What do you say when other ask you about your homeschool day?

What do you say when someone ask you about "seat hours" or how long your homeschool day is? 

A friend of mine is a public school teacher. She was almost appalled recently that we ONLY spend 2 hours a day during book work. I tried to explain that we don't have to count the hours we spend, just the days, but that didn't seem to help. I tried to explain that things go SO much more quickly when we don't have to wait around on others to finish up, line up, or shut up in order to get done. I also tried to explain that we review throughout the day and connect things to other things all the time. We get to expand learning to more than just the hours spend "at school." 

Afterwards, I thought about this. I was very troubled because I don't want anyone to think my daughter is getting an inferior education simply because she is being educated at home. I talked to other homeschool mamas and they said for me to not let it get to me. They said that I don't owe anyone an explanation. While I agree with their advice, I also disagree. I don't want someone to look down on my child (now or at some point in the future) simply because she is educated at home. I was hurt because I am a former public school teacher. I know the standards for the different grade levels. I know what needs to be covered over the course of each school year.  BUT I also know the amount of time that is wasted each day at school. So was my friend doubting my knowledge of standards and curriculum? Or does she actually think that I am allowing my daughter to just play and have fun instead of teaching her the skills she needs to know? 

I thought about whipping out my lesson plans and showing them to her. I thought about allowing her to quiz my daughter on recent topics we've studied. I wanted so badly to prove to her that my daughter is getting a quality education...and I still do. HOWEVER, I realized that in public school there is never enough time. My friend can't fathom how I could possibly do in 2 hours with what take her all day. You see, my friend has 20+ students on at least 19 different ability levels. She has students with behavior issues, students with IEPs for their special needs, and students with undiagnosed issues. She has administrators and parents making demands. She has fire, tornado, and intruder drills. She has bathroom, recess, and lunch breaks. She has interruptions from miscellaneous announcements. She has new students brought in with no prior warning. She has students who don't have the proper supplies. She is constantly trying to meet all the needs of all the students in spite of all the interruptions. 7 hours is not enough for her to cover four core subjects with all 20+ students. But 2 hours is more than enough for me to cover those four subjects as well as handwriting, typing, 2 foreign languages, and Bible. I would love to show her.

Human Body: Respiratory System

We watched this clip to understand the respiratory system.

 

Check out this diagram: 

Make your own balloon "lung." This guy shows how to do it:

We checked out this awesome website and  did their experiment on vocal cords. 

Your child can use a book to label the different parts of the respiratory system.

This book has some great ideas for projects too!

 

My daughter created her own presentation about the lungs and drew her own picture to go with it.

This is a great way to see what she learned without a formal assessment.

Check out our other lessons in this unit: Human Body: The Digestive System and Human Body: The Skeletal System. 

Human Body: Skeletal System

We built our own skeletal system. You can print one out from  this website. Then we labeled the bones. We named it "Bony. "

Here's a printable to show the names of the main bones. We used this to help us label Bony.

Click here to print a fill-in-the-blank version. 

We also checked out this song about the skeletal system. So cute!!!

For Art, I traced my daughter's body on butcher paper. At first she was going to use random items to create the bones for this skeleton, but we weren't satisfied with the results. So we decided to change plans mid project (which is why the skull is made from paper and the fingers are done with q-tips). We mixed equal parts of regular white glue and shaving cream. It created a cool white puffy paint. She used a paintbrush to create the rest of the skeleton. 

Here's a silly song when you need a brain break!

My daughter worked on this sheet to show off what she learned about bones. Click on the image to print your own.

Check out this site to create your own model of a backbone! 

Check out Human Body: The Respiratory System.

Human Body: Digestive System

Day One: 
We watched this video together about the Digestive System to start of the unit.
Then we read a book about the digestive system like this one:

We completed this worksheet and discussed each part of the digestive system and its function.

Day Two:This was a lot of fun! I traced my daughter's body on butcher paper. Then she measured out the different lengths of each part of the digestive system and glued them onto the body.

 

Day Three:

We started off by reading another awesome book about the digestive system. Then we completed the worksheet below. Click on the image to print your own.

We examined the stomach by putting water (stomach acid) into sandwich bag (stomach) along with a piece of bread (food). We squeezed the bag to simulate the stomach muscles working to digest the food.

You can also use a clear soda instead of water. It would yield a better result. Cola would be good too, however, it would be harder to see the food in the dark liquid. 

Day Four:
We explored the small intestines today. We used pantyhose to demonstrate out food moves through the small intestine and the nutrients seep out into the blood stream.

 Here's a picture from another site. Click on it to see the other activities that they did.

Day Five:
For the end of unit assessment, my daughter had to give an oral report. She named all the major parts of the digestive system and explained their function. She did a great job and we enjoyed this unit. 

Check out Human Body: Skeletal System and Human Body: Respiratory System.