Educating Kiddo

[Angakuk]

You left out nap time (my best subject) and show & tell. Also, building things with wood blocks and then knocking them down.

[Qingdai]

Fine and gross motor skills, which is the crafts, scissor skills, drawing, painting, as well as gross motor, co-operative play (taking turns, playing games with rules) seem to fill much of my child's day.

Rhyming, singing/music are also good for learning reading skills.
Which you may have already integrated these into the "reading and writing" portion of his day.

[LadyShea]

Originally Posted by Angakuk

You left out nap time (my best subject) and show & tell. Also, building things with wood blocks and then knocking them down.

He stopped napping by the time he was 2, unfortunately.

Structured "school" type stuff and scheduled activities (TaeKwonDo and for the next month swimming lessons twice a week) encompass 2 hours a day total. Adding a book or whatever about history and/or science might add another 1/2 hour. Thats way less than he would have at either pre-school or Kindergarten.

The rest of the day is playing and/or doing various activities with his caretakers (grandparents and honorary grandparents) which include gardening, baking, being read to by his 94 year old great grandma singing, dancing, story time at the library, trips to Bass Pro Shop which I don't get but he loves, etc.

.

[Qingdai]

Yeah, mine didn't nap very long either. A lot of preschools have naps because they are tired, tired kids from the activity.
At this age, keeping them active is most important. It seems they are little learning vacuums and our job is to give them all that good dirt to suck up.

[Ensign Steve]

Originally Posted by LadyShea

trips to Bass Pro Shop which I don't get but he loves, etc.

Don't they have all kinds of cool kids stuff? I know about the Christmas stuff, but do they have something year-round? Cuz that would explain the appeal.

[LadyShea]

Even the Christmas village wasn't all that cool, to me. He likes looking at the tents and taxidermy animals and stuff I guess. He does that with Granny and Buddy.

Hey Qing, I spent last night coming up with my sight word list. I went through some of the known ones, like Dolch, and took out the decodables -because it's silly to teach decodable words as sight words to me. Let me know if you want my list.

[Qingdai]

I would like your list. I may be doing some "homeschooling" during summer time.

[LadyShea]

Woohoo for dumpster diving in laws! My father and brother in law went to an auction this weekend, and bought a bunch of "surprise" boxes for $5.00 each. In one was 6 British books called Horrible Histories, which are wacky, wonderful, and gross historical facts, mixed with cartoons and such. So fun!

Also, they got a Meade Polaris telescope there!

[One for Sorrow]

Those books look like they'd be very interesting for a kid. What a lucky find!

[Ensign Steve]

Moar geek parenting...

Pandemonium!: Six Months Of Solar Paths Recorded On A Single Piece Of Film - Geekologie

Edit: Okay, when I read it yesterday, I thought it said it was a project he did with his kid, but now I can't see where it says that so maybe I made that part up. It's still cool, though.

[wildernesse]

Pinhole cameras are fabulous. We did that in art class in middle school and learned how to develop our film, too. That was one of my favorite art projects.

[LadyShea]

This conversation happened when hubby went to pick up kiddo from my MIL the other day

MIL at the door before saying hello: "Did you know he (Kiddo) can read?"
Hubby, sighing:"Yes, mom, he can do math too."

We have discussed all this with these people! Did they not believe us, or ignore us completely?

[Ari]

Originally Posted by wildernesse

Pinhole cameras are fabulous. We did that in art class in middle school and learned how to develop our film, too. That was one of my favorite art projects.

Not that I'm biased or anything but cameras in general are great toys and learning tools for kids. A couple of different companies have rubberized basic digital cameras for kids (although with the price of some digicams what you pay for the "blues clues" branding you could buy a simple digicam and a rubber case). Disposable cameras are still around and a great way to allow kids to experiment without worrying about the camera. They are also simple enough that you can take them apart to see how they work and use pieces from them for other projects (note, the flash capacitor can pack quite a jolt and should be drained before letting kids mess with it).

[Ensign Steve]

Originally Posted by Ari

(note, the flash capacitor can pack quite a jolt and should be drained before letting kids mess with it).

WRONG!

http://www.5min.com/Video/Make-A-Pow...-a-Camera-4246

[LadyShea]

This email newsletter has daily links to free, cool educational stuff. Today I ordered a free poster about the Presidents from CSpan and a free DVD copy of America: The Story of Us...yay now I can delete it from my DVR! (And just say you are homeschooling when ordering shit, so far I have not been asked to prove it)

ClickSchooling

[Qingdai]

How could you prove it? Show your anti-establishment card?

[LadyShea]

Once official in my state, I will have a Church School Enrollment form. Some areas have homeschool student IDs from the school districts, some cover schools and virtual schools offer IDs. Also, members of homeschool buyers co-op (free) can print and/or order a nice looking ID. I guess many businesses offer educator discounts, like bookstores, and will ask for some kind of proof to prevent everyone from claiming homeschool status.

Our state used to offer free Discovery Education Streaming through PBS, but when I called I was told I had to name my Church school and enrollment would be verified. They ended up canceling the program recently anyway, but that was one time I was asked to prove it.

[LadyShea]

I recently heard about "Thomas Jefferson Education"


Seven Keys of Great Teaching:

Classics, not Textbooks
Mentors, not Professors
Inspire, not Require
Structure Time, not Content
Quality, not Conformity
Simplicity, not Complexity
You, not Them.

Interesting! I am going to see if I can get the book from the library

[LadyShea]

Okay update:

Halfway through The Reading Lesson, recognizes about a dozen sight words, doing well with reading blended letters ch, sh, th, st, ar, ee

Almost done with Math U See Primer, have gotten Alpha but am holding off a few months. Working on telling time with a learning clock I scored on clearance at Target

Ordered Building Foundations of Scientific Understanding and am eagerly awaiting arrival. I have been reading the authors Yahoo group and he specifically created it to help develop critical thinking skills, so I think it's going to be great

Printed some worksheets and connect the dot puzzles for writing practice, and he is doing more of this at his request

Today he told me he wants to expand his rock collection, as well as add other interesting things from nature like feathers.

[naturalist.atheist]

Originally Posted by LadyShea

Today he told me he wants to expand his rock collection, as well as add other interesting things from nature like feathers.

Does he have any good specimens of petrified wood or fossils. If he doesn't that may be something you may want to get him to add to his collection. There are also some wonderful mineral specimens and geodes you could get him. If you are heading out any time soon to the parts of the country where such things are plentiful you could make it a field trip. There are also meteors. If you are in the gulf area there are still many specimens hanging around from the impact that killed off the dinosaurs.

There are lots and lots and lots of learning moments for discovery and exploration in them there rocks.

[LadyShea]

LOL, He was watching Dinosaur Train, and the episode was all about collections, so he got on fire for expanding his. I got him started rock collecting when my mom pulled out the old tackle box I used for mine when I was his age. I also have some gemology training so know about some of the minerals from that.

He bought a trilobite fossil at a museum store, and I am researching areas nearby where we are likely to find fossils ourselves. We got some garnets and amethyst and clear quartz points when we were in N. Carolina last year as well...that was through a place where you bought a big bucket of dirt and "panned" it, so it was a fun activity as well.

I also have a trip to the Univ. of S. Alabama natural history museum in the final planning stages. I would love to help him find some meteor bits! Any ideas on where to start looking?


wei, after all the social damage with the homeschoolburns you are thanking me. Hmm, is this some plot to keep me imbalanced?

[wei yau]

Originally Posted by LadyShea

wei, after all the social damage with the homeschoolburns you are thanking me. Hmm, is this some plot to keep me imbalanced?

[lisarea]

This is a p stupid and disjointed article, but the topic itself is kind of interesting.

The Creativity Crisis - Newsweek

[naturalist.atheist]

Originally Posted by LadyShea

I would love to help him find some meteor bits! Any ideas on where to start looking?

You'll need a metal detector and some advice from local geologists of where exposed areas from the time of the impact can be found. They will usually be very small and can be collected with a strong magnet.

[LadyShea]

Originally Posted by lisarea

This is a p stupid and disjointed article, but the topic itself is kind of interesting.

The Creativity Crisis - Newsweek

Those who came up with more good ideas on Torrance’s tasks grew up to be entrepreneurs, inventors, college presidents, authors, doctors, diplomats, and software developers. Jonathan Plucker of Indiana University recently reanalyzed Torrance’s data. The correlation to lifetime creative accomplishment was more than three times stronger for childhood creativity than childhood IQ.

That goes with my gut, that current education models don't encourage, and maybe even discourage, creativity and innovation.