Tornadoes

With record-setting tornado outbreaks across the United States, now is an ideal time to introduce your children to these fierce phenomena. Already, the incomplete 2011 tornado season has set many records. As of today, it is the ninth deadliest tornado year on record. Sunday’s tornado in Joplin, Missouri, is the second deadliest single tornado in the NOAA-NWS Official record that dates back to 1950. The fourth deadliest single day in tornado history was April 27, 2011.

In addition to emergency preparation, this is an excellent opportunity to teach your children the science behind tornadoes.

Tornadoes are columns of air made from fast-moving wind. These storms can achieve wind speeds of 300 miles per hour.  Typically formed during thunderstorms, tornadoes are caused by instability in the atmosphere, when a downward flow of cold air meets a rising flow of warm air.

Tornadoes can range in severity from ‘F0’ to a ‘F5’ on the Fujita-Pearson scale, with each category representing a different amount of speed and damage.

F0	40 – 72 mile per hour winds cause light damage, such as breaking limbs from trees.
F1	73 – 112 mile per hour winds snap trees and damage roofs.
F2	113 – 157 mile per hour winds demolish mobile homes, uproot trees, etc.
F3	158 – 206 mile per hour winds overturn trains and lift cars.
F4	207 – 260 mile per hour winds level homes into debris and throw cars several hundred yards.
F5	261 – 318 mile per hour winds blow away homes and throw vehicles like missiles.

Tornado in a Bottle

Create a tornado in a bottle. Fill one two liter bottle halfway with water. Remove the cap from a second two liter bottle and set it on top so that the openings connect. Tape the bottles together with generous amounts of tape. Turn them over so that the bottle with the water is on top, and swirl the bottle to create a tornado inside the bottle.

Use a stopwatch to time the water as it drains into the lower bottle through the tornado. Flip the bottles over again and record the time it takes the water to drain without creating a vortex. Notice that the water drains into the lower bottle much faster after the vortex, or tornado, is created. This is because the hole in the center of the vortex allows air to come up into the upper bottle. This allows the water and air to move simultaneously.

Get Involved

One of the biggest benefits to homeschooling is the ability to get involved and ‘humanize’ the curriculum. You don’t just have to study tornadoes—you can make a difference.

Teach your children about the ongoing damage and suffering caused by this year’s tornado season. Share stories and news pieces of the damage. Share pictures and videos as you deem appropriate, based on the child’s age and maturity level.

Decide today to make a difference and teach your children compassion, something more valuable than science and current events. I encourage everyone who is able to donate to the relief effort through the American Red Cross (https://american.redcross.org/site/Donation2?df_id=5110&5110.donation=form1&s_src=RSG00000E000&s_subsrc=stateofmissouri-pub). The minimum acceptable donation amount is $10.

Officials have estimated that $15 will buy one family clean-up kit. $60 will provide sanitary kits for four victims. $80 offers a night in a hotel for a displaced victim. $115 buys one week’s groceries for a family of four. A very generous $500 gift will provide a disaster victim with medical supplies, equipment, medication and mental health counseling.

Please know that Homeschool Skills does not have any involvement with and does not recieve profit from the gathering of donations by the Red Cross.

Gardening 101

Periodically over the next few months, Homeschool Skills will highlight different lessons that can be taught through gardening. This is the first of that series.

Seize the opportunity this summer to plant a garden as part of your homeschool curriculum. Gardens provide enormous cross-curriculum opportunities for learning. Science and math have obvious applications, but gardens can also be tied into literature, geography, and history. In addition to curriculum applications, gardening provides children with a beneficial life skill--and it can help save money on groceries!

Worried about space? A full-scale garden is not necessary for these lessons. Plant a few items in a small garden box, a window box or even in cleaned out trash cans! If you will be growing your garden in containers, review this helpful article.

Some plants can be grown upside down. For more information on what plants can be grown in these conditions, read this. Other plants can be trained to climb poles, posts or fences.


The first step of gardening is planning. Plan the location, size and contents of the garden.

Choose a convenient locaton that recieves six to eight hours of sunlight every day. Ensure that there is adequate drainage and that the soil will not become waterlogged. If the soil is excessively wet. the plants will not grow properly. If the soil is inadequate, build raised beds and purchase better-quality soil. (Science -- Experiment to find the areas in your yard that have the best sunlight and soil.)


If you are planting in raised beds, outline the area where the bed

will be. Raised beds are usually built in rectangles so that all areas are easily reached. (Math -- Measurements.)

Determine the material that you will use to outline the raised beds. Wood, bricks, and stones are all excellent choices. However, pressure treated wood should never be used because the chemicals used to treat the wood can affect the soil and plants. (Science -- Experiment to find out what materials work best. Math -- determine the measurements for the required materials and the total area of the garden.)


Fill the raised beds with commercial soil or with a soil-compost mix. Raised beds are more vulnerable to extreme temperatures and dryness than other gardens, so be sure to water regularly.  (Science -- learn about composting and fertilization. Perhaps you want to create several different, smaller garden areas to create a season-long growing experiment using different types of soil, compost, watering schedules, etc?) More information on raised garden beds here.

Select seeds that will grow well in your area and within the limitations of the garden you are planting. You don't want to plant something that spreads, like pumpkins, if your entire garden is only 2 or 3 feet square... unless, of course, you want to train the pumpkin plants to climb up a nearby shed, fence, or other surface. For more information on that, look at this page.


Taller plants should be planted on the north end of the garden so that they don't cast

shadows over the shorter plants.


Add some history to your garden by Introducing a traditional Native American gardening combination called 'the three sisters' to your garden. Plant corn closely together in a clump and plant climbing beans around the edges. The beans will grow up and around the corn stalks. Plant pumpkin around the edge of the beans, so that the vines will creep in and around these plants and keep the weeds away.

Focus on cultures you will be studying by growing culture or region-specific produce. If you are studying Mexico, grow a variety of peppers, tomatoes, and onions and celebrate the end-of-season harvest with a fresh homemade salsa. Irish studies can be augmented by growing onions, potatoes, carrots, cabbage and green beans, which can later be used to create this Irish recipe.

NEWS: NH Court Orders Home schooled Girl To Public School

Last Monday (March 16, 2011), the New Hampshire Supreme Court upheld a previous ruling that ordered a homeschooled girl to attend public school. This decision, which was made against the wishes of the mother, was sparked by a debate between the child’s divorced parents.

Although the decision closely inspects the impact of religion and homeschooling in this girl’s life, the Supreme Court statement included this disclaimer:

 “The particular circumstances of this case bear emphasizing… While this case has religious overtones, it is not about religion.  While it involves home schooling, it is not about the merits of home versus public schooling.  This case is only about resolving a dispute between two parents, with equal constitutional parenting rights and joint decision-making responsibility, who have been unable to agree how to best educate daughter.”

The parents, who divorced in 1999 when the little girl was just an infant, have continually disagreed about whether she should be home schooled or public schooled. The daughter attended private school for kindergarten, but the mother began homeschooling in first grade.

Since that time, the father repeatedly fought this decision. His arguments were primarily about the influence of his former wife’s religion on their daughter and that homeschooling amplified that impact. He blamed the religion for his daughter’s failure to accept his new wife and child. He asserted that the religion “had the effect of isolating daughter from her peers” and that she could “experience diversity and improve her ability to accept differences in his home” if she were homeschooled.

THE RELIGIOUS INFLUENCE

In January 2007, the father filed a motion that stated,

“At her mother’s insistence, and against [his] wishes, [daughter] is homeschooled through a program that is affiliated with a church that both [mother] and [daughter] attend on a regular basis.” He continued to claim that his daughter was withdrawn and could not accept his new wife and child. His daughter’s therapist agreed that their relationship was suffering because she “strongly identified” with her mother’s religious beliefs.

The Supreme Court admits,

“There is no doubt that mother’s and child’s religious convictions have been a pervasive part of the parties’ school placement dispute… The trial court referred to the evidence presented that involved mother’s and daughter’s religious beliefs, including: the (guardian ad litem)’s account of daughter’s interaction with her counselor in which daughter “appeared to reflect her mother’s rigidity on questions of faith”; the GAL’s concerns about the impact of daughter’s religious beliefs on her relationship with her father; the father’s desire to expose daughter to different viewpoints to decrease his daughter’s “rigid adherence” to her mother’s religious beliefs; and mother’s acknowledgement of the strength of her and daughter’s religious beliefs. The trial court also remarked that daughter’s strong adherence to religious convictions that align with her mother’s beliefs likely was the effect of “spending her time school time with her mother and the vast majority of all of her other time with her mother.””

The blatantly religious overtones of this trial complicated the position of the court, which asserted that the decision had “not considered the merits of [daughter’s] religious beliefs, but considered only the impact of those beliefs on her interaction with others, both past and future.”

The court also states, “The evidence about faith is only relevant because [daughter] was unhappy that her father does not love her enough to want to spend eternity with her by adopting her faith.””

According to the father,

“If somebody doesn’t believe in [daughter’s] religion, she has a real, real hard time with it. If there’s ever anything that goes against what she believes in, she doesn’t really know how to respond and she automatically thinks that somebody’s attacking her or somebody is going up against her… When you have a serious discussion with [daughter], when you question her beliefs, or you present another idea to her about a religious belief, she doesn’t know what to do. She clams up. She turns away. You know, she just really can’t go any further.”

The court states that it:

“considered the importance of daughter having the ability to openly communicate with others who have a different viewpoint on a subject matter, whether or not the topic is religious in nature. It also considered the benefits of group learning, group interaction, social problem solving and exposure to a variety of points of view.”

However, the court asserts that it:

“did not express disfavor regarding the religious nature of daughter’s beliefs or disapproval regarding her vigorous defense of her religious beliefs. Neither did the court criticize the merits of mother’s and daughter’s religious convictions. Indeed, as the trial court emphasized, its order did not impose any restrictions on either parent’s ability to provide daughter with religious training or to share with daughter his or her own religious beliefs.”

THE HOME SCHOOL ENVIRONMENT

The court also states:

“The dispute between the parties in this case did not revolve around the relative academic merits of public and home schooling. Their dispute centered upon which academic experience would be in daughter’s best interests.”

In fact, it is interesting to read the court’s evaluation of the academic merits of the homeschooling experience in question. Although the mother was in complete compliance with homeschool laws, the daughter excelled academically and socialization needs were met, the court took issue with the fact that the daughter watched recorded lessons on a computer at home. The mother checked her work, answered questions, engaged in discussions with her daughter, and replayed lessons as necessary. The court cited evidence that the daughter was “bored” and “lonely” in this environment.  

The guardian ad litem determined that “daughter’s best interests, and particularly her intellectual and emotional development, would be best served by exposure to a public school setting in which she would be challenged to solve problems presented by a group learning situation and by the social interactivity of children of her age.”

“The trial court’s acknowledgement that daughter successfully participated in several activities outside of her home, performed well academically with home education and is “generally likeable and well liked, social and interactive with her peers” does not render its decision that attending public school was in daughter’s best interests an unsustainable exercise of discretion.”

For more information, read the decision for yourself here: http://www.courts.state.nh.us/supreme/opinions/2011/2011026kurowski.pdf

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Despite the court’s assertion that this decision is isolated to this case and that it has nothing to do with homeschooling or religion, the decision seems monumental. Statements such as ”(the court) also considered the benefits of group learning, group interaction, social problem solving and exposure to a variety of points of view” seem to have a much greater scope.

What impact do you think this decision will have on homeschooling? Do you believe this decision is fair? What should the mother have done differently?

I look forward to reading your comments.