Thinking Out of the Box Teaching our kids to identify problems is great. Teaching them to think out of the box to solve problems is another thing. In our home, we are working on problem solving. 1. Identify a real need: Like improving our country’s energy resources. 2. Study and Brainstorm possible solutions: For instance, finding a way to produce better solar energy producers. 3. Critique plan: Does simply creating solar fields solve the problem? Is there a better way? Now, before you think that I am more intelligent than I am let me explain. I am not an “out of the box thinker”. I have to stretch to find ways to inspire my boys to think in this capacity. One of the ways I find creative conversation starters is finding unique and amazing videos about problems and solutions and then create a teaching environment. Step one. Find an inspirational image, video or product. Step Two. Using a probing question approach, set kids up to develop their own solutions to a true real life situation or need. Look again at these prompts. 1. Identify a real need: How can we improve our country’s energy resources? 2. Study and Brainstorm possible solutions: What about solar energy? Can we look for an out of the box solution to solve our energy needs? 3. Critique plan: Does simply creating solar fields solve the problem? Is there a better way? Step three. After the kids have come up with their best ideas, inspire them further by sharing the video clip you found here. Step four. After seeing the video (or image), can you think of a better solution? We use fun templates to record our ideas. Here are some free notebooking resources. http://notebookingpages.com/free-resource-center Have fun helping your kids become “out of the box” thinkers!
How to Organize Notebooking Templates on Your Computer This post contains my referral link which helps support the work of this site. Here’s my full disclosure policy. You have embraced the idea of teaching your children to journal by using notebooking templates. You have downloaded hundreds if not thousands of cute, interesting, and important files for them to use during their study and personal learning time. But now what? Without proper organization, those amazing templates you have purchased and downloaded for your children to use for their schoolwork will be locked and unused on your computer. Even worse, without a plan for organization you will have spent good money only to use up space on your harddrive. You need a plan to organize your notebooking templates! Create a master file folder on your computer In order to locate your notebooking templates easily, it would be wise for you to create a master file to store all of your files. A good master file name would be “Notebooking Templates for School”. I personally keep this folder on my desktop screen. Why? If I neatly tuck this file in my directory list I tend to forget it it there. If it is right on my desktop screen then I am reminded often that there are cute and interesting templates for the kids to use. Create a sub folder for each category as you collect and create new templates. Under your master file folder, you will want to create category folders that make it easy for you to find any template you need. I highly suggest you create lists by subject: Copywork History Science Bible Character Study Famous People Nature Animals ABC Geography etc Depending on how organized your like your files, you can choose to go one step further and add files under each of these categories. For instance under the history folder you can create files for ancient history, medieval history, modern history, the civil war, etc. Create files as you go. If you are new to notebooking, you will quickly discover that there are thousands of templates available for you to introduce to your children. An easy approach to this kind of journaling is to consider what subject you are studying together in history (for example) and to acquire a handful of templates for your student to choose from as they are learning. Organize these files as you go. With a little bit of time and effort you can ensure that you will be able to take advantage of all the free templates and great deals that you stumble upon as you search for school supplies and curriculum. With a good system of organization, you will be able to find those resources when your student is ready to use them!
How to Organize a Notebooking Station This post contains my referral link which helps support the work of this site. Here’s my full disclosure policy. How to Organize a Notebooking Station Notebooking is the practice of journaling while you learn using pictures and words. It is fancy journalling. This is an easy and engaging way to teach any subject and works extremely well in the homeschool environment. Beautiful templates, coloring tools, and a learning environment provide learners with everything they need to notebook successfully. There are two reasons children thrive in a notebooking learning environment The have ownership of their work. They are designing and scripting their own learning. Quality templates add value into their work. The easy to manage spaces make journaling less intimidating. Organizing a Notebooking Station Find a wide assortment of notebooking templates. You can create them yourself, or download templates from thousands of available online notebooking templates. Organize your templates into files or notebooks. If you are using the traditional hanging file folder system, create folders for your templates to make them easy to locate. Some example categories would be: blank templates, countries, ancient history, floral, insects, character studies, and holidays. There are many many more categories. Simply add new templates into new folders as they are acquired. If you chose to organize your templates into notebooks, you may want to fill a three ring binder with plastic page holders. Print of masters of each template for your child and use file dividers to organize by topic. Organize your art supplies. Create and area, bin, or holder to give your child easy access to scissors, glue, crayons, colored pencils, and markers. Replenish them a few times year to keep the supplies fresh! Create a Journal for each child’s completed notebooking pages. Your children will be very proud of their notebooking pages when they are complete. Validate their hard work by providing them a place to store them safely. A three ring notebook with plastic page protectors works beautifully. At the end of the school year, or when they have collected quite a collection of pages on a particular topic, you can even have the pages bound at your local office supply. Notebooking journals are a beautiful keepsake and even make great gifts or grandparents! Taking the time to organize your child’s notebooking templates, journal, and supplies are essential. If you treat these supplies with respect, so will they. There is something intrinsically freeing about journalling about what you are learning. It is one of the best ways to document what you are learning. Your children will grow to love their journals. Even reluctant writers can grow by first using the pages as copywork, then word and phrase collectors, and finally documenting their learning. Notebooking is a fruitful resource and skill to add to any educational environment and works beautifully with homeschool learning.
Teaching the Pledge of Allegiance with Copywork I can feel Summer just around the corner. Sign up here to receive freebies, deals, and resources!! This post contains my referral link which helps support the work of this site. Here’s my full disclosure policy. This is my favorite homeschooling time of year! We loosen up and simply enjoy learning, how about you? Our oldest son turns 21 Memorial weekend. How the heck can I be old enough to have a 21 year old! In honor of the holiday’s coming up, we are doing a few Patriotic lessons. Today, we focused on the Pledge of Allegiance. There is a great set of Patriotic Templates here. I had the boys choose their favorite page for the day. I wrote the Pledge on our white board and we began copywork hour. I am always pleasantly surprised how much more care the boys take in doing any assignment when they get to choose a template that “tickles their fancy”. Munchkin here decided that today is the day that his copywork will be in cursive for the first time. Beautiful! We call this guy our gentle giant. He is huge for his age, and as a result his fine motor skills are still developing. Look at the concentration! Very Happy with his results! Our oldest musketeer loves to write in cursive… He is well pleased with the results We wrote the Pledge of Allegiance. Defined vocabulary: Pledge, allegiance, Republic, indivisible, Liberty and Justice. Researched flag etiquette. Did you know you can only fly an American flag at night if it is illuminated? Did you know you are never suppose to use our flag to advertise and product or service? We are going to be looking at Memorial Day and Independence Day next… Resources:Notebooking Template Pages
Boys, You are Stuck in an Elevator with an Elderly Woman Ask your boys: “You are Stuck in an Elevator with an Elderly Woman. A voice comes over the speaker saying they are fixing the problem, just be patient. After a few minutes, the elderly woman begins to get really tired. It is just you and her locked in the elevator, how can you help her?” Wait for them to answer.See if they can come up with a solution to the obvious problem. This woman needs to sit or she will be hurting. Praise them for coming up with a way to help her, then ask.“Could you do anything to help her that would require a real sacrifice on your part?” After they come up with another solution share this picture: What did this man do to help this grandma while they were stuck? Our world needs real life Knights in Shining armor like this nameless man in the elevator. Let’s make sure we point out true humility and service to our future men. What did your kids say?Two of my boys said they would help her sit on the floor.One said he would hold her up with his arm around her. All 3 thought this real life solution was awesome!Character does not just spontaneously happen, but it can be coached into existence! [leadpages_leadbox leadbox_id=140485d46639c5] [/leadpages_leadbox]
Dancing Popcorn Dancing Popcorn? We are embracing science experiments lately. Thank goodness for YouTube! This experiment is called: Dancing Popcorn Make it a full science experiment by downloading these resources… Read More »
Greek Art with Notebooking Pages Here is a quick glimpse at notebooking. We are studying Greek history at the moment. The boys each have their own segment of ancient Greek history to discover and share with one another. The youngest gets to share about Greek art. First we explored videos, images and books about Greek art. (We discovered that Greeks loved nakedness!) He chose a notebooking template that would allow him to highlight 3 different aspects of Greek Art. We always do internet work together, for safety and accountability. He found three images that represented the different aspects of art he enjoyed most. Print, cut, paste! Lastly, he dictated to me what he liked most about each image and we used those thoughts as copywork on the template lines. Voila! Notebooking. For this exercise, munchkin chose one of the free templates. Grab a few free samples here: http://notebookingpages.com/free-resource-center There are many great Greece templates included in the ancient history collection. Click here: ANCIENT TIMES SAMPLE Do not miss the notebooking anniversary sale!
Coordinate Plane Drawing: Superman Teaches Math Superman Teaches Math Teaching kids to graph on a coordinate plane can be challenging. x, y, z? We used to say “x, y, z” if someone forgot to zip-up their fly after using the restroom when I was in school. I never did quite understand graphing until recently. This was a fun activity for the boys to practice plotting points on a graph. I found this activity at MathClass.net. Click on the site to go right to the page. How have you reinforced coordinate plane graphing?
Notebooking Pages Anniversary Sale! Amazing Sale!!! This is an amazing deal! I am in the process of planning next year’s curriculum and I could not imaging homeschooling without incredible notebooking pages! This is an incredible deal! Click on over, download a few free samples and then take advantage of this great savings! Only a few days left! What is Notebooking?