Sea and Sky, Actually Just Sea

One thing I love about homeschooling is learning along side my kids, and I am learning a good deal right now. An area of interest of mine when I was younger was the oceans, and I think that passion of mine has led us to Winter Promise’s Sea and Sky. I have been debating about whether to use this curriculum for a while now, and I think one reason for my hesitation was that I could not see myself spending so much time on the sky part of this program. I finally realized that we could work through just the sea portion, and that we could do it in roughly three months. The kids and I finished our modern history this week, so I thought this would be the perfect time to begin this new program. I am so glad we did, for everyone absolutely loves it!

This program mixes science and history perfectly together. While we are learning the history of mankind in regards to ships (from the earliest of times through modern times) we are also learning about navigation, the oceans, and maps. In addition the kids and I will be reading some great books. We have already started The Revenge of the Whale, and everyone seems to be enjoying it. Next we will read Swallows and Amazons , and after that we will probably read Treasure Island.  We are not following the schedule too closely, instead we are using it more as a guide. It is working out perfectly.

The great thing about studying all of this is that we live five minutes from the ocean, and we have many resources around us to make our lessons come to life. Over the next few months I will be taking the kids to the Long Beach Aquarium, the Ocean Institute (I can’t wait for the Tall Ships Festival), Whale Watching, out to Catalina Island, down to the tide pools, to the Pacific Marine Mammal Center, and other places. I am hoping that these field trips add even more to this wonderful learning experience, and I hope that these lessons stay with the kids for the rest of their lives.

~ by Jill Harper on April 28, 2010.