According to statistics, homeschooling in the United States has increased 74% in the last eight years.
Why? We do not believe that it is because of a lack of faith in our public school systems as much as it is a growing desire to see MORE education and more focus on real issues that will eventually effect the home.
We have toured this country for many years teaching and presenting in thousands of schools and have addressed not only hundreds of thousands of school students but their very concerned parents. Disaster preparedness is always an issue that raises more questions than it provides answers. How do I teach it to my children without frightening them? How do I deal with the tough issues after a disaster? Do I allow my kids to see the news of current disasters? How do I involve them in our planning?
We have found that the world of disaster preparedness is a wide world of educational opportunity filled with science, history, social science, mathematics and literature. It is through this new blog that we intend to provide those tips, stories and insights that we have shared as we toured. Stay tuned here for programs, guides and curriculum additions as well.

Friday, November 27, 2009

Breathe!


We have been talking a lot about H1N1 around our house, taking precautions, limiting interaction with families where we know someone is sick, and of course, we have scrubbed our own fingerprints off washing our hands. So what can we learn as we talk about swine flu? Well, the subjects are actually endless. The last few days we have discussed forensics, actually figuring out ways that the flu can be spread from person to person, thinking about how many people we come in contact with each and every day, but the REALLY interesting subjects can come from talking about WHAT the flu does.

Trying to explain to my kids that the flu is a respiratory illness was pretty pointless until I could explain to them what RESPIRATORY was.

Have your kids ever asked how do you breathe? What are lungs? What do they look like and how do they work? Have you ever wondered this yourself? Here is a super simple, super easy project to explain this.



SUPPLIES:



One 1-liter or 1-quart clear plastic bottle ( a good way to recycle those water bottles!)
One large balloon
One small balloon
Two rubber bands
One straw
Modeling clay



DIRECTIONS:



1. Cut off the bottom of the bottle. You can use a serrated knife, a utility knife, or scissors … what ever sharp instrument you use, please use standard safety rules.
2. Cut the neck off of the large balloon.
3. Stretch this balloon over the bottom of the bottle. Put a rubber band around it to hold it in place.
4. Insert the straw into the neck of the balloon.
5. Tie the balloon to the straw using the other rubber band.
6. Put the balloon end of the straw into the bottle so that the balloon is all the way into the bottle but does not touch the balloon over the bottom of the bottle.
7. Secure the straw in the bottle by using the modeling clay. Make sure the clay completely covers the mouth of the bottle, but does not crimp the straw.
8. Push on the rubber at the bottom of the bottle. What happens? Is this like breathing in or out?
9. Pull the rubber down. Which way would you be breathing now?



What happens? The stretched balloon across the bottom of the bottle acts like a diaphragm. This is the flat muscle at the bottom of the chest cavity. This muscle forces air in and out of your lungs. Your lungs do not inflate or deflate by themselves … a muscle, your diaphragm, is pulling or pushing so that you can breathe.

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