It’s that time of year when it’s worth reviewing how last year has gone. Pardon it being a little late, but these stats are hand-cranked.
OK 2013, here we go … Continue reading “2013 in Review”
2013 in Review
Unit Study: Bleach and Japan
This is a unit study we stumbled upon awhile ago. You see, we love Anime in our house. And DH and I really love Bleach. In fact, the Bleach theme-song used to put C to sleep when he was a baby (The first one. Yes, the loud one!)
And life being what it is, years passed before we got back to watching it again… But we did. Every night, two episodes of anime for about 6+ months. It has become our ritual. What I didn’t expect was how it would morph into a corner-stone of our school experience. Continue reading “Unit Study: Bleach and Japan”
Derailed by ‘Le Grande Project’
You know, I had a post planned for Christmas. I had it half-written. All I needed was an hour or so to polish it off….and then wham!
We were derailed by ‘Le Grande Project’. You see, we’d been asking the kids, particularly C, ‘what do you want for Christmas?’ for a while now. And received the dreaded shrug. Variations on ‘is there anything you really want?, elicited similar responses….until three days before Christmas. Yes. Three Days. That was when he wrote his letter to Santa. And oh boy, what a letter. Go have a look at it. Go on. It’s no particle accelerator, but – oh boy!
Continue reading “Derailed by ‘Le Grande Project’”
Putting Together A Chemistry Curriculum
There is quite a difference between the way I thought I would teach chemistry compared to the way C prefers to learn. C is very visual-spatial in his thinking. He absorbs knowledge when he can see it and touch it. He doesn’t mind listening, but he can’t just listen – there has to be a visual component, or lots of space to wiggle and jump around. And when he’s excited by a new idea he gets very loud! Which is a joy. He also loves to play with an idea – to absurdity if possible.
This makes putting together a chemistry curriculum in the more formal way a problem. But it also gives us great scope for experimentation. Afterall, where else can you go? Continue reading “Putting Together A Chemistry Curriculum”
Three Inventions That Could Change Our World, By Not Changing Us
Today I thought I’d go in a different direction to usual. In the course of homeschooling, sometimes I come across really cool ideas when looking for lessons that I wouldn’t otherwise have known anything about.
Wouldn’t it be cool if we could fix the problems of global warming, not by cutting down on our lifestyle, but through replacing old products with new ones? Cheaper ones? More humane, more economic, safer products? Well. here are three that I think could rock our world.
Continue reading “Three Inventions That Could Change Our World, By Not Changing Us”