Make your Own Circuit Board

The kids made their own electric path on a layer of a circuit board.

This experiment came from the Discover and Do Science Experiment curriculum.

They glued aluminum foil in a maze pattern onto a sheet of cardboard. Then they used wires connected to a battery, and a light to test their circuit.

I used to work as an engineer, and although the video hasn't yet mentioned circuit boards, to me, it looks like that is exactly what they built. Circuit boards are made up of layers, with small strips of metal winding in maze patterns on each layer. In a real circuit board, each layer would have several "mazes" connecting to various chips, or small electronic devices. What a cool way to introduce high tech electronic concepts to children. I love this science series.

* I did not receive any compensation for this recommendation. I'm just a homeschooling mom who has found many products that I like. If you're interested in the products I recommend on this blog I want to make it easy for you to find them. 
** I am an Amazon associate and receive a small portion of the sales on orders made after clicking in from this site, which I promptly spend on homeschooling books and supplies for my children.

Why do people decide to homeschool?

Currently around 3% to 4% of the United States population chooses to homeschool their children. Why do they do it?

If you ask homeschoolers this question you will get many different answers. Some of the more popular are;
1. I want to give my child the best possible education and I believe I can provide that.
2. My child has special needs.
3. We want to travel.
4. I want to teach my child my religion.
5. The public schools weren't working.

The answer to this question is usually deeply personal. One of my main reasons for homeschooling is actually very selfish. I homeschool my children because I love it. I love seeing them learn, I love going on field trips with them, and although there are others that I have no doubt could do a better job, I believe I can provide a very good education. Along with my major reasons to homeschool there are so many minor reasons I also value. We can travel when we like. We get to decide what to study. The kids have a very good sibling relationship. The kids have a lot of time to pursue their own interests. I don't have to help with homework assigned by others. They are less influenced by pop culture, yet they have several very good friends they have made through our homeschooling community. I get to spend the day with my children.

At a homeschool conference I recently attended, the guest speaker gave his reason for homeschooling. - "It's better for the child and I love that child". Although many counter-arguments could and have been made to his statement, I believe he really summed up the way most homeschoolers feel.

Fuse Beads

One of my favorite first handicrafts for kids is Fuse Beads. I have also heard them referred to as Perler Beads.

Kids place the small beads one-by-one onto a peg board. When the board is full of beads, a sheet of wax paper is placed on top of the beads and they are ironed to fuse them together. It is really neat to see the kids progress from random placement of the beads, to creating patterns and designs.

It's great for math and creativity. I've given these to many five year olds as birthday gifts. My kids have all really enjoyed this activity between the ages of 4 and 10+. We have so many completed designs that I'm thinking about using them to decorate the entire Christmas Tree next year.

When I was in Spain I saw finished designs with magnets on the back for sale. Maybe the kids could get rich selling theirs?

Here are some other great gift ideas.

This post is linked to:
Family Fun Friday

* I did not receive any compensation for this recommendation. I'm just a homeschooling mom who has found many products that I like. If you're interested in the products I recommend on this blog I want to make it easy for you to find them. 
** I am an Amazon associate and receive a small portion of the sales on orders made after clicking in from this site, which I promptly spend on homeschooling books and supplies for my children.

China History Co-op. Week 1: Rice Maps

Week 1: We made maps of China out of rice and vegetables.

The Ancient Chinese had a story about Pangu and the creation of the earth. After listening to this story we sang a geography song I made up. I was thinking Hot Crossed Buns when I wrote it, but my musical abilities are a little off. Here are the lyrics. Repeat each line twice.

Y is for Yellow River
Y is for Yangtz
They run through China
West to East

G is for Grand Canal
Built by man
It connects the two rivers
To make trade easier

G is for Gobi
The Mongols lived there
It is a great big desert
North of China

G is for Great Wall
Built by man
It kept the Mongols out of China
Twenty-two thousand years ago

H is for Himayals
Very high mountains
They form the western border of China
Himalayas are so high

From there we read The Story About Ping by Marjorie Flack and Kurt Wiese and then proceeded into our map making project.

Sticky rice, nori (seaweed), noodles and some vegetables were used to create edible maps of China.

The kids each began with a blank map. We helped them to label the geography elements in the song; Yellow River, Yantze River, Grand Canal, Great Wall, Gobi Dessert and Himalayas. We also pointed out eight cities which were the head of China at different points in history.

Then they placed wax paper over their maps.

The kids added rice and vegetables to form their maps. Each child chose different veges to use for their geography elements.

Can you see it? He chose blue noodles for the ocean, a stick of celery for the grand canal, celery slices for the Himalayas, noodles for the Yangze and Yellow Rivers, a carrot peeling for the Great Wall, carrot slices for the Gobi Dessert and flags made from toothpicks and seaweed to mark the cities.

After they were finished the kids gobbled up their healthy maps.

To read more about our history activities click on one of the cultures below.
Celts
Vikings
Scythians
Ancient China

This post is linked to: 
Adventures in Mommydom
We Made That
Capri +3
Works for Me Wednesday
Funky Polka Dot Giraffe
Creations by Kara

* I did not receive any compensation for this recommendation. I'm just a homeschooling mom who has found many products that I like. If you're interested in the products I recommend on this blog I want to make it easy for you to find them. 
** I am an Amazon associate and receive a small portion of the sales on orders made after clicking in from this site, which I promptly spend on homeschooling books and supplies for my children.

ABC Book

I love to make ABC books with my children to help them learn their letters and letter sounds. Stickers, magazine cutouts, hand drawn pictures, and photos can be used to decorate the pages.

Fold seven sheets of printer paper in half and staple together to form a book.

Label each page with one letter of the alphabet.

Add stickers, cutouts from magazines, and/or drawings to the appropriate pages.

Then read the book together and suggest they read their book to dad, grandma or another friend or family member.

Check out these great blog hops.

 

Speed! - Patterns in the Cards - Three Speed

Welcome to the second week of Patterns in the Cards. I created the fun card game Speed! to teach multiplication. It uses skip counting to teach children to multiply and how to multiply faster. The series of Patterns in the Cards blog posts are meant to show some simple activities that can aid in number sense development using the Speed! cards.


Three Speed
Lay your cards out like this. What patterns do you see?

Here are hints to help you find four different patterns.

1. Read only the ones digit on each card. Can you find a pattern when you count 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 using the ones digit? - left-hand column going from bottom to top, middle column going from bottom to top, right-hand column going from bottom to top

2. Read only the 10's digit. Top row - 0, 0, 0; Middle row - 1, 1, 1; Bottom row - 2, 2, 2 then a 3

3. Can you see the numbers in Six Speed! within Three Speed? 6, 12, 18, 24 - When you touch them in this order do you see their pattern?

4. Can you see the numbers in Nine Speed! within Three Speed!? 9, 18, 27 - When you touch them in this order do you see their pattern?

Do you think these patterns would continue if we added more cards?

They do.

Did you find any more patterns? Can you lay your cards out differently and find more patterns? When you are done with this activity get out Four Speed and get ready for next week. 

Click here to see the past Patterns in the Cards posts. 

Shadow Math

After reading the poem 8 A.M. Shadows by Patricia Hubbell in the book Sing a Song of Popcorn, we were inspired to measure shadows for math. We actually ended up doing more math that I thought we would.

First my son made a chart to record the lengh of his shadow each hour throughout the day. He set his alarm clock each hour as a reminder, but something happended at 3:30 and the shadow length was not measured. This actually ended up being a really good thing.

I helped him make a line graph of his data, and then he estimated what his shadow length would have been at 3:30. In the morning the following day he figured out how many hours and minutes 3:30 was from the current time and set his alarm clock. At 3:30 he measured his shadow length and compared the result with his estimate. This simple project ended up being very fun and educational for him.

This post is linked to: 
Hip Homeschool Hop
Montessori Monday
Relentlessly Fun