Tea for Two

It never fails to amaze me, the ideas that take a hold on a child's imagination. For some reason, my sons have become enamored of the British meal, tea. Yesterday, when I was feeling very sick to my stomach, my sons prepared a 'tea' for me. It consisted of: greek olives, toast, peanut butter, jelly, bread, salami, cheese slices, apples, and, of course, tea... Mango Zinger tea, to be precise. They very carefully arranged it on a lazy Susan (Which I had put out in the hall to be taken to Goodwill...) and called me down. I joined them and munched on crackers (all that my stomach could take) while they happily piled their plates and ate their 'tea'. So pleased were they with their 'tea' that Jason immediately announced that we should make one night a week 'British' night and cook and eat a British meal. Hmmm...

Today, at 12:30, the boys announced 'It is tea time!' 'It is lunch time.' I agreed. 'NO! Tea Time!' they insisted. I shrugged. I am not really overly worried about the naming of things. The 'rectification of names' has its place but not all the time:> So the boys put together their 'tea'. Today it consists of Pina Colada tea, raisins (which have been renamed 'figs' in honor of The stories Julian tells ), salami, two kinds of cheese, sourdough bread, homemade peanut butter, cashew butter, jam, and apples. It is an eclectic meal, to put it mildly, and at some point, I will take them to a real 'High Tea' but for now they are enjoying themselves so thoroughly -- and it gives me a chance to reinforce the idea that the cooks need to help clean up...

What are 'shee-shits' anyway?

Good morning!
I know, a weird title for a blog post but you see, this is the question that has been puzzling me this morning. I will explain:

Jason just turned 10 and, for his 10th birthday, his father (an avid photographer) gave him a Nikon camera and lens. Jason was over the moon and immediately started taking photos. Then tragedy struck... the batteries died. Tom calmly put them to recharge before leaving on his trip to Dubai. This morning, Jason bounced in and, collecting the batteries, inserted them and went off with his little brother to take pictures of 'shee-shits'. These creatures were created by Xander. They look like little pieces of thread and lint but, according to the boys, they are alive. Today they have decided to create a photo-documentary of the creatures. Jason is the camera man, Xander the naturalist. I have promised to upload the pictures so that Jason can photoshop them with the understanding that they will be uploaded for public viewing.

Laugh. Actually, what we need to do is work on our Beastiary. I figure that, once it is created, the boys can refer to it when writing their novels. As I plan to take them to the Office supply store to get notebooks for their writing anyway, I will just go ahead and pick up some sketch books which they can decorate and use for the Beastiary. I will upload pictures of that project as soon as I have them.

So today's plan is: breakfast, chores, trip to store to get supplies, work on Beastiary and writing, then off to Tae Kwon Do. From TKD, we will head home to do some school work/projects (we are starting on two lapbooks: one on Mythical Beasts and one on Multiplication) and garden planting (should weather permit). If all goes well, we will make Slime (A non-Newtonian liquid) as part of our science class and perhaps peruse a documentary on Ancient Greece. Should keep us busy, don't you think?

Examining courage

"Courage is the price that Life exacts for granting peace." ~~ Amelia Earhart

 



Okay, I am a curriculum and resource junkie, I will admit it. My house looks like... well, a bookstore cum garage sale, I am sorry to say... too much stuff and too little time. But the plus is... if anyone wants to know about something, I can usually put my hand on the information.

That said, I wanted to mention the site above. It is BRILLIANT. The lady who writes this blog is a creative writing teacher -- and I mean both that she teaches 'creative writing' and that she IS creative. Lovely. She has an entire course laid out on the blog and believe me, junkie that I am, I am going to try it. Whee! A new day's adventure is about to begin.

Collected links for Education and Fun...

Sigh. It appears that I have contracted the illness that has been making the rounds in my family. I had hoped that I would be passed by but as so often happens, free will is given only so much rein. Despite our fantasies to the contrary, there are some things over which we have no control -- and illness seems to be one of those.  If I were the type to speak of 'karma', I might think that I had brought it on myself, by laughing privately when my six year old announced that he was 'not going to get sick' on his brother's birthday.  I explained to him that some things are not necessarily a choice, that when your body is ill, it will do what it will do. He had no use for such an idea -- and now, I can understand why. Being sick stinks, both literally and figuratively.

But  I have never been one to recognize limits -- my husband chided me on that just the other day. He did allow as how I have gotten better during the sixteen years of our marriage but still, I find it difficult to be limited by outside forces. Laugh. And there again, I could point to 'Karma' as I have at least one child, and sometimes two, who find limitations difficult to accept. Can you imagine? An immovable object meets an irresistible force? Ah, but I am getting side-tracked here.

Though I may be ill, I still need to be doing: cleaning the house (though not cooking as I do not wish to spread the illness around again), and working at this, that, and the other project. My current project has been to compile a series of pages dedicated to the useful educational links that I have found in my wanderings in the Labyrinth called the Web. I thought, perhaps, some people might be interested so I am including links to those pages here:

L'Academie Des Chevalier History Sites

L'Academie Des Chevalier Math Sites

L'Academie des Chevalier Educational Games

LAC Homeschool blogs and Resources

LAC Writing Pages

LAC English Pages

These pages are updated regularly as there is a limited number of links that I can add per day... so check back and see what you see. I have been told by several folks with whom I shared the Educational games site that their kids are over the moon with delight -- and that they, the adults, have not had access to the computer since their kids discovered the page...

 

Nim's Island and the question of courage

Nim's Island (Full Screen Edition) -- have you seen it? Or read it?(Nim's Island)  It is a lovely story, and(homeschoolers will be especially pleased with this)  stars a very bright 'island schooled' little girl named 'Nim'.  At this precise moment, however, my interest is focused on a particular phrase: Nim, the heroine of the tale, is asking her father why her favorite fictional character, Alex Rover, is so brave.  Her father replies "Courage is not inside you. It is something you have to relearn every day, in the choices you make."  That particular phrase resonates with me. The question of courage is one with which we battle daily. My eldest, as kind and loving a soul as I have ever met, is beset by fears of nameless things. Perhaps it is his age (he has just turned ten)? I know that, at this age, children become painfully aware of  mortality, both their own and that of others. They become aware of the frailty of human knowledge and wisdom -- specifically, they begin to suspect the flawed nature of their parents' wisdom. Regardless of the whys of this development, the issue of how one gains and practices courage is of great interest in our homeschool.

Now I am a great believer in using multi-media tools for study and learning. Movies and Novels, especially, have proven useful in the past. So here, then, is a story that I wish to use in discussing the question of courage and of how one achieves it.  First I went looking for existing materials: An Educator's Guide to Nim's Island looked promising but it's focus is on teaching children about their environment and the need to protect it, a worthy topic but not quite what I had in mind. More such resources exist at Walden.com and at The Weekly Reader.

Next I discovered a wonderful Unit Study at Homeschool Share -- something I am most definitely going to pursue and another one at Squidoo. At 'Blog, She wrote" I found some lovely images of Nim's Island Salt Dough Maps. But this was still not quite what I wanted. I found a blog which recorded another family's Nim Adventures: Liberty Hill House: Nim's Island Lessons - Chapter 2. And then I found something upon which I could base my own 'Unit Study' -- Munce.com's Study Guide. The study guide is very much Christian oriented, so for those who are not so inclined, this may be a bit off putting but the questions that it asks/addresses are similar to the ones that I wish to pursue: how does one display courage and when? What is a courageous act -- does it have to be something big and splashy like saving your little sister? Or can it be something smaller and quieter -- like walking out your own front door? I think that my next stop will be the Konos and Weaver units, as both use questions of Character as subjects of unit studies. I will see what I can pull together and, when it is complete, add it to this blog. Wish me luck...

Spring Reading Thing

Okay, if 52 books in 52 weeks is not enough... here is Spring Reading Thing! This contest asks you to offer a list of books to read/finish between March 20th and June 2oth so I guess I had better getting snapping! My list (with links to Amazon in case you want a more complete description):

On the Social and Emotional Lives of Gifted Children by Tracy L. Cross, Ph.D.

Advice on Dying and Living a Better Life by His Holiness, the Dalai Lama

Trojan Horses: Saving the Classics from the Conservatives by Page Dubois

Angels and Ages: A Short Book about Darwin, Lincoln, and Modern Life by Adam Gopnik

A Mathematician's Lament by Paul Lockhart

The Way of Herodotus: Travels with the Man who invented History by Justin Marozzi

Finding Sanctuary: Monastic Steps for Everyday Life by Abbott Christopher Jamison

A Grief Observed by C.S. Lewis

Educating your gifted child by Vicki Caruana

Magic: The Untold Story of U.S. Intelligence and the Evacuation of Japanese Residents from the West Coast during WWII by David Lowman

The Last Knight by Norman F. Cantor

The Ghost in the Machine by Arthur Koestler

Gorgon: Paleontology, Obsession, and the Greatest Catastrophe in Earth's History by Peter D. Ward

Nothing to do, nowhere to go: Waking up to who you are by Thit Nhat Hanh

From First Draft to Finished Novel by Karen S. Weisner

The Great Tradition Edited by Richard M. Gamble

52 books in 52 weeks

Just spotted this challenge, 52 books in 52 weeks, on Robin's blog and am intrigued. Not like I need an EXCUSE to read, of course, laugh. I usually have several books going simultaneously... some of interest only to me, some having to do with schooling, some which are 'pre reads' for my sons, and some which are, I admit, just plain 'brain candy'. That said, I think it would be interesting to do this. It would, in a sense, give me an excuse to read -- I could call it 'homework' and carve out a small niche of time just for me to indulge myself..

For this week, I am starting with A Grief Observed by C.S. Lewis, A Mathematician's Lament by Paul Lockhart, and Game of Thrones by George Martin. These are my (laugh) recreational reading! I will not include the books that I read for my 'work' as a homeschooler.

 

Birthday thoughts

It was ten years ago, at eight minutes after midnight, that my own 'little buddha' was born. His father was thrilled with the timing  as it meant that he didn't have to go into work and me? Well, I was just plain thrilled. It had been a rough ride -- I went into labor with a bang. I had just swallowed a fruit smoothie -- my stomach was feeling oogie -- when suddenly I felt violently ill. I rushed off to the bathroom and Tom rushed to start packing. I was in the bathroom, contemplating the ironies of life, when Tom called through the door: "I've got a suitcase packed. Let's go." Being the  conscientious sort, I called back, "Dr. Faulkner says to time the contractions and when they are three minutes a part, to go in." I could hear the poor man pulling his hair. I started timing. Five minutes, four minutes, okay, three minutes -- but no rush. I asked Tom to call our Doula. Teeth grinding, he did so. She talked to me for a moment and said 'Honey, you are in labour. Shall I meet you at home or at the hospital?' Hospital and now, finally, at 9 pm, half an hour after I first went into the bathroom, Tom raced me (carefully) to the hospital, dropped me off at the ER entrance (the front of the hospital was locked) and went off to park the car. Despite having been through an orientation at the hospital, when the time came, all I could think about were the horrendous cramps in my stomach and back. I wobbled up to the desk and, tears in my voice, I wailed 'I am in labor and I don't know what to do!' As if on cue, the elevator door opened up and a tall, slender man walked out pushing a wheelchair. One of the people at the desk called 'Hey, Mike! This lady is in labor. Can you take her to fifth floor triage?' "Of course!' Mike said and helped me, gently, into the wheelchair. All the way up in the elevator I said 'Thank you' -- they were the only words that came to mind. Mike pushed the wheelchair into Triage and left me in the capable hands of our Doula and the labor nurse. The nurse examined me and called the Doctor with her findings. After a brief, and somewhat heated discussion on the nurse's part ("SHE IS IN LABOR! I know when a woman IS IN LABOR!"), they took me into a labor room to await the doctor and my husband. It was, I am told, a fast labor -- to be precise, it was about three hours and 38 minutes long. That may be why it hurt so much. Jason was born with a roar (with Louis Armstrong, in the background, singing 'What a wonderful world'), yelling his unhappiness to the world. The labor nurses laughed and laughed. The one cleaning him off said 'Oh, my! Look at how RED he is. This is one mad baby.' She seemed thoroughly delighted with him -- and, indeed, offered to take him if we didn't want him. Laugh. Then she handed him to me and he quieted to a mutter, complaining to me softly before falling asleep.  It was some sort of ride.

When he woke a short time later, and after he had nursed, his father took him, oh so carefully, and danced an Irish jig around the room to which we had been moved. Maybe that is why Jason, to this day, loves Irish dance music and dancing. Whatever the case, he was our miracle -- a tiny Yodaesque baby whose every breath delighted us.

And now he is ten. I can hardly believe it. He woke this morning with a grin on his face. His little brother (6) woke with a very sick tummy. Bless the boy. The plan had been to take Jason out to breakfast whereever he chose but when he realized how ill his little brother was feeling, he said calmly, "If Xander doesn't feel good, we won't go. We can do it some other time, when he is feeling better." Not wanting his birthday day to be a complete write off, I suggested that maybe he and his dad could do something. Jason's eyes lit up. "I would like to go fishing, please."  So the two of them went off to go fishing and then to have a birthday breakfast. Tom called me a short time ago to say that they had 'had fun fishing' but that Jason was getting cold and they were going to go for breakfast. 'But before we go,' Tom told me, 'Jason wanted me to call and to tell you to tell Xander that we had found him an air soft pellet.' (Xander, for whatever reason, collects them). Bless the boy. His heart is so big and he loves his little brother dearly. The feeling is mutual -- Laugh. Feeling very sick to his tum, Xander nonetheless announced (tearfully) 'I will NOT throw up on my brother's birthday! I WILL NOT! I get to make this choice and I WON'T DO IT!' Sadly, it really wasn't his choice.

Sigh. Despite the unhappy nature of his brother's health, nothing can detract from the joy that Jason's presence in our lives has brought. Oh, we have our ups and downs. He is, as he would be the first to tell you, more like Gawain than like Galahad. He has his full share of human frailties but he also has the brightest blue eyes, an incredibly infectious laugh, and an enormously generous heart.  Unlike so many ten year old boys, Jason loves to talk with girls and has been accorded the great honor of being informed by an 11 year old girl that he is 'the only SENSIBLE boy' she knows. He likes girls -- really likes them as people.

Of course, one of Jason's gifts is that he likes people. I remember, when he was about 2, we went to the grocery store on Veteran's Day. As I was pushing the cart past a table where several Older Vets were sitting (the store had a Veteran's Day display), Jason smiled and burst into "Its a Grand Old Flag". The gentlemen at the table immediately stood at attention and when he was through, one of them came over and gently shook Jason's hand. 'Thank you' he said solemnly, 'It makes me feel good to hear that song.'

When we had finished our shopping, we stopped into Goodwill (which was just across the street). I was looking for little boy clothes. They always seem too small by morning! I found what I needed and we went to check out. As we were walking up, we passed a large (both in height and girth)bearded man who was covered in tatoos and wearing a bandana. Jason looked at him and smiled a broad smile. The man stared and then came over to me.  Jason continued smiling at him. The man, tears distinct in his voice, said, 'He is smiling at me!' I looked and nodded and said 'Yes, he does that.' 'No', the man said sadly, 'You don't understand. Children are usually scared of me.' I looked back at my son. He was still smiling and watching us. 'Well,' I said 'I don't think he is.' The man very carefully held his hand out to Jason, who took it, and said 'Thank you' then walked away quickly but not before I saw the shine in his eyes.  Bless the baby.

And so, today, my first born is ten. No longer a baby, not yet a man but always, always, my special joy.

Early mornings and computer programming

Hey there!

Maybe it is because I have been up since 3 am with a sick child, but my brain is tumbling over ways to teach material so that it is both exciting and accessible. Imagine my delight when I came across the Arduino Blog and his discussion of cards designed to teach computer programming. Now I am OLD. My first programming experience was with Basic, then with COBOL and since then, I have fallen down a maze of rabbit holes. That is not the best way to learn a subject, though it can be a lot of fun. Now my sons are interested in learning programming -- quite simply, they want to create Games for Nintendo. We started with ALICE , moved onto GameMaker and Scratch but weren't entirely satisfied.  I then discovered PHROGRAM . The previous programs are free. Phrogram you have to buy. On the other hand, of the four, Phrogram seems to have click with my sons.  It was designed for children from the get go and, according to the site:

"you can try products that minimize code and use graphics in a "drag-&-drop" environment, like Alice and Scratch. These may appeal to very young learners, of if you want your program to tell a story, but they are not much like what programmers actually do and they won't show you what real programming is all about ... that's what makes Phrogram different.  Phrogram's "plain language" approach makes it easier to understand, read and write code. Its commands are concise and the tools are easy to master. And, because Phrogram is built on Microsoft's powerful .NET Framework, your programs can do much more with much less code."

For whatever reason, Phrogram seems to work best for us. My 9 year constantly reminds me that 'I need to study programming today, Mom' -- something that cannot be said for most of his other subjects (Laugh). That said, after what I read at the Arduino blog ( a blog recommended by a friend of mine who used to work for NASA) and what I have seen at the Complubot site, I think I am going to add a little variety to our Programming courses.  The idea that one can learn using cards is nothing new -- Many math programs recommend the use of card games ( I am thinking in particular of RightStart here) and it just makes good educational sense that something that is enjoyable to do will be retained better than something viewed as 'work.'

This idea, that 'fun' = effective learning has been picked up by some colleges as well. At Palomar college, Instructors are using Legos to teach computer programming. Marlboro has a syllabus for such a class available as well. The Legos being utilized are the Mindstorms robots (for which, it turns out, there are a variety of programming languages available!), a product that my six year old has been lusting after for as long as he can remember. Mindstorms is a bit advanced for him but it turns out that Lego, 'wise in the ways of the force', has an answer for that. Their WeDo program is designed for early Elementary kids. I haven't dived into that particular pool just yet, I admit. Part of me trembles at the thought of Weird Science coming to my house (Grin) but maybe for his birthday....

WeDo and Mindstorms are for the future. Complubot's card game has yet to be released but the idea... the idea is a great one and I may have to work on creating a similar approach using the Phrogram's system as the model... Hmm. Funny what tired brains can conceive.

 

A moment in a life

There are moments in life which have the gift of being both comic and painful. Such a moment occurred today: both boys are enrolled in theater classes and while my eldest is quite happy to be off at his class alone, I often sit in on my six year old's class. Today they were building props for their play -- in this case, a paper mache mushroom. As you can imagine, the making of a newspaper and glue construction can get a bit sticky and, as one might expect, there were the requisite spills and over applications of glue and massive over utilization of paper towels. But the truly exciting moments had little to do with the mushroom building and everything to do with six year old boys in a small room for an hour and a half while the sun was shining outside. The first incident, which did not involve my son (A selfish 'thank heavens!'), occurred when a little boy, in an excess of enthusiasm ran head long, head FIRST into a wooden door... This action had, of course, followed upon his being asked 'not to run around the room, please.' Hmm... crash, bang, tears and mommy came. Off goes that little one, throughly unhappy with the world. Sigh.

The next 'moment', however, starred my son, front and center.  It was half way through the class and the two ladies who were running the class decided that it was time for a water/bathroom break. Off the class troops. Ah, but here a problem arose: two women with a class equally divided between boys and girls and two bathrooms, one for boys and one for girls... so the six year old boys were sent off to the men's room... by themselves. I, meanwhile, am sitting quietly, working on schoolwork. Suddenly I hear the unmistakable sound of my son... crying. In he comes, face dripping with tears and red with unhappiness. 'He HIT me! He PUNCHED me!'  he announced loudly. Another woman, not part of the class, had followed him and explained that the other little boy was in tears too. Over the course of the next few minutes the story emerged. The boys had gone to the bathroom. Xander had turned ON the light. The other child had turned the light OFF. Xander turned the light ON and, when the other child (who, to Xander's indignation, was laughing) went to turn the light off again, Xander reached out and grabbed his hair. The other boy punched Xander in response... After hearing the story, the young woman teaching the class said calmly, 'Well, now, maybe pulling his hair wasn't the best response.' Xander replied indignantly, 'Well, I didn't PUNCH him! If I'd punched him, I might've broken his ARM!' She allowed as how punching was probably not the best solution either. Xander looked mutinous. She explained that a better approach would've been to ASK the other child not to turn the light off. Xander expressed his doubts about the efficacy of such an approach and she then said 'Well, in that case, you should leave and ask a teacher for help.' I kept silent through the whole of this, figuring I should not undermine the teacher's authority but a part of me shook my head -- not that I disagreed with the general outline of behavior. Quite the contrary. But having dealt with children this age in large groups, I know that telling them what they 'Should do' after the fact rarely works to teach them anything.  Children, like many adults, tend to react rather than reason and it is for this reason that sending a small group of six year old boys into a bathroom by themselves rarely ends well.

Of course, I cannot be too holier than thou about this. Grin. It was only last night that I walked into the bathroom (at the end of bathes) to discover a minor flood on the floor and my six year old busily 'cleaning it up' with toilet paper... the whole roll!

Such are the moments in the life of a boy (and his mother).

 

New Professions

What are your children interested in being when they grow up? My two started out predictably: as with most boys, they have a passion for Fossils, one that was fed when we were lucky enough to visit the T-Rex Museum in Tucson. The T-Rex Museum, which sadly is now out of business, was created and run by a retired Paleontologist. It was a small place, crammed to the gills with Fossils and hands on projects. It was, in the words of it's owner 'The sort of place I wish there had been when I was a kid.' Upon leaving it, after our first visit, my youngest said, decisively "When I grown up, I am going to be a Paleontologist." My eldest, ever insightful, responded "Xander, you don't have to grown up to be a Paleontologist. Just DIG!"

This budding passion morphed a bit for my eldest after we made a weekend trip to the Stone Rose Site in Republic Washington. At this site, a dry river bed, amateur paleontolgists can dig for their own fossils. The only caveats are (1)significant finds are kept and catalogued by the museum and (2)one can only take a certain number of fossils home per day.  This experience plus a hefty dose of reading (Please note: The link will take you to an Amazon list. You can then find the books/videos at your Library if you don't wish to purchase them) about the Prehistoric seas led my eldest to his new passion: Marine Paleontology.  In that vein, he decided that his focus in Boy Scouts would be, when he is old enough, a branch called 'Sea Scouts'. We are lucky in this respect: one of our closest family friends is a Sea Scouts Captain and, better yet, a Geologist by training.

But, of course, while boys like Dinosaurs, and while the passion for Fossils still animates my sons' souls, their ideas about what they 'want to do when I grow up' continue to change. The latest one caught even me by surprise: My youngest has decided that he wants to be a Blacksmith... now, hmm... he has informed me that he is going to (1)have his forge in the Barn (GULP!) (2)that he wants to be apprenticed to a working Blacksmith (Do they take six year olds, Mommy? I want to start NOW!) and (3) that he needs to 'build up' his muscles because Blacksmiths have to be 'strong.' (Grin. He started his 'weight training' program by manfully carrying our HEAVY library book bags to the care for me. He had been hefting them around the library and demonstrating his muscles to the bemused librarians.) And his older brother, the budding Marine Paleontologist? Well, he still wants to do that but now, as a complimentary position to his brother's blacksmithing, he has decided to learn how to be... a KNIGHT! Yep, complete training is required, Mom. And after all, he points out to me, there is no reason whatsoever that he is restricted to ONE ambition...

Sigh. Who knows where we will end up. Meanwhile, I need to start helping them to hunt down information about Knighthood and Blacksmithing. Wish me luck!

 

 

Learning Every Day

It is striking how life changes moment to moment. Things that seemed SO IMPORTANT one minute disappear from one's memory the next. This is very much the case for these past few days. News from Hawaii, where I have family and friends, and Japan -- where a number of my friends/relatives have family has been at the forefront of our minds. We still think and worry for the folks in Iraq and Libya.. for the soldiers and the civilians caught up in the politics of the powerful but the unfolding tragedy in Japan has pretty much overtaken and subsumed our attention.  I hurt, inside me, when I hear the numbers. I grieve for those lost and wish that there were something immediate that I could do. Raising money seems a good, though not very immediate, project -- on the other hand, I realize that those folks are going to NEED the money. To that end, I am including a link to a list of donation sites -- all of them authentic.

As is human, the discussions of what is happening in Japan has led to discussions about what COULD happen here in the Puget Sound Region. The boys and I have agreed that it makes sense to put together an emergency kit. The boys are also planning to learn Morse Code and to study HAM radio operations. We have also been putting together a Glog: Puget Sound Disaster Preparedness . Although some of the information is specific to this reason, there are also links to National Emergency sites as well as links to the history of quakes and tsunamis for those who are interested.

I find, awful though it may sound, that I am desperately in need of the minutiae of life as a distraction from the griefs of the world. Too much information, too many images of all that is happening in Japan and in the Middle East plus a hefty dose of 'Daylight Savings' and Tax time blues, has led to a very blue Mommy. So, with that in mind, this will be my only post on the current events of the larger world. I will return to the joys and terrors of little boys and leave news reporting to the professionals.

Blessings on you all.

Glogs!

Okay, I have found a new education tool -- and am I having fun with it. The tool is called a 'glog' -- it is a visual collection of links on a given subject.

So far I have made three glogs -- http://kerri2.edu.glogster.com/betwixt-and-twain/ A glog for Mark Twain

-- http://kerri2.edu.glogster.com/shakespeare-amongst-the-maples/ A Glog for Shakespeare learning

-- http://kerri2.edu.glogster.com/greek-myths-classroom/ A Glog for studying the Greek Myths

And the best part? I have my own built in critics! My sons are more than willing to check through the glogs and tell me what they think! Ain't learning grand?

 

Visit my newest project: A Shakespeare Glog...