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).

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.