Tag: homeschool
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H.o.p. as a vampire for today’s acting class
I’ve never applied stage make-up before and didn’t do a very good job of it. Had only a triangular sponge, no brushes, and I neglected to add setting powder. And it’s tough applying make-up to an 8-year-old boy who has never had make-up applied, who never stops moving, who keeps saying that tickles, who keeps…
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Yes, we love Brainpop and Brainpop Jr., but have a suggestion
And speaking of obnoxious humor that kids love (see above post), Brainpop knows how to make use of it with Tim and his robot Moby to draw kids in and capture their interest while dispensing science knowledge (and health and social studies and math and technology). Why do I bring this up? I can’t be…
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Portugese Man O' War were a hit
Brainpop is launching Brainpop Jr., geared for K-3. Right now it is free but will later be subscription. H.o.p. and I realized it was there today and he’s been tooling around it this evening and is so far enjoying it. Agh, it will be a separate subscription service from their regular Brainpop. More bucks. Maybe.…
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Gack. Trials and tribulations of 2D animation software are just beginning
Taught H.o.p. the Base 2 mathematical system Monday using “The Adventures of Penrose the Mathematical Cat” for introduction only. Penrose the cat certainly opened the door to his being inteested but it wasn’t thorough enough. H.o.p. was all excited about the idea of a cat that could do math and then I had to burst…
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Oh yeah, the acting class
I gather they were kittens, lions and mice on Saturday. That’s all I know. H.o.p. is having a great time with the class but when I grill him he says it was forever ago and doesn’t remember any more than what he’s told me. The assignment for his next class is to come with his…
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Listening to Tuva overtone music
We had the pleasure of learning a little about Tuvan overtone music (throat music) today. Was showing H.o.p. a little video on different types of music, the what of music place to place, and they focused some on Tuvan throat singers. So we’ve been listening to a few files online and now I’m watching this…
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oh, the world, y'know, it's just so complex…
The world’s so damn complex. I’m always rooting around for possible homeschooling resources and today I found a number of education videos up at learner.org, a place I was unfamliar with. Don’t recollect how I happened on them, what exactly I was looking for at the time. So I selected one on history and maps…
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Acting class = we are popcorn = great fun
Amazing to me that in a city this size, its main staple theater draws only about 10 children for a 3rd to 5th grade acting class. Millions of people and out of that pool only 10 kids for its Fall class? Well, this time H.o.p. is one of them. Big time fun. He had a…
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Pretty good memorizing and drawing of skulls
Smithsonian can be a great place to visit online with H.o.p., so Friday after a difficult time with math we went to Campfire Stores with George Catlin. H.o.p. liked Peter Matthiesson’s introduction and wanted to listen to it several times, and at his request we listened several times to Peter Nabakov talking about Sacred Geography…
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Fun with "Walking with Cavemen"
You’ve got to wonder about people who post a number of comments to a blog in a short space of time, making some argument for a politician you’ve said something negative about, and in those comments they use a different name and email address, but each comment is branded by the same IP address. Were…
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First day of school year for us was today
We are eclectic homeschoolers, incorporating the traditional as it serves. Acknowledging that H.o.p. is ever and always learning we still set the first weekday after Labor Day as when our “schooling year” starts, which gives me the impetus to make August a month for gathering materials. We’ve been prepping the past couple of weeks, getting…
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So far so good with "Vroot Vroom"
When ordering some extra math books, I’d seen that Singapore Math had a 3rd-4th grade math games CD, Vroot vroom. I went ahead and got it though it was expensive as hell, $31.50. I figured anything anything anything that might make numbers a little more interesting to H.o.p. was worth a try. He likes it.…