Flat Travellers Geography

Posted on June 4, 2008
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Jenny has sent me this great idea for geography. She says;

“We are just getting involved in ‘Flat Travellers’. It is based upon the book ‘Flat Stanley’ where a boy is flattened and can send himself anywhere in an envelope, he travels the world. The children make their own ‘flat traveller’, laminate it and then send it to a host family with a journal which the family then complete and return with some mementoes, pictures, photos etc of what they have been getting up to with their flat traveller.

The journal then makes up into a scrapbook which the children can keep. Ours will have a world map, maps of countries etc. as well as the journals to see what we can learn as the flat travellers go on their adventures.”

You can sign up to this Yahoo group to get involved.

5 Dangerous things you should let your kids do!

Posted on May 22, 2008
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There is a new video on Ted Talks about 5 Dangerous things you SHOULD let your kids do!.

I loved this!! How many have you let your kids do?

Photographic treasure hunt

Posted on April 15, 2008
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 I got the inspiration for this treasure hunt from a blog I read* ages ago, and this is my version of it. Geography for Kids This geography activity develops map skills and observation. You do need some time to set it up, but it can be adapted to any age or skill level. The purpose of the activity is to hunt for photographed details along a pre-determined route.

Materials Needed

  • A map of the area. How large a map depends on the age of your children. Small children will find your garden or neighbourhood fine (you could even draw up the plan yourself) – or use a street map of the nearest town for older children.
  • A camera
  • A some time without the children!!

    • Decide on a route and walk around photographing details of the journey. Small unusual details are best – an unusual brick or damaged piece of fencing. You need to choose things that will still be there when the children walk the trail. Make notes as you go so you remember where and what each photograph shows.
    Prepare the hunt by printing out the photographs in order. For an easy hunt, mark the route on the map and add numbers corresponding to the photographs at certain points– when the children get to the marked reference point they have to search for the detail you have photographed.For a harder hunt, use an orienteering map or street map and give only the grid references of each photo. You could ask the children to decide which photograph is relevant at that point, or organize the photos into the correct order.

    We thought this was a great idea. It makes you much more observant – I have noticed small details in my town that I would never have noticed before.

    *If the idea originated from your blog then please contact me – I would love to give you credit for this (but I can’t remember who you are!).

    Make a trading card game

    Posted on April 8, 2008
    Filed Under Activity, Free | 1 Comment

    If you enjoyed making your own top trumps game then you may be interested in this neat way to make a trading game.

    You upload your own pictures for each trading card and add your details, then save the finished card to your PC and print it out.  Either make a full deck, or add to an existing pack.

    We haven’t really got into trading games yet, but I can see mine wanting to invent a whole new card game of their own with this!

    Another Around the World Idea

    Posted on April 4, 2008
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    In doing Around the World in 80 Days I have been looking for a way to print pictures of the children in front of the major landmarks we ‘visit’.  I think this will look really neat in their travel journal.

    fotoflexer image

    I have found a great way of doing this - for FREE !! FotoFlexer is a great piece of online software that allows you to manipulate photographs. You can merge two, add different affects, make posters and cards - even decorate photos with stickers.

    I am sure we are going to have fun with this. I tried to think of some other great ways we could use it in home education but I havent had enough coffee yet!! Let me know what you come up with…

    P.E. lessons (the Home Education way!)

    Posted on March 31, 2008
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    This weekend we were slacklining! 

    Slacklining is a bit like walking a tightrope – only lower to the ground (and the line is slack not tight). It isn’t easy to learn so you may need a bit of ’stick-at-it-ness!’ but it is quite addictive!

    Slacklining Slacklining Slacklining

    Exercise wise, it is reputed to help core balance, mental concentration and smoothness of motion. I think it would improve strength and agility too. You will need to invest in a slackline – we would recommend a ratchet system (like Gibbons or Singing Rock) - they are easy to put up and a little wider than a normal line. This will cost around £40. You also need somewhere to put the line up – two trees are best.

    My tips for starting – keep the line fairly short – about 10 meters. It is best to start off in the middle – NOT at the end of the line. Stand next to the line and step onto it with your strongest leg. Use your other leg to keep the line steady (or it will wobble!). Lift the second leg onto the line behind you. The harder you push down the more you will be able to control the wobble. Now – just practice standing on the line on that leg. At first it will seem impossible – but you will be amazed at how quickly you improve. Once you have mastered that – try sliding your front leg forward – or you back leg backwards. You are walking the line!!!

    There are lots of great videos on Youtube showing tricks – and for the more sedate, why not try slackline yoga!

    Homeschool Burnout !

    Posted on March 25, 2008
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    Sometimes, even with the best intentions, you need to stop and give yourself some space in your home educating routine.  This is a home educating idea I use occasionally when we are extremely busy, during holiday periods, or when we have homeschool burnout!

    homeschoolburnout

    Home Educating in an Hour!!

    I choose to cover 6 subjects for 10 minutes each - one quick hour of home educating, then on to other things. It may not sound like much, but you will be surprised about how much a regular 10 minutes of a subject adds up.

    The key to this is to make the hour as fun as possible. I use an oven timer for each ten minute slot - and make sure there is a big change between subjects - one hour of sitting at the table doing different worksheets would be fairly miserable. I usually arrange it so that when the timer goes off, we need to jump up and move around - to the sofa, or PC - whatever will give us a feeling of being hurried.  If you have several children you will need to find subjects they can do together (exercise, read-aloud) - and overlap the others (while one is on the PC, you can work with the other)

    Of course, this does need some planning to work smoothly. I usually begin by deciding which subjects to cover in the hour, then finding an easy way of studying them in 10 mins  -examples are :

    One thing you will need to consider is what happens at the end of 10 minutes if everyone wants to do more on that subject. Do you stick with it (because everyone is interested?), or do you move on? In approaching this, I usually stick with the subject until interest wanes. By re-arranging the order of the subjects every day, we usually end up covering at least several of them!

    I don’t usually use this method for long (a week or two) - but sometimes it gives us a well needed change of pace. We don’t normally have a very structured routine, so this helps us try something new. It gives me an opportunity to evaluate what is important to us and plan where to go next. I think if you have a very structured routine, this idea would keep things ticking over for you while you take a break. I like that by focusing on 6 subjects, for only 10 minutes, you really have to think about what you are trying to achieve with your children.

    Free Online Educational Game - Questionaut

    Posted on March 20, 2008
    Filed Under Free, Games | Leave a Comment

    Am sorry to just keep posting links, but I absolutely could not resist this one -

    Questionaut is the most beautiful point and click adventure game. As you click through the story you’ll come across unique obstacles and quizzes that you’ll need to click about to get through.

    Its on the BBC website under KS2 so I think its for ages 7-11 (but I think the younger ones may need some help with some of the questions).

    keep looking »

    Find it on my site :








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