Cookies, Crayons, Classes, & Chaos

2009-2010 Homeschool Classes Michigan Historical Library

Education Programs for Home School Students

The Michigan Historical Museum offers home school parents special days to bring their children to our educational group programs. Choose a program that interests you and enjoy it in the company of other home school families. All programs start at 10:00am. Spaces are limited, call or e-mail now to reserve your space! 517-241-0708 or ravena@michigan.gov. (See the MHL calendar of events for even more activities for everyone.) See program schedule below.

Today we were no more than five minutes into math lessons when my 7 year-old sensory seeker started mouthing the dominoes we were using for class.

Thankfully I had found a helpful website with tips for teaching these bundles of energy!

Sizzle-Bop! is a web haven "Where Highly Distractible People are Celebrated, Encouraged & Empowered."

Here are some interesting ways people are finding to "take back the city," especially in an age of budget cuts to city services.

Seed bombs? Paint guns? Graffiti? Yes, these are part of urban renewal if you can believe it!

[Photo by Urban Wild via Creative Commons License]

Save the Date!

Support Breastfeeding in Michigan
Legislative Day of the Michigan Breastfeeding Network Breakfast
Thursday, Sept. 10, 2009, 8:00 AM - 10:00 AM
Capitol Room 426, Capitol Building, Lansing, MI

Please join us to learn about promoting, protecting and supporting breastfeeding in Michigan. While the American Academy of Pediatrics has always endorsed breastfeeding as the optimal form of nutrition, Michigan falls short of federal target goals for breastfeeding in the early postpartum period, at six months, and at one year of age. Learn about how breastfeeding reduces health care and absenteeism costs.

Hosted by
The Michigan Breastfeeding Network, State Representative Rebekah Warren (D-Ann Arbor,) and State Representative Tonya Schuitmaker (R-Lawton.)

For directions to the Capitol, please visit http://www.michigan.gov/documents/gethere_14067_7.PDF

Educational Field Trips - Northern Indiana

Mennohof Amish/Mennonite Information Center - Menno-Hof is a non-profit information center that teaches visitors about the faith and life of Amish and Mennonites. Located in Shipshewana, Indiana, Menno-Hof invites groups and individuals to learn about and experience Anabaptist history and lifestyle. Menno-Hof’s multi-image presentations, historical environments, and colorful displays take you on a fascinating journey inside the unique world of the Mennonites and Amish. See where the Anabaptists had their beginning in a Swiss courtyard and how they were persecuted for their faith in the dungeon. Travel with the Anabaptists down the cobblestone streets of Holland and board a 17th century sailing boat on a journey to America and freedom. Take a virtual tour for a glimpse of what Menno-Hof has to offer.

Midwest Museum of American Art - Beautifully renovated neo-classical style bank building 19th and 20th century American Art, with original paintings by Grandma Moses and Norman Rockwell.

Center for History - 38-room Victorian mansion, a charming cottage reflecting the 1930s, a gallery that chronicles local history, a gallery of Notre Dame history, a children's museum plus compelling exhibitions.

Currently running a special exhibit on Lincoln along with the Studebaker National Museum which owns one of Lincoln's carriages.

Cabin days
Grades 3 and up
October 13-16, 2009
During Cabin Days, Center for History volunteers, dressed as pioneers, demonstrate cooking, recreation and trades about life in 1830s Michiana. Lively interaction occurs as students, eager to learn about pioneer life, ask questions of the pioneers they are visiting. Students may stop to talk with the Navarre family who are cooking outdoors. They might also be curious about the jars of sassafras root, rosehips, willow bark and leeches (careful, they're real!) that set in rows in front of Doc Hardman. And the school marm always welcomes the children to her schoolhouse as she teaches lessons from The New McGuffey Second Reader.

Fur Trade Program
Date: December 8-11, 2009
Time: 9:30 - 12:30 p.m.
Students will gain insight into the importance of the fur trade in northern Indiana during the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries. They will examine silver shaped into crosses and animal forms to learn how the European explorers bartered with Native Americans for goods. A view of axes, guns, traps and such household items as a bone needle used in making clothing will help students understand the self-sufficiency of the fur traders.

Civil War Program
Grades 3 and up
TBA (will occur February 2010)

Bonneyville Mill Tours and Programs

Mill Tours:
Bonneyville Mill:
All Grades, 30 minutes-1 hour
The staff at Bonneyville Mill is always happy to demonstrate and explain how water power has been harnessed to grind grain into flour. Mill tours can be geared toward particular areas of interest (History, Science, Social Studies, etc.) when so requested. Please note that the mill operates between 9:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m.. Students are welcome to purchase mill products. Two pound bags are $2.50 for corn meal and $3.50 for wheat flours. Please schedule extra time if purchases will be made.

Awesome Autumn
Oxbow, Bonneyville, River Preserve
Grades: K-6th, 45 mins.-1 hour
Autumn is a great time for a hike with its crisp air and colorful foliage. It is also a time of preparation and change. On this hike students will discover how the plants and animals of the park are preparing for winter.

Meet A Tree:
Oxbow, Bonneyville, River Preserve
Grades: 3rd-12th, 1-1½ hour
Through nature games and a hike, students will learn to identify many of the trees in the park and discover their uses to us and the park’s wildlife.

Wild About Wetlands:
Oxbow, Bonneyville, River Preserve
Grades: 3-12th, 1-1½ hour
What is a wetland? Why are they so important? Why are we sowild about them? Students will find out through hands-on activities and the investigation of the wet and wild inhabitants.

Fun and Games:
Oxbow, Bonneyville
Grades: 1st-5th, 1-1½ hours
Learning can be fun, and games can teach a lot. This activity combines the perfect mixture of games and learning to give the students a better understanding of our natural world. Through hiking and nature games, the naturalist will make your visit a fun and rewarding experience.

The Wonderful World of Insects
Oxbow, Bonneyville, River Preserve
Grades: 1st-5th, 1 hour
How do insects differ from other animals? How do they grow and mature? How do they benefit us? During this program students will explore the insect world through hands-on activities, games and hikes. This program is available from May thru October only.

If We Were Indians
Oxbow, Bonneyville, River Preserve
Grades: 3rd-12th, 1-1½ hours
Step back in time to the life of the Potawatomi Indians. Through stories, facts and activities students will learn of the Indian’s lifestyle and reverence for the natural world.

Elkhart Historical Museum & Rush Memorial Center

Regional Native Americans
Learn about the earliest inhabitants of North America. Discover how the Native Americans of this region lived before and after contact with the Europeans. Program time for this tour is one hour. Grades: 3-12

Story of Elkhart County
See and hear the story of our County from then to now! See the amazing collections preserved in the Elkhart County Historical museum.
Grades: K-12

Pioneer Life
Who were the pioneers? How did their life differ from our own? What's a flail and basket winnow? During this program you will discover these answers and more! Grades: K-12

Hands-on History Stations
Rotate through various hands-on stations chosen by the teacher. Native games, natural dyes, and candle-making are some of the choices! Grades: K-6

The 1840s Farmer
This visiting 1840s farmer will will teach your class about farming and pioneer life with lots of interaction. Grades: K-6

Life During the Industrial Revolution
Learn about family life during the Industrial Revolution. See how the railroads played a major role in expanding the industry of Elkhart County. Grades: K-12

Free admission to participating Smithsonian Museums around the country September 26, 2009

Learn to ride a bike the natural way

The Europeans seem to have great ideas when it comes to children and play.
(Just think about how IKEA incorporates play structures into ordinary furniture and how that Denmark library has play structures devoted to full body and mind learning.)

Here's another one of their great ideas: The Balance Bike!

There are at least two sturdy and popular brands of their balance bikes available in the U.S., including Skuut (shown at right) and LIKEaBIKE (new Kokua model shown below).

These wooden bikes have no pedals and no training wheels. Kids just skoot the bike along with their feet. They naturally develop their balance.

So the transition to a two-wheeler with pedals becomes very easy.

There is never a need for training wheels, which never seemed useful to me as a child learning to ride a bike, or as a parent watching my kids.

If it seems hard to envision, check out this video from LIKEaBIKE.

And the good news is that you can make one yourself!

These bikes are designed for ages 2 to 5, but many older kids can still have a hard time learning to ride a bike. And the price can be prohibitive for many families.

So here is a solution from Kristy and her brilliant husband using some ordinary bikes from a garage sale:

(1) Remove pedals/shaft
(2) Remove training wheels
(3) Let the kids ride!!!
(4) Later, put the pedals/shaft back on the bike

Kristy said it took the her 5 year olds just a couple of months to transition from the pedal-less bikes to the two-wheelers.

And the advantage to this approach for older kids is that the bike is just like the ones their friends use rather than the wooden versions.

**Update**

Comments from Mandi, owner "Jillians Drawers.com" -- She is a fellow scientist and always does fabulous research on any product she carries!!!

A modified pedal bike (pedal bike with the pedals removed), or other brands that have a large turning radius for the front wheel make it really, really hard to steer for beginners. Maybe for 4 year olds it would be okay, but for 2 or 3 year olds, they really need the front tire to basically go straight, and not turn too quickly. Also, brakes seem like a good idea, but a toddler really shouldn't be going so quickly that they need brakes... they don't really have the control to stop smoothly.

After really falling in love with the whole concept of balance bikes, I did some research for our store and decided to go with Skuut. We've been really, really happy with the company. It's seldom, but when something with a bike goes wrong, they are incredibly quick to either replace the part or the whole bike. The bikes really hold up and they work great!

I've heard great things about LikeaBike, too, so I'm sure it would be great! Striders are great if the bike will be left outside (the wood bikes shouldn't be left outside) and/or if you have a really active child that will be going up and down ramps, doing jumps (I've seen it!), using it in muddy areas, but the handlebars do turn all the way.

Make your own little mini-post office box

This is so cute and you can make it too!

This miniature mail box could be a great addition to doll house play or for making your own model city.

Check out more of these fun paper models from Greg Van't Land.

Fall Activity Guide

The 2009 Fall parks and recreation guide is here! Check out the brand new homeschool classes on pages 12 and 13!

K-6th Grade Science and Math Exploration Days

Lansing Community College Science and Math Elementary Exploration

Saturday, November 7, 2009

8:30am – 12:00pm

Open to all children – Kindergarten through sixth-grade!

Located in the Arts and Sciences and Gannon Buildings on the LCC Downtown Campus

======================================================

See exhibits from organizations such as the LCC Planetarium and Great Lakes Geoscience.

Events include Craters, Spider Webs, Math Activities and many more. (All events are non-competitive)

The cost is $3.00 per student. To register logon to http://www.lcc.edu/science/youth_programs/smee/

Registration deadline for groups of 5 or more children is October 16th.

Sponsored by Lansing Community College

Be a famous writer contest for kids

Enter the Mrs. P Children's writing contest. There are categories for ages 4-8 and 9-13. Check the website for official rules and prizes!

Now THIS is a library!!!!!

I had remembered reading in Mothering Magazine about the way some European countries really emphasized free-play for their children by integrating play places into commercial areas.

But, wow! The way Hjorring Public library in Denmark incorporates play into their library is incredible.

This is a great way to incorporate sedentary and active places into one area which my can't-sit-still-for-very-long son would appreciate greatly.

Why don't classrooms look like this?! I guess this is why many of us with active boys homeschool. They can read while swinging upside-down on their ladder swing.

See more fabulous pictures at walkingpaper.org.

Montessori Freebies

Here are some free downloads from Montessori for Everyone.

There are materials for elementary and older grades. The downloads cover a variety of topics including language and reading activities, world cultures, math, and geometry.

Free and Cheap Stained Glass Designs

I have two windows that need help.

(1) An old salvaged window I wanted to creatively repurpose
(2) An ugly front door window that could also use some privacy

Here are some fabulous solutions:

(1) Paint faux stained glass designs using glass paint directly on the window
(2) Paint faux stained glass designs on a plastic sheet using puffy paint to create removable window clings
(3) Print faux stained glass designs on specialty vinyl cling film using an inkjet printer or have your local copy & print store do it for you on a larger scale.
(4) Oh yeah, and you can pop down to the giant hardware store to buy the decorative window film. But what's the creativity in that?!

Free Patterns and Tips:

Here are some sources of free stained glass patterns you can use as inspiration in designing your own look:

Look for tips on calculating the pixel size of your design or resizing an existing pattern among other things at stained-glass-patterns.org.

Fabulous Fun with Free Fonts

Oh my goodness!! I had no idea how many deliciously decadent different fonts are available, let alone for free!

6500 Free Fonts at http://www.webpagepublicity.com/ - Tons of fonts but somewhat difficult to sort through since they are only organized alphabetically. The fonts are for windows only. There are other interesting "teaser freebies" on the site.

8000+ Free Fonts at http://www.urbanfonts.com/ - These are much easier to locate because they are organized by style (e.g. retro, Asian, futuristic, sophisticated, holidays, etc.) and alphabetically. All are for windows and some are also for mac.

For a lot of fun explore the "famous" font category. You might be able to find a front styled after your favorite food, drink, TV show, movie, rock band, etc.

Here's just a small sample of some of the great treasures you can find at Urbanfonts. (The words are the name of the font in case you want to search for them.)

Tired of playing Candyland?

My friend, Trish, whose family is big-time into gaming conventions, just recommended some terrific UNIQUE games for kids by Playroom Entertainment. These are available for sale at speciality stores as well as the Playroom Entertainment website.

They have board games, card games, dice games, multicultural games, and all seem to have an educational component to them. There are games for ALL AGES of family members at REASONABLE PRICES.

Here are just a few!!!

Yummy school supplies!

Here are some links to some great products

A Little Garden Flower - Waldorf curriculum, art supplies and more!

Waldorf and Earthschooling Channel - Blog with free waldorf-inspired crafts and lessons with great tutorials as well as e-books for purchase and free Waldorf 101 lessons.

Christopherus (Waldorf-Inspired) Homeschool Resources - Free guides and resources and e-books for sale.

For Small Hands and Montessori Services - Wonderful resource for "preparing your child's environment" at home or in a classroom setting in the Montessori tradition. The sister sites include tons of child sized tools for woodworking, helping clean around the house, the garden, sewing, music, art and so much more.

Michael Olaf - Full spectrum of Montessori materials for the classroom.

Discount School Supply - Economical supplies for arts and crafts and active play (balls, parachutes, etc.)

In search of the perfect labeler

It's been a good year of getting organized here on the blog. Finding the right tools has been a challenge, but we've made progress!

Perfect (almost) phone, Check.
Perfect (almost) food storage, Check.
Perfect (almost) shelving, Check.
Perfect (almost) carpet cleaner, Check.

Now I'm on the hunt to find The Perfect Labeler. It's the staple of "real organizers" so I best have one!

I've had a blast using the decades old hand held "Dymno labeler" that used to be my grandparents.

It's a loving reminder of my childhood -- turning the alphabet dial and squeezing the handle to punch my words, hoping for no misspellings and that my hands don't go numb from all the squeezing.

It was a blast labeling all the new shelves! Until morning.

That's when I opened the closet door to find all my labels had "jumped off." I found curled up labels all over the house -- several had jumped a few feet away from their original location. Maybe it was because the tape cartridges were probably old.

So I guess I need to move into this century of labelers. Here are the desired attributes for my new electronic labeler:

(1) Sticks to stuff.

(2) Preview entire label before printing.

(3) Uses batteries (but sparingly, not an energy hog like some) and has an adapter.

(4) Accepts 3/4" to 2" widths of labels for both indoor and outdoor use.

(5) Can be hooked up to a computer (but doesn't require computer hookup to operate so I can take it anywhere)

(6) Allows downloads of images to print on the label so I can label my pre-literate daughter's stuff with icons rather than words.

(7) Uses inexpensive label cartridges. (Yeah, right. Like that'll happen!)

(8) QWERTY rather than ABC keyboard.

I think this Brother P-Touch 18R rechargeable system might be a contender!

But I'm definitely not getting rid of my old Dymo!!

Update: I just learned about the "P-touch label advisor" that you can use to select your criteria to determine which label maker is right for you.

Science class projects and modules for homeschool

Here are some fun internet and hands-on activities to integrate Math, Science, Social Studies, and Art concepts.

Bucket Buddies - Studying pond life and its organisms.

Square of Life - Studying living and non-living things in your local environment and contributing to a global classroom.

Trash Terminators - Math, Science, and Art activities for reducing, reusing, and recycling materials.

Keeping things organized at home with kids

So far we've added shelves or organizers in the kitchen pantry, entry way, hall closet, linen closet, master bedroom, the refrigerator and on 3 walls in the garage.

It's not beautiful, but at least more of our things have "homes" now. And there are still lots of places that are disastrously messy in this 1200 sq ft home.

And of course I opened one closet to find all my nice labels had popped off. So it's a process of trial and error.

But here are 3 things that worked this week:

(1) I pulled the kitchen waste basket out from under the sink and left it sitting out so it was accessible. This resulted in the kids disposing lots more of their things properly.

(2) I pulled the paper shredder out where we can reach it. When my artist daughter has finished drawing on her daily ream of paper I offer to let her shred her non-masterpieces under my watchful eye. She loves the shredder more than she loves holding on to all of her artwork.

(3) My sensory-seeking kids love to smell (and use gargantuan amounts of) their many scented shampoos and will empty a bottle in one showering. So I re-used one of our empty foaming soap dispensers.

I put a little of the scented soap in the bottom and filled it 3/4 full with distilled water. So now the shampoo is even better because it's more like their beloved shaving cream texture. Here's a recipe for making your own.

Now I can monitor their usage and make sure only "one serving" of shampoo gets used per shower. Of course I'm going to have to get lots more distilled water!!

By the way, Northern Essence is a fun place to get TONS of great smelling Tearless Foaming Wash/Shampoo refills. Check out the INSANELY HUGE list of fragrances. There must be 200 or more fragrances!!!

More curriculum for multiple intelligences

I continue to be amazed at the number of curriculum resources for homeschool (or other purposes) that are focused on Gardner's theory of multiple intelligences.

These types of curricula provide multiple ways of learning and using information to address a variety of learning styles and personalities.

I'm really intrigued by the Intellego curriculum resources. It looks like they are building an impressive array of unit studies to interest many different types of kids. Each unit includes art, writing, math, reading, etc. Check it out!