Are you ready for Ground Hogs Day?

The start of February every year, there's a tradition that is more fun than scientific. It is the celebration of Ground Hogs Day. The idea is that when a ground hog comes out of his hole it is said that we will have 6 more weeks of winter or enjoy an early spring depending on whether or not this ground hog sees his shadow.

There are events that go all out with town celebrations and even a movie named after the day.


For homeschoolers, you can find a lot of fun activities online to enjoy the day while learning a little about weather, science, ground hogs/hedge hogs, etc. When I used to sell books for Barefoot Books, they had a nice book about hedge hogs that correlated well with the day, hence the picture above. Check out their site if you want to find a current vendor of these amazing books.

In the meantime, check out these sites for Ground Hogs Day lessons:

Pinterest 54 Best Grond Hogs Day Ideas

Scholastic

NEA Ground Hogs Day in the classroom

Education World Ground hogs Day lessons


Read Write Think


Happy Ground Hogs Day! If you enjoy warmer weather, then here's to an early spring!

Free MLK Martin Luther King Day Lesson Plan Download

MLK Day is Monday! What do you plan to do with your students for the day? Will you take the day off? Will you have school as usual? Will you implement a lesson plan on Martin Luther King and Civil Rights?

A few years ago, I put together a short lesson plan that involves this holiday.  I had begun this site as a place to share free lesson plans, and I never completed all I had in my head at the time. But, I'd like to share it with you now if you're interested in a quick, easy history lesson for the day.

You can find it and use it for free at:

Puddle Jumping site - Select the picture of MLK

Or, if you prefer, you can go directly to the MLK Day PDF. It will open in your browser, so no worries of any downloading fears.

The Flexibility Of Homeschooling and a Walk Around the Lake

I think one of the things I enjoy most about homeschooling is the flexibility it allows.  For instance, today it is unseasonably warm where I live.  So, this means I can pack up the kids and head to the park.  We'll get in some PE if nothing else.  But, our trips to the park always include so much more.

For mommy - The park involves a walk around the large lake.  I need the exercise, and it prepares me for sittng at the playground while they play later.  But, these walks provide so much more than exercise.

While we walk, we talk.  We talk about anyting that comes up.  In our talks we have uncovered topics that range from "Oh, look at that leaf" to "the beautiful sunset our God chose to paint the sky with" to "the art of animation programs, and how to turn a ripple on the lake, and blowing blades of grass into a picture on a computer screen that moves".

We have talked about philosophy, science, politics, cute things the children say, photography, math, engineering, technology, and the like.  You name it, it has probably come up in our walks around that lake.

Of course, we also talk about fairness, and how not to change the rules in a game of "I'll race you to that bench".

The flexibility to pick up and go is what got us there.  The flexibility to incorporate schooling into real life, and not the other way around, is where my children embrace learning that sticks.  From time to time, they will bring up our conversations, and have a full understanding of what we discussed.  Or, they might ask questions about something they didn't quite grasp at the time.

This is how my family learns best - Through the flexibility of homeschooling.

How to Motivate a Child Who is Struggling with School

How do you motivate a child who is struggling with one subject in school? This is the question that was posed to me from Circle of Moms blog. I find it to be a very challenging and insightful question. However, I have come up with an answer that will, hopefully, help those experiencing this struggle.  Before you pull your hair out and scream in frustration, step back and observe, while you think:

1. Is this a new frustration, or has your child always struggled with this particular subject?
2. What is it about the subject that frustrates the child?
3. Consider the child's learning style.  Does he need to be moving while he learns?  Does he need to hear the topic being said out loud?  Does he need to see a more colorful presentation of the lessons?  Does he need some interaction - to touch and feel what he is learning?
4. Interject the child's learning style into teaching about the subject.
5. Be patient and willing to try and fail, over and over, before reaching a happy spot.
6. Offer a reward system when the child reaches certain milestones within the subject.
7. Don't abandon the child.  It may take a lot of time on your part, but be there through the duration.
8. Schedule the difficult subject at a time of day when your child is his freshest.  Does he wake up well?  Make it the first subject of the day?  Does he perform better after lunch?  Move this subject to after lunch.
9. Sometimes a child just doesn't see a good reason to learn.  Find a way to make the subject meaningful in his everyday life.
10. Make the subject interesting.  For instance, history can be very boring to a child.  However, most kids enjoy the movie, "Night At The Museum" which brings history to life.  Take the subject your child is struggling with and bring it to life.

Using Art To Teach Math, History, English, Science: The Core and More

If you have an artist bent, you're gonna love these two amazing books out from Freddie Levin. One gives step by step instructions as to how to draw princesses and princess-related items, such as a horse and a carriage, or a castle. The other book actually teaches math by using drawing.

How can you use these in homeschool?

Draw Plus Math Enhance Math Learning Trough Art Activities by Freddie Levin is a book that does exactly what the title says. Imagine teaching/learning math without the struggles. The author takes you through a series of drawing activities which contain a math lesson.

The book starts out by teaching basic shapes, colors, and patterns using fish in a tank. It progresses to teach odd and even numbers by drawing odd-numbered eyes on an adorable alien creature, or birthday candles on a cake; learn fractions by drawing pizza slices. There are twenty lessons throughout the book. You can even learn to draw a frog, who helps you add, and then make him a special addition to your princess drawings (next book).

(The above set of 3 drawings is from my 4 year old)

The next book is a 1-2-3 Draw Princesses by Freddie Levin. This book walks you through all the steps necessary for drawing a complete princess from head to toe. But, that's not all. You can learn to draw a tiara, a horse, a carriage and a castle to go with your princess. And, there are not just your commonly-known "Disney" princesses. These princesses also include great warriors such as Nzinga, and scholars such as Eleanor or Aquitane.

Practical Lessons from the Princess book:

Let's face it, Disney does not have the market on all princesses. The author explains that a princess can be thought of in a positive light, or as a spoiled brat. A princess simply means - a daughter of a king, or a queen. In addition, there are many options to use this book, and apply it to your core lessons.

History - There are obvious history-teaching elements in this book.  The Middle Ages was the time of knights and castles. The author has included historical princesses from various countries. With each princess, there is a brief description of who she was and how she served her country. Don't see the one you want to learn about? Choose one or more princesses in history and draw elements of that princess into the princesses you choose to draw from the book. Some of the princesses included in the book are:

Eleanor of Aquitane - Princess of France
Nes Amun - Princess of Ancient Egype
Jahanara - Princess of india
Nzinga - Princess of Africa

(The above drawing is from my 9 year old)

Literature/English Skills - Begin with these fun Knights and Castles worksheets.  Then, read a story about royalty. King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table is a good choice for starters. As you read, allow your children to select princess-like pictures from the 1-2-3 Draw Princesses book and draw along. Often, if you can keep little hands busy, while you read, the child's mind is undistracted and open to focus on the story. If what they are doing to keep their hands busy happens to also fit with what you are reading, all the better for peaceful, connected learning.

There is also a princess reading list included with the "Reading Princess" toward the back of the book.

Spelling - Use the book to pull vocabulary words for spelling, such as:

princess
queen
king
castle
tiara
carriage
horse
ballet
opera


Science -There are some fun science lessons to be learned from frogs to the physics involved in a moat.  Here's a great site to get you started with science and castles.

Math - Math involves more than the numbers 0 through 9. It also involves the use of shapes and patterns. Your child will learn shapes such as circle, triangle, square, and more complicated names and shapes, like a trapezoid. The very first thing the book explains is what these shapes are called, and what they look like. This is important, because this is the foundation of the ability to create the pictures in the book. It also lists out each drawing in a series of steps. These need to be followed in a seuential order, while the child is counting - 1, 2, 3...

Religious Studies - As a homeschooler who does so from a Christian perspective, I'm always trying to weave into my curriculum how it applies to our family's faith. This book is no different. When I read the description of why the author created this book, and what a princess is: a daughter of a king or queen", I immediately thought of how, in the Christian faith, we believe that we are all children of the king. As girls, we are princesses and our boys are princes. There is a prince, by the way, in the book for your son to draw. This description led me to remember a book that is so very helpful in teaching your little girls how to handle the world they are about to walk into as they leave childhood and grow into adolescence. It teaches her how to determine if a "prince" is really a "prince" or just someone who wants to come and "steal her goodness". The book is called "the Princess and the Kiss".

Taking the princess one step farther, you could conduct a unit study on Queen Esther. This is a Bible account that is taught during Purim. But, you could learn about her any time of the year.

I'm sure there are more learning/teaching tips within the covers of these two books. However you choose to use your 1-2-3 Draw Princesses book, or your Draw Plus Math Enhance Math Learning Through Art Activities is up to you, but the both hold tons of possibilities for learning.

Art - And, of course, you can always use the books for simply teaching art alone.  But, with so much more to learn from them, other learning is bound to happen naturally.

Using LEGO Vignettes in education

I recently discovered a new phenomena - LEGO Vignettes! If you have heard of this, I'm sue you are jumping up and down with excitement to realize that I finally became aware, as LEGO Vignettes hold a host of potential in the education and parenting realm.

What is a Vignette: Well, generally speaking it is used in literature or entertainment to refer to a short sketch of the story - Or a snippet, as if frozen in time, for one scene. The term comes from the French word "vigne" which in English means "vine". Books used to have fancy decorative designs along their borders that looked like the tendrils of a vine. The two concepts somehow merged together over the years to form the word - "Vignette".

Now, where do LEGOs fit into this nice description? People who work with LEGOS figured out that these short sketches, or scenes from a book or movie, could be created using the popular child's brick-building toy. And, LEGO Vignettes were born. A LEGO Vignette is basically creating a scene, or shadow box style artwork, out of LEGOS.

Check out this blog dedicated solely to LEGO's and how to use them!


Great! So, what does this have to do with education?

It has a ton of benefit in teaching and learning, and not just for kids. There are grown ups who enjoy this art form. The potential use of LEGO Vignettes is limitless. Here's some ways to get you started:

1. Read a story to your child. At the end of a chapter, or at the point you see our child's eyes light up - Stop! Ask your child what they are picturing in their head. How do they think this scene, described in the book, would look? Now, go to town creating that scene out of LEGOS.

2. Instead of notebooking or lapbooking, or in addition to this, have your child build a LEGO Vignette of a historical moment. Using LEGO bricks can even be done by children too young to write. This could be a war scene, or a scene of Betsy Ross sewing the flag of the United States. It could be a church picnic, or a scene of Martin Luther King, Jr. or Abraham Lincoln giving their famous speeches. Anything historical.

3. Use the LEGO Vignettes with special needs kids. Depending on the learning challenge, or special need, sometimes a child can express himself through pictures or sculpture art, like a Vignette, when they struggle using words. By having them create Vignettes, you will get a glimpse into your child's world that he may find difficult to express otherwise. It's also a wonderful hand-eye coordination tool. For kids who struggle with physically picking up a LEGO, Or can communicate well but cannot physically maneuver the pieces, try the larger Duplo blocks or have them tell you how the design should look while you create it.

4. These LEGO Vignettes can work well in working through emotional struggles too. In play therapy, children are often asked to play with toys. As they play, the therapist can determine areas of concern in the child's life. Even if you're not a licensed therapist, a lot of communication can open up by using toys like this at home. LEGO Vignettes can be used in this kind of mode with a parent-child. Ask your child to build a scene of the happiest day they remember, or the saddest day. Use their creation to ask questions and learn how your child views life.

5. Since LEGO Vignettes typically include using LEGO figures, you can act out a lot of common social etiquette situations with your child by creating a Vignette and then making it "come to life" by using the figures to act out positive and negative social interactions with each other. The next time your child is in one of these situations, he will know how to act.

I'm sure I've just touched the surface of how LEGO Vignettes can be used. Check out this report on using LEGOs and some pictures of what others have done with LEGOS in their Vignettes - Pics from Flickr - Pics from Google Search. Then, think about it - How will you use LEGO Vignettes with your children?

Wikki Stix Giveaway Contest - Repost

I AM REPOSTING THIS BECAUSE A HACKER POSTED VIDEOS AFTER THE LAST POST. IF YOU RECEIVED A VIDEO FROM THIS BLOG SAYING IT WAS POSTED BY MOVIE GENIE - DO NOT CLICK ON THE VIDEO!!!

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We had a lot of fun reviewing this product. And, now we want to offer Wikki Stix to you. I want to share a 24-pk Rainbow Wikki Stix with you. Read through this blog to find out how you can win!

My children and I had the privilege of reviewing a product called Wikki Stix. The good people at Wikki Stix sent me some samples and away we went. The kids have since begged to "play" with the Wikki Stix. What a fun way to learn! They are non-allergenic, clean up easily and easy to work with for little fingers. Not only that, they are very affordable and reusable over and over again. They have endless uses.

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There are numerous other packs to purchase and put to educational use. There are even party paks to use at birthday parties and Curious George workbooks. I especially loved the idea of the adult stress reducer pak. There are alphabet cards, number cards, holiday kits, dinosaur and oceans kits, glow in the dark stix, single color paks, rainbow paks, neon paks and more.

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GIVEAWAY:
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Here's how you can win your own 24-pk of Rainbow Wikki Stix:

Go to Wikki Stix Website! Look around. Then Like Teachable Scotts Tots on Facebook and leave a status update comment to tell me how you would use Wikki Stix in your classroom. A winner will be chosen at random using a number generated through random.org.

It's January 10, So Why Is My Christmas Tree Still Up?

The house smells like gingerbread!
We have a warm fireplace (heater that looks like a real fire) going!
The sounds of Christmas are in the air.....But, wait! It's January 10! So, why are we celebrating Christmas today?

This year Chritmas got off to a good enough start in our household with the tree being up even before Thanksgiving ready and beautifully in place in time for my parents to come enjoy Thanksgiving with us. Then, we celebrated Hanukkah (yes, we're an odd household that enjoys Hanukkah as well as Christmas). Then, we went into celebrating an early Christmas with my husband's side of the family. They came over here. Then we had the real thing. Then, a late Christmas celebration (on New Years' Day) with my side of the family.

Perhaps it was the late Christmas celebration that threw my kids for a loop thinking the season was still upon us. But, I FINALLY got around to taking the ornaments off of our tree last night only to be met with - "What are you doing?" "No, don't take down the Christmas tree!" "It's just not winter without that tree up." You get the idea. These were not just simple notes of a tinge of sadness but deep, gut-leveled jeers that began to tug at my heart as I placed each ornament into a tub to storage. I got to the point of having less than 10 ornaments hung when I decided - "I have an idea!"

I told the kids that on Monday, instead of doing typical English, Math, etc. that they could say their good-byes to the Christmas tree. So, this morning when they woke up one by one, one child plugged in the Christmas lights on our bare tree, and then they began to weed through the Christmas movies which they had missed this year. We are having a Christmas movie marathon before taking down the final ornaments, lights and branches to store away our artificial tree (severe pine allergy on that one) for another year. We are baking gingerbread cookies (though, we did shape them in the shape of hearts for a more up-to-date holiday - Valentine's Day!)

Now, if and how I can log this day of farewell to Christmas has taken some thought. I will incorporate the benefits of ginger and the history of it with our cookie making and allow the children to design their own cookies. I even brought up the story book we have that tells the Christmas story using cookies. So, I can definitely log as Religious Studies through the telling of the actual Christmas Story. Though, the watching of the Grinch and Strawberry Shortcake Christmas may take a bit more imagination as to how they are applicable to the Three R's.

And, from a glance out my window; tomorrow looks as if it will be a day of snow learning complete with sledding and maybe some more snowflake investigations!

Sound of Music Homeschooling

On Tuesday, December 28, 2010, Agathe Von Trapp passed away at the age of 97. She was portrayed as Leisl on the movie, 'The Sound of Music.' Her real name was Agathe.

When watching the Sound of Music, it struck me with how carefree Maria was with sharing her love with the children. Her education was very Montessori and hands-on, carefree as she assigned each one with a note and taught them how to sing by having each one pop up when their note was spoken. Then, she went down the line - Do Re Me Fa So La Ti Do! Eventually, they were singing beautifully. During that same day out, they tipped over in a boat, hung from trees and ran through the fields beneath gorgeous mountains. This, I thought as I watched it, is how I want to homeschool.

I want my children to know discipline, but I want them to know most of all that they are loved and they have a purpose in this life. I want them to have a love for learning. I want them to discover all they can discover and run through mountains singing that the hills are alive with the sound of music - Whether figuratively or literally! I want them to learn while they embrace life.