Winter Weather



Small Snowman; January 2013
Keri Withington



Where I'm from, even the lightest dusting of snow usually results in a free day.  Schools are closed, and many businesses and other activities are as well.  There is always something special about having one of these days at home with your family, bundled up against the cold when you venture out, and bustling inside for hot chocolate and dry gloves.

I am a firm believer that you should have fun in the snow.  My husband recently told me that, "you know you're getting old when you don't want to play in the snow anymore."  My four-year-old was so excited about snow that she was literally jumping up and down and dancing around.  Making a snowman was the highlight not just of her day, but probably of the whole season.

I am also a firm believer that learning, especially with kids, should be fun.  There's no reason why you can't include educational activities with winter weather.  It is tempting to just hibernate in front of the TV (and there's nothing wrong with that in small doses), but there are loads of fun and educational activities to try as well.

One of my favorite traditions we have in my family is that we always decorate a winter tree for the birds.  During winter, food becomes scarce for wildlife, and snow and ice can make it difficult for birds to reach what food there is.  Making the bird friendly decorations is a fun and educational activity, and then we can watch the birds all winter.  This is a great chance to study wildlife.  For my ideas on home-made birdfood hangers, click here.

You can also study the freezing points of different liquids outside, use snowballs to study trajectories in math and physics, or go sledding  for P.E.

Jackson Pollock and Scribbles

Today my girls were drawing pictures together. My oldest daughter admonished her younger sister that her picture "looked like scribbles" and so wasn't very good. She then tried giving her a lesson on how to draw.

To this our younger daughter (who was really concentrating on her picture) replied that the picture was how it was supposed to look and it reminded her of England. Her big sister wasn't convinced yet because it didn't look like anything she remembers from England.

We took the opportunity to show them a picture of a Jackson Pollock painting. As soon as I pulled up the picture, the six-year-old exclaimed, "that's splatter painting! That's one of my favorite types of painting!". We discussed how splatter paintings are "awesome" and some of our favorites, even though they aren't lifelike depictions. Then we looked at our drawing of England again and talked about how it can represent England in how it makes you feel rather than just how it looks.

Jackson Pollock is a very accessible artist for children and a great way for them to become interested in art theory.

"England", Anya Withington, 08/27/12, black marker on paper

Back to School Meals

Home made bread fresh from the oven (the kids helped make it)

I would like to think that it's still summer time, but I'm increasingly reminded that school will be starting back up again soon (and already has in some places).  The stores are full of school supplies and the TV is full of commercials about back to school fashion.

There are a lot of things to think about with school starting back up that go beyond new backpacks.

For most families (mine included), bedtimes become more lax when school's out.  It's a good idea to start getting into bedtime and morning routines again before school starts back up.  Also, I know that our meal times have changed over the summer months.  I am a firm believer that good nutrition and eating habits aid learning and behavior in school, so it's important to pay attention to having good meal times (especially during the school year).

Packing a school lunch doesn't have to just mean a peanut butter and jelly sandwich in a brown bag.  In fact, many schools no longer allow peanut butter at all.  For my back to school lunch ideas, click here.

Dinner is also important and often overlooked.  For ideas on making delicious and nutritious school year dinners, click here.

Hiatus

Obviously I haven't been around much lately.

I blog about life, but sometimes life gets in the way of blogging.  The past few months have been tumultuous and eventful.  We made a major move, and I've had a lot of work changes.  I'm now accepting some tutoring students again, and I'm teaching at community college.  I'm really enjoying teaching adults and being in a college setting.

So I'm sorry that I've been to busy to blog.  The good news is that I am teaching (not to mention all of the amazing educational experiences we've had with our kids that I haven't gotten around to writing about yet).    Hopefully I'll get some good posts up soon with all of the lesson plans and activities that I've been working on.

Happy learning everybody.

"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).