I have found a few resources lately which have really benefitted us in our homeschool, and perhaps they will suit you too.

In this ezine, I just want to let you know about the Supercharged Science and how we have used it in our homeschool.

After trialling the Supercharged Science Online Program for quite a few months, I could see that this would be a great addition in our homeschool. Now, my kids are saying, "Can we do some Science now?" and "Quick, let's eat our lunch now and then we can finish it!"

You can see what my children have been busy with on their page with more cool science experiments. Here they let you know what they are doing and each week they upload one of the experiments. So far, they have completed the unit on air pressure and aeronautics and had fun with a squished soda can trick (you can see the squished soda can on video here), the squished balloon, the magic water glass trick as well as parachutes and different types of kites.

Then Micah went on to the robotics project and made a super jigglebot robot. It's so cute - have a look at the jigglebot here.

Now, we are reading, "The Mystery of the Periodic Table" and so we decided to do some chemistry and crystal experiments. The crystals have been amazing.

The last choice of unit was difficult - we are in between starting the electricity module as well as the physic of motion and sound module. At the moment, Joel and Micah are making the pneumatic earth mover. Joel just said to me, "It's a great experiment, but this has been one of the hardest ones so far."

It is amazing how Supercharged Science has just opened up a whole new world in our homeschool. The are reading from all sorts of books - spanning physics and chemistry and mathematics and supercharged science is a way in which the reading material comes alive and becomes hands-on. It also has shown me that I don't need to worry too much about the links and making sure that the whole unit is neatly packaged and perfectly aligned - our children seem to be able to make the connections and express the learning they have received across the media (videos and audio from Supercharged Science, experiments, reading)

Anyhow, if you are interested in giving it a go in your family, you can trial it for one month for $1.00. You can choose any unit to try, and watch a bunch of videos of experiments and decide whether this may be a useful tool in your family. I hope you enjoy learning together.

Since we have been enjoying the online program, we decided to invest in the excellent Mastery Program. It is expensive, but it has ALL the materials you need to do hundreds of exciting experiments! PLUS the videos on DVDs... No more hunting around for that little 'part' to make the experiment work! If you're interested to buy a Mastery Program, Aurora will add an extra free gift if you mention that you heard about it from Marianne at www.design-your-homeschool.com. Just let her know, and you'll get an extra gift included in your boxes!! Read about the Mastery Program here. But why not just sign up for $1.00 just to see if your kids would benefit from this?

Do I do all the experiments with my kids? No! I'm just the very interested bystander - marvelling alongside of them and watching them create it. (I take the photos when they say, "Mum check this out!") It really is exciting to see them jump into the materials on their own and figure out their own problems. Of course, I love to step in when needed, but I certainly don't want to take over their learning experience.

You can read about what we are doing here.

Next, Quick Ezine - I'd like to tell you about Providential Battles we are enjoying listening to. And... as promised... I'm working on some pages about individualized learning programs, which could also be known as 'learning contracts' and how we use that in our homeschool.

Well, unto next time. Enjoy your homeschooling experience with your family.

Marianne