A Science Adventure: Giving My Son The Lead In Learning

I am super excited to share what we did at home for our Science subject. Just a bit of background: my husband and I are homeschooling our son. We started when he was in pre-school, stopped temporarily when he was in kindergarten, and then resumed again for Prep and now, Grade One. So far, I am loving the results: a curious boy who loves to move (gymnastics, fencing), solves problems (math) and plays music (violin) and prays with me every night (well, almost every night).

I just recently read a reassuring free ebook from SimpleHomeschool.net (or Jamie C. Martin. Just visit her site and you'll see a link to her free ebook) which includes an entry on the bare minimum for homeschooling: some math and a whole lot of reading. And not only that, she made me see that having my kids take the lead in terms of the curriculum is a great thing. We don't have to stick to a fixed schedule for him to learn...and love learning. The latter part is really important to me.

So, that made me relax. :-)

Amusement Park Physics

We are working on a long-term project right now for Science. He's building an amusement park on Minecraft (Pocket Edition) and he promises me that he'll make a map of it. He already has the tickets ready. I'm really excited to see his park. Anyway, just sharing the site that we used to research amusement parks and the simple physics behind the rides: http://www.learner.org/interactives/parkphysics/. It's absolutely awesome and it has some interactive pages where the learner gets to design his or her own roller coaster. This came about after a trip to Enchanted Kingdom.

Do-It-Yourself Labs

In the meantime, we were playing with a new free app that we downloaded called Piig Labs (we use AppsGoneFree to find out what apps are free every day). The volcano project was presented using a virtual environment. Badger was really excited to do it in real life. I was really happy to see him excited!

So, we did a bit of research. I didn't know that it was really easy to research! We did it before when we made a whirlpool from scratch (just two bottles and some electric tape). He loved repeating the experiment to get the same results.

So, here's the link where we got the volcano experiment: http://video.about.com/chemistry/Erupting-Volcano.htm. It's really easy to follow. Plus, the basics are: a plastic bottle, some newspapers (ideally, you should use clay or dough), baking soda, dishwashing liquid, and vinegar. That's it!

We had so much fun! Badger wanted to do it again. The enthusiasm that I see in his face when he learns about something that he is curious about is really fantastic.

I look forward to more adventures. And this time, I want him to continuously take the lead.

Badger Loves Jazz: Reading (and Listening) to Duck Ellington and Ella Elephant

By Justine C. Tajonera

I had a lot of fun last night, playing the CDs of Ella Elephant Scats Like That and Duck Ellington Swings through the Zoo and reading the books to Badger. They were great learning tools, just like Charlie Bird Counts to the Beat, and a great way to help Badger learn how to read.

The Ella Elephant book was cute because I could lead Badger through some nonsense words and just focus on the sounds that they made. I pointed out the letters and their sounds and how it would all sound if we put them together (sound recognition). Plus, Badger got to listen to Ella Elephant make the scat sounds and relate them to musical instruments.

Duck Ellington was also really cute because I realized that Badger recognized some of the animals from Charlie Bird Counts to the Beat like the turtles and the seals! And Vier and I just enjoyed the swing sound.

I guess it made an impression with Badge because before I left for work, he wanted me to read Ella Elephant to him first. I hope Badger will have a genuine love for reading books.

(Jan. 13, 2010)

Badger Makes Animal Sounds

Watch this video first.




By Justine C. Tajonera



We really love playing this game with Badger: what sound does this animal make? It engages him in learning what animal is what (based on their images), what sounds they make, what nursery rhymes have these animals and what the first letter of the animal word is.

It's a lot of fun and it's a great way of teaching him and figuring out how he interprets things. We especially love his "meow!" because we know that he observes the cats in my Dad's house and he really gets into the role play of being a cat!

Playing the game of making animal sounds:

• Helps Badger identify animal images (he has to know what the animal is before he can make the sound). 
• Helps him role play
• Makes it easier for him to identify the letters in the animal names
• Engages him in different aspects of learning about animals
• Expands his vocabulary and makes him curious about other animals and animal sounds
  

Free Play And My Transportation Obsessed Son

by Justine C. Tajonera

My son absolutely adores cars. He lines up his dad's Ferrari cars on the floor every night and counts them. Whenever he's riding the car with us he identifies all kinds of transportation on the road: car! motorcycle (pronounced motowsayel)! truck! taxi!

Once, while he was playing with his cars, he "borrowed" my USB with a wire and used it to put gas into each car. How ingenious was that?

Recently, I taught him that the traffic lights mean something: green means go and red means stop. So, every time we are at a stop light, our irrepressible son screams: GREEN MEANS GO! or RED MEANS STOP! It's hilarious!

It's amazing how our kids really have minds of their own. I really don't have any particular fascination for cars: they're pretty utilitarian for me. Vier likes cars but not really that much. A strange confluence of events (Vier's recent collection of Ferraris due to the Shell promo and our recent decision to acquire a motorcycle (to save gas) resulted in our son being obsessed over all kinds of transportation.

I've learned that feeding my son's natural passions makes him more animated and happy. He can just keep playing with his blocks and mounting them in his toy tractor for a long time. I don't "force" him to do what I want anymore. I wait for his cues and engage him in conversations about what he loves.

Image from http://www.public-domain-photos.com/free-cliparts/signs_and_symbols/other/traffic_light_green_dan__01-7254.htm

Badger's New Craze: Purble Place

This game comes free with Windows Vista. Badger really loves it. There are three games in Purble Place:

• Comfy Cakes - Badger liked assembling cakes based on a picture order. It helps him follow instructions. He's great at it. And he even cheers for himself when he gets a cake delivered.
  
• Purble Pairs - is a simple memory game. Badger does trial and error here but I'm really amazed at how he remembers where the right pictures are. 
• Purble Shop - this is a game of logic and recognition. Badger's goal is to guess the right features of the character hiding behind the curtain based on previous choices. By using logic, he can guess what other features are missing. According to Vier, Badger was able to guess correctly with just a few tries the first time he played it. 

Aside from Starfall, Badger likes this playing this computer-based game. It's still fresh for him and it's pretty challenging. After a while he might get bored, though, because it's PC installed and not a game that keeps adapting (unlike the Starfall website). It's a great teaching aid because it's so much fun.

I just make sure to be with him while he plays so that he can share the game with me and it becomes more interactive as I cheer him on or when he asks for my help. 

(Oct. 20, 2009)