How did you teach to your child's strengths this week?

[TippyCanoe]

.

[rafiki]

.

[MomatHWTK]

I signed up for this course:

https://www.coursera.org/#course/cs101

 

And, wow, my DS gets it. He actually helps me answer the questions. He can't handle actual coding because it's so time consuming and detail oriented- he just doesn't have the patience. But he definitely understands the language of computers. It was nice for him to see that he does know some pretty cool stuff.

[Heathermomster]

Nothing too exciting. DS planted some wildflower seed in the backyard, took care of his birdfeeders, and started watching Decisive Battles The Ancient World. Also, he's reading a book on tanks that we picked up last Saturday.

Edited May 2, 2012 by Heathermomster

[PeterPan]

Not at all. I'm letting her weed to burn off puberty energy. Got really great flower beds now. :D

[peacefully]

.

[LaughingCat]

I don't think I am teaching to my DD9's strengths so much but I am trying to find ways to teach via her interests:

 

more games: Distraction and Cartoon It are two I just added to work on my #1 priority this summer (working memory), also working on a couple "games" baskets to be a regular part of school

 

going with whatever she "takes off with", which this week = running around the house (I suggested this to work on her "wind" for soccer and she's taken off running with it :lol: - of course I have to run with her for it to be "fun" for her, but what the hey, my "wind" needs a lot of work too :tongue_smilie: )

[TippyCanoe]

.

[TippyCanoe]

.

[Tiramisu]

I forgot I was going to tell this brief anecdote, with quick background: DD and I have spent a lot of time discussing brains and different learning and processing "settings," neurologically speaking. That's why I was so excited to hear Susan Stroman talk about her visualization of music on Monday night.

 

Anyway, a day or so ago DD hit matrixes in her algebra II textbook. I was telling her how I'd never ever encountered them until in college I thought I'd try a computer programming class to see what it was all about (I was a history and literature double major). In one of the very first classes we were instructed to set up a matrix as part of the pre-programming work, and I had no clue what that even WAS. I ended up quickly dropping out of that one.

 

DD: "Mom, what in the world made you decide to take that class? You know it's not exactly your area of intellectual strength."

 

This is awesome. I'm so glad you've started hanging out here, Doodler.

 

Last week, I learned dd would have to do another project for her coop science class. It made me cringe because I am not a project girl myself. Despite my own aversion, I let dd go to town researching what she would do. She chose her project--a model of the solar system--and made a list of the materials she needed. Then I printed out a coupon and took her shopping. We were fortunate to find a particularly helpful employee who steered us to an assembled kit for making a model of the solar system, because otherwise we would have given up since I soon discovered buying the individual components would have been out of my budget. I let dd work on her project the next day, even if it meant not finishing all her regular, boring school work. She researched each planet on the internet and in a book, and mixed colors, so she could paint each model realistically. Then she painted a posterboard background with stars and other heavenly bodies which will help support the structure she's making to hang the model on. :)

 

I'm double-happy because today she finished all her boring schoolwork, too, since I promised I would take her to Dunkin' Donuts to use the gift card she won in her coop Latin class for successfully reciting conjugations. I made dinner early so all the girls would have something healthy first. ;)

 

Perhaps I shouldn't be, but I'm proud of her wanting to get something for everyone and for making a list of what each of her sisters wanted. And, to make it even better, no one complained when they didn't have their specific selections.:001_huh:

[peacefully]

.

[Guest Preston]

Hi all,

you should be teach your child as a friend not as a strict teacher because when you teach your child as a friend then you get better result from your child.

I also teach my child as a friend and i get good result this week.

[TippyCanoe]

.

[TippyCanoe]

.

[TippyCanoe]

.

[peacefully]

.

[onaclairadeluna]

My two dyslexic kids have completely different profiles of strengths. My little DD7 is extremely visual and has been playing with Legos all week. We are all having a bit of spring burn out so we have been taking a break from a more "disciplined" routine. This is really a perfect question for us right now because in this little "unschooling" hiatus, my kids are gravitating towards their strengths.

 

Yesterday I got out the ZOME which is really DDs strength. DS has some whacky visual issues that make things like zome challenging for him but he is 6 and a half years older and he's figured out how to reason out visual challenges so we all played together and made platonic solid hats. It was fun DD is out in the living room playing zome right now.

 

DS14 when left two his own devices is working on an MIT OCW math for computer science and ...interestingly enough... Wheelock's Latin. I am slightly shocked that my dyslexic kid is working through this happily, on his own. I will have to arrange for something for him next year to help him along the way. I think he likes the challenge of the structure of the language.

 

And here is the real amazing thing. Yesterday my 14 year old son woke up and ... rearranged his room and completely cleaned it.:001_smile: Holy Moly. It looks great. He was "tired of all the clutter and needed a place for his books". I think I will "take a break" more often. How awesome!

[merry gardens]

Today, we made fudge.

Why? because we're studying geology. I combine teach some of my children in a few subjects. Geology strongly interests my 13, but not ds 10. I wanted to make our geology studies more interesting to ds 10, and I remembered that he likes fudge.

 

What does fudge have to do with geology? Crystal formation. Magma that cools slowly produces larger crystals; magma that cools quickly, produces smaller crystals. Similarly, fudge that cools slowly produces larger crystals therefore it feels grainy in the mouth, while fudge that cools quickly is creamier with smaller crystals. Fudge tastes better than granite, plus it's easier to create fudge in our kitchen. :D

[peacefully]

Merry, your post put the biggest smile on my face. I want to be a geology student at your house!

[Heathermomster]

Today, we made fudge.

Why? because we're studying geology. I combine teach some of my children in a few subjects. Geology strongly interests my 13, but not ds 10. I wanted to make our geology studies more interesting to ds 10, and I remembered that he likes fudge.

 

What does fudge have to do with geology? Crystal formation. Magma that cools slowly produces larger crystals; magma that cools quickly, produces smaller crystals. Similarly, fudge that cools slowly produces larger crystals therefore it feels grainy in the mouth, while fudge that cools quickly is creamier with smaller crystals. Fudge tastes better than granite, plus it's easier to create fudge in our kitchen. :D

Amazing! Do you use a particular recipe?

[TippyCanoe]

.

[merry gardens]

Amazing! Do you use a particular recipe?

I winged it off an old fashioned fudge recipe with sugar, milk and butter. (4 cups powder sugar, 3/4 cup milk, 2 squares baking chocolate, 2 Tbsp butter.) The recipe called for corn syrup, but I left that out as it can reduce crystals. We used a double boiler and the old fashioned glass of ice water rather than a candy thermometer.

 

You probably don't really want my recipe as I adjusted the fudge making technique to create two extremes. The fudge that we cooled very rapidly didn't set; it's more like ice cream topping, (which is fine with me.) Then we have the other--extremely grainy fudge. I also added some "seed crystals" to by throwing in about a Tbsp extra sugar as it cooled and stirring, (so it wasn't just the temperature alone causing the larger crystal in our fudge, but I did it because I wanted them to remember the slow cooled rock contained more crystals.) Maybe another day we'll make a fudge recipe that actually followed the proper timing and technique of a real fudge recipe for creating "perfect fudge crystals", but oh well, today's results were still yummy.

 

There's a lot of science going on in fudge and candy making. Here's some links I found on fudge science.

http://www2.gi.alaska.edu/ScienceForum/ASF8/871.htmlhttp://suenotes.blogspot.com/2007/02/fudge-crystals.html

http://www.exploratorium.edu/cooking/candy/fudge-story.html

Edited May 5, 2012 by merry gardens

[merry gardens]

Oh, someone else has made candy rocks -- how fun!

 

When I taught a sixth-grade co-op, I got recipes on the internet for candies that were supposed to model sedimentary, metamorphic, and igneous rocks. I made all three, presented them to the kids, and had them try to figure out which represented which, and why, while they ate. We did this at the end of the GEMS Stories in Stone unit, following a field trip to a local beach where we hunted fossilized shells in the rock strata cliffs (and the kids got all wet). We came back to the co-op, the kids changed clothes, had hot chocolate, and ate "rocks."

Ooo! If you have that link, I'd love it! The fudge was part of our igneous rock studies. We'll cover sedimentary and metamorphic next week.

 

Besides our making candy, I want to take my kids on a field trip to a jewelery store as part of these rock studies. It's merely a coincidence that I want to do it close to Mother's Day.

Edited May 4, 2012 by merry gardens

[Citrusheights5]

My little monster, love taking things apart. All my bicycles are in pieces because he had to make sure none of the tube on the others would fit his. Of course on the last one, he realized they are "sized". I love letting him figure this stuff out, even if it means having bike cadavers in my garage.

 

This week we bought a salt water system for our above ground pool. I had my little man help me set it up. We talked about all the parts, and the flow of water, the equalizing of water in the hoses. The best part he was fascinated by the actual working of the system. We talked about how the electricity freed the chloride from the sodium, and how it sanitized the pool before turning back into sodium.

 

If he is still interested in the pool and the filter we might play with salt water and magnets.

 

This actually made me feel really good, since we did not do a single Language Arts lesson this week. His VT home work, gave him head aches so we stuck to the fun stuff when he wasn't laying in a dark room.

[Heathermomster]

I winged it off an old fashioned fudge recipe with sugar, milk and butter. (4 cups powder sugar, 3/4 cup milk, 2 squares baking chocolate, 2 Tbsp butter.) The recipe called for corn syrup, but I left that out as it can reduce crystals. We used a double boiler and the old fashioned glass of ice water rather than a candy thermometer.

 

You probably don't really want my recipe as I adjusted the fudge making technique to create two extremes. The fudge that we cooled very rapidly didn't set; it's more like ice cream topping, (which is fine with me.) Then we have the other--extremely grainy fudge. I also added some "seed crystals" to by throwing in about a Tbsp extra sugar as it cooled and stirring, (so it wasn't just the temperature alone causing the larger crystal in our fudge, but I did it because I wanted them to remember the slow cooled rock contained more crystals.) Maybe another day we'll make a fudge recipe that actually followed the proper timing and technique of a real fudge recipe for creating "perfect fudge crystals", but oh well, today's results were still yummy.

 

There's a lot of science going on in fudge and candy making. Here's some links I found on fudge science.

http://www2.gi.alaska.edu/ScienceForum/ASF8/871.htmlhttp://suenotes.blogspot.com/2007/02/fudge-crystals.html

http://www.exploratorium.edu/cooking/candy/fudge-story.html

 

Awesome! Thank-you.

[merry gardens]

nm

Edited May 5, 2012 by merry gardens

[TippyCanoe]

.

[TippyCanoe]

.