$1000

The school gives me a budget for curriculum supplies for the upcoming year. I've decided to spend it all on three main purchases: a new teaching clock (there is a great new Montessori teaching clock that helps students associate the skip counting of the minute hand with the 5-chain), prepared slides for the microscope (we currently have only two sets, which I find appalling), and art supplies.

Here's the teaching clock link. It's awesome!

For slides, I am going with Edmund Scientific and this is what I'm ordering. It's $25-$30 for a set of ten slides but they last forever and I know it will be worth it.

Teaching Series:
teaching series for biology: basic set $29.95
series for elementary science $29.95

Botany:
roots and stems of flowering plants $29.95
fungi, mushrooms, and algae $29.95
artforms of nature: spores & pollen grains $24.95

Ecology:
identifying polluted water $24.95

Zoology:
fishes, frogs, and amphibia $24.95
protozoa and one-celled animals $29.95
spiders and insects $24.95
insects and other arthropods $24.95

Cell Structures:
structure of the animal cell $29.95
the wonderful structure of the plant cell $29.95

Microorganisms in the Water:
excursion in a village pond $24.95
life in rivers and brooks $24.95


I am going pretty heavy on the microorganisms and invertebrates because I think we don't talk enough about these things -- it is easy for kids to jump straight to birds, fish, reptiles, amphibians, and mammals because those are the animals we know best. Even when I'm playing "I'm Thinking of an Animal" with my girls (our version of 20 questions) and they pick one and I begin narrowing down the process with my guesses (is it a reptile? is it a mammal?) I always pick the vertebrate categories so I'm inadvertently leaving out a HUGE number of animals and implying to my children that the ones with backbones are the only ones that matter.

Speaking of mammals, it looks like our dear departed guinea pig will shortly be replaced by a rabbit. Leah has her heart set on a little girl bunny which she plans to name Julia.