2010 Doodle for Google Contest
The annual Doodle for Google contest is now open for registration. As always, Google challenges students to draw the Google logo with an original doodle and complete the phrase If I could do anything, I would . . . Registration closes on March 17th and entries must be submitted by March 31. To get the proper forms, to read the rules, and get further information, visit the Doodle for Google website.
Add comment Monday, February 8, 2010
Matisse-Inspired Art Lesson
We discovered a fun and educational kids’ website all about the art of Henri Matisse, an important 20th century artist. The Baltimore Museum of Art, which houses the largest holding of works by Henri Matisse in the world, hosts the Flash-based Matisse for Kids interactive website. Kids learn about Matisse’s use of color, patterns, and objects in his paintings. Once the lesson is complete, kids get a chance to play with the interactive tools to create their own masterpiece. We had fun on this website and learned some cool facts. We then had fun making our own Matisse-inspired art using sketch paper, colored pencils and art markers. If you enjoy the Baltimore Museum of Art’s Matisse website for kids, here are a few more fun Matisse-related art projects to consider:
Matisse-inspired art from Art Projects for Kids
Add comment Sunday, February 7, 2010
Eragon Book Series Unit Study Helpers
Eragon is the first in a series of epic fantasy books about a teenage boy and his dragon. Homeschoolers who enjoy reading about dragons, or who enjoyed the Lord of the Rings trilogy, may enjoy a unit study built around this series. We gathered a few resources we found helpful for developing your own unit study.
Pronunciation Guide
Reading/Discussion Guide
Activities, Puzzles, and Quizzes
Ideas
Suggested activities
Add comment Thursday, February 4, 2010
New Book: 50 Dangerous Things (you should let your children do)
Gever Tully, a past TED speaker on 5 dangerous things you should let your children do, has finally released his new book, 50 Dangerous Things (you should let your children do). Gever also started Tinkering School, where kids can spend a week building, creating, thinking, engineering, innovating and having fun playing with fire.
Add comment Tuesday, January 26, 2010
Free Online Educational Video and Lesson Website Round-Up
DeWayne from Austin is looking for some ideas on free, online educational video and lesson websites. I have posted about some really good ones over the past few years and am sharing some of my past posts here. Please add your favorite resources via a comment. I can’t possibly know them all!
- Academic Earth
- TED.com
- The British Library
- Books, Etc.
- YouTube EDU & MITOpenCourseWare
- ZuiTube
- Connexions
- Wolfram|Alpha
- HippoCampus
- PBS.ORG – Nova
- ZuiTube
- MAKE: Science Room
- SciToys.com
- Collection of things I posted recently
- University of Utah Genetics
- Math Night
- Free Language Arts Lesson – Treasure Island
Add comment Wednesday, January 20, 2010
MAKE Presents: Educational Videos on Basic Electronic Components
We found some very cool educational videos from MAKE magazine that every budding electrical engineer will enjoy. The videos are fairly short and offer history, physics and hands-on how-tos. Learning basic electronics is the first step in building basic electronic circuits. Our goal is to eventually learn enough electronics to build some papier-mâché creatures with integrated electronic components.
Check out MAKE magazine’s electronics components videos on YouTube
Add comment Saturday, January 16, 2010
Janice Campbell’s Thoughts on The Gift of Homeschool
A recent post on Janice Campbell’s Blog, “Taking Time for Things that Matter”, sounds like something I will be writing when our homeschool journey is complete. Learning: Mind-numbing or Mind-nourishing is a Mother’s personal reflection on what was really important about the gift of homeschool to her sons. Her gift was time. Yes, time. Think about it. TIME!
Read Janice’s Blog Post: http://ow.ly/VY0G
Add comment Wednesday, January 13, 2010
Homeschooling on the Rise in Florida
According to a recent Orlando Sentinel article, homeschooling is up dramatically in Florida. According to the article, many families can no longer afford private school but don’t want to put their kids in public school. Interestingly, this article states that homeschooling is increasing dramatically in Florida even as the population is decreasing. In fact, the number of homeschoolers nationwide, estimated at about 3% in 2007, may actually be much higher. From the unofficial poll on the Orlando Sentinel website, it seems that the largest percentage of people who responded as homeschoolers are homeschooling because they either don’t want government control of their childrens’ education or believe that traditional schools stifle creativity.
Add comment Tuesday, January 12, 2010
Eclectic Collection of Cool Learning Stuff From Around the Web
- ArtAttack – Awesome art projects for kids
- MathTV - Includes video textbooks and free lessons for advanced math students. Check out the free math e-textbooks and the MathTV videos on YouTube
- SnowFlake Science – Very cool. Learn about snowflake physics.
- Google Swirl – Discover cool websites through photos by using the Google Swirl application. A very interesting interface, too.
- Rod Carvalho’s Web Notebook – Not for the mathematically faint of heart, this is a really cool site for serious math and science freaks.
- Andrew Furmancyzk’s Academy of Music’s How to Play the Piano YouTube video series
Add comment Friday, January 8, 2010
Use Your Wii Remote to Make a Low-Cost Interactive White Board
Perhaps this hack is a bit ‘over the top’ for most homeschools, but if kids want a cool technology challenge, check out what researcher, Johnny Chung Lee of Carnegie Mellon University is doing with Wii remotes. Johnny shares secrets of creating interactive white boards on any surface for a fraction of the cost of commercial solutions. Johnny shares his innovative and creative solutions for building a multi-touch interactive white board using a Wii remote and some inexpensive Infrared pens. He provides instructions on using a projector or a laptop screen and recommends some applications to try with your new low-cost set-up.
- Check out his YouTube videos on his various Wii remote hacks
- View Johnny’s website for details and suggestions
- Watch Johnny Chung Lee’s 2008 TED presentation, which proves that a bit of knowledge on how things work and some inspired thinking can change the way people live, work and play!
1 comment Sunday, January 3, 2010
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