RPG for kids

Found this great resource / blog post for introducing strategy and role playing games with the 5 to 7 yo crowd and their own toys.  Haven't read it yet but the post sounds great and I'm going to.  I know my son does a lot of "attribute" and "characteristics" discussion with his friends so it might be a really cool option to do.

Wired.com Geek Dad

Another Year... Kindergarten

Near the end of another year...  What were the take away's for each of us?  Here's the summary of my 6 yo's year...

Biggest change
Independence and self-confidence

Best learning tools/curriculum

• Beginning reading skills:  Headsprout -- expensive but he likes it and it has about a year and a half to get through the 80 lessons at the pace we're doing it (we take breaks quite often -- the pace of doing it every day was too much for his reading development.  He should have it completed by about the end of May
• Math:  Life of Fred Apples, Butterflies plus games, games and games (chess, war, skipbo, speed, monopoly junior, the Game of Life, allowance)
• Handwriting:  iWriteWords app for iPhone (doable whenever waiting places for highschool brother)
• Learning activity:  A weekly "bookclub" coop with friends where we covered a huge number of categories:
• Detectives
• Maps and compasses
• Ears and Eyes
• Native Americans
• Environment
• The Earth
• Learning activity:  Junior FIRST LEGO League Snack Attack -- he LOVED being on a Junior FIRST LEGO League -- field trips, sharing LEGO's, watching youtube videos about how different ingredients are grown and processed (cocoa beans, sugar, etc.).  And he loved telling people about his models.
• Learning activity:  Stop motion animation with LEGO's -- by far, the best software for elementary students:  Zu3D
• Most common obsessions:  LEGO's (especially minifigs with weapons), nerf guns and battles, military strategy, wii games, free play with friends
• Favorite read-aloud books:
• Magic Tree House books
• Mary Pope Osborne's Odyssey series
• Favorite electronic games:
• Plants vs. zombies
• Anything LEGO or Mario on the wii and gamecube

Next learning goals

• Reading -- move further along the journey to fluent reading (challenge is getting him to "see" the words)
• Spelling -- part of reading
• Math -- writing out math problems -- his knowledge of math is great
• Handwriting, handwriting, handwriting
• More general science and social studies discussions

Educational Apps for the iPhone and iPad

High School
Trying to decide whether or not it would be worth having an iPad for my 15 yo for school.  Did a search for high school apps and here is a great list -- sounds like it could be a great addition IF it didn't turn into a time waster:
http://palmbeachschooltalk.com/groups/ipadpilot/wiki/70925/High_School_iPad_Apps.html

Most of the Khan Academy videos are available for the iPhone/iPad:
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/khan-academy-a-classroom-in/id361975619?mt=8

Quizlet -- he uses this for going through Spanish vocabulary on his desktop but we just found he could access all that through his iPhone (also for Android):
http://quizlet.com/mobile/

Early Elementary
One thing we did was take an old iPod touch and put all of the music, games and a few favorite TV shows (cyberchase, Star Wars Clone Wars) that were appropriate for my 5 yo on it. I keep it in my purse and when the car rides get long or we have to wait long times at places for his older brother, I can pull it out -- and I know he won't be online or messing up my phone! Worked great on our trip across the continent last week.

Here's a great source of iPhone/iPad apps for kids...
http://www.iphone4kids.net/

My favorites for my 5 yo (he prefers AirPenguin and Pikachu Jump but he doesn't mind these!:
Handwriting: iWriteWords:
http://gdiplus.ptgdi.com/iWriteWords.htm

Sequencing -- alphabet, skip counting (5's, 10's, etc): Dot to Dot numbers
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/dottodot-numbers-letters/id333188500?mt=8
(they also do PocketPhonics -- haven't tried it yet)

Personal Finance for K-2

As I was looking at materials for a high school Personal Finance class I'm teaching this fall, I glanced throught he  Financial Fitness for Life books targeted for K-2.  It might be a great option to work through with Jm.  It sounds fun -- and covers a lot of topics that he's very interested in.
http://fffl.councilforeconed.org/table-of-contents.php?gradeLevel=K-2

Table Of Contents : K-2 Book

Theme 1: Lesson 1 - A Good Day for Money

The students listen to a short story introducing them to Penny and Nicholas, the "Money Kids." They discuss ways in which people receive money - through earning income or receiving gifts. They are introduced to the concept of human capital (work skills) and the relationship between people's ability to earn income and the education and training they have. The students also produce a paper chain representing ways in which they have received money.

Theme 1: Lesson 2 - Working for Income

The students discuss goods and services that satisfy people's wants, and they construct a spyglass to help them identify goods and services at school. They also construct Busy Town, a model business community. Using a puzzle, they are introduced to the concept of entrepreneurship and its relationship to the resources used to produce goods and services.

etc...

Decimal Street

Decimal Street:

My sons and I played this a lot while they were 3 to 6 yo — making up stories, moving people around, writing out the numbers (5 0 6).. By the time they approached carrying, they knew the how/why and concept of place value, carrying, etc. They also had Decimal Street pictured in their head for mental math problems.


The Story:

The Units Townhouse holds 9 of everything — 9 toothbrushes, 9 plates, 9 forks, 9 beds… (and the story goes on…). Units come to visit. If too many visitors comes, the Tens Moving Truck (a 10 block) comes down and moves them all over to the Tens Apartment with there are also 9 of everything. If too many 10’s come, the Hundreds Moving Truck takes them to the Hundreds Castle. If no one’s home, Mr. Zero looks after the place — he does not move in! If Units need to go to Disney World, a Ten may need to be moved back to the Units Apartment so enough units are there to go.

Materials:
Revised from Math-U-See and sized for Math-U-See manipulatives (which are great for building with and showing negative as well as positive numbers)

Directions: 
Print the "decimal_street.pdf" file on cardstock, cut out pieces and glue them to a large poster board. Decorate Decimal Street as the child desires.


Enjoy!

Initial Academic Plan for Kindergarten

Very initial look -- off the top of my head!
Of course, many more things to consider for Kindergarten than academics but I haven't planned them out yet.

Reading:
GOAL: 
To move from current level of slowly blending cvc words to:

• being able to recognize basic level K-1 Dolch words
• read cvc, cvcv, cv, and several cvcc words
• continue learning the phonics sounds of each letter and blends (from All About Spelling)
• want him to feel that he likes reading!
  

Sources:
Games for Reading by Peggy Kaye
Headsprout (online)
100 Easy Lessons
Leapster Star Wars Reading
Evan Moore Centers:  Phonics and Literacy (both K-1)
Some sight words

Books/Literature:
GOAL: 
To have him enjoy great books, the sound of language, artwork, creating books...

Sources:
Audio books
Magic Tree House
FIAR books


Hand Writing:
GOAL:  Improve handwriting so that it becomes more fluent.  Currently working on numbers and most lower case letters.  (Upper case letters are all recognizable).
Probably need to do a bit on hand position

Sources:
Games for writing
Handwriting without Tears -- manipulatives
LEGO, clay, sand/rice writing, sidewalk chalk, paint

Math:
GOAL:
To continue to explore numbers, quantities, measurements, and relationships between them
Continue to work on time and money
Place value, multiplication and division, writing number equations, functions, patterns, geometry...

Sources:
Evan Moore Math Center (K-1)
Maria's Math Club?
Singapore Math/other workbooks when it's helpful
Decimal Street games
100 chart
Add in some homemade Montessori methods?s

Science/History/Geography:
GOAL:  Explore all topics on a regular basis to get the "hooks" for more indepth learning later on.  Might be interesting to do 2 week units on topics -- alternating between Science and History?  Maybe a "theme of the 2 weeks" to focus all reading/internet videos/activities/games on...

Options:
Life cycles
Space
Magnets
Electricity
Water
Sink/float

Egypt
Greece
Rome
Vikings
Great Wall of China
Medieval Knights/Castles
Renaissance

Other:
Building
Animation
Tae Kwon Do?
Bicycling
Yoga?

Montessori Materials Links

An excellent blog about making your own Montessori things at home...
http://homemademontessori.blogspot.com/search/label/math

What are "Grammar Filling Boxes"????
And other discount montessori things...
http://www.alisonsmontessori.com

I really like these number/place value boards
http://www.montessoriland.com/site/1270021/product/ID_%202051

Shiller Math -- look at this a bit and try the first year diagnostic to see where Jm's at or how useable it is:
https://www.shillermath.com/sm3/showitem.php?itemcd=K01-DL5-0408


--

Unit Study: Star Wars

After my 5 yo has totally immersed himself in all aspects of Star Wars for the past 8 months, I finally decided to write it up in more educationalese so I felt a bit better about the process!

 

Literature:

• Critical analysis of plot, character and settings – and their consistency across the original movies, Star Wars the Clone Wars, and Star Wars LEGO wii.
• Exploration of character – is C3PO patient? When does Anakin become angry and is that what made him go to the dark side?

 Reading:

• From the Wii game: how do you spell each of the special options that need to be turned on and off (“Force Blasters,” “Poo Money,” “Invincibility”).
• Star Wars Reading for the Leapster: sounds of letters, blending, spelling, sight words.

Science:

• Discussion of body parts essential to keeping your body alive
• Life cycles and familial relationships (who is who's mother versus sister versus wife)
• The difference between a droid and a human.

Social Studies:

• Weaponry -- who carries what types of weapons and what are the pros and cons of each.
• Habitats and cultures of societies on various planets.

Math:

• Comparison of patterns between levels and episodes
• Calculating how much money it takes to get a new character on a Wii game
• Star Wars Leapster Math: addition, subtraction, place value, time/clocks

Philosophy:

• Exploration of philosophy
• Meaning of peoples' innate tendencies toward good and evil
• Meaning of life and death
• When people “turn bad”
• Why, why was Anakin angry?
• What is the difference between a droid and a human in terms of what they feel?

Drama

• Playing Star Wars with friends – each episode and each series, depending on who was alive and whether they were on the good side or the dark side
• Set design with LEGO's and DUPLO's
• Performance for Book Club about Boba Fett

Art:

• Drawing Yoda, various other Star Wars scenes

Music:

• Singing the Star Wars theme at all times of the day, including 6:45 am as a wake up song.
• Learning to distinguish by ear between those who “can’t sing Star Wars theme songs” and those who can.

Technology:

• • LEGO Star Wars Animation using iKitMovie

The requirement of this unit study is 14 hours/day of immersion for several months.

Social Studies Curriculum Meeting

Dayspring Home Educators had a Humanities Curriculum "show and tell" parent meeting this week.  Here's all the great curriculum examples of their social studies curriculum/resources -- including a great list of series for elementary students:

Social Studies

History Curriculum

Trisms: 

·         Reading Through the Ages book list by the era (any age)
http://stores.shoptrisms.com/-strse-22/Reading-Through-the-Ages/Detail.bok (available in ebook)

·         Also have history programs for Middle-High school
http://trisms.com/  

Classical Conversations (in-person local coops)  (K-12)
http://www.classicalconversations.com/

Tapestry of Grace – full curriculum for multiple ages (K-12)
http://www.tapestryofgrace.com

Connect the Thoughts (Current Wars; Free weekly journal) (K-12)
http://www.connectthethoughts.net/

Winter Promise (literature based curriculum:  PreK-12)
http://www.winterpromise.com/

Sonlight (literature based curriculum:  PreK-12)
http://www.sonlight.com/

 

Resources on CD (timeline, maps) (PreK-12)

·         Hold That Thought (CD’s – maps, timeline)
http://www.holdthatthought.com/

·         Uncle Josh’s Outline Maps from Geography Matters
http://www.geomatters.com/products/details.asp?ID=27

·         Historical Timeline Figures by Liberty Wiggers
http://www.geomatters.com/faq/details.asp?PID=172

History spines:

o   The Kingfisher History Encyclopedia

o   The Usborne Internet-Linked Encyclopedia of World History

o   DK (Dorling Kindersley) – History of the World

Resources for finding books:

o   World History Reading List:  http://www.abookintime.com/worldhistoryreadinglist.html

o   American History Reading List:  http://www.abookintime.com/americanhistoryreadinglist.html

o   Reading Through the Ages book list by the era (any age)
http://stores.shoptrisms.com/-strse-22/Reading-Through-the-Ages/Detail.bok (available in ebook or paper copy)

Preschool-elementary level book examples

o   The Usborne Book of Living Long Ago by Felicity Brooks, Helen Edom

o   Story of the World (Jessie Wise and Susan Wise Bauer)

o   NC Freaks of History (NC curriculum, workshops, field trips)

§  http://www.ncfreaksofhistory.com/

o   Rats and Bulls and Flying Machines (Core Knowledge)
http://books.coreknowledge.org/home.php?cat=300

o   Around the World in 100 Years by Jean Fritz
(Jean Fritz wrote some great history books:  http://www.biblio.com/jean-fritz~105730~author )

o   Explorers Who Got Lost by Diane Sansevere-Dreher

o   Take it to Your Seat Centers (Geography, etc.) by Evan-Moor
http://www.evan-moor.com/centers

Series of great history books

o   Series:  Chester Comix  (graphic novels)
http://www.chestercomix.com/

o   Series: American Kids in …. Colonial Days, etc.  (list: http://www.homeschoolfcgs.com/product_info.php/cPath/21/products_id/929335)

o   Series: Rookie Biography (many available – Amazon/library)

o   Series: Ingri D’Aulaire (list:  http://www.squidoo.com/ingridaulaire)

§  Benjamin Franklin by D’Aulaire

o   Series: Famous Men… Renaissance and Reformation, Medieval (great short biographies of people with study materials if you want them)
http://www.greenleafpress.com/

o   Series:  Timeline Graphic Novels (eg.Queen NZinga) (several reading levels and many topics)
http://steckvaughn.hmhco.com/en/timeline_home.htm

o   Series:  If You…  Sailed on the Mayflower…  (Scholastic) (many topics)
http://www2.scholastic.com/browse/search?N=0&isBrowse=Y&Nr=AND%28Collection_ID:WK%29&Ntk=Series_Name&Ntt=If%20You...

o   Series:  Graphic Library from Capstone Press (www.capstonepress.com)

§  American Graphic:  http://www.capstonepub.com/product/9781429654777

§  Graphic Histories: http://www.capstonepub.com/product/9780736865531

§  And several other series

o   Series:  Horrible Histories (from the UK but available in the US)

§  Original website:  http://horrible-histories.co.uk/

§  US order site:  http://www.horriblebooks.com/

§  Some available at Amazon

o   Series:  You wouldn’t want to be…  an American Colonist
Series titles at:  http://www.mymcpl.org/cfapps/juvser/title.cfm?id=1844

Language Arts Curriculum Meeting

Dayspring Home Educators had a Humanities Curriculum "show and tell" parent meeting this week.  Here's all the great curriculum examples:

Language Arts

PreK-Early Elementary

Five in a Row (Pre-K – 10 yo)
http://www.fiarhq.com/fiveinarow.info/index.html

Happy Phonics – learn to read through games (PreK-2)
http://www.lovetolearn.net/catalog/product/07073

All about Reading: (from All About Spelling) (PreK)
http://www.allaboutreading.com

Take it to Your Seat Centers (Phonics, etc.) by Evan-Moor
http://www.evan-moor.com/centers

Grammar/Vocabulary

Michael Clay Thompson (Gr 3-4 through high school)
http://www.rfwp.com/mct.php (this is a summary by age/topic)

• ·         Building vocabulary/grammar – SAT focus
• ·         The Word within the Word (vocabulary)
• ·         Magic Lens (grammar)

Winston-Grammar (kinesthetic approach to grammar)
http://www.winstongrammar.com/

Writing

Four Square Writing Method:  easy – basis for organizing ideas (Gr 1-9)
Available many places, including Amazon.  This is the Rainbow Resource list:
http://www.rainbowresource.com/prodlist.php?sid=1287784692-90000&subject=7&category=1616

Writing Strands (preK-12)
http://www.writing-strands.com/

The Writer’s Jungle/Bravewriter (curriculum and online 6 week classes) (Gr 3-12)
http://www.bravewriter.com/program/home-study-courses/the-writers-jungle/

Institute for Excellence in Writing – lots of material (now Pre-K through high school)
http://www.excellenceinwriting.com/

• ·         The Elegant Essay
• ·         Window to the World
• ·         Excellence in Literature
• ·         Teaching the Classics
• ·         Student Writing Intensive
• ·         Student Intensive Continuation Course
• ·         Portable wall
• ·         (not shown:  PAL – for K-2)

Susan Wise Bauer/The Well Trained Mind (K-4)
http://www.welltrainedmind.com/store/language-arts.html

• ·         First Language Lessons
• ·         Writing With Ease (Strong Fundamentals)

Evan Moore Literature Pockets (Gr 1-6+)
http://www.evan-moor.com/Product.aspx?SeriesID=82

Jensen’s Format Writing – good for essay questions at college (Gr 4-12)
http://www.jsgrammar.com/

Write with the Best: Modeling Writing after Great Authors of World Literature (Gr 6-12)
http://www.edudps.com/WWTB.html

Fairview’s Guide to Composition and Essay Writing by Gabriel Arquilevich (high school)
http://www.amazon.com/Fairviews-Guide-Composition-Essay-Writing/dp/0964904217

Bringing the Classics to Life – CD (abridged) and questions/workbooks (Gr 1-5)
http://www.edconpublishing.com/index.php?route=product/category&path=41_14

Wordly Wise (K through high school)
http://eps.schoolspecialty.com/products/details.cfm?series=2818M

Spelling Resources

Sequential Spelling (AVKO) (kinesthetic/dyslexia)
http://www.avko.org/sequentialspelling.html

Spelling Power (Gr 3 to high school)
http://www.castlemoyle.com/shopping/spelling/spellingpower.htm

Dr. Fry’s Spelling Book (high frequency words) (Gr 1-6)
http://www.amazon.com/Spelling-Book-Words-Needed-Phonics/dp/1576907503

All About Spelling (all the learning styles – kinesthetic, auditory, visual)  (Gr 1 - ??)
http://www.all-about-spelling.com/

Phonics File Folder Games

File Folder Fun.com
http://www.filefolderfun.com/KindergartenPhonics.html

Space Rhymes File Folder GameThis is a rhyming game for children who are working on early phonics skills.  Children read
the word on the rocket ship and match it to the correct planet.

Shamrock Phonics File Folder GameThis is a phonics game for children who are working on early sight word recognition.
Children read the word on the shamrock and place it in the correct rainbow pocket.  There is
lots of room here to decorate your folder in a fun way...think glitter and rainbow stickers! 

File Folder Games

Lots of great file folder games for Pre-3:

http://www.filefolderfun.com/FileFolderGames.html

From the description:
File Folder games are a great way to introduce fun ways of learning with your children.  They are great for topics and subjects that children are having difficulty with.  Additionally they make great time filler activities, or even travel games.  On our site you'll find many games you can print for free.  Our site is organized by Subjects (such as Dinosaurs, Flowers, ect.) as well as Age Level (PreK-Third Grade.)
 

Math Options for Elementary

I know preschool and kindergarten is a time to play -- and find learning in everything we do. However, I also know that some kids are really searching for more in certain areas at different stages. And, sometimes a curriculum or a spine or some other framework can provide more sanity for an over-committed Mom who may not have "preschool play" energy!

If I was to look at math philosophy, the closest math curriculum to fit my style would be Math on the Level where students need to cover a certain amount of the concepts but the order and timing is really up to their individual learning styles.  Sometimes students are in "fraction mode" and just want to keep exploring fractions way beyond what "2nd grade" fractions entail.  Sometimes you need to go with the window that's there and keep moving.

However, it's sometimes more work to be on top of those areas and know what to pull in next, it's often unsettling to go with a completely flexible route --especially for a math-uncertain parent, and many traditional math programs have great aspects to incorporate. 

Guess that's why we've used many different programs over the years with my oldest.

Here are some to look at for Early Elementary.

Right Start Math (if one agrees with their math approach, it's worth starting as you mean to go on, rather than re-learn some of the approaches)

Singapore Math -- for $8/workbook, if you have a workbook kid who wants to do more school, this is an inexpensive approach and is great at approaching math concepts in a couple different directions to give a really solid understanding of what's going on.


Moving Beyond the Page -- some of these 5 to 7 yo units look like they'd be a great fit for Jm.

For Bj, we had great success with Math-U-See -- the best parts were:  Decimal Street (an amazing intro to adding and subtracting, place value, carrying) and Skip Counting.

Preschool Journaling

One idea for Jm is to use daily journal activities to do one page a day in a book together. One list I have is for older kids to write a paragraph but it might be fun to use some of these ideas together. For example:

September Day 1: Trace your hand. On it write your name, age, address, phone number and birthday.
Day 2: 4 sentences about September
Day 3: Draw and write what you eat for breakfast
Day 4: Write a list of words that describe fall.
Day 5: What are your favorite clothes?

These types of topics might be good discussion points and if we did them together in a book, it would be a fun memory of "3 1/2".

Here's a set of calendars of journal topics but they may be too old:
http://www.busyteacherscafe.com/printables/writing.htm

Let's Play Math

Let's Play Math: Lots of math info, blog, handout, rabbit trails to follow -- and a clean layout!

http://letsplaymath.wordpress.com/

Unit Study Websites

To check out (free unit study websites):

http://homeschooling.gomilpitas.com/methods/UnitsFree.htm (this one even has a lego unit study)

http://www.thehomeschoolmom.com/schoolroom/unitstudies.php

Beginning Reading: StarFall

8/3/2008: Starfall
A free phonics program introducing letters, phonics, etc. Cool videos about each letter, some sheets to print out, etc. Don't know if there are activities as well or not.

www.starfall.com