OSU Hatfield Science Visitor Center - Newport, OR

OSU has an awesome free science center in Newport, OR located inside the OSU Hatfield Marine Science Visitor Center. They charge nothing for admission, but do accept donations.

It’s a small science museum, but they have packed in the hands on exhibits. The day we went there was an educational lecture on whales. They also have the Yaquina Estuary Nature Trail outside on the property that is open to the public from dawn to dusk. The trail is ½ mile paved and wheelchair-accessible.

Learning Exhibits

• Tsunamis and Earthquakes
• Sustainable Fisheries
• Tide Pools
• Invasive Species
• Octopus and Sunstars

Touch Pools

They had touch tanks full of fun sea creatures. Our kids spent most of their time here touching starfish and various anemones.
 

Hatfield Marine Science Center

2030 S.E. Marine Science Dr.

Newport, OR

541-867-0100

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10 Educational Websites

Here is a list of 10 great FREE educational websites. 

http://www.eduplace.com/tales/ - for 3rd grade and up where the kids can write mad-libs of a variety of topics.  Shows the kids parts of speech and how to write a tale.

http://www.eduplace.com/kids/games.jsp - This site has four educational games your kids can play.  Spelling, geography, and word finds.

Time Magazine website for kids
News for kids Weekly Reader
National Geographic for kids
Fema for kids

Nasa for kids! 

http://www.wildlifeart.org/learn/ArtToEducation/ is a great site for educating children on wildlife art.

Book Adventure is a FREE reading motivation program for children in grades K-8. Children create their own book lists from over 7,000 recommended titles, take multiple choice quizzes on the books they've read, and earn points and prizes for their literary successes.

BBC has a great educational website on every school subject. 

Parenting tip - Children's Chore cards

I use Children's chore cards at my houseas an incentive for my children to do chores around the house. 

I use a simple 3x5 index card. At the top is their name and that week's dates. Under is a list of chores your child is capable of achieving and the amount they are paid each time they perform that specific chore.

I decide my chores based on realistic goals for their ages. My nine year old can do more than my six year old and my three year old can do the least of all. So the tasks will vary. The earnings for each task reflect on hard the task is. For example when you take out the kitchen trash or the recycling it is easy. They close up the bag and throw it into our garage holder in the garage. It takes less than 1 minute making it worth .25. Also, this is a job just for my nine year old, because my six year old is too short. However, the upstairs trash is different. There are many little trash cans to dump into one bag and then haul down stairs and then it will be taken out to the garabage holder. This task takes more time and energy. My kids can use team work and both make .75 cents each.

Each week we start over with a fresh card on Sunday. All week long I keep track of the chores they have done by placing a star next to the actvity. On Saturday I total it up and they get their 'pay day'. They look forward to pay day and are always excited. Last week they both made $1.75 each. They were happy to make so much money!

On a week where I have had to ask too many times for them to do something or they have given me attitude I make them complete their tasks with no compensation. They lose the privilage of Earning money. I want them to recognize that we enjoy rewarding them, but only if they can have a good attitude without complaining.

Parenting with Rewards

I believe in rewards and incentives as a form of discipline, but I also use them in other areas like reading.

Anytime a kid's movie comes out that was a book originally I don't allow my kids to see the movie. At least, not until we have read the book. Often times kids get down about reading. When my kids do this I use watching the movie as an incentive. Instead of them complaining about reading they can't wait to finish the book and will actually ask me to read them another chapter.

Some ideas to get you started are:

The Chronicles of Narnia - so far they have made two books in this series into movies. A third book will come out as a movie this summer.

Percy Jackson & the Olympians - They have already turned the 1st book of the series into a movie and I know there are plans to make more books into movies.  This is a five book series.  I must say the movie was not near as good as the book and it was very different.  We read the book first and then watched the movie.  For the first time my kids realized how much better a book could be and was.  I thought that was a great lesson for them.

Diary of a Wimpy kid - Right now there are 4 books out, but the next one comes out at the beginning of November.  My kids think these books are hilarious.  They read them over and over.  They loved the movie too.

Ann of Green Gables - I am unsure of how many of these books were made into movies.  I know the first 2 in the series are definately movies.  Also, for younger children you can get a children's version.  I found one at WalMart for $5 and it was a hardback. 

Star Wars - there are tons of these books and they come in various reading levels

Save Money on College books

Everyone needs more ways to save money getting their kids through college.  Here are a few websites to help you save money on books.

http://www.halfpricetextbooks.us/


http://www.freebookexpress.com/

http://www.textbooksfree.org/

http://www.cheapesttextbooks.com/

http://www.booksprice.com/

http://www.coursesmart.com/

Good DVD for your kids

The other day I was at the Family Christian book store and they were having a special on some movies I had never heard of, Junior's Giants.   I went ahead and got two because it was such a good deal. I absolutely love them. They teach an excellent and relevant message to your children. The first one talked about controlling your anger and the other one we got was about money and stuff can't make you happy. They were silly and funny and all three of my kids liked it. My nine year old was able to explain what he learned.

Learning A-Z Open house

A-Z is a website I use occasionally. The offer a variety of educational services. One that I have utilized is the A-Z science. They had several lessons you can download for free. I just got an email from them letting me know about their free week! Enjoy!

From their website: In recognition of Teacher Appreciation Week from May 4-8, we're thrilled to announce our annual Open House. As thanks for everything you and your staff do on behalf of our kids, you can explore our websites free of charge! Explore our dynamic, interactive sites and sample many of our down loadable resources, from reading and writing to vocabulary and science.

Learning A-Z is on a mission. That mission is to provide teachers and students with flexible and affordable research-based resources for differentiated K-6 instruction. Especially now, during these challenging economic times, that mission can only be fulfilled if we have strong partnerships with education professionals like you.

Register now!
Registration for the Open House is now open! Just go to Learning A-Z to sign up and receive a full schedule of our Open House events. This is a great opportunity to see what Learning A-Z has to offer, not just as a provider of learning resources but as a partner committed to helping your students realize their full potential.Kind regards,Bob Holl Cofounder and Publisher Learning A-Z, Inc.