more freebies are never a bad thing! I want you to make absolutely sure that the interactive units are a good fit for your teaching style and your student's learning style. Just click the links toget immediate access to your additional interactive unit study so you can create a fun and engaging homeschool experience for your kids.

OR - if you already know that the interactive unit studies are a good fit and want to get in on the limited time special simply click here to join now.


Have a great time with the two new freebies and I look forward to chatting with you on the membership site forum!


J. Anne Huss

www.The-Simple-Homeschool.com


P.S. I do want to make sure that you understand that the $57 price will not last. We will be adding so much value to the site that this introductory deal will have to be increased, so don't wait!