So....Changing Education Paradigms

So I watched a talk Sir Ken Robinson did on creativity in Education for TED a while back, and enjoyed it so much that I watched again with The Dad that evening.

So when I came across another talk of his I immediately downloaded it.
Imagine my delight to discover that not only is it a great talk but the whole thing is beautifully illustrated in front of your eyes, all in the time span of about 10 minutes, until you get this!

I can highly recommend watching/listening to his talks. And you don't have to be a homeschooler, his talks are relevant to everyone.

Here's the link to the video for Changing Education Paradigms
And here's the other talk I mentioned Do Schools Kill Creativity?

Enjoy!

ETA: while I was posting the links to his talks earlier I saw he's done a follow up to his 2006 TED talk so I downloaded it and have just finished watching it. So if you enjoyed the other talks check it out
Bring on the Learning Revolution!

So...Brainy Blocks

This week we've had our Brainy Blocks out again, it's been a little while and Bear asked for them so out they came.

For a day or two though he kept claiming he couldn't do them (I have no idea why) and instead of attempting any himself just wanted to watch me doing them. I did one or two but the moment I said he should have a go he packed it away and said he was done.

Frustrating to say the least...but I'm trying hard to be patient and let him do things in his own time. I have to, I couldn't force him to if I wanted, there's a reason one of his other nicknames is Stubs!

Anyway, day 3 dawned and suddenly he was ready!

Bear busy putting the right shapes in place all by himself

With a small hand or 2 from Mom it was soon done!

Brainy blocks are great for learning different shapes, and also problem solving...with this rocket we had used up all our big triangles but there was still place for one more. I asked how we could make another triangle...Bear got the answer straight away, with the little triangles!

They're also great for fine motor skills, getting the blocks in place without knocking the others out the way takes some patience & skill!

Voila!
And then I just had to share. I've been dying to get the kids a play tent, but just haven't find the right one at the right price. Then this week a moment of inspiration while drying some washing...put a sheet over one of drying racks and you have a nice big tent!
The kids had fun playing in it and running through it like maniacs for a while

Agent Bear coming at ya!

So - Pen Pals & Writing Letters

Recently Bear's favourite playmate (and my very dear friend) moved away, which was a very sad day for us. But I thought it would be a nice opportunity to send some letters ala pen pal kind of style.

So we agreed and swopped addresses...and then life happened and we were busy and then one day we cleared out the post box and there was our very first letter!

And what a special letter it was,including a picture of Bear's favourite things, an airplane loaded with guns!




Bear really enjoyed getting his own post but when I suggested writing back he was strangely reluctant.
I kept suggesting and he kept saying no...until I realised he thought he had to write himself, so after I explained that he could draw whatever he wanted and that I would write the words for him he was much happier to participate.


I let him pick through the art supplies and he chose

• Paper
• Coloured pencils
• Stickers
  
• A stencil

This was the first time he's used a stencil, and it was chosen because of the transport theme it has.
I showed him quickly how it worked and away he went.
It only took him a moment to realise my pen would work better than his pencils so he appropriated the pen for me and set to it, with a little help from mom to hold the stencil steady and point out any missing lines












Then it was time to use our pencils to colour in all our trucks, helicopters, boats and cars.











I also had it on good authority that our pen pal has fondness for stick on tattoos, something which I happen to have a lot of via some marketing ploy through The Dad's work. So we were going to include some with our letter, but of course Bear needed to know what they were all about so we tried one out on the back of his hand.








< waiting patiently for The Mom to say it's ok to remove the paper





Then it was time to decorate with stickers.






I tried to get him to pause and pose with his tattoo for a moment, but the split second he conceded I couldn;t get the camera to focus and the moment was lost...so instead here is a pic of it while he was doing the stickers













Once Bear was happy with the final results I turned over the page and started the letter.









He helped me address it ( I held and guided his hand)





And then it was time for him to dictate the letter to me. At first he didn;t really understand, but after we read our letter again and then talked about what we wanted to tell our friend he got the hang right away.

And he also wanted to break the exciting news that he's going to have another little brother or sister soon!

Once I'd written he decided more stencilling was needed and had another go.
This time he really did a sterling job I thought, and with minimal help from me!
And we signed his name together to finished it off.


And so our letter was done, popped into the envelope with the temporary tattoos and a letter from The Mom to the other Mom.
Bear accomapnied me to the post office and helped send the letter on it's way across the country to our friends.

And we're looking forward to getting our next letter one day soon we hope!









After all that a well deserved nap on the bean bags was in order!

So - Wax Repels Water

So, what do you get if you cross Connect the Dots, with Art?
Why you get our latest lesson in Maths and Science of course!
It wasn't an intentional lesson, but it was a fun one to stumble upon, so let me show you what we did!





First I printed some Connect the Dots off for Bear, choosing a theme I know he likes "airplanes".
Please also note the shotgun he built out of his wooden workbench (the one he was so desperate for here)...which is also helpful as a pointing device!
I will add I had no hand in creating the said shotgun, but admired it greatly when he brought it to show me :)









Then we spent some time connecting the dots, following the numbers, counting as we went.


Hello Maths!


I'm hoping doing more of these dot to dots will help with number recognitions, but if not that's ok too!
We just happened to use wax crayons, they were the closest thing to hand at the time!








Once we were finished with our pictures Bear enthusiastically suggested painting them, so I pulled out his new watercolour set from the other day, and away he went!


Hello Art!









Suddenly we noticed that the wax crayon reappears through the water colour paint.
It just pushes the water away, how cool is that!!!


Hello Science!












And while we were busy Evie took advantage of her occupied brother to rummage around in the duplo box and build.
He usually comandeers any pieces she tries to use and incorporates them into his creations, which she is not allowed to touch...so this was a treat indeed for my poor girl.
She sat building for ages!


Hello Contentment!

So - Just Do the Math

So how many people do you know that "can't do math", or just aren't good at it?
Chances are you may just think you're one of them, especially if you're reading from my beloved homeland of South Africa, where sadly our students repeatedly score in the lowest ranks of all the countries in the world in our maths & science understanding, according to the WEF (World Economic Forum)

Our schools seem to be doing a dismal job at teaching math and an even worse one at fostering a love of it.

The vast majority of people I know proclaim to hate the subject, which is kind of odd cause their daily lives and their favourite activities are littered with it...think about it, sports, baking, or even decorating your home.
So perhaps we can all do it, even if our schools & teachers told us we couldn't?




I personally am starting to think that you can't fail to learn math just by living your life.
OK so perhaps it's not hight level stuff but you learn the math you need to get by when you need it.


Recently I read an interesting article on learning maths.






Basically the article talks about a child directed learning centre whose students typically learn the entire math curriculum, from Grade K to Grade 12 in 8 weeks!

It seems incredible at first but these aren't wunderkinds and the article goes on to explain there's no magic involved, it's all just maths.









When the teacher achieving these results contacted a math specialist friend regarding his finding the response was

“Not surprising,” mused his friend.

“Why not,” asked Greenberg, having had the wind at least temporarily removed from his sails.

“Because everyone knows,” he replied, verbally stomping on Greenberg's ego, “that the subject matter itself isn't all that hard. What's hard, virtually impossible, is beating it into the heads of youngsters who hate every step. The only we way we have a ghost of a chance is to hammer away at the stuff bit by bit everyday for years. Even then it does not work.”

But why don't you head on over and read the article for yourself here


And as an aside - once again I've found myself led back to the concept of unschooling
Because these children from the article learnt their maths when they decided it was time, and when they were ready!

So - Father's Day

We did in fact do a father's day craft last week and I was planning to blog about it on/or as close to Father's Day as possible (just not before because the Dad reads the blog)...but then The Dad got his second gift of his special day - a nice projectile vomit - and that was the beginning of an affliction visited upon most of the family. Bleh!
I'd like to say it's been fun...but it really hasn't

Anyway, we appear to be on the mend and here's our father's day craft - which was a follow on from the waxy paper mobile we did a while back.

A Stained Glass Window Frame!

So - what do we need?
Firstly, don't panic, the list looks long but it's not too complicated!
- Newspaper - lots
- An iron
- Some old teatowels
- Wax paper
- Wax crayons
- Sharpener or vegetable peeler (to make wax shavings)
- Scissors
- Pictures & letters
- Glitter
- Lollipop sticks
- Glue
- String





So - How did we use them?
Part1: The Stained Glass

First generously layer newspaper EVERYWHERE!
The take a piece of wax paper & decorate it with your pictures & letters etc. We printed some photos onto normal paper and then cut them out, and I had some alphabet stickers lying around that we used too.
Add wax crayon shavings (this time we actually used a veggie peeler to shave our crayons, it worked quite nicely)









Then apply liberal amounts of glitter (this is the best part according to Bear, who applied glitter to the whole universe...so if you've been wondering why everything is extra sparkly lately now you know).














When you're happy with your picture put another layer of wax paper over the top.
The next step is for adults - the ironing.
Heat your iron.
Put down a towel, then a nice thick wad of newspaper, then your waxpaper (move very carefully so as not to ruin the carefully arranged picture).
Cover again with newspaper and lay a tea towel or something over the top.
And you're ready to iron!
Iron until you're happy your wax paper is stuck together.





Part 2 - The Window!

Use wood glue to stick your lollipop sticks together to create a frame.
Then decorate however you want!
We used glue and glitter - and why wouldn't we - they're the most fun 2 things ever!

















Then trim your stained glass/wax paper to fit the frame and glue it to the back.
Voila!














I was just going to put on a price of string when I remembered we had a couple of these sucker hook things lying around, so I took the hooks out and used them to make it easier for us to hang the frames up in a window!

Just cut your string & tie around the top 2 ends.















Then hang on a sunny window and step back to admire the finished effect!












So - What did we learn?
I'm going to keep it short and simple this time and just do a list, but if you have any questions just leave me a comment and I'll happily elaborate when I have a moment!

• Art
• Fine Motor Skills
• Science
• Family History
• Literacy

*disclaimer - this may or may not cover everything we learnt, it's just the stuff The Mom remembers*

So - I joined a Blog Carnival!!!

Taryn from over at Hayes Happenings has kindly started a SA Home Schooling Blog Carnival.
I think it's a great idea and am so excited to join in and link up with other home schoolers!
So pop on over and have a look.
Or even better join in!!!