Maker Kids

On an homeschooling list a question came up today
"Can anyone recommend some ways for me to incorporate making/engineering into our at-home time? Engineering curriculum for young kids? Resources?"

Here was my response:

The NoCo Mini-Maker Faire in Loveland is Oct. 4-5, there'll be hands on activities there for the kids, plus lots of local folks with ideas and resources.

If you don't live in Colorado, look for a Maker Faire near you.

Make Magazine has lots of projects on line, some are great for kids.

If you can afford a subscription you'd probably get some use out of the paper magazine too.  There are many projects in each vol, and many of them accessible to the layman or kids.

DIY is designed for kids and has ideas and give them the opportunity to share what they've done.

Google ran an online summer Maker Camp

My kids liked project books (because we're ancient and homeschooled before the internet was such a big part of everything)

Some favorites were

the Usborne Science Activities books Vol 1-3

Making Things, by Ann Sayre Wiseman

Science Crafts for Kids by Gwen Diehn

and  book about making musical instruments by hand.. sorry can't find the name of ti.

Remember too that "engineers" are often also artists and musicians.  That need to create runs deep.  I found that my role was to show how to safely use/ access the materials and then to just get out of the way.

Have fun!

Bombus

Look who Hot Dog found in the basement.

Instead of doing our normal academics we've spent out morning trying to figure out exactly what kind of bumble bee this is. 

We found several websites and decided that it is Bombus Morrisoni. 

We found lots of good sites:
Western Bumble Bee Guide
Mr. E's Mysterious Bees
bumble bee dot org

And now we are learning how to get bumble bees to nest in our yard. 

We love spring!

Enjoying a bit of warmth

I love Colorado.  Yes, there was a time when I was a teen that I dreamed of nothing better than leaving it, moving to Paris to play cello in an attic, or to California to lay and the beach and be "discovered". (Hey, little pudgy Latina's have dreams too ya know. )  And yes, Firelord and I used to talk about selling it all and sailing away, or at least moving to the coast.  We've put down roots now, while future grandchildren might lure us from here, we're in Colorado for the duration.

Still, there are other beautiful places in the world, and it's lovely to visit them.  This week we're in Texas. We spend a night with friends in Sherman, and I have to say, north Texas is lovely in March.  The pear trees are blooming and the air smells of sweet pine and flowers.  Now we're in College Station for Texas A & M's Physics festival.  The air is so warm!  Colorado is below freezing, but here, everytime I step outside I'm shocked by the caress of almost tropical breezes.  Ahh....

The physics festival is just getting started, but last night's speaker was fascinating.  Firelord commented that he finally understood why we couldn't tell how big the universe is, and Lego Kid discovered that it's ok to not understand about Dark Matter and Dark Energy, since the best physicists in the world are a bit stumped too.

The hobbit in me misses home, even before I've left it.  But this place is pretty nice too.  :-)

In the eye of the beholder, or in the heart of the creator?

I have a confession to make.

I've been feeling sad that my oldest (almost 15 y.o.) seemed to have given up his art.  He used to draw all the time.  (Pretty good stuff too.  I'm totally not biased.)  He rarely puts pencil to paper these days.  These days he spend most of his free time on the computer.  I have to admit I am one of those moms who roll their eyes and wonder what will become of this generation of computer addicted kids.  (Writes me, from my lap top.  I know.  I know.)  The point is, I was sad because I though the computer was taking up time he could spend making "real" things.

But look:

Bit Boy "modeled" this using Blender a while back.

And last week he did this tea set:












And this self portrait, using a drawing pad (last year's Santa present), and GIMP.

 And then today this:














Which is the nicest Mother's Day card I could get, for, oh, so many reasons.

Now what?

This post is inspired by the questions and concerns another homeschooling mom expressed on one of my lists.

Paraphrasing, she said:

"I just realized at least 2 of my 5 kids (ages 7 and 10) are right brained.  I'm not.   They're not reading yet.  I don't know what to do.  The baby is just a year old and I'm pulled in so many directions.  Traditional learners can sit everyone down at the table and work for 3 hours and be done.  My kids won't.  What do I do?"

Here's my response:

First, cut yourself some slack.  You've just had a huge paradigm shift.  It'll take a while to integrate that into your everyday life.

You still have very little ones.  I gave myself the 1st year or two of every babies life to just be.  You can call it unschooling, or relaxed homeschooling if you want.  If you can manage to read to them most days, take them to the library and to parks now and then, you will be doing more than fine.  There's nothing that is urgent right now.  Keeping everybody fed and healthy is a high enough goal.

You say you like check-lists and scripts.  That's going to be tough.  Right brainers don't just think "out of the box"  Rbers don't even notice there's a box.  They won't even understand how they're making you crazy.  (But it might amuse them) 

If you write a script, they're going to turn it on end.  It's time to start thinking of your homeschooling as an improv troupe.  When you're doing improv it doesn't mean you are without structure.  It means that, with in a certain agreed upon structure, you are free to experiment.  It means that there is not "right" and "wrong" way to do something - there's only this works and that doesn't, this is fun, this is drudgery.  Your improv will be different than someone elses, and that's a good thing!  It means you're doing what works for you.


What if instead of a daily checklist that the kids have to do, you have a mental checklist you consult every week or so, privately or with your spouse?   Especially when they are little my kids learn so much without my input or structure.  I'm always amazed when I step back and look at how my little ones spend their days and see it through their eyes.

Our kids are getting older.  I miss having littles, but the advantage of having rational human beings for children isn't to be dismissed.  At our house we have pretty regular talks about what is working and what isn't.  It's not child centered, it's family centered.  It has to work for everyone.  It has to meet our long term goals, which the children help to set for themselves.   We all have family and household chores which  we have to do, just 'cause that's what it takes to manage a house hold.

Our days and weeks have a certain fluid structure, with the oldest (14) having the most structure and the youngest (8) the least.   My oldest can now work mostly independently.  He has a list of academics he does everyday and then he is free to do as he wishes.  (Which is mostly sit at the computer programming, skyping friends and play games.  So long as he meets his family obligations, his academic commitment, and moves his body around every hour, I try to be ok with that)  My 11 yo is just starting to do regular academics - he's learning to type, practicing his hand writing, and practicing piano every day.  Soon he'll start doing a wee bit of math.  My 8 year old isn't reading yet.  His brothers didn't start reading until after 9, yet by 11 both were reading at an adult level, so I'm not worried.  He's learning to type and practicing his handwriting, but mostly because he wants desperately to be like his big brother.  The younger two (8 & 11) spend most of their days playing - legos, k'nex, making things out of cardboard or wood scraps, dueling, shooting each other, and -yes- bickering for entertainment.

Just throwing in that last bit to keep it real here.  I hate reading stuff about how perfect someone's life is.   My life's not picture perfect, just humanly lovely imperfectly perfect - except when it's not.  
That's what wine is for. ;-p

Opposite of brain fart is....

I just had a flash of inspiration - instead of a math camp, or an art camp, for kids, what about having a math night or art night for parents?

I've been toying with the idea of a math camp for kids, and/or an art camp for kids (not unrelated you know, math and art).  The trouble is that it is such a short time.  Even a week of meetings isn't enough to really let knowledge sink it.  It's just enough to set off a spark. Too many parents have told me they have a "math phobia"   or "don't know what to do for art".   Maybe what we need to do is to inspire the parents.

I know for myself that if I'm really focused on something there is no way the kids will leave me alone.  If I want them to do something and stay on task, I need to be right there.  What if we used that to our advantage?  If we can inspire the parents to experiment and play with these cool concepts, how could the kids resist budding in?

What do you think?  Ideas?  Cons?

Something's Bugging Us

We've been enjoying the end of summer, tasting fall on the crisp morning air. One thing about these cooler days is that the insects are easier to catch. But of course then the kids want to identify them. What's a mom to do? Well, honestly I call my favorite entomologist, who is also another homeschooling mom. But sometimes she's not available, so sites like What's that Bug, and Insect Identification.org can help a bit.


Here's a beauty we haven't identified.This spider was HUGE, the abdomen longer than 1" and a leg span of ~ 3 inches.

On the underside she had dark stripes going the other way.


I've got tens of pictures of unidentified critters. Any suggestions about how to identify them, websites, real life resources, old fashioned books,... would be much appreciated!

Homeschooling Shakespeare

We are lucky enough to live near a college town.. The school started as an agricultural school, but has grown into a full fledged university, complete with a theatre department that does an annual outdoor production of Shakespeare. This year the production is a comedy, "Twelfth Night". Yea for us!

I used this as an excuse to start Shakespeare with the kids. Yes, they're just 13, 10 & 6. Yes, some of it is over their heads. (Less than you'd think!) The hardest part is that the tragedies are, well, tragic. My young kids have challenges around anything to do with suspense, people getting into trouble, or getting hurt. That kinda puts a dent in how we can approach Hamlet and Macbeth, ya know? That's why I was so glad to find a comedy being produced this year.

So, for those who have asked "How do you do it?" regarding homeschooling in general, this is an example of how I throw something at the kids.

First of all it helped that I had a goal. By the end of June I wanted the kids and I to be comfortable with Shakespeare's language, the plot and characters of Twelfth Night, and have some understanding of the historical context of Shakespearean times. Why the end of June? That's when we get to go see the live performance!

First I did a little poking around. I found Twelfth Night, by Leon Garfield, illustrated by Ksenia Prytkova at the library. It was a fantastic introduction to the play - a much abbreviated cartoon book that gave us the gist of the plot and characters with lots of visuals to grab the kids attention.

I also found the much touted Tales from Shakespeare by Charles and Mary Lamb on audio at NetLibrary. Now this was a lucky find for us, but not in the way I expected. I found the stories to be watered down and almost boring. It left out the witches' "Double, double, toil and trouble; Fire burn and cauldron bubble " verses in Macbeth. That's a terrible oversight. It's worth the whole bloody play just for that scene. In addition, the language was archaic (having been written at the turn of the 19th century) yet had little to no Shakespearean phrasing or flow. For my (over) sensitive kids though, this was perfect! The tragedies were so watered down that nearly all the emotion was taken out and the kids could get through the stories. By the end of the book the boys were predicting whether it was a tragedy or a comedy within the first few scenes of each story. "It's a tragedy. There's a character with ambition." or "This must be a comedy Mom! It's got twins and women cross dressing."

Next we listened to a Recorded Books "Shakespeare Appreciated Production of Twelfth Night" downloaded from Netlibrary. This was fantastic. It had a woman narrating, with actors playing each role. The narrator set the scene as if we were watching the play in Shakespearean times and interrupts the play to explain word uses and historical context. Now, if you want a watered down version, this isn't for you. Shakespeare was rather bawdy. If you object to an explanation of how "my golden rod" really means penis, or how one character was really calling another character "urine face", or how a male sea captain falls in love with a rescued boy, then you should probably skip this. I have 3 UU boys though, and they thought all this quite hilarious. In addition, since the actors were really saying the lines as written, the kids got a taste of Shakespeare's true genius. As my 10 yo said, "He uses a lot of the same stories, but he says it different every time"

Now I could stop there. We are ready to see the play and enjoy it without getting too lost. But I still have some resources I haven't gotten around to yet. There's the audio of Edith Nesbit's "Beautiful Stories from Shakespeare" we got off of Librivox. There's "Shakespeare's Greatest Hit's" by Bruce Coville from the library. There's "Shakespeare Stories" by Leon Garfield, illustrated by Micheal Foreman. There are all the books about Shakespeare himself, about the Globe Theatre, about the Elizabethan era .... Well, you get the idea. We might take a break, but we will never be done with Shakespeare!

Egypt, King Tut, and I LOVE THE WEB

Today we went to see the King Tut exhibit at the Denver Art Museum. It's a bit of drive from here to there, especially since, after an exceptionally mild winter, this morning we woke to a blowing snow storm. We had already bought our nonrefundable tickets, so off we went, despite the weather. It was a long trip, especially for my husband who drove (thanks honey!), but it went by fast for us.

On the way we listened to Peeps at Many Lands: Egypt, by R. Talbot Kelly. I found it at My Audio School, and down loaded it at LibriVox. When we got to the exhibit, my kids had already had a taste of what Ancient Egyptian life was like. The whole exhibit was so much more enjoyable because of this knowledge.

It's an older book (~1910, which is why it's in the public domain) and so it was written before King Tut's tomb was found. It was also written from an Anglican British perspective for British school children. This let us talk about bias in books, both because of cultural bias and the limits of existing knowledge. I was glad to have the chance to explain again why we should always examine our sources.

We finished the book on the drive today, and after we got home tonight I thought I'd see what else I could find. Just at LibriVox I found these that look like they might be good for kids studying Egypt:

The Cat of Bubastes
Cleopatra
Egyptian Tales, Translated from the Papyri

Sometimes people ask me "What curriculum should I use?" or "How much does it cost to homeschool?"

It doesn't cost more than a library card, internet access (free at the library!) and some foot work. I don't buy a boxed curriculum. I save my money for an audio player and tickets to the museum. :-)

Where do you turn to for good free homeschooling resources?

Creating your own homeschool

"How do I start?" "How much time does homeschooling take?" "How much money do I need to homeschool?" "What curriculum should I use?"

These are questions I hear again and again from parents as they approach the idea of homeschooling. Often these parents are in a position where they feel they must homeschool with limited financial resources, and so have a sense of desperation about finding the answers.

Homeschooling can be scary, since it is so far off the beaten path. Homeschooling isn't hard. Well, it isn't any harder than parenting, which you're already doing.

My advice applies to more than just homeschooling -

Keep your goals and principles in the forefront of your mind.

Search out like minded friends and give and accept support.

Get involved in your community.

Give yourself time and room to make mistakes and learn from them.


When I first thought of homeschooling an experienced homeschooling mom asked me questions that befuddled me. She asked "Why are you homeschooling?" and then "What are your goals?".

I realized that the answers to those questions always lead me in the right direction. Rather than homeschooling from a recipe (curriculum) we homeschool from scratch, based on principles and goals. Sometimes we have used a curriculum or book series, but we used them as fit our goals and principles, not necessarily as proscribed.

So, I would suggest that you ask yourself and your child - what are our goals? Long term for adulthood, midterm for youth, short term for this year, this month, this week, this day... Then with a list of goals in hand head off to the library and see what they have. Find books on subjects your child is interested in, look for books that have projects and puzzles in them. Use the library computer to get on line and find some resources that interest you.

Every day read with your child, talk about stuff - the books you read, a bird you saw, local events, etc... (This goes for older kids too!) Find local events and attend together. In the summer many communities have free concerts, festivals, and other happenings. Your public library might be a good place to start looking for those. Consider volunteering for your favorite charity or service group. There are some that will take a parent with child(ren) for certain activities.

Help your child discover their favored learning styles. Work together to find and create educational resources. This process will teach your children skills they can use forever in self education.

Find and get involved in your local homeschooling group. Collectively you will have many more resources than you have individually, and the support from other families is priceless.

How do you "unschool" Art?

A friend asked, "How do you do art with your kids?" Honestly I hadn't thought about that much. I spend far more energy on "How do you get your kids to clean up after they do art?"

It's a legitimate question, so I'll try to answer. Like so much here, it just flows from our regular life. Art involves seeing, looking, perceiving, and then sharing what you see/interpret in a physical way. Understanding this helps me see art as a frame of mind, as an intention, a meditation, and a way of exploring our world.

Mostly I have supplies and idea books around and the kids pick up what they want. There's always paper, crayons, colored pencils and washable markers around. When I notice a good sale I stock up on card stock, pastels, oil crayons, tempera paint, etc. I have a supply of rubber stamps and stamp pads from my pre-kid times and let the kids use those as well. Scraps of fabric, glue, yarn from the thrift shop, and found odds and ends, round out our supplies.

We find inspiration everywhere, at art museums, local kids art shows, art and craft books, stories we're reading.... It can be fun to try some recycled art - using found or recycled objects create a piece of art. Some books we've liked are The Big Messy Art Book, Crafts for all Seasons, The Little Hands Art Book, and Look What You can make with Dozens of Household Items, as well as those I've mentioned in an earlier post, Drawing with Children, Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain, and Making Things.


All my kids love making pottery, so they have all had classes at a couple of local pottery studios. This love of sculpture first showed it's face with play dough when they were very little. Play dough is great. You can make it cheap. It cleans up pretty well and the kids love it. It doesn't last forever though, even if you bake it. Thus the move to clay when they got old enough to take classes, and the use of sculpty here at home. (Sculpty is expensive, so I wait for sales and coupons and stock up as I can. Here's where the kids get to learn about economy.)

Mostly though, as with all of our homeschooling I've found that if I want the kids to try something they haven't come to on their own, the best way to get them to try it is to do it myself. An example comes from just a couple of days ago.
I had bought some oil crayons, which on their own, didn't seem to inspire my kids. They just couldn't see how they were different from the regular crayons that they always use. So I pulled out some sketch paper I'd gotten on sale, opened up the package, sat down with paper and pencil and set out to make a picture for myself to color.

That was all it took.

They bugged me, "What are you doing".

Me, ignoring them: "I'm busy. I want to try these new crayons."

Them: "Can I try?"

Me, vaguely: "Sure."



Here are the results:
11 yo's "red car" 9 yo's "painting turtle"



5 yo's "explorations in brown" April's "I'm easily bored pineapple" 11 yo's "Oooh, me!"


You don't need an expensive curriculum to "do art". Spend the money on supplies and field trips, classes if your kids want them, and just have some fun with it!

Quickie - new finds

You know how I like audio lectures and books, right? I'm discovering podcasts. I've already posted about Grammar Girl, well, look what I found - The Math Dude!

These are great to down load and play while driving around town. It's amazing how much even my little ones pick up. They absorb some of it, and we have great discussions about what they don't.

Give it a try and let me know what you think.

Tonight we played Snow Tails. Very fun, quick, playable by anyone who can add and subtract, and good for getting faster at that. I still didn't win though. Hmph.

And check this out
Math is not linear

My favorite bit? "Be less helpful" :-) Think about it.

Grown up games for older kids

You might have some idea that games can be educational. After all there are word games like Scrabble, Boggle, and Huggermugger. There are quiz games like Trivial Pursuit and "Are you smarter than a 5th grader". Hey, quizzes must be educational since they happen in school right? ;-)

Well, let me tell you, there's something even better out there. If the last game you remember playing was something like Monopoly or Sorry, you've been missing out on some great stuff.

All the games listed here are within reach of my 8 year old, yet enjoyed by this 40 something.


Settlers of Catan - a resource building game that started many folks on Euro games.

Carcassonne - build a medieval world in this tile laying game.

San Juan - We played this card game last summer when we were on the sailboat for 2 weeks. I never got tired of it.

Dominion - another card game I don't get tired of.

Alhambra - build a castle using tiles purchases with cards, way more fun than I make it sound.


There are many more Euro style games out there, these few are just some of the ones that my family have enjoyed.

Math struggles

A friend on a list posted something like this:

"My 7yo struggles with math every single day. It takes us at least an hour and a half every day with her crying and we're still getting nowhere. I struggled the same way as a kid, and I'm not enjoying this."


Here's my response:

The great thing about homeschooling is that if what you're doing isn't working, you can do something else! Here are some of my thoughts. This is a subject I really care about. Math is really lots of fun! So if I get too passionate, forgive me. Take anything that works, and toss the rest. You know your family best.

I get that you're expecting a baby soon, and that keeping up with everything is starting to get overwhelming. Honestly, it's ok to just take a break, or at least relax your approach, until the baby is older and you're starting to come out of the baby fog. You could call it "extended spring break" or "unschooling" if you need to explain it to anyone (yourself included!)

7 is so young! I promise, you have plenty of time for her to learn what she'll need as an adult.

There's a fair bit of research that shows that emotional content affects learning. If what you're doing is hard on both of you, you're probably suffering needlessly. Things that have a positive emotional context tend to be remembered, with the positive emotions reinforcing the material. Negative emotions tend to be remembered too, associated with the material, and the material itself isn't remembered.

You say you struggled with math and still don't like it. I bet she picks up on this. She's a smart one. I think finding something you both enjoy, at least a little bit, could really help.

I have a B.S. in Engineering and a minor in mathematics. I loved math after about age 10. Before age 10/11 I was considered "remedial" but after I was "gifted". Both of these labels are wrong, made up to describe a child who doesn't meet the expectation of "average". Honestly, some kids just take longer to grow into themselves, and that is perfectly normal. She just might not be ready. Sometimes we get into our heads that we are "bad" at something, when really we just didn't meet another's arbitrary expectations. Unfortunately we can grow up believing someone else's inaccurate judgment of us.

So with all that in mind here are a few quick ideas to consider:

Set your curriculum aside for a bit. Take a break or try something else.

Play store, use play money to pay and make change. (My kids made up a game on their own where they cut pictures out of catalogs and then "sell" them to each other from their individual "store" and set up their own "house" or "town" using what they've purchased. )

Pennies are great manipulatives. Get some paper change rolls and roll the coins in your change jar. Give them to your favorite charity or use for a family treat.

Check out some books with math puzzles or math games from the library. We have math because it's useful and fun, work together to find out how it's useful and fun in your life.

Games - most games have an element of math in them, just play them! Have some fun! Try anything that uses dice, adds up points, has shapes, etc... Yatzee and Scrabble both use math. Legos, tiles, blocks, etc... all have innate mathematical relationships that help build math intuition.

Take a look at the book "Family Math" it has lots of games at different levels.

Check out Living Math for more ideas of how to "do" math, w/o boring work sheets.
http://www.livingmath.net/

There are so many ways to approach math, don't get stuck in something that isn't working for you.

How do you do it?

Another newbie posted to a group I'm on it went something like this:

"I'm concerned about being good enough to teach my kids."
"If I homeschool I will have no time away from my kids. I won't have time for myself."
"How do you do it without going crazy?"

Does this sound familiar? I hear variations of this all the time, from newbies, wannabes, and excusies. ("I would homeschool, but...")

Mostly I try to keep my mouth shut. No one really wants my opinion. I don't need to proselytize. I don't want anyone to homeschool who doesn't want to do it. But, since you're reading this, you either want my opinion or are a masochist. Either way, I aim to please. So, for what it's worth, here's my (until now unspoken) response.

"I'm concerned about being good enough to teach my kids."

If you want to be good enough, you are good enough. My experience is that healthy humans want to learn. The world is a fascinating place and kids know it. Wanting to learn is at the heart of homeschooling. I don't have to "teach". I'm here to facilitate and occasionally inspire.

Sure, when my kids were little, I "knew" enough to "teach" them. As they get older - not so much. For example, my 11 year old has surpassed my experience in computer programming. Yet, he's making great progress with out my expertise. Why? Because he wants to and has found mentors and resources. (Last time I programmed was in college using Fortran 77. Yes, that was a long time ago. Yes. I am an older parent. Moving on.)


"If I homeschool I will have no time away from my kids. I won't have time for myself."

If you still have toddlers and babies, you probably don't have much time for yourself. That's a function of having little ones, not of homeschooling. If you're at this stage in your life, you know that you have to make an effort to make time for yourself. I hereby give you permission to get out on your own now and then - for your own sanity, and for your children's safety. If nothing else, get your partner or a friend to take the kids occasionally so you have have just a little "me" time.

As the kids get older they get less suicidal in their choices and better at entertaining themselves. Especially if you have more than one child, they seem to be able to make their own entertainment for whole moments at a time. This is when things get fun. You can each work on your own projects yet be available to each other. You've already had practice making time for yourself when the kids were little. Don't stop now. Show them through example how important it is to take care of yourself.


"How do you do it without going crazy?"

Who says homeschoolers aren't crazy? We are outliers, 3 sigma out. To anyone who doesn't "get" it, we've got to look insane. I'm going to go on letting folks think that too. After all, if too many more people homeschool the parks and zoos and museums are going to get awfully crowded on weekdays.

Some days are like this, and some are like that

Yesterday at park day a friend said she wanted to "pick my brain". She had a not so wee baby wrapped on her, as well as a 5 year old and 7 year old running around.

"How do you do it?" she asked. She seemed tired and frazzled. "What do your days look like?"

So, here it is. What our days look like.

Some look like today. It's spring break in our local school district, so my oldest has a public schooled friend over. They're playing Magic the Gathering, safe from little brothers in the sanctuary of his bedroom. The two brothers across the street are off school too, so my younger two are outside playing with them, drawing a village on the side walk with chalk. When I'm done typing, maybe I'll go do some spring cleaning in the garden and spread some brown gold around. These are golden days.

Some days look like last Tuesday. We were home all day. My 11 year old did his piano practice and math before he got on the computer. My 8 year old decided HE wanted to do math too and picked up the first Life of Fred, doing the first test. Later in the day he asked if he could start Math-U-See and proceeded to do the first beta test. When our piano teacher got here I had to tell him to stop doing math so he could have his piano lesson. My 5 year old felt left out so got out markers and a write-on/wipe-off mat and practiced his numbers. Just before bed time the younger two were doing dot-to-dots, and the oldest was working on The Python Challenge. Wow! With the kids begging for more math, I tell you, I felt like a brilliant homeschooling mom.

Then there are other days. There are days when we have to do laundry, and the children are fighting, and it seems like every set of toys with small parts has been out on the floor for eons. There are days when we are running around doing errands and picking up and dropping off from classes, just to come home exhausted and grumpy.

The days I notice that the spoodge around the toilet is beginning to look back at me, the weeds are as tall as the children, my energy is falling and my temper is rising -these are real homeschooling days too. I don't write about them too often, I figure any parent would know those days are to be expected. I realized talking to my friend at the park, maybe you don't know. Maybe you think my days are really all golden magic math days. They're not. Still, I'm here to tell you it's O.K. The golden days will come, the hard days will pass. What your focus on is your own choice.

I could tell my friend was "doing" more than enough. This stage in our parenting lives, with little ones and babies, is a great time to explore unschooling and relaxed eclectic homeschooling. I'm not suggesting unparenting, nor am I suggesting letting the children run the house hold. I'm suggesting that we think about what is really important to us and then choose where we'll spend our energy.

games for the younger set

Games have snuck into our family and homeschooling from the beginning. First unintentionally, and then, bowing to the inevitable, intentionally. In one way or another all games are educational. Some teach math concepts, some logic, some language concepts. All give opportunities to practice turn taking, good sportsmanship, and other social graces.

When the kids were little (2-4yo) we started out with stuff like "Hi-Ho Cherrio", "Chutes and Ladders", and "Candy Land". Just a year or two (4+yo) after that we moved onto "Uno" and "Set" that are enjoyable at any age. I found Boggle Jr. and Mastermind at local thrift shops. Boggle Jr. doesn't get used as intended, but who cares? We enjoyed Mastermind until we figured out the algorithm to always win.

This last year we've found some games that the whole family (ages 5-90) can play together and enjoy. (As opposed to "Candyland", which makes my eyeballs bleed. Shudder.) So, if you're looking for games for the very youngest that are actually enjoyable for you too, here are some to try.


Qwirkle Use shapes and colors on foam blocks to form a "qwirkle", a line of six blocks that has all the same or all different of a given aspect. (similar to Set)

The Yoga Garden Game This is a cooperative game that uses/teaches simple yoga positions and also gives players the opportunity to make up their own. It's pretty fun to see what positions the kids make up. Of course, then you have to do the pose - given how flexible kids are this can be challenging, and amusing. :-D


Apples to Apples Jr. This uses storybook knowledge (as opposed to the pop culture knowledge of the original) to make funny associations.

Blokus - uses colored tiles to pave areas. We vary the rules to allow the youngest to play.

Pitch Car The basics of physics and patience are learned with this game.

Hey! That's my fish! All out favorite here. Deceptively simple to learn and play, devious strategies can be invented to win.

Buzz Word Jr. This is one I was surprised to find my kids like. They get very.... creative. :-)

The aMAZEing Labyrinth Your opponents change the maze on each turn as you try to find your way through to locate an object. It's a fun and different game every time.

Hullabaloo (borderline, can only play a couple of rounds before the eyeball thing)

What are some of your favorite family games?

Origami Math, take 2

Here's a little more of our process as we follow up our interests. This research and sharing goes during the day, between playing, practicing, laundry, etc... (notice how it's morphed)

Hey! This MIT tenured professor, an origami mathematician, was home schooled. How cool is that?

Following some links we found TreeMaker on Robert Lang's website. If you want to try it yourself, scroll down the Treemaker site to find the free downloads. He gives you access to the source code, if you are interested in playing with/modifying the program itself.

My 11 yo spends a few minutes playing with the newly downloaded TreeMaker while his younger brothers look on. He's intrigued, but the LEGOs call, and he also wants to use GameMaker to program.

Later, my husband and 11yo play with TreeMaker some more. It's neat that my son was learning about "lines of symmetry" in his Life of Fred book and then it comes up again in origami. They print out something to fold. It takes them a while to figure out the meaning of the fold lines, but they end up with something with 5 flaps that could be turned into an animal or person. Cool!

Grr.... The PBS show I wanted isn't showing on the one station we get here. (We don't have cable or satellite TV) The library doesn't have it. .... Ha! I found "Independent Lens, Between the Folds" at Netflix. Yea me!

Random: A fellow homeschooler posted to my local group this link to Box Car and One Eyed Jack games to teach math. Nothing to to with origami, but I bet the kids would enjoy some of these.

I discover Math Mansion and find a couple of videos on line. I let the kids watch them on my lap top while I brush my teeth this morning. 8 and 5 year old love it, 11 yo isn't impressed.

Anyway, you get the idea. One idea leads into another. I share what I find with the kids. Eventually something sparks their interest and they follow that until they're done. The amazing thing to me, after having been the student who promptly forgotten content as soon as the test was done, is that the kids remember this stuff ages later. What they learn having fun, exploring, and investigating for themselves, they remember. They OWN that stuff.

Visual games/toys

Cindy of "Apple Stars" categorizes Right Brained learners in to types.
All of my boys seem to have some "builder" type traits. Here are some wonderful distractions that they have enjoyed and that I think other builder/visual learners would like.

Fractiles, magnetic tiles that fit together on a magnetic board to make beautiful, interesting, and mathematical patterns. Art worthy, but has small edible-sized tiles.

We bought Zome Tool before we even had children. It is rods and balls that fit together to make shapes intriguing and, alas, fragile. Warning, these are addictive. You'll need more than one set if you want your kids to share with you. Also, it has small parts, so if your toddler or dog eats small bits, you'll want to be careful.

Puzzellations, magnetic backed foam shapes that tile to make patterns.

LEGO Create-it, a board game that apparently isn't being made anymore, so now I'll describe it and you can decide if it's worth making it. There are several cards with parts illustrated and instructions to make a small vehicle. Each person gets a card. Turns are taken and dice rolled to move around a board and determine number (if any) and color of lego pieces that make be acquired each turn. When you have all your parts, build! Hmm.... never mind, just give the kids some dice and the LEGOs and see what happens.

Blokus, tiles shaped a little like pentominos. This is fun played according to the rules, with your own made up rules, or just to make pretty designs.

Tessera, the perpetual puzzle, another one we got to play with before the kids grew into them. Our set is sturdy and elegant. I wish we'd bought more. With 3 kids we don't have enough for everyone to use at once, and I haven't seen any exactly like them for several years.

And, on the anti-recommend list is a recent thrift store find, Lost in a Jigsaw II. This is a 515 piece jigsaw puzzle with every piece fitting every other piece. AND the picture is such that it can be put together wrong and still look fine from a distance! We are ripping out our hair. My eyeballs are bleeding. I think I'll regift it to a puzzle loving in-law. :-D

Origami Math

I've had a lot of people ask me about my approach to homeschooling. I thought today I'd walk you through how we approach a topic. I'm writing this as I do it, popping back and forth between tabs on my laptop.

Yesterday at a song circle, a friend was talking about a great PBS show she saw. I forget what it was called, but I remember it had origami, math, a young prof from MIT .... Enter google. (I LOVE the web!) I google some key words and find this "The Independent Lens, Between the Folds". This looks like what she was talking about, so I make a note of when I might find it airing on our local PBS station. Hmm.... wonder if the library has it? Check. Nope. Shrug.

Got some interesting hits with my initial search. I'll go check them out.
Oooh! Here's a cool TED talk with Robert Lang. The kids will love that. Here's a follow up video. Amazing. I don't know what I liked better, the blind folded guy doing the intricate origami, or the cellist with the custom 5 string electric cello.

Well, actually I do know. Cello. Hands down. What was that!?! I see if the library has any of his CDs. Checking. No, they don't. Hmm, usually I have better luck getting stuff at the library... I'll think about inter-library loan. I will have to spend some time find his stuff later. OK, back to the origami math.

Tons of hits, pictures, blogs, ideas, more ideas, when I google "origami math". I look at a few, and bookmark any that look promising. (Using folders under "homeschool/ideas/resources/math, it's important to bookmark things into sorted folders if you're me, otherwise you'll never find them again in the pile of unsorted bookmarks that represent my online life)

OK, now I need to go to bed. Tomorrow we have an at home day and I'll show the kids the video. Note to self, be prepared to find the origami paper and books, maybe explore how exactly one would program a computer to help you design the folds, and if any of the programming and math are within the reach of a bright 8-11 year old.