We’re stargazing soon, so save the date! This will be a live class with both Aurora and a real astronomer (Kent Wallace). We will be taking you on a tour of the night sky so you can star gaze right from home!

Summer is filled with warm, late nights sparkling with stars, planets and meteor showers! We are going to focus on objects you can see with binoculars or small telescope.

(Aurora uses Orion’s UltraViews and also recommends the less expensive Celestron – Cometron 7×50 Bincoulars

We’ll also show you how to use Star Charts to help you navigate and find objects. You can download your sky map free here: Click here to download the current SkyChart.

During our time together, you’ll be able to interact with Aurora and Kent, ask questions, and gain insight on the next objects to search for to take your star gazing to the next level. It will be like watching a planetarium star show only from your computer screen!

We will bring you you a virtual “tour of the night sky” where you can discover, learn, and ask questions as we go along! All you need is an internet connection. You can use an iPad, laptop, computer or cell phone. When 7pm on Saturday night rolls around, click the link below to join our class. (Link coming soon!)

On the Road to a Billion Planets!

TONIGHT May 28th at 7pm – We’re streaming a live presentation from an astrophysicist from NASA’s Exoplanet Science Institute at CalTech about “On the Road to a Billion Planets”. This astronomy talk is especially extended to K-12 students interested in astronomy! All ages are welcome, and you can ask questions during her presentation as well!  Click here for Jessie Christiansen’s Talk

Dr Jessie Christiansen is an astrophysicist with the NASA Exoplanet Science Institute at Caltech, where she searches for, characterizes and catalogues planets orbiting other stars.

In 2018 she was awarded the NASA Exceptional Engineering Achievement Medal for her role with the successful NASA Kepler Mission, which discovered thousands of exoplanets and revealed that rocky planets are common throughout the galaxy.

She now works on the NASA Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) to find the nearest planetary systems to Earth – systems that will be ripe for further study with the next generation of ground- and space-based telescopes.

There is nothing as frustrating as seeing healthy children stuck indoors while watching something on a screen like a zombie. Most homeschool students need a bit of extra help to get them away from the screens of the smartphone, the tablets, the television or the video gaming consoles. Here is a list of ideas for the homeschool parent to ensure time away from the screens for the children.

Walk the Dog

Even if you don’t have a pet, enlist the help of a neighbor who does. The interaction between a pet and a child helps develop empathy and is joyful for both parties. Get your homeschool students into the habit of dog walking regularly.

Write a Journal

The simple Dear Diary notes that your child writes down can help with emotional well-being. The younger homeschool students merely need to write between three to five sentences daily about their day. The elder ones may be more expressive, and be prepared to allow them the privacy of not showing you exactly what they have written.

Find a Job

Whether it is doing small errands for people in the neighborhood, or getting a paper route, the idea is to get them to generate their own pocket money. Be sure to have the safety first conversation with your homeschool students before they take off to look for work.

Be Artistic

Help them to develop their talent. Some homeschool students show great skill at art, others with words. Encourage them to draw, paint, or write short stories. Find them appropriate places to showcase what they have created. Encourage them to build up a portfolio of their work. This is a great stress buster for kids of all ages.

Get Physically Active

Shoot hoops in the backyard. Play tag with the children in the neighborhood. Learn some yoga asanas. Fly a kite that you have built. Build a fort, a snow man or even an obstacle course, depending on the time of the year it is. Homeschool students need the time and opportunity to expend the energy that they have stored up inside of them. Encourage physical activity.

Not everyone has the extra storage space to catch all the material that homeschooling a couple of kids in different grades can throw out of the homeschooling classroom. Here are some tips to make your classroom more spacious by eliminating unwanted junk from the area. Feel free to add your own twist to this version of the clean up crew.

Separate the Stuff

Ideally put all the stuff into the following categories – Keep, Recycle, Trash, Donate and Sell. You can physically place the cardboard boxes for items that you want to donate and sell. Mark them with a permanent marker so that you are sure what each box is for. This saves time when you are in the middle of a big clean up pile and wondering where the coloring book you hold needs to go.

The stuff that you need to keep can be placed on the table or shelves in the homeschool classroom. The things that need to be trashed can be placed in a nice big garbage bag. The stuff to sell and donate can be boxed. Using this system is easier because you are not thinking of an intermediary place to keep everything before you dispose of them.

Finish Discarding First

The usual tendency while cleaning up is to find the right place for things that you need to keep, while ignoring what needs to be discarded. Instead get started with taking out the stuff you need to trash first. Then take over the things that you need to donate to the place or people you are planning on donating to.

After this there will already be a lot more space to play with in the homeschool classroom. Next get going on pricing the material that you want to sell. Put up the online ads, the flyers around the neighborhood and notices for sale. Take the box of stuff to sell out of the homeschool classroom and place it in the garage or other area where it won’t come in the way. Now you can finally allow yourself to settle the remaining stuff into the homeschool area.