Online Resources

Our board recently met with Ruth Russell, Yokosuka's School Liason Officer.  I really wish we had done this sooner as she came with a wealth of online resources that are available to military families, particularly Navy, dealing with education.  I haven't had a chance to look through many of them, but wanted to share and make sure that everyone is aware of these gems. 

First, we have Navy Knowledge Online.  In addition to resources for sailors, there are also resources for younger students: downloadable audio-books, foreign language lessons, e-books, college prep and so much more.  If you have any problems registering for the site, contact Ruth as she is an administrator for the site.  Connected with NKO is also tutor.com.   As military families, we have free access to 24/7tutors, in all subjects K-12 as well as college courses.

Do you have high school students needing test prep?  March2Success is the place to go.  This is run through the army, but still available to those of us on a navy base too.  March2Success provides online test prep for state exams, SAT, ACT, and ASVAB.

Please share any others you may have.  Always on the look out for more resources!

Science Resource: Seymour Simon

Seymour Simon is a children's science author whose books couple vivid photographs with good, easy to comprehend writing. He has a long series of books about bodies in space like the planets, comets and the moon.

His website SeymourSimon.com has an author blog, children's resource and game section and an educator section that might be of interest. The kids' and educators' sections have a registration process to ensure that kids have parental permission to use the site.

College Credit By Exam

Burning Question: Where to take CLEP/DSST while stationed here in the Kanto Plain of Japan? Do you have a high schooler, especially a Jr/Sr level schooler and wants--nay, needs to take the CLEP/DSST?

Well I found info... Que audience applause... Thank you, thank you.

Now, as I had discovered through half a school day spent on the phone being bounced around from one office to another, not much help is available to us through college hill on base if you are not active duty military or a high school graduate dependent of a DOD sponsored individual. Thanks to the lack of support and services, I have been keeping this pot simmering on my back burner to find a way around this quandary and have been richly rewarded.

I recently (as of this morning) came across information in how to get CBE: Credit By Exam. This is done via CLEP or DSST. While in Japan, you can take CLEP without constraints (ex: must be military or already enrolled at the college etc...) at Temple University, Tokyo; and DSST also in Tokyo at CAS and Temple University. 

I hope this helps out. Below are the links of where I garnered this informaiton along with the addresses of the two sites in Tokyo. 

Good Fortune and Happy Monday--oh, and Holidays too!

Article concerning CBE http://www.rosettastone.com/homeschool/articles/new-approach-to-college

CLEP in Japan http://apps.collegeboard.com/cbsearch_clep/searchCLEPTestCenterResults.jsp?searchCategory_country=Japan&DBACTION=SEARCH_TC&clepSearchType=International&x=35&y=10

DSST in Japan In the search criteria box enter "Japan" and for Region select "International." http://www.getcollegecredit.com/search.html

CLEP and DSST

http://www.tuj.ac.jp/default.html
Temple University - Tokyo

3F, Test Center
2-8-12 Minami-Azabu, Minato-ku
Tokyo,   106-0047
03-5441-9877

DSST 

http://www.cas-jpn.com/aboutus-en.html#en2

CAS Center for Advanced Studies 

Sanei-Hoshino Bldg., 3F, 

10-2 Sanei-cho, Shinjuku-ku, 

Tokyo, 160-0008, JAPAN
International Phone : (+81)3-3226-7462　

Fax : (+81)3-3226-7465　E-mail :info@cas-jpn.com

Waiting for the Typhoon

Well, it looks like we have another typhoon headed our way this week. I'm sure everyone has already started securing loose items on the balcony and in the yard.

If you're looking for some interesting educational ideas for typhoons, check out some of these.

Beaufort Wind Scale illustration from Howtoons. Last year we did our own illustrations in the spirit of this chart during the "back to school" typhoon.

Typhoons and hurricanes are the same kind of storm, just happening in different locations. Weather Wiz Kids has some good info on hurricanes and what causes the different resulting effects of the storm like storm surge.

The education section of the National Weather Service has some good stuff on weather in general and storms in particular.

NOAA has a great education site. Weather, reef exploration, climate, marine life, etc are all profiled and explained. They have tons of info on hurricanes.

If this strikes up an interest in weather science, you might be interested in the online weather course available from NOAA. It's called Jetstream and it seems very good.

Japanese History and Art Activities

Ellen McHenry's Basement Workshop site has some interesting hands on activities that would be fun for homeschoolers. Check out the history section, which includes some Japanese activities, like a pop up Bunraku stage. Bunraku is Japanese puppet theatre like what is described in The Master Puppeteer.

Hat tip: Our Nest of 3

Where to Put the Homeschool Stuff

We had a homeschool space challenge a few weeks back. Mommy To Bees was sweet enough to post some photos of her dining room to show how she's arranged homeschooling stuff in their Ikego home.

She also has some cool pics of the homeschooling files and their contents.

Anyone else have photos they're willing to show off of how you keep homeschool stuff in your home, either military housing or Japanese homes?

Interesting Japanese Grasshopper

I was trying to identify a giant insect that we had land on our balcony last summer. In the process I found a cool site with little posts about insects and other animals in Japan. Natural Japan is based in Kyushu (southern Japan). But even so, it has some good info. If you can narrow your search down to an order (like arachnids - spiders, lepidoptera - butterflies & moths, or orthoptera - grasshoppers & related insects) you can click on that term in the sidebar and see all the entries for that order.

By the way, the lovely on the balcony was an oriental long headed locust. Below is another one that we found last fall on the soccer fields. I think it's interesting that they seem to change colors as the rice in the fields changes from green to golden brown. If you're headed out to harvest rice this fall, or just hanging around the soccer fields, keep an eye out for these hoppers.