The Learning Umbrella

The learning adventures of a second generation homeschooler

Puppets

 
Drama is a great learning tool, both as a way to show a story or information to children in an interesting and engaging manner, and as a way for children to tell their own stories or act out their own understandings of things they’ve learned.
A problem for homeschoolers is that there may not be enough players.  Much [...]

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Our Bird Tree

With the baby pulling up to stand and the daycare kids running around and the cats climbing everything, we decided to put our Christmas tree outside this year.  It wouldn’t be the same – for one thing there would be no smell.  On the other hand – there would be no vacuuming up needles.
We went [...]

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Twas the night before Christmas …

And in my house not a creature is stirring, except for:
1 fussy baby,
1 hyper dog,
2 lazy cats,
and 1 Mommy working on Christmas magic.
(And Daddy is out trying to buy Mommy a last minute present)
Merry Christmas to you All

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Elf Yourself

One of the big office stores is currently doing a fun online site that will let you upload a picture and “elfmorph” a face onto the body of a dancing elf.  I did this with my kids’ faces, and it was hilarious!
Hypatia or Carbon
Do it yourself: www.elfyourself.com

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When they go and learn without you

My sister, J., has gone and surprised me.  She was doing a unit study on the Middle East, and I was going to have her read excerpts from Reading Lolita in Tehran, because when I pre-read the book it looked too hard for her.  She got a copy from the library, but before I could [...]

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more water = fewer mood swings?

Here is an interesting little article that claims that dehydration increases mood swings.  Maybe that’s why I’m moody – I hate to drink water (it tastes bad to me – don’t tell me water has no taste, because it does), and I’m breastfeeding.  I’m sure I don’t drink enough water, even though I buy carbonated and [...]

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Changes to the Solar System

Last year, I built a solar system model with Carbon, and it has been hanging on the ceiling of his room ever since.  We made it from a kit that was styrofoam balls and wires, and he painted all the planets.
Of course, that was before Pluto was downgraded to a planetoid, so we had it [...]

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Quote of the day

This quote appears in Plain Living: A Quaker Path to Simplicity by Catherine Whitmire.  The book is lovely, with many excellent quotes organized by topics and a few “queries” that you can ask yourself after you finish each little section.
This quote is organized under “Parenting and Mentoring”:
Becoming educated is the only process that engages every [...]

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Preschool lesson: Hibernation

 This month seemed like a good time to talk about how animals survive the winter.  We covered migration already, and then we plunged into hibernation.  The preschool-friendly definition: sleeping through the winter.
Lesson:
1.  Read a book about hibernation.  It was hard to find a really simple one at my library, so I ended up using a [...]

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Things to complain about:

1.  Drivers who don’t look where they are driving.  My husband was hit in a crosswalk this week, by a driver that just wasn’t looking in the direction they were going as they pulled out from a STOP sign.  Luckily, it was low speed and he’s okay.  Limping badly, but the doctor said it’s not [...]

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