Handwriting Help: Four Suggestions for Happy Letters
0 CommentsBy Lostcheerio on Wednesday, November 07, 2007 at 5:11 PM.
Handwriting is a stressful subject. Any time there is a "perfect" way to do something, and we are helping our children to try to meet that "perfect" standard, we have to be careful not to set off weird alarms in their heads -- what's wrong with me? Why can't I just do it exactly like the book has it? In math class, we can get the right answer if we figure out the correct number. In science class we can memorize the facts. It's either right or it's wrong, there's no subjectivity in most of elementary school. The truth about handwriting is that it's almost mechanically impossible to duplicate the correct answer. What we're all trying to do is to get close, and in the end most of us abandon that attempt anyway, and either type things or write in all caps (like me) or just embrace the scrawl.
Here are four ideas for helping your child navigate this shark-infested water, especially if you're already having trouble, tears, and terror.
1. It's okay to let the child write using the typewriter or computer. This lets the kid form words, express thoughts, etc. without the pain (psychological or otherwise!) of holding a pencil. Just forming the words and having them look perfect, perfect, perfect can be very satisfying! My son’s favorite computer “game” was wordpad for a long time.
2. Get rid of whatever medium is driving the child and you crazy. If pencil and paper isn’t working, ditch it. For as long as is necessary. Write with your finger in marshmallow fluff, in fingerpaint, in sand, in chalk dust. Write on a white board with scented markers. Write with mommy’s ancient lipstick on the dishwasher. Okay, maybe not that last one. Hehehe. We used a whiteboard for everything and Benny loved it – it’s a lot less frustrating to erase when you can just swipe it off, and you don’t have to scrub at a piece of paper with an eraser. Write on sidewalks, on the side of the house with a water hose, with bubbles in the tub, etc.
3. Confound the idea of “perfection” by asking her to write silly things. Write it all in curly cues. Write it in ocean waves. Write it like a mouse would write it. Write it tiny, write it huge, write it upside down. For a small child who wants to write perfect letters but physically has a hard time doing it, one of those manuscript sheets with three lines, one dotted in the middle, one red on top, can be the height of intimidation, frustration, and potential defeat. How would a mouse write it? How would an elephant write it? You be silly, start laughing, get crazy, then sigh, shake your head and say, "Okay, well, I guess we better write it like humans now..."
4. Everyone's handwriting is different. Let your child know that we all have our own ways of writing, and try looking at different people’s handwriting. Look at all the signers of the constitution. Look for handwriting samples online. Talk about signatures and how everyone's signature is *supposed* to look different and special.
Here's a sample of Benny's writing when he was 3 1/2:
Not exactly regular, uniform, perfect or textbook! While Benny wasn’t worried about perfection, I was, initially. I tried to make him hold the pencil a certain way, stay within this and that line, and think beautiful thoughts. I convinced myself, at last, that it didn’t really matter, as long as he was happily writing letters, and having fun.. If I, a brutal perfectionist, can come to that conclusion, maybe your child can too!
Here are four ideas for helping your child navigate this shark-infested water, especially if you're already having trouble, tears, and terror.
1. It's okay to let the child write using the typewriter or computer. This lets the kid form words, express thoughts, etc. without the pain (psychological or otherwise!) of holding a pencil. Just forming the words and having them look perfect, perfect, perfect can be very satisfying! My son’s favorite computer “game” was wordpad for a long time.
2. Get rid of whatever medium is driving the child and you crazy. If pencil and paper isn’t working, ditch it. For as long as is necessary. Write with your finger in marshmallow fluff, in fingerpaint, in sand, in chalk dust. Write on a white board with scented markers. Write with mommy’s ancient lipstick on the dishwasher. Okay, maybe not that last one. Hehehe. We used a whiteboard for everything and Benny loved it – it’s a lot less frustrating to erase when you can just swipe it off, and you don’t have to scrub at a piece of paper with an eraser. Write on sidewalks, on the side of the house with a water hose, with bubbles in the tub, etc.
3. Confound the idea of “perfection” by asking her to write silly things. Write it all in curly cues. Write it in ocean waves. Write it like a mouse would write it. Write it tiny, write it huge, write it upside down. For a small child who wants to write perfect letters but physically has a hard time doing it, one of those manuscript sheets with three lines, one dotted in the middle, one red on top, can be the height of intimidation, frustration, and potential defeat. How would a mouse write it? How would an elephant write it? You be silly, start laughing, get crazy, then sigh, shake your head and say, "Okay, well, I guess we better write it like humans now..."
4. Everyone's handwriting is different. Let your child know that we all have our own ways of writing, and try looking at different people’s handwriting. Look at all the signers of the constitution. Look for handwriting samples online. Talk about signatures and how everyone's signature is *supposed* to look different and special.
Here's a sample of Benny's writing when he was 3 1/2:
Not exactly regular, uniform, perfect or textbook! While Benny wasn’t worried about perfection, I was, initially. I tried to make him hold the pencil a certain way, stay within this and that line, and think beautiful thoughts. I convinced myself, at last, that it didn’t really matter, as long as he was happily writing letters, and having fun.. If I, a brutal perfectionist, can come to that conclusion, maybe your child can too!
Labels: handwriting, homeschooling, lessons, practice, tips
K is for Kapok: The South American Alphabet Project
2 CommentsBy Lostcheerio on Monday, November 05, 2007 at 10:56 PM.
Today, Phi Bensa Zoe Academy's junior class resumed its study of the alphabet via South America, to go along with the Spanish studies they are pursuing with Veronica.
Here are the new pages for the South America workbooks:
Junior:
Senior:
Here's our Kapok tree lesson!
1) We read these two books.
2) We painted Kapok trees with no leaves on it, but lots of animals inhabiting them! I drew the tree outlines with pencil and during the painting we concentrated on doing brush-brush-brush instead of scrubbing the brushes around. Both of them did very well filling in their areas, and we had three different watercolor shades of brown to help them get the feel for shading.
3) Cut out lots and lots of big broad leaves for the animals to hide under. Phillip did GREAT with the scissors. Sadie needs me to be her left hand, turning the paper while she operates the scissors.
4) Tape the leaves onto the trees like little flaps, so that you can lift them up and see the hidden animals inside.
What is WRONG with me that I didn't take pictures of the final products! Imagine the trees above with a whole bunch more leaves stuck all over the place.
We concentrated on learning the names of the animals in the book, and on getting that brush technique down, and on precision cutting. A good day.
Here are the new pages for the South America workbooks:
Junior:
Senior:
Here's our Kapok tree lesson!
1) We read these two books.
2) We painted Kapok trees with no leaves on it, but lots of animals inhabiting them! I drew the tree outlines with pencil and during the painting we concentrated on doing brush-brush-brush instead of scrubbing the brushes around. Both of them did very well filling in their areas, and we had three different watercolor shades of brown to help them get the feel for shading.
3) Cut out lots and lots of big broad leaves for the animals to hide under. Phillip did GREAT with the scissors. Sadie needs me to be her left hand, turning the paper while she operates the scissors.
4) Tape the leaves onto the trees like little flaps, so that you can lift them up and see the hidden animals inside.
What is WRONG with me that I didn't take pictures of the final products! Imagine the trees above with a whole bunch more leaves stuck all over the place.
We concentrated on learning the names of the animals in the book, and on getting that brush technique down, and on precision cutting. A good day.
Labels: alphabet, lessons, phi bensa zoe, preschool, south america
More Homeschool for Girls: A Useful Flower Printable
1 CommentsBy Lostcheerio on Monday, September 03, 2007 at 11:07 AM.
I was doing letter practice with Sadie the other day, and as we were playing around with our crayons and paper, I made this:
Here's how it worked. I put a letter in a box, then she copied it into the neighboring box. When she accomplished this, she got to draw a petal onto the flower. When there were ten petals on the flower, she was done. She loved it.
I liked it too and thought I might like to use it again, so I made a digital version of it for reprinting.
If you click here you can go to a bigger version of the image, that you can print. Make sure you go to Page Layout or Print Options or whatever and choose "Landscape" before you print it out. If you use it, and like it, send me a picture of it! :D
Possible uses:
Letter practice. Copy what Mommy writes, or write the letters yourself in upper and lower case in the two boxes.
Number practice. Copy what Mommy writes, or write the numbers in yourself, twice to 10 or once to 20.
Violin/piano practice. Put the song names in the boxes and color the petals for every song you do. Choose ten boxes to practice.
Task list. Put 20 possible jobs in the boxes and let the child choose 10 to accomplish for the week, for each job accomplished fill in a petal.
Schedule for the day. Make a list of everything, everything, everything you're going to do today in the left boxes. Have child fill in the right boxes with everything she wants to do. Each put five top priorities in the petals.
Happy Labor Day
Here's how it worked. I put a letter in a box, then she copied it into the neighboring box. When she accomplished this, she got to draw a petal onto the flower. When there were ten petals on the flower, she was done. She loved it.
I liked it too and thought I might like to use it again, so I made a digital version of it for reprinting.
If you click here you can go to a bigger version of the image, that you can print. Make sure you go to Page Layout or Print Options or whatever and choose "Landscape" before you print it out. If you use it, and like it, send me a picture of it! :D
Possible uses:
Letter practice. Copy what Mommy writes, or write the letters yourself in upper and lower case in the two boxes.
Number practice. Copy what Mommy writes, or write the numbers in yourself, twice to 10 or once to 20.
Violin/piano practice. Put the song names in the boxes and color the petals for every song you do. Choose ten boxes to practice.
Task list. Put 20 possible jobs in the boxes and let the child choose 10 to accomplish for the week, for each job accomplished fill in a petal.
Schedule for the day. Make a list of everything, everything, everything you're going to do today in the left boxes. Have child fill in the right boxes with everything she wants to do. Each put five top priorities in the petals.
Happy Labor Day
Labels: free, lessons, preschool, printables
That's What Makes A Cell: A Song About the Parts of Plant and Animal Cells
1 CommentsBy Lostcheerio on Thursday, August 30, 2007 at 7:08 PM.
This summer at Phi Bensa Zoe Academy (our homeschooling mini-co-op that we engage in with one other family and their similarly aged children) the senior class (first grade students) have been studying cell biology. We learned the parts of a bacteria cell, the parts of plant and animal cells, and now we're learning about cell division. Here are two of our projects:
We found our first cell model project at a Library Thinkquest site. You make a cell model out of a Ziploc baggie, Karo syrup, and candies. Splendid. We used a plastic easter egg for the nucleus with yarn inside to represent the DNA. We used small balloons for the vacuoles, making the plant cells have big ones, the animal cells smaller ones. We made our bacteria cells with only ribosomes and yarn.
Letting the kids make their own choices as to what candies to use for what organelles was very interesting. Also, we had our first lesson with the saying, "No model is perfect; every model should be useful" since all our model cells were squares and obviously, ribosomes aren't lemon drops.
Here are our plant cells:
The next models we made were of clay. We used Das clay, which I love, although it does make more of a mess than Crayola Model Magic or other "kid" clays. Das really feels like clay, to me, and the fact that it leaves a little clay on your hands is a benefit. Not a benefit to the pipes under the sink, Dan will be happy to remind me.
We made our plant, animal, and bacteria cell shapes, then added the clay organelles. Then we painted the cells, hot-glued them to a very glamorous and impressive gold plaque (spraypainted in the yard on the now-gold grass) and spray varnished the whole thing. Now the grass is gold *and* shiny! Dan will recall that he never liked the grass anyway.
Benny's project:
Zoe's project:
You'll notice that Zoe, who has declared her major as shepherding at the tender age of 7, has included the "lamb" cell, along with the other three. Excellent.
We've learned three songs to go with our study of cells, and I'll include one of them here. The others will have to wait until our next recording session, yo!
Cells are composed of organelles
Kept inside a membrane, given shape by vacuoles!
All living things are made of these
Building blocks of life; they're bio-legos if you please!
That's what makes a cell
All the organelles
Work together well
That's what makes a cell
Plant cells can photosynthesize
Using chlorophyll to turn the sunlight into french fries
Chloroplasts make plant cells green inside
They make food from water, light, and sweet carbon dioxide
(Chorus)
When it is time to reproduce
Centrioles divide the nucleus into a deuce
Chromosomes, made up of DNA,
Line up to be pulled apart, to make two cells today.
(Chorus)
Ribosomes put together proteins
Golgi bodies package up the proteins
Lysosomes get rid of the garbage
They all use the endoplasmic reticulum highway!
(Chorus)
Cells, mon!
We found our first cell model project at a Library Thinkquest site. You make a cell model out of a Ziploc baggie, Karo syrup, and candies. Splendid. We used a plastic easter egg for the nucleus with yarn inside to represent the DNA. We used small balloons for the vacuoles, making the plant cells have big ones, the animal cells smaller ones. We made our bacteria cells with only ribosomes and yarn.
Letting the kids make their own choices as to what candies to use for what organelles was very interesting. Also, we had our first lesson with the saying, "No model is perfect; every model should be useful" since all our model cells were squares and obviously, ribosomes aren't lemon drops.
Here are our plant cells:
The next models we made were of clay. We used Das clay, which I love, although it does make more of a mess than Crayola Model Magic or other "kid" clays. Das really feels like clay, to me, and the fact that it leaves a little clay on your hands is a benefit. Not a benefit to the pipes under the sink, Dan will be happy to remind me.
We made our plant, animal, and bacteria cell shapes, then added the clay organelles. Then we painted the cells, hot-glued them to a very glamorous and impressive gold plaque (spraypainted in the yard on the now-gold grass) and spray varnished the whole thing. Now the grass is gold *and* shiny! Dan will recall that he never liked the grass anyway.
Benny's project:
Zoe's project:
You'll notice that Zoe, who has declared her major as shepherding at the tender age of 7, has included the "lamb" cell, along with the other three. Excellent.
We've learned three songs to go with our study of cells, and I'll include one of them here. The others will have to wait until our next recording session, yo!
Cells are composed of organelles
Kept inside a membrane, given shape by vacuoles!
All living things are made of these
Building blocks of life; they're bio-legos if you please!
That's what makes a cell
All the organelles
Work together well
That's what makes a cell
Plant cells can photosynthesize
Using chlorophyll to turn the sunlight into french fries
Chloroplasts make plant cells green inside
They make food from water, light, and sweet carbon dioxide
(Chorus)
When it is time to reproduce
Centrioles divide the nucleus into a deuce
Chromosomes, made up of DNA,
Line up to be pulled apart, to make two cells today.
(Chorus)
Ribosomes put together proteins
Golgi bodies package up the proteins
Lysosomes get rid of the garbage
They all use the endoplasmic reticulum highway!
(Chorus)
Cells, mon!
Labels: biology, cells, educational songs, learning with music, lessons, phi bensa zoe, science
Write a screenplay in 30 days. Now, teach your 7 year old to write a screenplay in 30 days. Sweet tea for everyone.
Have you heard of Script Frenzy? No?
Have you heard of National Novel Writing Month? No?
Script Frenzy and National Novel Writing Month are online communities where a bunch of motivated people publicly resolve to write either a screenplay (in June) or a novel (in November) in a month. There is no fee, there is no prize, there is no judging, there are no repercussions for failure -- it's just a way to throw yourself into writing in a mad dash, rather than a thoughtful stroll, along with a bunch of other people doing the same thing.
Fun! I have done Nanowrimo for three years now, and last year Benny did it with me. His novel reached 5000 words (he dictated it to me) and was awesome! This is the first year for Script Frenzy, and I thought, hey, why not drag Benny along for this too. So, we're doing it.
I'm leading Benny and his friend Zoe through this process, or rather watching as they go through it together. It's pretty cool! So far they've learned about character roles (protagonist, antagonist, supporting characters, foils) and plot structure, and archetypal plots -- like the quest plot (Hobbit) vs. the return home plot (Alice in Wonderland) or in some cases both (Wizard of Oz). All this discussion has led to some really interesting discussion and dissection of the movies they know.
For example, Benny told me that the initiating action in "Cars" is when McQueen falls off the semi truck, not when he ties in the race at the beginning. He likened it to Alice going down the rabbit hole and you know what? He's right. I was wrong. The initiating action, or the clinch, or the point of no return, or whatever you call it, is when the character's life goes right off the path and nothing can ever be the same again. So Benny is really understanding this plot stuff -- possibly better than I am!
His movie is called "Benny's Adventures in the Norfolk City World and Beyond the Earth."
I'm writing one too. May we both have interesting months. :D
In unrelated news, here's a picture of Benny with his little sister and one of his favorite dogs:
Have you heard of Script Frenzy? No?
Have you heard of National Novel Writing Month? No?
Script Frenzy and National Novel Writing Month are online communities where a bunch of motivated people publicly resolve to write either a screenplay (in June) or a novel (in November) in a month. There is no fee, there is no prize, there is no judging, there are no repercussions for failure -- it's just a way to throw yourself into writing in a mad dash, rather than a thoughtful stroll, along with a bunch of other people doing the same thing.
Fun! I have done Nanowrimo for three years now, and last year Benny did it with me. His novel reached 5000 words (he dictated it to me) and was awesome! This is the first year for Script Frenzy, and I thought, hey, why not drag Benny along for this too. So, we're doing it.
I'm leading Benny and his friend Zoe through this process, or rather watching as they go through it together. It's pretty cool! So far they've learned about character roles (protagonist, antagonist, supporting characters, foils) and plot structure, and archetypal plots -- like the quest plot (Hobbit) vs. the return home plot (Alice in Wonderland) or in some cases both (Wizard of Oz). All this discussion has led to some really interesting discussion and dissection of the movies they know.
For example, Benny told me that the initiating action in "Cars" is when McQueen falls off the semi truck, not when he ties in the race at the beginning. He likened it to Alice going down the rabbit hole and you know what? He's right. I was wrong. The initiating action, or the clinch, or the point of no return, or whatever you call it, is when the character's life goes right off the path and nothing can ever be the same again. So Benny is really understanding this plot stuff -- possibly better than I am!
His movie is called "Benny's Adventures in the Norfolk City World and Beyond the Earth."
I'm writing one too. May we both have interesting months. :D
In unrelated news, here's a picture of Benny with his little sister and one of his favorite dogs:
Labels: homeschooling, lessons, script frenzy, writing
The other day we were out testing our wheels. Benny got rollerblades from the Easter bunny, and Sadie has gotten big enough to ride the scooter. So there we were, rolling along.
After a few turns and a few falls, a few things sniffed enthusiastically by the dog that turned out to be pine cones, Benny found a caterpillar. Being Benny, he picked it up immediately, pronounced it "adorable" and began to "snuggle" it. Poor caterpillar. He hinted broadly that he'd like to keep it, and I, positive that it was already dead from all the affection, agreed. With total confidence that the bug was dead, and encouraged by all the "loves" that he was giving it on the slow way home, I got out the old hermit crab house (I killed them -- long story) and we furnished it with sticks and leaves.
The caterpillar was lying on its side, completely obviously dead. I pointed this out, and he said, "He's lying on his side so he doesn't cough!" Uh, ok. The next morning, he had moved, enough to turn halfway around on a leaf. We left for our day's activities -- ballet, Ahno's house, homeschool park day, karate.
When we got home, we rushed over to the caterpillar's lair and he had begun doing this:
Maybe you can't see (hey, I can't see, and I took the picture) but he is actually swathing himself in spitty cotton. When we went to bed, he was still at it, looking like he was wrapping himself in spiderweb.
In the morning, not only was he not dead, but he was COCCOONED. He was completely wrapped up in this yellowish cottony stuff, and we couldn't see him anymore. This led to much googling and asking of how to spell chrysalis, and at the end of the very intense learning experience, we discovered that he is... a tent worm.
He is a tent worm. One of those awful things that makes a giant next in a fruit tree and kills the tree. People LOATHE tent worms, people exterminate tent worms, people hurl vile invectives at tent worms. People do not, for example, nurture tent worms in beautiful little terrariums and call them "adorable" and "snuggle" them. Except that WE DO. And in three weeks, he's going to emerge, not as a beautiful colorful butterfly or an elegant moth but as this awful, bull-headed creature the color of phlegm who will probably immediately start demanding a pear tree to annhilate.
But I bet the children will love him!
After a few turns and a few falls, a few things sniffed enthusiastically by the dog that turned out to be pine cones, Benny found a caterpillar. Being Benny, he picked it up immediately, pronounced it "adorable" and began to "snuggle" it. Poor caterpillar. He hinted broadly that he'd like to keep it, and I, positive that it was already dead from all the affection, agreed. With total confidence that the bug was dead, and encouraged by all the "loves" that he was giving it on the slow way home, I got out the old hermit crab house (I killed them -- long story) and we furnished it with sticks and leaves.
The caterpillar was lying on its side, completely obviously dead. I pointed this out, and he said, "He's lying on his side so he doesn't cough!" Uh, ok. The next morning, he had moved, enough to turn halfway around on a leaf. We left for our day's activities -- ballet, Ahno's house, homeschool park day, karate.
When we got home, we rushed over to the caterpillar's lair and he had begun doing this:
Maybe you can't see (hey, I can't see, and I took the picture) but he is actually swathing himself in spitty cotton. When we went to bed, he was still at it, looking like he was wrapping himself in spiderweb.
In the morning, not only was he not dead, but he was COCCOONED. He was completely wrapped up in this yellowish cottony stuff, and we couldn't see him anymore. This led to much googling and asking of how to spell chrysalis, and at the end of the very intense learning experience, we discovered that he is... a tent worm.
He is a tent worm. One of those awful things that makes a giant next in a fruit tree and kills the tree. People LOATHE tent worms, people exterminate tent worms, people hurl vile invectives at tent worms. People do not, for example, nurture tent worms in beautiful little terrariums and call them "adorable" and "snuggle" them. Except that WE DO. And in three weeks, he's going to emerge, not as a beautiful colorful butterfly or an elegant moth but as this awful, bull-headed creature the color of phlegm who will probably immediately start demanding a pear tree to annhilate.
But I bet the children will love him!
Labels: caterpillars, lessons, science
Here's a run-down of our homeschool day, including a test for you, written by Benny, on a very important topic: Walruses.
The first thing we did was the walrus test.
The children have been avidly reading all about walruses. This was an area of inquiry that was prompted by Benny's memorization of "The Walrus and the Carpenter," by Lewis Carroll. We still haven't found a decent book about oysters.
Anyway, here is the walrus test, for your enjoyment, with Benny's spellings intact. I still can't grasp why he misspells things that are spelled correctly in a book right in front of him. I gather it'll be one of those things over which I have no control, which end up working out fine, like when he used to refuse to write lower case, and now he does it just fine. See how you do -- this test was delivered to us as Benny wrote it, and I have to tell you that he set his parents against each other in walrus-trivia cometition. I won. But I think Dan threw it.
1. Do Walruses Kill Humens?
2. Dose a Walrus (symbol for male) have pups?
3. Dose a Walres Have Wiskers?
4. Can Walruses Dive?
5. Can A Walus Hunt?
*at this point we had a conversation about yes-or-no questions and how it would be more challenging to have other kinds of questions too*
6. How Meny pups are there?
7. What are Walruses Like?
8. Waht are these:(picture of two bananas hanging from a hairy shelf)?
9. Do Walruses live in the North or Soth?
10. Is a (symbol for female) Walrus a cow or Bull?
After walrus class, we made muffins. Benny did almost all of it himself, but he did let Sadie help. Then Benny practiced his violin, and Sadie surprised us all by picking up his instrument (which is WAY too big for her) and managing to play Tuka-Tuka-Stop-Stop on the A string. Astonishing. And we all thought she was still under the weather today!
After lunch, we went to Ahno's house for a while. Benny did a poem show for Ahno and made it *almost* all the way through "The Walrus and the Carpenter" without any prompts. I'd say I gave him about 3 words, but really, that is the best yet.
When we got back home Benny practiced his multiplication using his "Garfield's Third Grade Math" software, and then finished his curriculum for the day by doing a few Rosetta Stone lessons.
The first thing we did was the walrus test.
The children have been avidly reading all about walruses. This was an area of inquiry that was prompted by Benny's memorization of "The Walrus and the Carpenter," by Lewis Carroll. We still haven't found a decent book about oysters.
Anyway, here is the walrus test, for your enjoyment, with Benny's spellings intact. I still can't grasp why he misspells things that are spelled correctly in a book right in front of him. I gather it'll be one of those things over which I have no control, which end up working out fine, like when he used to refuse to write lower case, and now he does it just fine. See how you do -- this test was delivered to us as Benny wrote it, and I have to tell you that he set his parents against each other in walrus-trivia cometition. I won. But I think Dan threw it.
1. Do Walruses Kill Humens?
2. Dose a Walrus (symbol for male) have pups?
3. Dose a Walres Have Wiskers?
4. Can Walruses Dive?
5. Can A Walus Hunt?
*at this point we had a conversation about yes-or-no questions and how it would be more challenging to have other kinds of questions too*
6. How Meny pups are there?
7. What are Walruses Like?
8. Waht are these:(picture of two bananas hanging from a hairy shelf)?
9. Do Walruses live in the North or Soth?
10. Is a (symbol for female) Walrus a cow or Bull?
After walrus class, we made muffins. Benny did almost all of it himself, but he did let Sadie help. Then Benny practiced his violin, and Sadie surprised us all by picking up his instrument (which is WAY too big for her) and managing to play Tuka-Tuka-Stop-Stop on the A string. Astonishing. And we all thought she was still under the weather today!
After lunch, we went to Ahno's house for a while. Benny did a poem show for Ahno and made it *almost* all the way through "The Walrus and the Carpenter" without any prompts. I'd say I gave him about 3 words, but really, that is the best yet.
When we got back home Benny practiced his multiplication using his "Garfield's Third Grade Math" software, and then finished his curriculum for the day by doing a few Rosetta Stone lessons.
Do you want to know a secret?
I never learned my multiplication table. This is actually true.
Somehow I made it through three semesters of calculus and analytic geometry at this questionably situated school without being able to tell you what 7x7 is. I mean, yes, given a few seconds, I have the ability to figure it out, but if you jump out at me from behind the doorway and say "QUICK -- WHAT IS SEVEN TIMES SEVEN?" you will be met with a blank stare.
Benny get borrowing and carrying now, and can tell time and make change, and all that other stuff, so the next thing is... multiplication table. I was actually approaching this with a little trepidation, given my own incapacity on this subject, but yesterday morning I decided to get on with it. Now I see I didn't need to worry. He is doing just fine.
I started off by drawing a grid with four squares. I put an X in the top left square, and a 1 in the other squares. Then I drew a grid with nine squares. An X in the top left square, one and two across the top, one and two down the side, and I filled in everything but the four, and gave it to him. He didn't totally know what it was, but eventually he guessed that a four belonged in that hole, and I told him that was right.
Then I drew a grid with sixteen squares, and had him fill them all in. Which he did. And we ended up with this:
This morning, I gave him the grid with 64 squares and he filled it all in again. I've also written out some problems for him to do, like 3x5=___ and also like 3x___=15 and he's doing just fine with those too. It's... pretty miraculous. At no time did I ever explain how filling in the table is like counting by 3s or 5s or whatever, and I didn't tell him how to follow the columns and rows to find answers, and I didn't really explain anything at any time. He figured it all out, because as it builds on itself, it really makes sense. And if you are allowed to see it as a whole thing, I guess, that becomes clear to you pretty fast.
He hasn't memorized his multiplication table yet, and we're only up to the 7s, really. But it's day 2 of our effort to tackle this new skill, and I'd say it's going swimmingly. Once again, I stand amazed at how very little time it actually takes to teach a child, when you are giving them one-on-one attention, and presenting the material in a way specifically tailored to the child's own learning style. I expect to be up to the 12s by the end of the week, and let me tell you: We are doing all of this BEFORE NINE AM. Before the little sister even wakes up.
Which means that when the sister wakes up, there is lots of time for more important stuff like this:
Another happy homeschool day!
I never learned my multiplication table. This is actually true.
Somehow I made it through three semesters of calculus and analytic geometry at this questionably situated school without being able to tell you what 7x7 is. I mean, yes, given a few seconds, I have the ability to figure it out, but if you jump out at me from behind the doorway and say "QUICK -- WHAT IS SEVEN TIMES SEVEN?" you will be met with a blank stare.
Benny get borrowing and carrying now, and can tell time and make change, and all that other stuff, so the next thing is... multiplication table. I was actually approaching this with a little trepidation, given my own incapacity on this subject, but yesterday morning I decided to get on with it. Now I see I didn't need to worry. He is doing just fine.
I started off by drawing a grid with four squares. I put an X in the top left square, and a 1 in the other squares. Then I drew a grid with nine squares. An X in the top left square, one and two across the top, one and two down the side, and I filled in everything but the four, and gave it to him. He didn't totally know what it was, but eventually he guessed that a four belonged in that hole, and I told him that was right.
Then I drew a grid with sixteen squares, and had him fill them all in. Which he did. And we ended up with this:
This morning, I gave him the grid with 64 squares and he filled it all in again. I've also written out some problems for him to do, like 3x5=___ and also like 3x___=15 and he's doing just fine with those too. It's... pretty miraculous. At no time did I ever explain how filling in the table is like counting by 3s or 5s or whatever, and I didn't tell him how to follow the columns and rows to find answers, and I didn't really explain anything at any time. He figured it all out, because as it builds on itself, it really makes sense. And if you are allowed to see it as a whole thing, I guess, that becomes clear to you pretty fast.
He hasn't memorized his multiplication table yet, and we're only up to the 7s, really. But it's day 2 of our effort to tackle this new skill, and I'd say it's going swimmingly. Once again, I stand amazed at how very little time it actually takes to teach a child, when you are giving them one-on-one attention, and presenting the material in a way specifically tailored to the child's own learning style. I expect to be up to the 12s by the end of the week, and let me tell you: We are doing all of this BEFORE NINE AM. Before the little sister even wakes up.
Which means that when the sister wakes up, there is lots of time for more important stuff like this:
Another happy homeschool day!
Disney World: What Did We Learn?
0 CommentsBy Lostcheerio on Thursday, October 26, 2006 at 12:59 PM.
We studiously avoided all educational aspects of Disney World. I'm sure they were there, but we tried to ignore them. Did we learn anything, in spite of our efforts?
If you think about what you're doing, and plan ahead, and research, and prepare, and organize, you can learn a lot from Disney World. On the other hand, if you do none of those things, you can probably learn a lot too.
We did not think or prepare. We tried at every turn to avoid analyzing anything, applying ourselves, deconstructing the images with which we were presented, or allowing ourselves to expand and grow. We did not learn "Hello" in all the languages at Epcot's World Lagoon and practice speaking with the native employees. I did not prepare a scavenger hunt and teach children in advance what they would see, and therefore we did not identify the landmarks from the different countries. We bypassed all the interesting tropical ducks at Animal Kingdom and rushed straight to the biggest roller coaster, which we rode as many times as possible. We danced around like fools in the sun, rather than comparing Disney's Snow White with Grimm's version. When the ferry came close enough for us to see Cinderella's castle for the first time, we did not mention Neuschwannstein.
So, what did the kids learn from our trip, given our staunch refusal to teach them anything?
The biggest thing they both learned was that it's okay to really fully commit to earnest thrill. Because Disney World is devoid of sarcasm and smirkiness, it feels right for kids and adults to behave like giddy lunatics, to sing out loud, to gambol and cavort, and to shout "WHEE!!!" My children are naturally very unselfconscious. This place was their natural element.
They learned to volunteer. Benny volunteered to be in several different shows -- Turtle Talk with Crush, the Festival of the Lion King, Belle's Storytime, Woody's Cowboy Camp, and others. His experience with Disney World was, as a result, very interactive. He learned that jumping up and saying, "I WILL!" makes everything fun. In connection with this, he also learned some social lessons like waiting your turn, accepting the role you're handed, sitting down when your part is over, and being thankful for the fact that you're included. He did all this very gracefully. Sadie did not have the same experience -- she tended to shrink into Mom or Dad's chest cavity whenever anyone with a big giant head approached. :D
Here's a little video of Benny as Gaston in Belle's story show:
They learned to be brave on rollercoasters. This was one that Benny had already mastered (lunatic that he is) but that Sadie was able to experience this year, on her first roller coaster ever, which she rode four times in immediate succession, and never wanted to leave. The bravery of these children astonished us over and over during this trip -- they are truly going to be wonderfully bold adults if this kind of behavior continues! With the obvious exception of meeting people with giant fake heads, which Sadie needs more time to master.
Here's a picture of me and Benny riding Expedition Everest at Animal Kingdom:
They learned time management, as we discussed and decided what to do so that everyone got to do what they liked (Sadie liked Haunted Mansion and Pirates of the Caribbean, and Benny liked anything that went fast around corners and down terrible drops) and we minimized our line time and had food when we needed it. This was also a good lesson in sharing resources (time mainly) and enjoying other people's happiness. Yes, we rode the carousel about 16 more times than Benny probably would have chosen to ride it, and Sadie spent a lot of time waiting for Benny to ride roller coasters. But they didn't complain.
Benny learned a lot through pin trading. If you don't know, here's how it works -- Disney makes little metal and enamel pins showing a million different things. Some commemorate events, some represent characters or rides, some are special pins for holidays, etc. Kids (and adults) collect these and wear them on lanyards around their necks, then trade with other people wearing pins. If a park employee (sorry, "cast member") has pins on, they will always trade with you whatever pin you want for whatever one you want to give them. Benny loved interacting with people like this, and by the end of the trip had become an enthustiastic trader. He had never been exposed to the idea of "collecting" before, so the whole concept of one pin being more valuable or rare than another was new, the whole concept of trading was new, and this gave him the opportunity to talk to a lot of people, which he of course loves.
They learned patience in lines, although in the middle of October, especially in the mornings, the lines were nonexistent! They learned to try new foods. They bonded together as siblings in new ways. Benny met a host of new friends from all over the world. He came up with a new opening line for meeting people (his favorite pastime). On the monorail after the Halloween party he sidled up to a girl dressed as Ariel and said, "You're BEAUTIFUL." That, as it turned out, was a good opening line! He had a conversation with her and her mom all the way back to the parking lot.
We're back from Disney World, and we had a fantastic time, even me:
For more of my Disney videos, you can visit my YouTube channel here.
For more of our pictures, you can visit my Flickr gallery here.
If you think about what you're doing, and plan ahead, and research, and prepare, and organize, you can learn a lot from Disney World. On the other hand, if you do none of those things, you can probably learn a lot too.
We did not think or prepare. We tried at every turn to avoid analyzing anything, applying ourselves, deconstructing the images with which we were presented, or allowing ourselves to expand and grow. We did not learn "Hello" in all the languages at Epcot's World Lagoon and practice speaking with the native employees. I did not prepare a scavenger hunt and teach children in advance what they would see, and therefore we did not identify the landmarks from the different countries. We bypassed all the interesting tropical ducks at Animal Kingdom and rushed straight to the biggest roller coaster, which we rode as many times as possible. We danced around like fools in the sun, rather than comparing Disney's Snow White with Grimm's version. When the ferry came close enough for us to see Cinderella's castle for the first time, we did not mention Neuschwannstein.
So, what did the kids learn from our trip, given our staunch refusal to teach them anything?
The biggest thing they both learned was that it's okay to really fully commit to earnest thrill. Because Disney World is devoid of sarcasm and smirkiness, it feels right for kids and adults to behave like giddy lunatics, to sing out loud, to gambol and cavort, and to shout "WHEE!!!" My children are naturally very unselfconscious. This place was their natural element.
They learned to volunteer. Benny volunteered to be in several different shows -- Turtle Talk with Crush, the Festival of the Lion King, Belle's Storytime, Woody's Cowboy Camp, and others. His experience with Disney World was, as a result, very interactive. He learned that jumping up and saying, "I WILL!" makes everything fun. In connection with this, he also learned some social lessons like waiting your turn, accepting the role you're handed, sitting down when your part is over, and being thankful for the fact that you're included. He did all this very gracefully. Sadie did not have the same experience -- she tended to shrink into Mom or Dad's chest cavity whenever anyone with a big giant head approached. :D
Here's a little video of Benny as Gaston in Belle's story show:
They learned to be brave on rollercoasters. This was one that Benny had already mastered (lunatic that he is) but that Sadie was able to experience this year, on her first roller coaster ever, which she rode four times in immediate succession, and never wanted to leave. The bravery of these children astonished us over and over during this trip -- they are truly going to be wonderfully bold adults if this kind of behavior continues! With the obvious exception of meeting people with giant fake heads, which Sadie needs more time to master.
Here's a picture of me and Benny riding Expedition Everest at Animal Kingdom:
They learned time management, as we discussed and decided what to do so that everyone got to do what they liked (Sadie liked Haunted Mansion and Pirates of the Caribbean, and Benny liked anything that went fast around corners and down terrible drops) and we minimized our line time and had food when we needed it. This was also a good lesson in sharing resources (time mainly) and enjoying other people's happiness. Yes, we rode the carousel about 16 more times than Benny probably would have chosen to ride it, and Sadie spent a lot of time waiting for Benny to ride roller coasters. But they didn't complain.
Benny learned a lot through pin trading. If you don't know, here's how it works -- Disney makes little metal and enamel pins showing a million different things. Some commemorate events, some represent characters or rides, some are special pins for holidays, etc. Kids (and adults) collect these and wear them on lanyards around their necks, then trade with other people wearing pins. If a park employee (sorry, "cast member") has pins on, they will always trade with you whatever pin you want for whatever one you want to give them. Benny loved interacting with people like this, and by the end of the trip had become an enthustiastic trader. He had never been exposed to the idea of "collecting" before, so the whole concept of one pin being more valuable or rare than another was new, the whole concept of trading was new, and this gave him the opportunity to talk to a lot of people, which he of course loves.
They learned patience in lines, although in the middle of October, especially in the mornings, the lines were nonexistent! They learned to try new foods. They bonded together as siblings in new ways. Benny met a host of new friends from all over the world. He came up with a new opening line for meeting people (his favorite pastime). On the monorail after the Halloween party he sidled up to a girl dressed as Ariel and said, "You're BEAUTIFUL." That, as it turned out, was a good opening line! He had a conversation with her and her mom all the way back to the parking lot.
We're back from Disney World, and we had a fantastic time, even me:
For more of my Disney videos, you can visit my YouTube channel here.
For more of our pictures, you can visit my Flickr gallery here.
Labels: disney world, homeschooling, lessons, travels
We're on our way to Disney World, after scrambling around town finishing up errands all morning. So what did we learn today, besides how to drive Mommy insane by singing everything instead of saying it? Or how to insist on pushing the "Fast Speed" button on the back of Mommy's headrest, and forcing Mommy to pretend to be blown back my G forces, until you push it again? Besides that?
We're half way to Disney World after a morning of running errands around town and an afternoon of driving in a straight line south. As I sit here, waiting for him to fall asleep, I am tempted to think of this day as wasted, learning-wise. We didn't sit down together and study any Spanish grammar. We didn't do any math problems. But thinking back on the day, I know his brain was engaged all the way.
1. Geography. Benny held his laminated map and followed out progress from Virginia to South Carolina, where we stopped. He learned that country has two meanings (well, he learned two of the several meanings of country). He's still working on grasping that there is interstitial space between cities that's neither city nor just "country" but is actually a county or a township or whatever. Might help if I had a better grasp on that myself.
2. Art and Zoology. Dad and Benny and Sadie took turns drawing animals and guessing what they were while we were waiting for our dinner at the restaurant. My favorite was the duck-billed platypus which Benny guessed was a beaver. Pretty good guess. We concluded that a platypus is a beaver with a beak, and will look it up next time we go to the library. Benny drew a very cool weathervane and had the N reversed to show which way it was pointing.
3. Physics. Tonight in the hotel bathtub, the children had only the big plastic drinking cups the hotel had provided us, to use as toys. They ended up doing several different experiments and Benny taught Sadie how to submerge the cup just to the lip, then let it spring back up. We explained to her that the air down in the empty cup wants to get on top of the water, because the water is heavier than the air. Don't know if Sadie really grasped it, but in explaining it to her, Benny connected this with the behavior of a helium balloon.
4. Music. Okay, well, here I am exposing my Disney weakness, but they happily sang along to the "Disney Princess Sing-a-Long" DVD that I Netflixxed for the trip. It was very sweet hearing Benny piping out those words along with Snow White and the rest. And got in a little reading practice. I'm sure he never saw "Bibbity Bobbity Boo" spelled out before.
5. Reading. Speaking of reading, Benny's been engrossed in his book, Walt Disney World: For Kids By Kids, which is a kid's guidebook, mixed in with puzzles and things to fill in, scrapbook pages, autograph pages, etc. He's most interested in researching the rides he wants to see at the Magic Kingdom, and is becoming a fount of information (and marketing propaganda phrases) on Tomorrowland.
6. Gym. Apart from wrestling with the dog before we put him in the kennel, Benny also did some exercises when we stopped for dinner, including standing on one leg, which he can do for a remarkable stretch of time, thanks to karate, and other shenanigans. Last year on the way down, we made them do figure eights around trees to burn off their energy at the South Carolina Welcome Center -- we remembered, driving by, what a kick Benny got out of signing the guest book and yakking with the people at the tourism desk.
Finally, Benny lost a tooth this morning. And he's about to learn that the tooth fairy can find him even in a hotel halfway to Disney World, because the tooth fairy is just savvy that way.
We're half way to Disney World after a morning of running errands around town and an afternoon of driving in a straight line south. As I sit here, waiting for him to fall asleep, I am tempted to think of this day as wasted, learning-wise. We didn't sit down together and study any Spanish grammar. We didn't do any math problems. But thinking back on the day, I know his brain was engaged all the way.
1. Geography. Benny held his laminated map and followed out progress from Virginia to South Carolina, where we stopped. He learned that country has two meanings (well, he learned two of the several meanings of country). He's still working on grasping that there is interstitial space between cities that's neither city nor just "country" but is actually a county or a township or whatever. Might help if I had a better grasp on that myself.
2. Art and Zoology. Dad and Benny and Sadie took turns drawing animals and guessing what they were while we were waiting for our dinner at the restaurant. My favorite was the duck-billed platypus which Benny guessed was a beaver. Pretty good guess. We concluded that a platypus is a beaver with a beak, and will look it up next time we go to the library. Benny drew a very cool weathervane and had the N reversed to show which way it was pointing.
3. Physics. Tonight in the hotel bathtub, the children had only the big plastic drinking cups the hotel had provided us, to use as toys. They ended up doing several different experiments and Benny taught Sadie how to submerge the cup just to the lip, then let it spring back up. We explained to her that the air down in the empty cup wants to get on top of the water, because the water is heavier than the air. Don't know if Sadie really grasped it, but in explaining it to her, Benny connected this with the behavior of a helium balloon.
4. Music. Okay, well, here I am exposing my Disney weakness, but they happily sang along to the "Disney Princess Sing-a-Long" DVD that I Netflixxed for the trip. It was very sweet hearing Benny piping out those words along with Snow White and the rest. And got in a little reading practice. I'm sure he never saw "Bibbity Bobbity Boo" spelled out before.
5. Reading. Speaking of reading, Benny's been engrossed in his book, Walt Disney World: For Kids By Kids, which is a kid's guidebook, mixed in with puzzles and things to fill in, scrapbook pages, autograph pages, etc. He's most interested in researching the rides he wants to see at the Magic Kingdom, and is becoming a fount of information (and marketing propaganda phrases) on Tomorrowland.
6. Gym. Apart from wrestling with the dog before we put him in the kennel, Benny also did some exercises when we stopped for dinner, including standing on one leg, which he can do for a remarkable stretch of time, thanks to karate, and other shenanigans. Last year on the way down, we made them do figure eights around trees to burn off their energy at the South Carolina Welcome Center -- we remembered, driving by, what a kick Benny got out of signing the guest book and yakking with the people at the tourism desk.
Finally, Benny lost a tooth this morning. And he's about to learn that the tooth fairy can find him even in a hotel halfway to Disney World, because the tooth fairy is just savvy that way.
My child is obsessed with Buzz Lightyear. Am I wrong to exploit that?
Today Benny made himself a Buzz Lightyear costume out of tape and paper. And also a colander. And a large strip of elastic. I'm sure the school kids are doing something meaningful and serious, but we are not. We are playing Buzz Lightyear.
He did his school for the day on the computer, using Disney's helpful and charming Buzz Lightyear curriculum.
For gym class, he flew around with his wings, which extend from his attack pack, activated by a (paper) button taped to his chest.
He also made me a wrist communicator, and his sister a wrist communicator. The dog is one of Zurg's evil robots. He was defeated early in the day.
Music class went thusly: Dad is the Evil Emperor Zurg (obviously). Buzz and I intercepted a communication from Zurg to one of his minions revealing that he was using a secret force field that could only be disabled by a space incapacitator. We happened to have one -- it looks a lot like a violin. Today's practice was a prep for tonight's audition for the YMV orchestra, so we were playing Gavotte from Mignon five times. We discovered from decoding the message that Zurg could be weakened by staccato sounds, so when Benny played staccato, Zurg (Dad) really went down the tubes.
Now, can I get him to take off his costume before his audition? Should I? I'm tempted to leave the costumes in place -- after all, he made me a fake bouncy ponytail, just like Mira Nova's! Can *I* at least keep wearing my costume?
Today Benny made himself a Buzz Lightyear costume out of tape and paper. And also a colander. And a large strip of elastic. I'm sure the school kids are doing something meaningful and serious, but we are not. We are playing Buzz Lightyear.
He did his school for the day on the computer, using Disney's helpful and charming Buzz Lightyear curriculum.
For gym class, he flew around with his wings, which extend from his attack pack, activated by a (paper) button taped to his chest.
He also made me a wrist communicator, and his sister a wrist communicator. The dog is one of Zurg's evil robots. He was defeated early in the day.
Music class went thusly: Dad is the Evil Emperor Zurg (obviously). Buzz and I intercepted a communication from Zurg to one of his minions revealing that he was using a secret force field that could only be disabled by a space incapacitator. We happened to have one -- it looks a lot like a violin. Today's practice was a prep for tonight's audition for the YMV orchestra, so we were playing Gavotte from Mignon five times. We discovered from decoding the message that Zurg could be weakened by staccato sounds, so when Benny played staccato, Zurg (Dad) really went down the tubes.
Now, can I get him to take off his costume before his audition? Should I? I'm tempted to leave the costumes in place -- after all, he made me a fake bouncy ponytail, just like Mira Nova's! Can *I* at least keep wearing my costume?
Labels: lessons
What can you learn from a day at the beach and the pool? You can learn to wear your sunscreen, and remember to bring your *real* shovel!
We've been at the beach in South Carolina for almost a month now. It's been completely fabulous for me and for the kids. Mostly we just fooled around in the water, lounged, cavorted, caroused, and leapt about. However, since my children are like all children, whose brains engage even while officially taking time off, I saw them learning all the time, even on a beach vacation. Here's what I mean:
When we left home we were working on a unit on the human body. Here you can see Benny's giant diagram that he made on the beach. He made several of these -- this one I photographed with Sadie standing next to it, for scale. It was pretty huge! He included the respiratory system, circulatory system, digestive system, and a lot of bones:
Every time the tide came up, his slate was washed clean, and he created lots of drawings, both educational and whimsical, on this excellent and huge slate. Drawing on the sand is great for doing math problems too. Try scratching some problems in the sand with a stick -- especially fun if the waves threaten to wipe out the problem before the kids can get to the answer.
Counting the pelicans as they cruised by in long lines became a good way for my two-year-old daughter to practice her numbers. We also counted shells, gulls, sand dollars, and waves. After a month of counting everything on the beach, I can report that she now knows to start with ONE instead of TWO. :D And she can count to twenty, pretty much.
Ahno made sand sculptures on the beach when the tide was low -- a dog, a cat, an alligator. The kids helped with these and made sculptures of their own. Sadie particularly was interested in digging and filling little buckets -- learning her little physics lessons with plastic pails and cups.
Speaking of Sadie, she had loads of fun running from the waves, meeting people, and making up crazy little dance routines. Here she is being a cheerleader. How did she come up with these moves? It wasn't from me -- must have been some kind of collective female consciousness she tapped into. She and Benny talked to everyone on the beach, meeting new people every day. Sadie's vocabulary and confidence in her speech has skyrocketed, and Benny, well, he didn't need help in the confidence department but he did very much enjoy all that quality socialization.
Both the kids took enormous strides in the pool. Benny learned to dive in headfirst and Sadie learned to jump in with the noodle and paddle herself around.
Indoors, Benny discovered the beauty of the captive audience, as he played daily afternoon concerts for the people playing in the pool. He would stand on the back porch, make his announcements, and then run through his whole Suzuki repertoire. This lead to all kinds of good academic stuff, including copying out programs for everyone, writing a letter about it to his violin teacher, and scripting his shows (including his dancing two-year-old sister/monkey).
Possibly the most exciting academic progress that we made this month was Benny's discovery of the Captain Underpants series, and his subsequent excitement about reading aloud to himself (or to his many stuffed dogs) late into the night. I'm sure the homeschooling community will now perforate my head with their hobnailed boots because not only did I let my child read Captain Underpants, but I also let him stay up until *after 10 pm* doing it. Forgive me -- it is too precious to hear him in there reading with such elaborate expression, all about the talking toilets and Professor Poopypants and the rest of it. He loves Captain Underpants. And this is the first chapter book series that has caught his attention. I don't care if it's crude. This is a six-year-old boy who thinks armpit farts are the height of comedy. Captain Underpants for everyone!
We've been at the beach in South Carolina for almost a month now. It's been completely fabulous for me and for the kids. Mostly we just fooled around in the water, lounged, cavorted, caroused, and leapt about. However, since my children are like all children, whose brains engage even while officially taking time off, I saw them learning all the time, even on a beach vacation. Here's what I mean:
When we left home we were working on a unit on the human body. Here you can see Benny's giant diagram that he made on the beach. He made several of these -- this one I photographed with Sadie standing next to it, for scale. It was pretty huge! He included the respiratory system, circulatory system, digestive system, and a lot of bones:
Every time the tide came up, his slate was washed clean, and he created lots of drawings, both educational and whimsical, on this excellent and huge slate. Drawing on the sand is great for doing math problems too. Try scratching some problems in the sand with a stick -- especially fun if the waves threaten to wipe out the problem before the kids can get to the answer.
Counting the pelicans as they cruised by in long lines became a good way for my two-year-old daughter to practice her numbers. We also counted shells, gulls, sand dollars, and waves. After a month of counting everything on the beach, I can report that she now knows to start with ONE instead of TWO. :D And she can count to twenty, pretty much.
Ahno made sand sculptures on the beach when the tide was low -- a dog, a cat, an alligator. The kids helped with these and made sculptures of their own. Sadie particularly was interested in digging and filling little buckets -- learning her little physics lessons with plastic pails and cups.
Speaking of Sadie, she had loads of fun running from the waves, meeting people, and making up crazy little dance routines. Here she is being a cheerleader. How did she come up with these moves? It wasn't from me -- must have been some kind of collective female consciousness she tapped into. She and Benny talked to everyone on the beach, meeting new people every day. Sadie's vocabulary and confidence in her speech has skyrocketed, and Benny, well, he didn't need help in the confidence department but he did very much enjoy all that quality socialization.
Both the kids took enormous strides in the pool. Benny learned to dive in headfirst and Sadie learned to jump in with the noodle and paddle herself around.
Indoors, Benny discovered the beauty of the captive audience, as he played daily afternoon concerts for the people playing in the pool. He would stand on the back porch, make his announcements, and then run through his whole Suzuki repertoire. This lead to all kinds of good academic stuff, including copying out programs for everyone, writing a letter about it to his violin teacher, and scripting his shows (including his dancing two-year-old sister/monkey).
Possibly the most exciting academic progress that we made this month was Benny's discovery of the Captain Underpants series, and his subsequent excitement about reading aloud to himself (or to his many stuffed dogs) late into the night. I'm sure the homeschooling community will now perforate my head with their hobnailed boots because not only did I let my child read Captain Underpants, but I also let him stay up until *after 10 pm* doing it. Forgive me -- it is too precious to hear him in there reading with such elaborate expression, all about the talking toilets and Professor Poopypants and the rest of it. He loves Captain Underpants. And this is the first chapter book series that has caught his attention. I don't care if it's crude. This is a six-year-old boy who thinks armpit farts are the height of comedy. Captain Underpants for everyone!
The first thing you should do is sit down and write down all the bones you know, and draw a picture of the skeleton. You'll need to think about scale when you're making your meringue bones.
Now it's time to make your skeleton! You will need:
1. A good meringue recipe and this probably involves a mixer, unless you have a robotic superarm capable of creating "stiff peaks" in egg whites. You be the judge. Little confectioner's sugar, little egg white, around and around, and bam you have meringue.
2. Large ziploc baggy. You'll need to cut a small hole in the very tip so you can squeeeeeeze out your meringue onto the cookie sheets.
3. A lot of cookie baking sheets and parchment paper. You can get parchment paper to line your cookie sheets in the baking section at the grocery store.
4. A large space to set out your skeleton when the pieces have finished baking!
A couple of hints:
If you do this on a humid day (like we did) your bones will soon be sticky (like ours were). This can work to your benefit if you want to connect them, but it can also get all over your fingers. You have been warned. They'll come out of the oven nice and crispy, and then gradually they'll start to kinda sweat. This of course will not bother the children at all.
Baked meringue is brittle, so make your bones thicker than you may think you need to make them. If you have leftover meringue, go back over the piece you've already made and thicken them up. For tiny bones like the phalanges and metacarpals and whatnot, it's easier to not make each individual bone, but rather make a little web with all the bones touching.
When you are removing the meringue from the parchment, pick it up and peel the paper off the bones, rather than trying to lift the bones off the flat paper. Some will break, and that's okay! When you lay them out, just lay the pieces together.
This skeleton is FAT FREE, in more ways than one. Enjoy!
homeschooling science anatomy cooking lesson plans
Now it's time to make your skeleton! You will need:
1. A good meringue recipe and this probably involves a mixer, unless you have a robotic superarm capable of creating "stiff peaks" in egg whites. You be the judge. Little confectioner's sugar, little egg white, around and around, and bam you have meringue.
2. Large ziploc baggy. You'll need to cut a small hole in the very tip so you can squeeeeeeze out your meringue onto the cookie sheets.
3. A lot of cookie baking sheets and parchment paper. You can get parchment paper to line your cookie sheets in the baking section at the grocery store.
4. A large space to set out your skeleton when the pieces have finished baking!
A couple of hints:
If you do this on a humid day (like we did) your bones will soon be sticky (like ours were). This can work to your benefit if you want to connect them, but it can also get all over your fingers. You have been warned. They'll come out of the oven nice and crispy, and then gradually they'll start to kinda sweat. This of course will not bother the children at all.
Baked meringue is brittle, so make your bones thicker than you may think you need to make them. If you have leftover meringue, go back over the piece you've already made and thicken them up. For tiny bones like the phalanges and metacarpals and whatnot, it's easier to not make each individual bone, but rather make a little web with all the bones touching.
When you are removing the meringue from the parchment, pick it up and peel the paper off the bones, rather than trying to lift the bones off the flat paper. Some will break, and that's okay! When you lay them out, just lay the pieces together.
This skeleton is FAT FREE, in more ways than one. Enjoy!
homeschooling science anatomy cooking lesson plans
Masterpieces from an English Country House: The Fitzwilliam Collection
0 CommentsBy Lostcheerio on Thursday, July 27, 2006 at 7:57 PM.
Have you seen the Fitzwilliam Collection at the Chrysler? I'll give you a few ideas for preparing your children to have an interesting experience at the museum.
Okay, it's not like Masterpieces from an English Country House: The Fitzwilliam Collection is going to change your life or rearrange your laundry room or open your eyes to the world of... giant books about birds, for example. But it is an interesting an eclectic exhibit, and something my children found enjoyable. The collection displays some interesting artifacts from the a stately home in England, collected over a family's long history.
The exhibit is divided into sections based on the centuries. The first room introduces you to the house with photographs of the exterior and interior. Then there are the portraits. Look for the Anthony Van Dyck portrait of Thomas Wentworth and his very cool dog. If you go to the link above, you can show your child a picture of this portrait before you go. The next room features work by George Stubbs. Check out this link for lots of pictures of his paintings. His style of drawing horses has been copied often, but not so much his penchant for painting them being attacked by wild animals. Interesting man, that Stubbs.
The next room is mostly about enoooormous books: Audobon's _Birds of America_. They can't turn the pages, but the kids will likely be impressed by the scale of these massive volumes.
Then there's some religious art, including a triptych that Benny really loved, and some other more recent family acquisitions. Don't miss the black and white photograph of everyone out in front of the house with the King of England, on your way out. I guess when the King comes over, you want to snap a few shots before he toddles off.
How to make this exhibit interesting to kids? A little preparation will help. When we're going to see something new, I like to make a little "treasure hunt" for Benny to use to seek out things I want him to notice. Then when we're in the exhibit, *he* can point things out to *me*, which is much more exciting and satisfying than the other way around. This works for lots of different experiences, from ballet to boat trips. It also helps to learn a bit about the artists ahead of time, like Van Dyck and George Stubbs for example. Or Audobon.
Here are a few lesson ideas for after the trip:
1. Create HUUUUGE books with wrapping paper or butcher paper. Make a field guide to birds in your backyard, or another type of animal entirely. Why would someone want to make a huge book?
2. Take a digital camera and photograph your house's exterior and interior as if you're illustrating a magazine spread. What elements do you want to highlight or hide? (Hide my laundry room. Please.)
3. Create an art exhibit from items in your house. You can pull your art objects into one room, if you want, for display, or you can leave them where they are and make plaques to describe their origin and significance. You can highlight your own artwork, or artwork your family has purchased, or certain books you like. Create a tour guide pamphlet for visitors to your exhibit. Or make a Podcast, like the museum did for their "open house."
Have fun at the museum! Here are my kids in the garden outside after their trip:
Okay, it's not like Masterpieces from an English Country House: The Fitzwilliam Collection is going to change your life or rearrange your laundry room or open your eyes to the world of... giant books about birds, for example. But it is an interesting an eclectic exhibit, and something my children found enjoyable. The collection displays some interesting artifacts from the a stately home in England, collected over a family's long history.
The exhibit is divided into sections based on the centuries. The first room introduces you to the house with photographs of the exterior and interior. Then there are the portraits. Look for the Anthony Van Dyck portrait of Thomas Wentworth and his very cool dog. If you go to the link above, you can show your child a picture of this portrait before you go. The next room features work by George Stubbs. Check out this link for lots of pictures of his paintings. His style of drawing horses has been copied often, but not so much his penchant for painting them being attacked by wild animals. Interesting man, that Stubbs.
The next room is mostly about enoooormous books: Audobon's _Birds of America_. They can't turn the pages, but the kids will likely be impressed by the scale of these massive volumes.Then there's some religious art, including a triptych that Benny really loved, and some other more recent family acquisitions. Don't miss the black and white photograph of everyone out in front of the house with the King of England, on your way out. I guess when the King comes over, you want to snap a few shots before he toddles off.
How to make this exhibit interesting to kids? A little preparation will help. When we're going to see something new, I like to make a little "treasure hunt" for Benny to use to seek out things I want him to notice. Then when we're in the exhibit, *he* can point things out to *me*, which is much more exciting and satisfying than the other way around. This works for lots of different experiences, from ballet to boat trips. It also helps to learn a bit about the artists ahead of time, like Van Dyck and George Stubbs for example. Or Audobon.
Here are a few lesson ideas for after the trip:
1. Create HUUUUGE books with wrapping paper or butcher paper. Make a field guide to birds in your backyard, or another type of animal entirely. Why would someone want to make a huge book?
2. Take a digital camera and photograph your house's exterior and interior as if you're illustrating a magazine spread. What elements do you want to highlight or hide? (Hide my laundry room. Please.)
3. Create an art exhibit from items in your house. You can pull your art objects into one room, if you want, for display, or you can leave them where they are and make plaques to describe their origin and significance. You can highlight your own artwork, or artwork your family has purchased, or certain books you like. Create a tour guide pamphlet for visitors to your exhibit. Or make a Podcast, like the museum did for their "open house."
Have fun at the museum! Here are my kids in the garden outside after their trip:
Labels: art, chrysler museum, field trips, lessons
We went to the new spray park at the Greenbrier YMCA and had a lovely time. I've included some lesson ideas based on one of the toys there, that dumps buckets of water on the kids. Learning in the summer -- ACK -- stop the madness!
My children love water. I may be a close second (or possibly the dog, let's be realistic) but when it comes to summer entertainment, their idea of fun involves beaches, pools, sprinklers, and buckets of sunscreen. They're not happy until they've ingested their weight in chlorine, wrinkled up like prunes, and had their retinas incinerated by UV rays. And who am I to stand in the way of such harmless fun?
We normally go to the downtown Norfolk YMCA because it's close, they have towel service, and we're just shallow like that. But this summer, I'm branching out in search of the ultimate outdoor YMCA swimming pool experience. You know, with waterfalls and geysers for the children, palm trees and frothy pineapple smoothies for me. We started out at the Trashmore YMCA, which was nice. A big wading pool for the babies, including a turtle slide and a fountain. Lots of kids in the big pool for Benny to play with, and they had a great time.
Then we went to the Greenbrier YMCA, which shall henceforth be known as Chlorinated Water Nirvana.
First, allow me to say that the decor in the building is fantastic. Somebody obviously had a vision there. Outdoor murals, indoor faux finishes, including decorative frames around all the bulletin boards and flier holders -- you have to see it to believe it. It looks like a hotel. Second, they have a pool house. This means you can get out of the car, walk straight to the (tastefully decorated) family changing room in the pool house, and then plop right into the pool. No mucking about indoors. They have a wading pool and a big pool, just like Trashmore, but then there is...
The spray park. Benny leaped into it immediately, and spent the next 30 minutes dashing around through it, screeching with joy. Then he came and got a drink, and rejoined the spray park, screeching and leaping away. Sadie took a little longer to warm up to it, but by the end of our time there, she was carrying on like a regular. There is every kind of sprinkler, every kind of hose -- even a bench that's a sprinkler, and a mounted sprinkler for spraying your friends, and the tower of pouring cones.
The tower of pouring cones caused my evil homeschooling brain to kick in. It's a tall pole with five metal cones hanging around the top of it. These cones are constantly being filled by streams of water, and they periodically dump over and send a mass of water down on whatever kid is waiting hopefully below. Of course there are lots of lovely physics and math questions to be asked about these cones... so I wrote down a few ideas, which I've included below.
Do not miss the Greenbrier Spray Park. It is too much fun.
Learning Questions:
Activities:
My children love water. I may be a close second (or possibly the dog, let's be realistic) but when it comes to summer entertainment, their idea of fun involves beaches, pools, sprinklers, and buckets of sunscreen. They're not happy until they've ingested their weight in chlorine, wrinkled up like prunes, and had their retinas incinerated by UV rays. And who am I to stand in the way of such harmless fun?
We normally go to the downtown Norfolk YMCA because it's close, they have towel service, and we're just shallow like that. But this summer, I'm branching out in search of the ultimate outdoor YMCA swimming pool experience. You know, with waterfalls and geysers for the children, palm trees and frothy pineapple smoothies for me. We started out at the Trashmore YMCA, which was nice. A big wading pool for the babies, including a turtle slide and a fountain. Lots of kids in the big pool for Benny to play with, and they had a great time.
Then we went to the Greenbrier YMCA, which shall henceforth be known as Chlorinated Water Nirvana.
First, allow me to say that the decor in the building is fantastic. Somebody obviously had a vision there. Outdoor murals, indoor faux finishes, including decorative frames around all the bulletin boards and flier holders -- you have to see it to believe it. It looks like a hotel. Second, they have a pool house. This means you can get out of the car, walk straight to the (tastefully decorated) family changing room in the pool house, and then plop right into the pool. No mucking about indoors. They have a wading pool and a big pool, just like Trashmore, but then there is...
The spray park. Benny leaped into it immediately, and spent the next 30 minutes dashing around through it, screeching with joy. Then he came and got a drink, and rejoined the spray park, screeching and leaping away. Sadie took a little longer to warm up to it, but by the end of our time there, she was carrying on like a regular. There is every kind of sprinkler, every kind of hose -- even a bench that's a sprinkler, and a mounted sprinkler for spraying your friends, and the tower of pouring cones.
The tower of pouring cones caused my evil homeschooling brain to kick in. It's a tall pole with five metal cones hanging around the top of it. These cones are constantly being filled by streams of water, and they periodically dump over and send a mass of water down on whatever kid is waiting hopefully below. Of course there are lots of lovely physics and math questions to be asked about these cones... so I wrote down a few ideas, which I've included below.
Do not miss the Greenbrier Spray Park. It is too much fun.
Learning Questions:
What makes the water fall out of the cone onto the kids?
Why doesn't the cone tip over right away instead of tipping when it's filled up?
How much water would have to come out of the bottom of the cone to stop it from tipping over?
How can you explain the fact that the cones don't always tip in the same order?
How could you change the shape of the cone to make it hold more water before tipping?
What could you do to the cone so that it never tips?
If you're standing under one particular cone, what are the chances you'll get wet next?
How could you change the probability of each cone tipping?
Activities:
At home, give the kids some plastic cups and let them try to rig up their own pouring cones by punching holes in them and using string to hang them somewhere. They'll need a hose or a steady stream of water. This would be good to try in the sink or bathtub.
At home, using plastic cups, figure out how to control the rate of flow out of a cup and into a cup to reach an equilibrium.
At the spray park, think of some story problems while you sit there, and have the kids work them later after they're dry and hydrated. For example... If there are eight sprinklers in the gauntlet and kids sit on five of them, how many sprinklers are still spraying? Or, if you have older kids... what angle would a hose spraying at a certain pressure need to reach to propel the water fifteen feet?
At the spray park, have five kids lie down on their bellies under the five pouring cones. Predict which kid will get hit next. OR, have all the kids hum a different note in a cord. When they get hit, they stop humming. When they get hit again, they start again. OR, have each child that gets hit recite whatever memory project you're working on -- poem or verse or whatnot, as loud as he/she can.
Labels: field trips, lessons, math
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