Wonder World Classroom

Among our other Earth Day projects this year, I decided to make a bulletin board to display the calendar items I've been using to help Bri get a better sense of time than she was getting from her Jonas Brothers calendar (though she digs the kewl photos!).

Here's the "plain" bulletin board before her calendar was added. It was simple to make, and she absolutely adores it! It's fun, yet isn't too busy for the display items to stand out.


Here's the finished product after adding her calendar stuff. For fun we also included a little weather report. Click on the photo to enlarge it and you'll see the calendar items sit inside a clear pocket along the bottom. This was the trickiest part of the whole thing, but it wasn't too hard.

This could have been done as a flannel/felt board, but I opted for a wipe-clean base for three reasons. First, this sits on our dining table (resting against the wall) and I didn't want a spill wicking up and ruining it. Two, I already had the laminated weekday/month/date cards, and didn't want to redo or alter them for a fabric board. Third, I was hoping to get away with using items I had on hand.

Here's how I made this:

1. I used spray adhesive to glue construction paper to represent grass/sky/sun/tree onto a standard sheet of foam core. (With Earth Day in mind, I "recycled" paper that already had been used on one side.)

2.To add the pocket, I cut a sheet of clear shelf paper a few inches over the length of the foam board. I folded the top down lengthwise about 2/3 of the way to make the double layer pocket, yet still leave a single layer of "sticky" paper along the whole bottom edge. I positioned the long pocket, folded the edges around to the back of the foam board, then secured it using packaging tape.

3.The sets of calendar items (obtained courtesy of childcareland.com) are stacked in order and slipped into the pocket. Each day we pull the prior weekday/date/etc out and slide it to the back so the current day is displayed.

4. The mini "weather report" is available at Sprout Online's coloring pages. I cut it out and laminated everything with clear vinyl. Using the same basic idea I did for the board, I made a clear pocket for the little weather signs to slip into. This I attached to the foam board using brad fasteners. Each day the proper sign (sunny, cloudy, etc) is slid into view in the pocket.

There's still room to display other special items of interest like photos, theme letters/numbers/words, etc. Meanwhile, since we live in a tiny apartment and space is at a premium (not to mention our fondness for teaching Bri about recycling/reusing things), I want to spray-adhesive fabric to the entire back of the board so we can flip it around for use as a felt board.

As with most homeschoolers, Wonder World Academy enjoy numerous field trips. Whether to the library or post office, museums, parks, or Disneyland, our class room is constantly on the move. But there are times when it is not feasible to go a-roaming, such as when our schedules are overworked, the weather uncooperative, or our child is feeling poorly and not fit for public consumption.

Enter the internet, land of a million opportunities to discover new things about our world. While we frequently "visit" different places online, it can be most fun to visit "live" via streaming web cams piping in the latest and greatest adventures of wildlife, farm life, etc. This has become a great educational opportunity whereby we can snuggle up together on the couch, then visit any number of locations to watch polar bears swimming at the zoo, hummingbird babies in their nest, or puppies entertaining the world with their antics. Questions always arise while we watch, so this "couch time" is always educational. How many schools out there can boast one field trip per month, let alone every day? And I love that we can learn even on days when our child is not feeling the greatest, days she would ordinarily have to stay home from regular school and "miss out." Instead, these opportunities help cheer up an under-the-weather youth.

To find live web cam opportunities, try http://ustream.tv OR Google "live web cam animals" or a specific location. PARENTS: Due to the adult nature of many web cam internet broadcasts, do be sure to supervise searches for live feed field trips.

Here's a favorite a fellow homeschooling family shared with us recently:
Live TV : Ustream

If your household acquired an iPhone or iPod Touch for the holidays (or prior), you can use it to enhance your family's homeschooling experience. There are tons of add-on applications you can install for your child's (and your!) learning. Best of all, many are free or cost only a dollar or two.

Here's a rundown of some of our favorite iPhone apps:

1. Stanza
Read books anywhere, right on your iPhone/iPod. This free ereader app not only allows you to download ebooks off the web, but you can transfer files and books from your computer as well.

2. ABC Tracer
A great activity game that teaches the mechanics of writing letters. Your child traces over letters, and the program colors the line red or green depending on whether they are tracing the right direction. Fun and effective for emerging writers.

3. GoSkyWatch Planetarium
An awesome astronony app. Point your iPhone/iPod at the sky and this app will identify stars, planets, and constellations where you are. Also has a full 180-degree rotating display to "see" the night sky in other parts of the world. Over 200 images of planets and more. At $5.99 it's the most costly of the apps on this list, but worth it.

4. Google Earth
A 3D map program that shows landmarks and lets you zoom in on any spot on the planet. For a lighter version of this, try Pocket Earth.

5. Moon Globe
Same 3D idea as Pocket earth, but for the moon. Highly detailed, with over 1800 landmarks identified. Very cool.

6. NASA app
Very cool linkup to space agency news, videos, mission info, photos, and more.

7. Art
View thousands of famous works of art by more than 200 of the world's greatest artists. Link off to websites for artist biographies, play quiz games, and more. This is only 99 cents, but there is a free "lite" version as well.

8.A Bee See Sight Words
Darling talking flash card game that introduces over 300 words. There is a free lite version that you can try out to see if your child likes it.

9. iReadMusic
A fun app that teaches your child to read musical notes via a series of games. Multiple instruments to choose from, including guitar, piano, and mandolin.

10. iWriteWords
Teaches kids to write upper case letters (there's now a lower case version available too) by a set of games. A good progression game after ABC Tracer.

11. MathSplat
A game set that teaches addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division.

12. Mathemagics
Mental math tricks that will let your kid pluck complicated answers from thin air!

13. Japanese Phrases
Yes, you can learn languages on your iPhone--a lot of them, actually.


So how do you get these apps? Visit the iTunes store (using the app store button on your iPhone, the iTunes program on your computer, or Google it online) and search apps to find a ton of educational and fun experiences for the whole family. Enjoy!

Brianna, summer 2008

Now that June is ending and summer is getting into full swing, the question of how to handle "summer vacation" in a homeschooling household comes up. Do we follow the old tradition of two or more months' leave? Take a more "track" schooling approach and do a few months on, one off? Or does the homeschooling family crack the whip and make every day a School Day?

For those of you who have read earlier posts on this blog, you'll know that our household takes the road to education less traveled...even among homeschoolers. We use "unschooling," or a curriculum-free curriculum largely based on every day life experiences. In so doing, we not only take a unique approach to lessons, but to our downtime as well.

In general, Wonder World Academy runs 365 days per year, at least 16 hours per day. (I figure my child is still learning while she sleeps, as dreams and interpretation is one of our interests...in which case, we are in operation 24/7.) Sounds harsh, doesn't it? How could we push our child so hard? How can we ignore the human need for downtime needed to recharge mentally, physically, and emotionally?

Some days you gotta just stop and squeeze the lamb chop

Well, I said our school "runs" all year long, not that we don't have fun time and R&R. We celebrate holidays, have goof off days, scheduled days where video games are practically mandatory, and yes, a summer vacay coming up where I have arranged to have sixteen glorious days away from my job to focus on doing whatever we want. Nevertheless, our school will not be taking a vacation from learning.

The days leading up to vacation are currently filled with counting and time concepts (ticking days off the calendar), math and money (saving piggy bank money to be turned in on Day 1 of vacation to be spent as we please), organization skills (discussion about how to maximize our activities during the time off), reading (vacation ideas books from the library, websites, etc), science (weather during vacation, etc.), and more. When the vacation arrives, there will be more money/math (wise budgeting, counting How Much Money Is Left, etc.), reading for entertainment and to help select activities, social studies as we take in local town offerings, art projects, science (making ice cream, discussing pool chemicals, buoyancy in water, rate of ice melt), and music/fine arts (via local summer theater and concerts).

Every minute will be a learning experience for Bri, yet hopefully fun ones. As our teaching strategy focuses largely around finding "Teachable Moments," vacation will provide a bounty of these if we're paying attention. In short, we are in the midst of a vitally important Vacation Unit Study that may well incorporate everything from photography to gravity (what goes up must come down in the farmer's market Bounce House).

Photo courtesy of Stock Xchg

So whether your kids are homeschooled, unschooled, private or public schooled, as they are running around with sand between their toes and ice cream on their faces this summer, don't forget that they aren't truly on vacation. Learning is a process that never stops, and we as parents can help it along when our kids least expect it. Happy summer!