Learning for the Fun of it!

Delays

2011-03-03T14:00:00.000-08:00

Hi every one.

Sorry about the wait, we've been a little busy.

we used to have a etsy shop, Robbin Egg Patterns, but we didn't want to sell patterns anymore. So we deleted the account, and are in the process of making a new account.

So we're making duct tape wallets to sell on etsy (when we set up shop again).

Here are some pics of our duct tape wallets:

There's this blue one,

this red one,

and this orange one.

Cool, don't you think?
You may have noticed that the blue wallet was the only one with a design.
Its because we can't figure out any other designs!
If you have any other design ideas, please tell us about it in the comments!

Again, sorry for the delay!

Finally back!

2010-09-16T13:48:00.000-07:00

We're back!
Sorry to keep you waiting but we're finally back!
We're kinda under new management but its still in the family.
We're going to be taking pictures & videos of projects created by family members and other stuff.

First Stop on the Oregon Trail

2010-02-18T20:27:00.000-08:00

So I now know that the End of the Oregon Trail Museum has been closed permanently. So sad. But this does not call off our challenge. Oh no! We will instead take a boat ride on the Columbia River at the end to bring us to the end of the Oregon Trail. Not to mention that a bunch of the sites are along our drive to visit family in Idaho next summer. Considering that it might take us that long or longer we might reach those sights at the same time we'll drive them.

For an update, we have reached our first historic spot along the Oregon Trail. We've reached the Shawnee Mission. In this spot the Shawnee Indians were learning how to farm and other ways to adapt to the changes going on around them. Apparently they weren't exactly native to Kansas, but actually from back East. They had just been moved there, and I'm guessing that kind hearted missionaries were trying to help them adjust to the new order of things.

It feels nice to have reached our first destination so quickly, but of course it's only 17.5 miles from our starting point of Independence Missouri. Sure it's in another state, but we started right near the border. Only 146 miles to the next historic point. Maybe I need to kick it up a notch. I think I'll start wearing a pedometer to take into account all the times I go up and down the stairs hauling laundry.

Soon I'll post photos of our map and mileage chart, but in the meantime I hope you enjoy a few shots of our recent tangram fetish. They are a nice addition to our math bucket.

This is what happens when your kids get a little crazy with the tangrams. I believe it's a robot named Jeremy.

Biking the Oregon Trail

2010-02-11T21:58:00.000-08:00

Okay, no photo for this one. I just had such a good idea that I couldn't wait for the time it takes to add a photo to share it. Recently I've noticed that my family could use a little more exercize. I'm happy to go for a walk or go hiking when the weather is good, but in winter that's not too common so I decided to buy an exercize bike. This is nifty and all, but being realistic I know that it would get a lot of use for about 1 week and then get forgotten. Becoming an expensive dust collector that invoked more guilt than health.

Then the thought struck me that if we listened to books on tape (which my kids love) while riding ,then it would get a lot more use. I also liked the idea of having a distance goal. Something to work toward. So I picked the Oregon Trail. Nice distance for the whole family to work on. Being a bit crafty I am turning this into an entire unit study. We will be posting a map of the Oregon Trail on our wall and marking our progress with a little covered wagon (or maybe an exercize bike). We will also take the time to read nonfiction, historic fiction, and biographies about the Oregon Trail. We started by reading Tucket's Travels by Gary Paulsen (one of my favorite authors). I'm also considering adjusting the resistance on the bike to accomodate for mountains and valleys (a nice suggestion from a friend).

The reward when we finish is that we get to go to the End of the Oregon Trail Museum in Oregon City. I've been wanting to go there for years and just haven't carved out the time to do so. Hopefully this will give us the incentive we need to just go do it. In any case, my kids are excited and have been biking up a storm this past week. Wahoo!

Learning by Osmosis

2009-08-27T12:38:00.000-07:00

I used to wish I could learn by osmosis and let the information just soak in. Then one day as we were visiting family and were sleeping in their camper in the back yard I noticed that I was starting to get a little annoyed with waking up and seeing the sportsman hunting magazine that was the first thing I would see every day when I woke up. The image of a manly-man proudly standing gun-in-hand over the large buck he had just shot stuck in my head all day for the entire time we were there. Then I had an epiphany. What if I could do this with other things that I actually wanted in my head? How about things I wanted in my kids' heads? A myriad of things came to mind. Here is one of them.

One of the common things we do first thing in the morning is eat breakfast. We can either read the cereal box or (for more stimulating conversation) you can look at periodic tables, body charts, maps, or anything else that you want. There are a few ways to do this. You can buy placemats with these things on them, or you can attach a removable clear vinyl table cloth over some educational posters.

At our house we use the vinyl table cloth method. I initially thought of this when we bought a new table and my kids promptly began to gouge and stain the top. I had to think quick of a way to preserve it. At first, I just placed the vinyl on top of the table, but I noticed that it would slip around when I went to wipe it off, and my kids' food would drip down the sides making it difficult to clean. However, I wanted it to be removable so I finally stapled velcro to the underside of the table with my little electric power stapler and then cut the vinyl to fit and stapled matching velcro to it. Voila! A removable and steady protective learning-by-osmosis table topping.

Here are a few posters and such that I've placed beneath my lovely vinyl. I've gotten some at the dollar store, some passed along from friends, and I've also drawn up some of things I just plain wanted our family to learn.

2009-06-12T16:29:00.000-07:00

I got so inspired by this art center that I remembered all about the other forms of centers I've always wanted to do. The problem is that I, like most everyone else, don't have enough room in my house for all of these centers. So instead I created bucket centers. They live under my breakfast nook bench and my kids can them out and use them at the table (which is easier for cleanup anyway).

And just what do you put in them? Here are a few ideas. I'll post photos as I am able, as to what will actually go inside.

Art Bucket

Markers, crayons, paints etc.
construction paper, white paper, tissue paper
glue
scissors
google eyes
feathers, pom poms, yarn
stickers

Science Bucket

A science experiment book (Anything by Janice VanCleave is great)
supplies needed for aforesaid science experiment book
test tubes and pipettes
magnifying glass
microscope (actually, I'll be storing mine up high and pull it out as needed)

Math Bucket

tangrams
math games
fraction manipulatives
counters, weights and other manipulatives
lap books (as I make them)

I also made a little bucket for sidewalk chalk. Here is my own creative chalk creation welcoming dad home from work. On the edges you can see that my kids got inspired by my work and went to town on their own art.