Hawaii is made up of a chain of 8 islands. We love on Oahu (the most populated). We have also visited The Big Island (The Island of Hawaii) and Kauai.
50 State Facts
Hawaii has LOTS of things to see and do and it’s always warm! It does rain sometimes, but rarely ever over the entire island (so there is always some place dry to go). Rain is great because it brings us rainbows – you can see them often here! That is why our license plates have rainbows on them!
Some of our favorite activities to do and places to go on Oahu are:
Waikiki Aquarium
Honolulu Zoo
Bishop Museum
Living Art Marine Center
Botanical Gardens
Polynesian Cultural Center
Laie Latter-Day Saint Temple
Pearl Harbor
Dolphin Quest
Sea Life Park
Water Park
Dole Plantation
to name a few….
There are also lots of great cultural events that happen around the island!
You can see all the great places we have gone on field trips and link up with your own field trips each week at our Field Trip Friday Blog Hop each week.
Homeschooling in Hawaii is fairly easy. First you must fill at an intent to homeschool form the year you decide to homeschool or the year your child will turn 6 years of age. Then each year you must provide a progress report with work samples to the principal at the school your child would have attended if they were public schooled. You must also take the standardized tests at the specified years.
There are lots of homeschool support groups on the island, and even more if you are military. There are even two Public Homeschooling Charters. The first is Hawaii Tech Academy which uses a K12 curriculum, and the 2nd is Myron B. Thompson Academy which gives you a $1500 allotment to spend on approved curriculums and other homeschooling expenses.
HYCO – Homeschoolers of Young Children, Oahu is a very active Facebook group that does lots of group trips all over the island. We do at least 2-3 field trips a month with them, they are also hosting a science fair and art show, and there are sub groups for foreign language and music classes at reduced rates.
MHEN – Military Home Educators Network is a very active group for military members on island. They have PE classes, and other organized events and activities.
CHOH – Christian Homeschoolers of Hawaii – has several smaller groups around the island. They also host a yearly homeschoolers conference.
There several co-ops on the island as well as Classical Conversations.
Here are a few Hawaii printables I made to share:
Hawaii State Fact 3 part cards
Hawaii Foods 4 part cards
ALOHA!
Jen is a mother to 3 boys, and is in her second official year of homeschooling. She has a Master of Science in Early Childhood Education and worked with young children for many years before having her own. She likes to read, cook and get crafty. She is an Usborne Books Consultant and blogs at Chestnut Grove Academy.
This was our Christmas Video for 2012–Lots of great pictures to get a good idea of Hawaii life. (Though a few pictures are from our Alaska vacation last year).
Thanks, Jen, for sharing. This is my husbands dream vacation destination. I'd love to see the waterfalls.
ReplyDeleteLooks like a great series on the USA. We live in Ohio and the boys and I just watched 4 dvds from the library about visiting Hawaii (and the islands) "with kids". I think if we were doing a unit study on Hawaii your post here would be a great resource to have.
ReplyDeleteTracy (www.halloffamemoms.com)