"My Art Book" from DK

Whether you're homeschooling your kids or just looking for a great resource, My Art Book is definitely worth the investment (or a trip to the library).  This is a fantastic resource for exposing kids to art.  It has a great balance of art history, art theory, pictures, activities, and ideas for art projects.  My kids love this book.

For my book review of My Art Book, click here.

The Romsey Show

the Romsey Show 2011

Who said that the best place to learn is a classroom?
Hands-on learning should be taking place all over all the time.  When you think about it, almost any activity can be educational, especially with primary school aged children.

We recently had a great time going to the Romsey Show as a family.  My daughters LOVED it, and they learned a lot too.  Farmers were there with all kinds of livestock, and there were also workers from a bat hospital, otter sanctuary, falconry group, and other animal-related groups.  We were able to get really close to the animals, and my girls had a chance to talk to some of the workers about them (in addition to asking us questions).  They learned a lot about animals, agriculture, the local food industry, and the environment (especially environmental issues that impact local wildlife).  If we had just told them the information at home, they'd probably have promptly lost interest.  Since we actually saw the animals, they'll be talking about this day out and the things they learned for months.

To find out more about our visit to the Romsey Show, click here.

Butterflies!

We recently had the chance to take our five-year-old to the Natural History Museum in London.  We actually had to queue up outside to even get into the museum!  There were lots of families there, and it was nice to see that a museum was such a popular attraction.

Inside there were a lot of good displays, and Miriam ran back and forth in excitement looking at all of the cases.  Her favorite was the whale.  There are several whale skeletons and a life-size model of a blue whale.  I'm pretty sure our house could fit inside of it.  There was also a fantastic new section on dinosaurs.

The highlight of our visit, though, was the butterfly house outside.  The temporary special exhibit, Sensational Butterflies, really was sensational.  There were thousands of butterflies of all varieties, ranging from tiny brown ones to silk moths so large and colorful they looked like kites.  It was absolutely delightful to have so many butterflies flying everywhere around you (and sometimes landing on you).  There was also a great educational trail through the butterfly house.  Every few yards there was a little station that taught kids something about butterflies.  They were very hands-on and included both information and a chance to try things out themselves and observe butterflies.  There were special lenses, for example, that you could look through to see as a butterfly sees.  We all loved it, and I have to admit that I learned things about butterflies that I had never known before.

Butterflies are a great topic to get kids excited about science, and you can encourage butterflies around your home as well with butterfly feeders or butterfly attracting plants.  We have buddleias, for example, that always have butterflies around them in the summer (unfortunately the caterpillars seem to like eating up our gooseberry bush first).

The New Forest Reptile Centre & Reptile Trail Hike

I find that when I'm travelling, I always visit the local attractions and museums.  Yet we often neglect the sites that are closer to home.  It's amazing the resources that we often have nearby if we are willing to look for and appreciate them.  We recently went to an exhibit on the Romans at a small local museum.  Since it was only a small museum, it had never particularly caught my interest before.  However, it was the perfect size for my kids to be able to enjoy.  They kept interest throughout the whole museum and were particularly interested in the Romans display (it had a lot of hands-on activities for kids as well as artifacts and information).

Another nearby education attraction that we just went to for the first time was the New Forest Reptile Centre.  Again it was only a small centre, but my kids were very excited about it.  They learned about different local wildlife species and about the local environment.  They learned a lot and had fun.

For more about our visit to the New Forest Reptile Centre, click here.

No matter where you live, make the most of your local museums and other educational sites.

Out and About in Winchester

Over the summer we've been trying to do lots of fun and educational activities with our kids.  One of our fun day trips was into Winchester in Hampshire, England.  There's a lot of history in this beautiful small city.

We saw part of the original Roman wall and talked a little about the Romans (we later learned more about them at the City Museum, which has a lot of activities for children).  We also went to Wolvesey Castle.  My girls had a great time running around the castle ruins, imagining what life would have been like in the middle ages, and trying to piece together as much as they could about the castle from what's left.  They learned a lot about history, and got really excited about it as they could actually see and explore it.  After that we walked around the city and saw other sites like Jane Austen's house.

Encouraging Reading

Children need all of the encouragement they can get when they are first learning to read.  In my opinion it's always a good thing to reinforce learning as many different ways as possible, and to make learning as fun as possible.  So I think that whoever came up with alphabet food was a genius.

Normally I'm not a big fan of processed food, but I make an exception for these potato letters.  They cost about £1 from Asda and my kids love them.  It makes meal time a great time to reinforce learning what sounds letters make (for my 2-year-old) and reading simple words (for my 5-year-old).  I spell words with them when serving them, and encourage them to use the letters to make their own words as well.  I'll also ask them to find a certain letter (and they get to eat it when they find it).  It's a really great way to reinforce reading for younger kids.

In addition to these potato waffles, we've also had letter shaped noodles.  I've also been known to make letter shaped pancakes, and you can get letter shaped cookie cutters.

For more ideas on how to help your child learn to read, click here or here.

Field Trip Books

Whether you homeschool or go to school, field trips can be really memorable and educational experiences.  One way to make the most of a field trip is to make a book about the experience.  Children can draw pictures, write about the experience, put in photos, and do related activities.

Here's a page my daughter did after a field trip to the zoo.  They have a book for the class.  Each child gets a turn to bring the book home and fill in their page.  As she's in kindergarten, this meant that she drew pictures of herself and some of the animals and wrote the name of each.

The National Gallery and Discussing Da Vinci

Trafalgar Square, London
view next to the National Gallery (where "The Virgin of the Rocks" by Da Vinci is)

This week I was able to take my children with me on a day trip to London.  Miriam (my kindergartner) really wanted to go to an art museum while we were there, and Anya (my almost preschooler) was mostly excited about riding on trains.  To make them both happy, we took the tube to Charing Cross and went to the National Gallery.


Rather than trying to see everything there, we walked through rather quickly and then stopped at the pieces that interested the girls.  We were there for about an hour, and spent almost all of that time looking at only three pieces of art.  Of those, we spent the most time with "The Virgin of the Rocks" by Leonardo Da Vinci.  (I have also often heard this piece called "The Madonna of the Rocks", but I will use the name assigned by the National Gallery.)

We sat down in front of the painting and spent a long time discussing it.  Rather than lecturing my kids about it, I asked them questions and encouraged them to think about the painting for themselves.  We talked about a lot of the symbolism in the painting and some about Da Vinci.  While we were there an art historian from the Open University joined in and supplied some extra information.

Afterwards we went out into Trafalgar Square where they enjoyed chasing pigeons, looking at the fountain, etc.

Miriam is already asking when we can go to another art museum, and she kept talking about "The Virgin of the Rocks" and Leonardo Da Vinci.  Not all of you can take your kids to the National Gallery in London, but there are art museums around the world.  I think it's really beneficial for children to be brought to museums and galleries, exposed to art, and encouraged to think about it.  You can tie it in with lots of subjects.  For this painting, for example, you can study the painting itself, learn about Da Vinci and the time period, learn more about what Da Vinci did and his contributions to both art and science, make your own version of the artwork, write a story inspired by it or a paper about it...

For more information about Da Vinci's "The Virgin of the Rocks", click here.
For free lesson plans about Leonardo Da Vinci, click here.

Meet Ben



My daughter Miriam recently turned five.  For months she's been asking for a pet for her birthday.  In the past she's had pet fish and shrimp, but never a more interactive pet.  So after a lot of discussion and consideration we decided to give her a pet for her birthday.  It took a lot more discussion and consideration to decide to give her a kitten.  (We went with a kitten rather than a cat so that they can be used to small children from the beginning rather than having clashes between an older cat and kids trying to get used to each other.)

We thought that we had a pretty clear idea of what kind of kitten we wanted to get.  Then Miriam accidentally met Ben, a tiny all black kitten, and fell in love.  As soon as she saw him, she knew that Ben was her cat.  (Or, as my husband puts it, that she was Ben's person.)  Ben was the runt of his litter and was only a third the size of the other kittens his age.  In this picture he's 8 1/2 weeks old and easily fits in an adult's hand.

As an almost five-year-old, Miriam was excited for a pet because she wanted to be able to love it and play with it.  She had visions of a kitten who would follow her around, sit in her lap, etc.  So far she has spent large amounts of time stroking and carrying around Ben.  She also draws pictures of him and sings songs to and about him.

What's really impressed me, though, is the amount of responsibility that she's taken for her pet.  She is happy to help give him food and water and even to clean his litter box.  Having a pet is definitely going to help her to learn responsibility and commitment.  I'm looking forward to seeing what else she learns from having a pet (so expect to see more posts with Ben).

Meet Frankie

Meet Frankie.  Frankie is a little teddie bear that belongs to my daughter's class.  Over the course of the year, each child has a chance to take Frankie home.  Then the child writes in Frankie's book about their adventures together and draws a picture.  This past weekend was my daughter Miriam's turn to bring Frankie home with her.

Although I have often seen activities like this done in school classrooms, this could also be an effective exercise for home schooled kids.  Miriam was really excited to have Frankie visit her and do all of her weekend activities with her.  Because she was excited to share her experiences with the other children, she was happy to write about it.  She also read the entries put in by previous children.  It didn't feel like she was working on reading and writing (literacy) because she wanted to do it and got to play with Frankie.

For most homeschool families, you can't just pass it around kids like you do in a classroom.  However, you could start a similar activity with other homeschooling families.  It could either be local (through people you meet or a homeschooling network, for example), or you could post it back and forth between homeschooling families anywhere in the world.  Children will be excited to follow Frankie's adventures and practice their literacy skills with it.

My Bookshelf

If you are homeschooling--especially if you're homeschooling teens--you can look at a lot of books.  Especially teaching English it can be hard to pick out the right novels to read and books to use.

I read a lot, and recently started another blog specifically for book reviews and discussions of books.  This blog will cover all types of books from children's books to novels to non-fiction.  It may be of use to some of you to help you to get more information about a specific book, or to help you to browse reading possibilities.

My book blog is called Keri's Bookshelf.  Click here to check it out.

Springtime: Learning About Seeds & Plants

My daughter Miriam is four-years-old and is a reception student (the English equivalent of kindergarten).  Like most kids, she enjoys being outdoors.  We have our kids help us in the garden (including growing plants from seeds) and use playtime outside to teach them about science.  Kids are naturally curious about the world around them, so it's easy to teach them about plants, weather, etc.

Recently Miriam has been very excited about the beginning of spring.  She's been watching all of the signs of spring (like flowers blooming, longer days, and new leaves growing on plants).  I helped her to dissect some seeds to see the insides as well as taking apart some flowers to examine.  We've also just started planting new vegetables in the garden.

After finding interesting things outside, Miriam came in and started painting.  This is her painting of a new plant growing from a seed.  You can see the roots at the bottom of the seedling, the stem, the single new leaf, and the growing plant with the seed husk still on it (I think it's supposed to be a bean plant). 

I'm including all this not just to brag about my kid (although Miriam is bright and very artistic).  I'm including it because all kids this age can enjoy similar activities and have fun without even realizing that they're learning about science.

For some science lesson plans about plants/seeds/etc. for primary school children, click here.

How to Help Your Kindergartner With Their Homework

As a parent with a child in Year R (the British equivalent of kindergarten), I know that homework can start young.  My daughter is learning to read.  She comes home with reading books and activities that we are expected to do with her at home (and a homework form we have to fill out).

Even the brightest children and best parents can find it hard at times to be motivated to do homework together.  Here are some ideas that have worked for my family.  Click here for ideas on how to help your kindergartner with their homework. 

Please let me know if you have any other good ideas for helping your kids (especially kindergartners) with their homework.

Choosing a Major

Recently I've heard a lot of discussions in homeschooling groups about homeschooled teens starting at college/university.  I won't go into all of the advantages and disadvantages of applying to a university after being homeschooled in this post. 

I was interested, though, in what people had to say about how their homeschooled children were choosing their majors.  It can be difficult for anyone to decide what to study.

My undergraduate degree is in English.  I loved my course, but I realize that it wasn't necessarily the most practical degree.  Click here to find out what I've done with a B.A. in English. 

I do think it is important for people to study something that they love.  How did any of you choose what to study, or how are your children choosing their majors?  I'd love to hear your experiences.

Twitter for Homeschoolers

After putting it off as long as possible, I joined Twitter not too long ago.  I wasn't really sure what to expect when I signed up, but I've had a lot of pleasant surprises since becoming part of the Twitter community.  I think that was the biggest shock for me; there really is a community feeling on Twitter.

On Twitter, there's a large community not only of parents, but of homeschooling parents.  There are lots of links to informative articles, notes about different homeschooling resources, and simply a constant supply of support and encouragement.  Even if you don't know other homeschooling families in your area, on Twitter you can interact with homeschooling parents around the world.  This is a great place to get and give advice and inspiration.  If you home school, I would definitely recommend trying out Twitter.

I'm sure there are many more great people that I'm missing, but here are a few of the people who tweet about homeschooling: @homeschool, @HomeschoolSue, @hmschooliguide, @HomeCurriculum, and @Homeschoolounge.

My Twitter handle is @KeriWithington.