Homeschooling

New species were often difficult for the Corps of Discovery to name and describe.  Explain to students that over time, although we have continued to discover new species, naming and documenting them has become easier because of the Swedish scientist Carolus Linnaus. Linnaus developed a method for naming living things called taxonomy. The science of taxonomy groups organisms into five kingdoms: plant, animal, fungi, monera and protist. Linnaus used a method called bi-nomenclature meaning "two names," referring the organism's genus and species. This science was used by the members of the Corps of Discovery, particularly Lewis (i.e. he give the prairie dog the name Cynomys ludovicianus). Give students several specific examples of how this science is still used today.

Watch “Lewis and Clark: The Journey of the Corp of Discovery” available at Amazon.  Once viewing is complete, students should complete their project according to the steps described on the Student Activity Sheet. Be sure to review these steps before students begin researching and creating their presentations.
 
Give students time to create their presentations and prepare to share them.

Read more: Taxonomy Lesson - Lewis and Clark

Wordle.net.  I found this site recently and I’m utterly hooked.  I thought I’d pass it along, just for the sheer fun of it.  Here’s how it works…Wordle is a toy for generating “word clouds” from text that you provide. The clouds give greater prominence to words that appear more frequently in the source text, so if you list the word Driven to Educate 10 times, Driven to Educate will appear larger than the other words you’ve listed.  You can tweak your clouds with different fonts, layouts, and color schemes. The images you create with Wordle are yours to use however you like, and I can think of lots of different things to do with them. You can print them out, or save them to the Wordle gallery to share with your friends. Check out ours!  {mos_fb_discuss:27} 

Our days are not always filled with touring. We may tour different attractions one or two days in a row and then stay at the campground for a day or two catching up on our book work, laundry, chores, etc. When the weather is bad we often stay in and watch a movie or let our imaginations run wild playing with the kids. I’m getting pretty good at playing “war”, we’ve made some really elaborate Lego houses and ships, and we build a mean fort out of dirty clothes.We’ve also had a lot of fun playing the games that we brought along. To save space (this would work for people with small houses anywhere) you can take the directions, the game board and the pieces out of the box and put them in a heavy duty zip lock bag, which now come in very large sizes. Here are our top ten games for the road.If you’ve never played one of these, try them. Several of them are great learning games, especially #3 and #1. I love it when the kids are having so much fun that they don’t realize they’re learning something!

10. Boggle
9. Cranium Hullabaloo
8. ThinkFun Rush Hour Jr.
7. Speed Stacks StackPack - Blue
6. UNO Card Game - Original
5. Apples to Apples Junior 9+ 2nd Edition
4. Scrabble Crossword Game
3. No Stress Chess
2. Blokus Trigon
1. Scrambled States{mos_fb_discuss:27}

During our travels we’ve been learning the capital of each state that we travel through.  To help us remember, we’re using “movies” in our minds.  Here are the movies to help your children remember too:

Tennessee - Picture a tennis player smashing a large pill over the net, instead of a ball.
Smash+pill=Nashville, tennis = Tennessee

Virginia – A very rich man asked a cute girl named Virginia for a date.
Rich+man=Richmond, girl’s name=Virginia

Maryland – You see a woman dressed as a bride dangling an apple from a fishing pole.  She’s trying to hook her groom, not a fish.  She really wants to land this one and get married.
Apple+pole=Annapolis, married+land=Maryland

North Carolina – Think of the North Pole and carolers.  These carolers aren’t singing Christmas songs.  Instead, they’re cheering, “Rah, Rah, Rah!”
Rah=Raleigh, North Pole Carolers=North Carolina

Pennsylvania – You’re a cartoonist and you’re using a pencil to draw a cartoon of a hamburger with weird punk-rocker hair.
Hairy hamburger=Harrisburg, the cartoonist’s pencil=Pennsylvania

New York – Picture the Empire State Building in New York City (New York is the Empire State).  Now picture a bunch of bunnies hopping all over it.
All bunnies=Albany, Empire State Building=New York

New Jersey – Your favorite football player took off his brand new jersey and stretched it out on the ground.  Then he put a tent on the jersey.
Tent+on=Trenton, football jersey=New Jersey

Connecticut – Picture a giant heart flopping around in the back of a Ford truck.  What keeps it from bouncing out of the truck?  It’s connected with a rope.
Heart+Ford=Hartford, connected by a rope=Connecticut

Rhode Island – Picture a small island that you can hold in your hand.  On the island is a tiny road.  You see a professor walking down the road searching for evidence of a lost civilization.
Prof+evidence=Providence, road+island=Rhode Island

from Kids Learn America! by Patricia Gordon and Reed Snow {mos_fb_discuss:10}