What Out -of- the Box Learning have you done lately?

[Soror]

I was reading an old thread that was similar and was wondering if anyone is doing anything interesting lately. Ds and dh have been spending a lot of time on the Lego EV3, ds is doing the building and trying out some basic programming with dh's help. Last week we took a field trip to St. Louis and visited a daVinci machines exhibit and the Science Center which currently has an Egyptology exhibit. Ds is studying magic as well, which is an old interest, he is always finding library books on magic tricks. I'm wanting to start some kind of project but feeling uninspired as to what kind of project I want to do.

[2_girls_mommy]

Well, my kids had this week off completely from school because of things I have going on.  So they have played a lot with the windows Movie Maker program on the computer making videos and short movies.  Lots of fun.  We are doing several arts and crafts projects getting ready for the state fair.  And funny you say magic, because that is also an old interest of my dd11.  She recently picked it back up and worked on several new tricks after we attended a show at an amusement park.  Also, we are learning about guinea pigs as dd11 is getting one for a late bday present soon!   It is just extended summer vacation, but some good stuff is happening (along w/too much DVD watching :) )

[Farrar]

Lots of Scratch programming going on here.

 

We did a tour of the Capitol when my family was here earlier this week and that was fun since the kids had never been.

 

Family in general is a learning experience.  We had never had so much extended family in one place at once.  My boys found it very overwhelming to be around 20+ people like that, but I count it as a learning experience.

 

Ds pulled out the microscope today to look at something...  A CD I think?  He wanted to see if there were grooves.  But then he started on something else.

[Annie Laurie]

I don't know if this out of the box, but my 9 yr old has been having a great time with Janice Van Cleave's book Chemistry for Every Kid. He is getting so excited about his discoveries, and the whole family has been drawn into more than one exploration/experiment. He's also really into various plants he's growing.

 

Also, all three of my middle kids have been super into cooking and baking lately. I'm learning to just get over the messes and appreciate that they're practicing many skills and gaining some new independence. (Not to say they aren't required to clean up after themselves, but they clean up like kids.)

 

 

 

 

[chelsmm]

Probably not too out of the box, but we are new home schoolers this year, so it's new for us-

 

We did fractions on the beach today with measuring cups and spoons. ;)

We learned all about the moon and tides while basking in the sun. And I told the kids a story about Archimedes while they played in the sand.

 

Then they "played" Mesopotamia by digging a cour rivers and pretending to live near them :)

[....]

I don't know if this out of the box, but my 9 yr old has been having a great time with Janice Van Cleave's book Chemistry for Every Kid. He is getting so excited about his discoveries, and the whole family has been drawn into more than one exploration/experiment. He's also really into various plants he's growing.

 

 

My kids LOVE the Van Cleave books.   :thumbup1:   

 

Our out-of-the-box learning this week:  We're weaving Wampum and reading about Native American trading/tribal relationships.    http://plbrown.blogspot.com/2011/01/wampum-weaving-how-to-do-it.html

My kids also bought cross-stitching kits last weekend (falls in the handiwork category, I guess) and have been working on them all week.  Even my son is cross-stitching a tree frog.

[TracyP]

I hope I don't freak everybody out...

 

We butchered chickens. Dh and I did the deed, but my kids were interested so we looked at the heart, lungs, and everything else. We opened a crop to take a look at what was in there. One of the chickens was a layer that had turned mean, so we looked at her reproductive organs. Not for the squeamish, but pretty cool.

[Soror]

Evanthe- you reminded me that ds has been asking to sew. He sewed up a big gaping hole in his *favorite* pants the other day and was asking when we could do more sewing.

 

Tracy- the kids have been there when we've butchered chickens and rabbits and also during the processing a beef. I refer to it as hs science :)

 

Annie Laurie- we've been doing Chemistry as well as we are doing The Elements I need to buy that vanCleave book, ds would love it he is always looking up experiments on youtube- yesterday we did a tea bag rocket and match rocket.

 

Ds worked and work on his new trick so he could show dh when he got home. It was really pretty good. I didn't mention the girls but they are always busy w/ arts and crafts. They built a house the other day for fairies. My dd's are obsessed w/ magical beings, even though we don't do Santa and the like. Dd6 had to check to see if the fairies had visited their house after she got up from quiet time and she was convinced they had because she said the bed had moved. I told her I'm sure the cats had scared the fairies away. I don't think she actually believes but she wants to believe.

[Carrie12345]

My daughters did 2 weeks of environmental camp this summer. They worked hard (including on paper,) did service projects, and learned a LOT. And loved it. I'm counting them as school days.

[antsam]

My boys have been busy making origami Star Wars characters this week. I consider this "art" (but it's really just fun since we don't start school until next week).

 

Jodie

[dbmamaz]

2 days ago, my 9 yo was sitting at his computer (it was school time, so he was either reading fiction or watching wild kratts), and he said something about 'every minute someone dies, and every minute someone is born.'  I said that actually more people are born than die, because the population is growing.  I found a website that has live population tickers (I saw one in a museum once, just the planet's population, and i was fascinated).  Anyways, he was really interested in that, looking up and down it with me, and then we ended up on the CIA World Fact Book website, looking at stats of various countries, and ended up talking a bit about poverty in India.  My kids generally dont do rabbit trails much, so this was exciting for me.  (and this kid does love statistics)

[smfmommy]

I have some friends who could use some reminding that learning outside of textbook is still "real" learning.  They get so bogged down with hours/credits/grades.  Do any of you know of a good article/blog that is inspiring in that direction?  I only come up with unschooling articles, which are good, but they would just dismiss it since they aren't unschoolers.

 

Thank you in advance for any suggestions you can send my way.

[Annie Laurie]

Annie Laurie- we've been doing Chemistry as well as we are doing The Elements I need to buy that vanCleave book, ds would love it he is always looking up experiments on youtube- yesterday we did a tea bag rocket and match rocket.

 

 

 

What do you think of The Elements? I've been looking at that one, it sounds like fun. But we seem to do best when science is delight-directed and the kids just explore what they want to, so I'm afraid to buy a curriculum. How often do you do it?

[Annie Laurie]

My boys have been busy making origami Star Wars characters this week. I consider this "art" (but it's really just fun since we don't start school until next week).

 

Jodie

 

My kids are obsessed with that! And with the Origami Yoda books.

[Annie Laurie]

I have some friends who could use some reminding that learning outside of textbook is still "real" learning.  They get so bogged down with hours/credits/grades.  Do any of you know of a good article/blog that is inspiring in that direction?  I only come up with unschooling articles, which are good, but they would just dismiss it since they aren't unschoolers.

 

Thank you in advance for any suggestions you can send my way.

 

I like this blog:

 

http://jimmiescollage.com/2013/06/gentle-homeschool/

[Alte Veste Academy]

DH taught DS10 how to replace brake pads in my van. How to change a tire was conveniently covered in the same lesson. :thumbup1:  When our dryer went kaput a while back, he taught him the skill and process of troubleshooting. They found the problem (a broken heating coil) and $20 later, the dryer was good as new.

 

DS10 is teaching DD8 and DS7 how to play guitar. He is also working through a Beatles songbook on his own.

 

DD is teaching herself to sew and is writing a book with her friends.

 

DS7 is writing books. Lots of them. :lol:

[smfmommy]

I like this blog:

 

http://jimmiescollage.com/2013/06/gentle-homeschool/

 

Thank you Annie.  That article looks good.

[Soror]

Ds helped dh a few weeks back on the brakes here as well. Dd6 has just started writing books. It seems pretty common at this age as dd has a friend who did the same last year when she was 6. Ds never did any of that though as he hated writing, he did draw a fair amount though. I had ds make a book about Vikings to culminate our viking studies and practice some writing skills and dd had to copy it as well. She is going to be the kind of kid who will love lapbooks.

 

Annie Laurie- We have liked The Elements it is a nice, gentle but meaty intro to chemistry. We are doing about 20 each day, 4x a week. We've done a chapter a week and just finished chapter 6. I'm anxious to finish it and try out some of our Gems guides though. We've generally kept to informal science so far but it was nice to try and I will definitely try out more of her products in the future.

[mommymonster]

We're pretty new to homeschooling, but this summer we informally studied Native Americans and this fall we are going to be studying earth science and astronomy. to get the boys excited about this fall, we took a huge car trip to visit Mt. St. Helens and Ape Cave. Last week we attended a traditional technologies day where we got to throw an atlatl, shoot bow and arrows, weave rope, and visit a Chinook longhouse. We attended a star party to watch the meteor shower. This weekend, we're staying at the beach and learning about tsunamis, which in retrospect might not be the best idea... 

 

In the Pacific Northwest, we have a pretty small window for non-rainy weather, and we're doing our best to embrace what is left of the sunshine. 

[Elfknitter.#]

My boys have been busy making origami Star Wars characters this week. I consider this "art" (but it's really just fun since we don't start school until next week).

 

Jodie

Shapes count toward Geometry! ;)

[smudge]

This is our first foray into HS and I bought ES Biology. This week we read all about different biomes/habitats, and I got a brilliant idea to take the girls to our local aviary and look for the different birds that live in the different biomes! The girls loved it! And we have been watching Planet Earth non stop this weekend! ;)

[freeindeed]

My dd12 has been writing song lyrics and hubby is teaching her to play guitar.

My ds10 is enjoying playing Stack the States on the iPad. He also chose to learn more about ancient Egypt during his free time. (Not exactly out of the box, though, b/c that is our current topic in his school studies.)

[crazyforlatin]

Learning to use a remote control with both thumbs so that a toy helicopter can land safely on a small area of space, rather than crash land.

 

Learning Disney songs, watching Disney movies, and learning a lot of chords to accompany herself while singing popular Disney songs. It's about time given that DD gets asked about Disney movies and songs and had no idea until now about these characters.

 

Watching Disney Imagineer videos and experimenting with household objects, toys, and Knex. Now the only thing missing from a Disney-saturated month is to go to Disneyland. :D

[T'smom]

We took some bar magnets to the park the other day to experiment with what was magnetic and what wasn't. My 3 yo dd was dragging hers through the dirt and we discovered that some of the "dirt" was iron! We then took them to the beach to see if we could find more/less iron in the sand than in the dirt. It was about the same.