Category Archives: United States

Things To Do and See in Atlanta by Shawne Taylor Atlanta is a city of contradiction – thoroughly modern and progressive and, at the same time, steeped in the history of both the Civil War and the Civil Rights Movement. It’s fast-paced and metropolitan, yet still retains its down-home southern charm. It’s a true international city, great for young professionals, and also a wonderful place to homeschool and raise children. And thanks to a generous tax incentive from the state, which has led to an increase in the number of movies and TV shows being filmed here, the city has …

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Handcrafting High School On the Road, Sinks Canyon, WY Early in my relationship with Jim I had to establish a rule. We can only drive so far before stopping. Jim is one of those people who will drive as long as it takes until he gets there. He loves to drive places too. After a couple of trips like this, early in our relationship, I told him either he did a better job of stopping and enjoying the journey, or I would only go places with him if we flew there, so now we stop after a set amount of …

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Handcrafting High School: Year 2, Custer State Park I think the year you study geology and environmental science, you should spend time outside looking at the subject of your studies, so we did. I did not keep a daily journal, because I had writer’s block. Something I had never experienced before. It gave me insight into what happens for kids who have good ideas but can’t get them onto a page. My writer’s block made me feel like my brain was constipated. I had so many ideas running around in my head I had trouble getting anything out at all. …

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Handcrafting High School: Year 2, Month 1 The first month of tenth grade might have been the best month we ever spent homeschooling. You might be thinking, “Well, Yeah! You were traveling and hanging out. How could that not be great?” 🙂 That is true, of course, but it was more than that. The planning and intent for this trip focused on enriched learning. The choices for where we stayed and what we did were planned with the intent that what we studied on the road would enrich our understanding of a situation in science, culture, and/or history. We were …

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Yellowstone National Park, Montana On Silent Wings, Owls I love owls! Owls get me thinking about the natural selection that must have taken place for a bird to be a successful nighttime predator. From an evolutionary standpoint, it makes sense that a bird would evolve to fill the niche of flying nighttime predator. It’s the steps to getting there that fascinate me. What do you think came first silent flight, superior hearing, or the ability to see well in the dark? The parks we have stayed in had ranger talks every night. The owl talk at Yellowstone National Park was …

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Dinosaur National Monument Park, Utah Isn’t it fascinating to think of dinosaurs roaming Earth? Maybe giant nautilus, small trilobites, or huge aquatic dinosaurs such as the plesiosaur swam on land you are now standing on. With its layer upon layer of fossils, walking through Dinosaur National Monument Park will make you think of things like that. When were dinosaurs in this area and when was this dry, arid landscape covered in water? The Principle of Superposition states: In a series of layered sedimentary rocks the oldest layer is at the bottom and the youngest layer is at the top. ~ …

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Great Basin National Park, Utah This was our viewing spot for the Perseid meteor shower. It was nearly a perfect location. Nice and dark with no light pollution, which is what stargazers call the artificial lights that make it hard to view astronomical events. We started 10th grade on August 12th, 2015 by getting on the road. It might seem arbitrary to choose a date since we homeschool, but why not? 🙂 When we travel, we include history and science as a part of the journey. Over the next month I will be posting regular science and history information from …

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