Sandy brought opportunity for homeschool lessons

Laurie Esposito Harley is a professional writer and author as well as a homeschooling mom. Days before Hurricane Sandy hit the coast, local news stations were reporting that Buffalo and the surrounding areas could be without power for five to seven days. Laurie's neighborhood definitely wouldn’t get the brunt of the

storm, but forecasters were guessing that the high wind speeds – predicted as high as 70 mph – would cause plenty of damage for their area.
Laurie suddenly realized that her family was not prepared. All of their flashlights had dead batteries. The cupboard was bare.
Laurie began jotting down things that needed done on a whiteboard. Her eleven-year-old immediately stepped up to help, and her younger siblings followed suit. Hurricane Sandy had become an opportunity for homeschool lessons on emergency preparedness.
Over the years we have tried to offer ideas and challenges for incorporating disaster preparedness into the home and especially into home-schooling, and we have to admit, Laurie's story is one of the very best we have encountered so rather than write a long blog post ourselves, we wanted to share Laurie's story with you as well as her website and disaster preparedness tips.
You can read Laurie's entire story and copy her disaster preparedness homeschool project by CLICKING HERE.

Saxby The Squirrel

In the mid-nineteenth century, the new science of weather forecasting was frought with controversy. In the United States, bitter disputes about the nature of storms had raged for decades since Benjamin Franklin and progress in the field was halted by the Civil War.

In the middle of the 1800’s one voice rose above the noise and that voice belonged to Stephen Saxby, a British Naval Instructor who became one of the forefathers of today’s weather forecasting methods. Stephen Saxby believed that with education, we would need less response… the motto of our organization for years.
With the assistance of partners like FoxFury and Emergency Supply Solutions, Saxby The Squirrel has already been booked for appearances and children’s events across the country into Summer of 2014.
Saxby’s programs focus on families with children encouraging them to prepare for disasters, create home disasters kits and observe weather safety rules.
Our goal is to bring Saxby The Squirrel into homes, schools, churches and libraries in order to further prepare young children and their families for what could lie ahead in our ever-changing world.

With our home-schoolers in mind, we are going to begin adding special lesson plans and activities to the website.  Yesterday we added two coloring sheets and a word search to the site!

Visit Saxby's Facebook page for us at www.facebook.com/saxbythesquirrel and check out the activities at www.saxbythesquirrel.com!

Recommended Reading for your older students: 

The Discovery of Weather by Jerry Lockett

The story of Stephen Saxby, the tumultuous birth of weather forecasting and Saxby's Gale of 1869.

Formac Publishing 2012

PUNKINS!

It's fall. No doubt about it. The chill in the air has been pretty obvious during the evening hours and everywhere you turn the homes and streets and stores are decorated with autumn displays and Halloween stuff.  Our family is not a big fan of Halloween, so sometimes it is hard to grab anything we approve of for the kids to do this time of year around the house when the chill of autumn keeps them indoors.
If you find yourself with a chance to visit an apple orchard or pumpkin patch, make sure you take that opportunity to spend a day learning and exploring, but if you are stuck inside due to the fall rain or cold, you might want to visit http://3dinosaurs.com/wordpress/index.php/free-pumpkin-activities-pack/  and take a look at the downloadable (AND FREE) Pumpkin Activities Pack!
The pack has over 80 pages including 40 pages of activities for tots!
When you go to the page, stay on the left. There are four download links starting with Terms of Use. Don't be distracted by the large green DOWNLOAD button on the right...just read and follow.

Fire Prevention Month

Each year firefighters travel throughout their communities and visit the schools preaching fire prevention.  October is Fire Prevention Month and this tradition has gone on for years, but as a home school family, your children do not receive that visit!

Call your local fire department and see if perhaps you can arrange a field trip for your family or a group of homeschoolers this month. Sometimes, especially with younger children, it is important that they become familiar with the "scary" firefighter in his mask and bunker gear so that if ever the need arises, they know to run TO the firefighter and not AWAY.

Do a special study this month on fire prevention tips, perhaps a book report on the Chicago Fire? How about a look at the wildfires from this year?  Another idea is to assign a fire marshall in the home. Each child can take turns wearing a badge they have designed and see if they can spot fire threats around the home!

Every day, at least one child dies from a home fire and every hour approximately 14 children are injured from fires or burns. Ninety percent of all fire-related deaths are due to home fires, which spread rapidly and can leave families as little as two minutes to escape once an alarm sounds.

Make sure that a part of your curriculum this month is to have several fire drills with the entire family.

Need some Fire Prevention tips to focus on?

• Working smoke alarm reduce the chances of dying in a fire by nearly 50 percent. They are a critical first step for staying safe, but in order to be effective, they have to be working properly. For the best protection,  install smoke alarms on every level of your home and in every sleeping area.
• Teach kids never to play with matches, lighters or fireworks. Depending on the age and maturity level of your child, it may be reasonable to use the items with the supervision of an adult. Just be sure that a fire extinguisher and a phone are close by in case of an emergency.
• Create and practice a home fire escape plan with two ways out of your house in case of a fire. Get a stopwatch and time how fast your family can escape. The kids will love it.
• Children should know how to respond to the sound of a smoke alarm. Teach them to get low and get out when they hear it. A child who is coached properly ahead of time will have a better chance to be safe.
• Use common sense in the kitchen. Limit distractions when cooking and don’t leave a hot oven or stovetop unattended.

We could not end this post without a shout-out to Denschool.com. Go visit and take a look at their Fire prevention Month activities! http://blog.denschool.com/fire-prevention-day-october-9th/

Halloween Safety Tips

Halloween is probably the most controversial of all the holidays; especially amongst homeschoolers.

Do we? Don’t we? If we do, HOW?

For those of you celebrating the Halloween Holiday with a home school association or local church, you are probably making the safest choice, but traditions die hard and despite the growing number of indoor theme parties and events, there will still be thousands of little ones running around this weekend amidst the leaves, cold weather and dangers that a holiday can bring.

Here's some tips that we have just for you kids, to help keep you safe on Halloween night!

Never, ever go into a strangers house or even ring their door for treats unless your parents are with you and say that it's okay. There are some people in life that aren't very nice to kids and you have to be careful. Always make sure that your mom or dad is within sight when you go out trick-or-treating.

Be careful when you cross a street. Make sure to look in both directions and make sure that there are no cars coming. If you have a little brother or sister with you, take their hand and help them get across the street, too. If the street has a stop light, wait until the cross walk light tells you that it's okay to cross now, but still check before you cross, look both ways.

While we are mentioning traffic-related safety, make sure that your

costume does not inhibit your eyesight or peripheral vision. Strangers approaching you can be seen a lot easier if you can see all around you. While the “robot” cost from a large cardboard box is still pretty cool, you cannot see very well!

If you are an older kid or young teen, and going out with friends, make sure that your parents know where you are going and who you are going with. This may seem like a pain but they are your parents and they love you. They just want you to be safe.

If you can drive and are taking a bunch of friends to a party, make sure that you have enough gas to get there. You don't want to run out on a dark street, all alone, like a bad horror movie!

If you parents give you a curfew, be home when they say. It builds trust between you and them and they are doing it for your own safety. If you are going to be late, call them and let them know.
 

Vandalism is never cool! Throwing eggs at cars and houses is not cool. Someone has to clean it up and it could be you, if you get caught. You can also be arrested and punished as a juvenile. So, don't think that it's fun only if you can get away with it. It's never the right thing to do! Think about how you would feel if someone did that to your house and how bad it would make you feel.

Hurting animals is never acceptable behavior! Some people use Halloween as an excuse to hurt cats and that is just wrong! Not only is it illegal in most places to hurt or torture animals and punishable by law, you should never hurt a helpless living thing.