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Middle School Homeschool

Ultimate Guide to Learning Activities in a Jar or Bottle

April 24, 2016 | Leave a Comment
This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

 

The Ultimate Guide to Learning Activities in a Jar or Bottle @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus

Whether it’s a tiny ecosystem or a shooting rocket, anything learned in a jar or bottle is just so much more fun. When kids get to use their hands to make something, they learn the principle behind it so much better!

Plus, there’s just something about creating something inside a jar that makes a lesson more visual and relatable for children. After all, they get to make their own little worlds or crafts that they can observe anytime.


In the ultimate guide to learning activities in a jar or bottle, I rounded up hands-on activities that can be added to any homeschool unit study. There are activities for studying science, geography, math, music, and more – all in a jar or bottle!

The Ultimate Guide to Learning Activities in a Jar or Bottle

Creative & Easy Hands-on Jar Activities

Learning Activity Jar
Easy Fall Snow Globe in a Jar
Tornado in a Jar
Charcoal Water Purifying Jar Experiment
Cloud in a Jar Experiment
Make It Rain Inside a Jar
Seed Jar Science Experiment
Egg in a Jar Experiment
Global Warming Experiment in a Jar
Create a Beach Terrarium in a Jar
Make a Fall Sensory Jar
Craft Baby Animals from Jars
Hopping Corn Science Jar Experiment
Grow Fungus in Jars
Grow a Butterfly in a Jar
Make a Galaxy in a Jar
Make Earth’s Layers in a Jar
Robot Jar
Recycled Glass Jar Terrarium
Make Rain Clouds in a Jar
Fireworks in a Jar Experiment
Make a Mason Jar Biosphere
Make a Closed Aquatic Ecosystem in a Jar
Create Colored Sand Art in a Jar
Learn Numbers with a Ball Jar
Learn the 50 States in a Jar
Make Musical Instruments Out of Jars
Make a Let’s Move Jar
Grow Seeds in a Jar
Learn to make whipped cream in a jar
Collect Words in a Jar
Make a Storytelling Prompt Jar
Make Glass Jar Bird Feeders
Grow Sprouts in a Jar
Make Butter in a Jar
Make a Narration Jar
Beach Inspired Mason Jar
Mason Jar Aquarium

Creative & Easy Hands-on Bottle Activities

Message in a Bottle Language Arts Activity
Compost in a Bottle Experiment
I Spy ABC Bottle
What’s the Weather on Jupiter Bottle Experiment
Terra Aqua Column Bottle
Burping Bottle Science Experiment
Empty Bottle Science Experiment
DIY Lava Lamp Bottle
Floating Rice Friction Experiment in a Bottle
Blobs in a Bottle Experiment
Water Bottle Fountain Experiment
Light Refraction in a Bottle Experiment
Make a Jellyfish in a Bottle
Balloon in a Bottle Experiment
Make Planets in a Bottle
Make Mentos Bottle Rockets
Tsunami in a Bottle
Soda Bottle Greenhouse Activity
DIY Heart Valve
Hanging Planter
Plastic Bottle Guitar
Soil Erosion Experiment in a Bottle
Separate an Egg in a Bottle
Learn How to Make an Ocean in a Bottle
Create Blobs in a Bottle
Watch a Diver Move through a Bottle
Make a Wave in a Bottle
Make Blood in a Bottle
Learn How to Fit an Egg into a Bottle
Make the Galaxy in a Bottle
Collapsing Bottle Experiment
Sort and Count Math with Bottles
Make a Landfill in a Bottle
Teach Sense of Smell with Smelling Bottles
Grow a Cucumber in a Bottle
Make Quill and Berry Ink
Make a Bottle Rocket
Make Fog in a Bottle
Make Compost in a Soda Bottle
Make Bubble Snakes
Plastic Water Bottle Flowers
DIY Plastic Bottle Sandals

All you need is a jar or a bottle, a few extra pieces of material and some imagination and you can have an easy learning craft.

Hugs and love ya,

Signature T

Check out my other free Ultimate Guides!

Ultimate Guide for New Homeschoolers
The Unrivaled Guide to Civil War Activities for Kids
and grab 365 Days of Hands On Homeschool Activities here.

Don’t forget to follow BOTH of my Pinterest accounts for more AWESOME pins.

Visit Tina Robertson’s profile on Pinterest.


Visit Tinas Dynamic Homeschool ‘s profile on Pinterest.

This blog hop is organized by iHomeschool Network, a collaboration of outstanding homeschool bloggers who connect with each other and with family-friendly companies in mutual beneficial projects.

Visit us on Pinterest, Twitter and Google Plus. And of course, click the image below to visit all the other blog articles from the homeschool moms of the iHomeschool Network.

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Leave a CommentFiled Under: Geography, Hands-On Activities, History Resources, Middle School Homeschool, Science Tagged With: hands-on, hands-on activities, handson, handsonhomeschooling, history, history resources, homeschoolgeography, homeschoolscience

12 Ways for a Homeschooled Teen to Earn Money – A Budding Entrepreneur?

March 13, 2016 | 11 Comments
This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

Today, I’m sharing 12 ways for a homeschooled teen to earn money. Also, look at my page The Dynamics of How to Homeschool Easily and Smarter.

Long before they are of age to start working, kids want their own money.

And whether they count bricks at a construction site as a kid like my entrepreneur husband did or just want some spending money, kids are looking for creative ways to earn their own bucks.

12 Ways for a Homeschooled Teen to Earn Money – A Budding Entrepreneur @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus

I am sharing some of the things we have thought of to put some money in kids’ pockets.

Have You Seen My Husbands Book, Entrepreneur Born or Made?

I am so PROUD of him because he created this book as a manual for my boys. I know you’ll love it.

The First Signs of an Entrepreneur

Though, I have always wanted my boys to care for the elderly regardless of whether they got paid or not, there are some elderly people that set aside funds each month to pay for the “little” things like buying groceries or cleaning their house.

So, look at these 12 ways a homeschooled teen can earn money.

My mother in law just recently told me about wanting to find somebody to vacuum her house regularly.

1. Running errands for the elderly.

If we lived closer, we would do it no charge of course, but the thought got the creative juices flowing for my boys.

2. Garage sales.

If you live in a neighborhood that allows you to have garage sales a little more regularly than twice a year, then garage sales are a great way for your kids to help you clear out clutter and for them to earn a few dollars.

3. Pet walking/pet setting.

Pet setting for a friend going on a trip or walking a pet while a friend is at work is a great activity for kids too.

4. Vet office.

Kelley’s daughter started working at a vet office helping out and cleaning after the pets until she worked up to a full working professional.

5. Babysitting.

An oldie, but goodie is babysitting.

Nowadays, they even have free CPR classes and babysitting classes, unlike they did when I babysat.

6. Yardwork.

Most people, not just elderly would like reliable help for their yard at different times of the years.

Even raking leaves is hard work and people will pay to have leaves bagged.

Having all the boys I have, I didn’t realize how easy I have it when something needs to be moved.

7. Moving small furniture or hanging pictures.

They seem to consult with each other about what is the best way to move furniture longer than the actual process of moving a piece of furniture. 

That is okay, however, because they are learning to think of creative ways of moving furniture to make it easier for them.

So that is why I say small pieces or projects to move as they learn safety.

Also, picture hanging and getting on ladders is something teens can do since a lot of women, including myself, don’t like getting on ladders.

8. Washing and detailing cars.

This is also a great way to earn money.

If the teen has supplies, he can “travel” (meaning I don’t mind taking them to where my teens need to go to wash a car), be mobile and bring a personal service to a person.

People are busy and like being at their home and will pay for a washing service to come to them.

9. Washing the outside windows of professional buildings.

My husband has encouraged my boys to create their own business, like he did at their age by washing windows in professional buildings.

There are still many locally owned business today and they may get cleaning services for the inside but maybe not the outside windows.

Making a trip once or twice a month on a regular route to clean outside windows is a great teen business.

The best part is that your teen can make his own hours and do them after school.

It doesn’t matter if nobody is there or not at the business and its probably better because some businesses want cleaning done after hours anyway.

10. Make and sell crafts.

Though my boys are not always the crafty loving type of kids, they see this as a great business for some teens.

Teens can make jewelry or duct tape wallets and sell on line. Look at some ideas for duct tape crafting here.

11. Setting up instagram, email or printers for older folks.

Many folks, like my parents want to see what we are doing by having instagram or need help setting up a printer or even help managing an email account.

Things that are very easy for us and our kids are not so easy for older folks.

What older person wouldn’t like a well-behaved and respectful teen (cute probably too – okay, okay) set up some of these apps for them on their devices?

12. Selling New Products Purchased Freely

Then one more way to make income that I think is very creative is something I learned from a dear friend.

She would save coupons and buy products, like soap or toothpaste with her coupon that were 100% free.

And then turn around and sell those new items in a garage sale or flea market booth.

The garage sale was better and a lot of time, she would find flea market booths that would give her a free booth for a month or two as an introductory offer and she would sell items she got free with her coupons.

Many times, the products were small trial size, but it didn’t matter because she would still make a 100% profit.

I was impressed then and I am still impressed today.

Coupon cutting along with online apps save money in the store.

The best thing is to buy the size where the coupon buys it for free, but a discount works too.. Just show the app on your smart phone and you get a discount.

What ways has your homeschooled teen earn money?

Also, look at these other tips:

  • Easy Fall Crafts To Make And Sell By Kids & Scarecrow Candy Jar
  • Successful Entrepreneur-3 Best Homeschooled Teen Resources
  • High School Elective: Peek at Principles and Precepts of Economics
  • 6 Ways to Organize Your Homeschooled High School Teen

Hugs and love ya,

Signature T

Don’t forget to follow BOTH of my Pinterest accounts for more AWESOME pins.

Visit Tina Robertson’s profile on Pinterest.


Visit Tinas Dynamic Homeschool ‘s profile on Pinterest.

11 CommentsFiled Under: Build Character in Homeschooled Kids, Homeschool Teens _ From Teen to Graduation, Middle School Homeschool Tagged With: entrepreneur, high school, high school electives, middleschool, teens

Erosion Hands-on Easy Homeschool Science Activity

February 5, 2016 | 12 Comments
This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

Easy hands-on homeschool earth science activity @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus

Tiny still hasn’t had his fill of easy hands-on science so we are keeping our science groove going. Today, I am sharing an erosion hands-on easy homeschool science activity to learn about earth’s changes.

Using the the book Air Is Not Oxygen: Essential Science You Should Have Learned … But Probably Didn’t ( which is a total keeper for us at this point), Tiny has been going through one fast activity after another.

Earth Science – Exciting?

It has been a nice break from the chemistry which has he has been doing. Me?

I love the fact that most of the activities are so easy he can do them on his own, the supplies are easily found in my house and the activities don’t take much time to do.

Earth changes 1

Look at what he gathered up to learn about earth changes:

  • Pie pan.  (we already had this big roaster pan so are using it, but you could easily use a small pie pan. nothing fancy)
  • Sand. (we had a jar in our storage room when we left overseas and are loving the fact that when we come back, we had instant supplies. Of course it would be better if we could grab some sand outside, but we don’t really have sand near where we live now.)
  • plastic cup and plastic spoon (for wave making). Tiny grabbed a straw too in case he wanted to compare the spoon to the straw. After he started doing it, he grabbed some blue dye for the water and we had some sea shells we used just because we had them. But dye or seashells are not necessary either, we just had them.
  • dry measuring cup, ruler and permanent marker.
earth changes 2
Geography bundle -- North Star Geography and WonderMaps
earth changes 3

The instructions called for pouring a couple of cups of sand in one end of the pan, so Tiny decided he needed to measure it.

He ended up pouring all of the sand in the pan because he realized our pan was bigger than a cake or pie pan.

Next, the instructions said to put an inch of water in the pan. He measured an inch before he started pouring the water.

earth changes 4

Then he started slowly pouring the water so as to not disturb the sand.



At this point, we decided to add the shells because not only did we have them, but they could be used as visual markers for how the shore moved.

earth changes 7

Then grab the plastic spoon and start making waves.

Hands-On Science Bundle

You’ll also want to check out these fun hands-on science ideas!

earth changes 6

Though our erosion was fast, it was pretty easy to understand how the earth changes over time when we compared the two shore lines.

We talked about earth changes that were slow like weathering and erosion and other changes that are fast like earthquakes and landslides.

I am telling you, if you want easy hands-on science activities for any age and that are quick, you’ll love Air Is Not Oxygen: Essential Science You Should Have Learned … But Probably Didn’t.

Yikes, we are loving having an all science week.

Hugs and love ya,

Also, grab these other activities we did from this book:

Electricity Hands-On Science Activity
Free Moon Journal Activity and I have a free Earth Science Lapbook that would go great with this activity.

12 CommentsFiled Under: Hands-On Activities, Middle School Homeschool, Science Tagged With: earthscience, hands-on activities, handson, handsonhomeschooling, homeschoolscience

Learn About Leap Year Free Notebooking Page & Resources

February 1, 2016 | 5 Comments
This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

Learning about Leap Year free notebooking Page

Seizing the moment or in this case the year, the leap year, we took a rabbit trail off our unit study to look up a few websites and read about the leap year. Today, in learn about leap year free notebooking page, I rounded up a few websites to learn about why a leap year was started.

Can you believe poof in 4 years how your homeschool and kids will change? Anyway, the subject this month is too cool to pass over, so we took a day today to dig in and learn about it.

Look at few facts to think about or research:

    • February normally has 28 days.
    • Every fourth year, February has 29 days.
    • The fourth year is called a Leap Year.
    • When did the practice of adding leap year begin?
    • What is significant about 1582?
    • How do you keep track of your birth day if you’re born on February 29?
    • What are the differences between the Gregorian and Julian calendars and why it matters?

Look at these free downloads and background information:

    • 4 page .pdf about the Leap Year from web archive.
    • Great leap forward article.
    • Comparing years 3 page .pdf equals some head scratching math.
    • How many days are in a year? 3 page .pdf even complicated enough for your high school teen.
    • 3 page .pdf to work with time zones and time lines.
    • Tracking the sun activity.
    • 7 page .pdf about the Gregorian calendar.
    • The Roman Calendar – The Fabric of our Time lesson plan and 9 page .pdf super helpful.
    • What day is it really? The Julian Gregorian Calendars.
    • What year is it? 1 page .pdf.
    • Leap year for kids.

Download the Free Leap Year Notebooking Page!

Hugs and love ya,

Don’t forget to follow BOTH of my Pinterest accounts for more AWESOME pins.

Visit Tina Robertson’s profile on Pinterest.


Visit Tinas Dynamic Homeschool ‘s profile on Pinterest.

5 CommentsFiled Under: 1. My FREE Learning Printables {Any Topic}, Middle School Homeschool, Science, Teach Homeschool Science Tagged With: earthscience, freeprintables, handsonhomeschooling, homeschoolscience

5 Free History Websites for Homeschooled Middle School Kids

December 13, 2015 | 16 Comments
This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

In putting together history unit studies, I know you too are on the prowl for free and fun history websites to enrich your homeschool unit studies.  Also, look at my page homeschool middle school for more fun tips.

Today, I have rounded up 5 free history websites for homeschooled middle school kids that are not only super helpful in bring history alive, but really informational.

5 Free History Websites for Homeschooled Middle School Kids @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus
5 Free History Websites for Homeschooled Middle School Kids @ Tina’s Dynamic Homeschool Plus

Interactive History Equals Hands On Homeschooling & Learning

Most of the sites can be used for your younger and older children too, it’s just that I am focusing on homeschooled middle school kids because some sites are too babyish.

1. EARLY AMERICA

This website has 8 short films about significant early American history moments. The movies are:

The Ben Franklin Story
The Life of George Washington
Declaring Independence
Paul Revere, Messenger of the Revolution
The Shot Heard Around The World
The Treason of Benedict Arnold
The Real Face of George Washington
Molly Pitcher, An American Heroine

From the website:

Of added interest for viewers, each film tells its story using scenes and portraits from our collection of Early American Images. Many of the images are primary source documents — engravings, woodcuts and drawings that date back to the early to mid-1800s.


2. TEACHING HISTORY (actually has something free for elementary, middle and high school kids)

From the website:

Teachinghistory.org is designed to help K–12 history teachers access resources and materials to improve U.S. history education in the classroom.

It is funded by the U.S. Department of Education and has free activities for each grade level along with activities and ideas.

Not only will you be clicking in each grade level, but each grade level has several activities and topics that will keep you planning.

Also, grab the awesome free posters under Print Materials at the bottom left.

There is so much on this website too that you will need to space out your visits so that you have time to explore it all.


3. HISTORY GLOBE

Are you planning for an upcoming unit study about the Oregon Trail?

Take a virtual trip to learn about the Oregon Trail and the landmarks along the way.

Click on the various tabs at the top right side of the page. There is background information on each landmark. Great for geography too.

Click on Trail Tour to get started.


4. SHOW ME THE FUTURE

As homeschoolers we always voice our worry over whether or not our homeschooled kids will be ready for the “real world”.

Well, let them take a practice run at it with this free online game.

From the website:

Mapping Your Future’s Show Me the Future is a financial literacy and life skills game, designed to help 12-20 year olds prepare for their futures.  The game helps players understand:

  • the cost of living;
  • budgeting, which is vital to financial freedom;
  • the difference between wants and needs;
  • the importance of financial planning;
  • the need to set career goals; and
  • the value of higher education.

I haven’t tried this one with Tiny yet, but it looks great as well. It is one I have marked for some “real life” learning.


5. MISSION US

This is an awesome website too with interactive stories.

It has 4 missions.

Mission 1 is for Crown or Colony, Mission 2 is Flight to Freedom – Will You Find a Path to Freedom, Mission 3 is a Cheyenne Odyssey – Can You Help Your Tribe Survive Life on the Plains and Mission 4 is City of Immigrants, How Will You Start a New Life in America?

You’ll love the educator’s guides and your middle school kid will love the interactive games. The Think Fast part is super fun!

Mark these and keep them to add to your next unit study.

Also, look at:

  •  What You Must Know to Teach High School Unit Studies,
  •  How to Teach History in 14 Lessons (From Daunting to Doable)
  • and 10 Early American History Events that Happened in Fall for Homeschool Middle or High School.

Hugs and love ya,

16 CommentsFiled Under: Hands-On Activities, History Resources, Middle School Homeschool Tagged With: hands-on activities, handsonhomeschooling, history resources, homeschoolhistory, middleschool

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