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Hands-On Homeschool Newsletter - Apr. 7, 2006 Vol. II Issue 7
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In this issue:

> 1. From the Editor's Desk
> 2. Article - Play Is Serious Business For Children's Intelligence
> 3. Letters to the Editor - (None this week)
> 4. Say What? Absurd Homeschool Comments
> 5. Feature Article - Learning Styles and the Homeschooler - Part II of III
> 6. Homeschool Curriculum Ideas of the Week - Use Those Old Magazines
> 7. Free Homeschool Resources

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1. From the Editor's Desk
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Welcome!

Happy spring! I hope the weather is warming you up and the children are able to spend more time out of doors, running and playing. (Oops! Are you down under? Happy autumn!)

Play is serious business for children. And, yes, another great reason to homeschool! Play can be an integral facet of the homeschooled child's curriculum. Who says learning has to be boring hard work? As I emphasize over and over again in my e-book, 101 Hands-On, Tried & True, Homeschool Curriculum Ideas You'll Love, kids learn best when learning is fun. That's why nearly every activity in my book involves a game or a similar creative or "playful" activity that's fun for kids! Our first article below discusses the importance of play as children grow and learn about the world around them.

Last week our feature article discussed the importance of identifying your child's personal learning style(s), and how to do it. Below you will find part two of this valuable article series.

As always, you'll find more great learning activities; this week you'll find creative ways to use old magazines (something your homeschool should always have on hand) and more free websites for your homeschool.

Enjoy this issue!

Sandra B.
Editor

Just a note... we are in the process of archiving our past Hands-On Homeschool Newsletters. Missed an issue? You'll soon be able to find it online!

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2. Article
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Play Is Serious Business For Children's Intelligence
by Jon Weaver

Too many parents consider play as simply a means of diverting and distracting their children. Playthings are often seen as a means of keeping children happy, rewarding them, keeping them out of mischief, and giving parents free time.

Not often enough do parents think of play and toys as fundamental aspects of a child's education, as a means through which children learn to understand the world around them, and as the primary method by which children acquire many basic skills.

Parents can help make their children's play stimulating by doing three things.

First, they can adopt an attitude of conscious, deliberate planning in which play is regarded as one of the most important aspects of their children's environment.

Second, they can see to it that their children are provided with the kinds of toys and playthings that will help develop the widest possible varieties of skills and abilities.

Third, they can assume a direct, participating role in their children's play.

Planning a child's play does not mean planning each activity for every moment of the child's playtime. On the contrary, children should have maximum independence in choosing their own activities. And, within the limits of the daily routine of the home, a child should also choose the time for their activities, as well as the duration of each. Good
planning makes sure that play is as varied and stimulating as possible.

A child should play at different times with friends, with parents, and by him or herself. This play should include, within a period of perhaps a month, all or most of the following types of activities, each geared to the age level of the child:

#1. Games
Games are perhaps the most basic of all forms of play. From peek-a-boo to chess, from pat-a-cake to baseball, games occupy a central role in the lives of most children from infancy to adolescence. Games may be physical or mental. In general they involve the development of skills, although some lead to the acquisition of information.

#2. Arts and Crafts
Arts and crafts give children many opportunities to express their desire to create and make things. Crayons, paints, clay, construction paper, scissors and paste, wood, leather, felt, and cardboard are among the materials that help children develop their creative imaginative, and aesthetic abilities. Arts and crafts also develop skills in manipulation, perception, and analysis.

#3. Construction Play
Construction play involves assembling objects from what are usually prefabricated parts. It is less creative than arts and crafts, but is also useful in developing many skills. Putting together a set of railroad tracks and trains is a form of construction play, as is play with erector sets, Tinker toys, blocks, and the like.

#4. Projective Play
Protective play is play in which a child adds dramatic and emotional meaning to activities with representative toys—dolls, trucks, soldiers, homemaking sets, and doctor kits. Its great value lies in the role playing done by the child rather than in the development of specific skills.

#5. Hobbies
Hobbies which cannot be otherwise classified will generally fall under the heading of collecting activities. Collecting stamps, coins, rocks and minerals, butterflies and insects, sea shells, and leaves are all common and popular hobbies. While some help in the development of certain skills, their greatest value is in the considerable knowledge a child can acquire in pursuing them.

Most play can be classified in one of these five groups, and, ideally, play should include all of these types. Also, as skills develop, the activities should move to a higher, more mature level.

However, a child does not automatically vary his play or develop in it. This is where the parent's planning comes in - continually making the child aware of the broad opportunities available to him in play; initiating certain activities during playtime; making suggestions when the child needs and wants them; buying toys that will, in themselves, lead to new pursuits; stimulating new interests and ideas in any of a variety of ways. The parent should not manage the child's play, but should try to nudge it in the right directions.

About the Author:

FREE valuable information on Gifted Children and raising IQ scores can be found here at All for Gifted Children. Visit it today! http://www.AllForGiftedChildren.com

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3. Letters to the Editor
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No questions this week

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Editor's note: Do you have a question or a comment about an article or feature in this newsletter, or homeschooling in general? We would love to hear from you! Please email your comments to: sandrabynum@allthingshomeschool.com

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4. Say What? This Week's Absurd Homeschool Comments
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Mike Farris, the co-founder of HSDLA, recently asked readers of his column to submit "dumb statements" people have made regarding homeschooling. (I've heard quite a few whoppers myself over the years; haven't we all?) Just for fun, we'll feature a few of these silly comments in this forum.

From Michelle Nichols:
A woman asked a homeschool friend of mine, "If you don't send your children to school, who is going to teach them their morals?"
Mike: Yeah, like the moral necessity of beating up other kids on the playground if we are to believe another comment we read.

From Barb Palmer:
Our girls' friends from the neighborhood ask, "If you are home schooled, who teaches you?"

From Clarence and Barbara Hawkins:
A home school family in our town took their school days off in the middle of the week to match the father's job schedule. Some nosey neighbors had the family investigated for home schooling on Saturday!
Mike: Reminds me of the social services case I had in Alabama where a mother was hotlined for allowing her children to read books in the back of the van while she drove around town.

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Note: Send the most ridiculous comment(s) you've heard about homeschooling to us at submissions@allthingshomeschool.com and we'll publish them in "Say What?"

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5. Feature Article
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Learning Styles and the Home Schooler - Part II of III
By Pamela Connolly

Create the best learning environment for your child.

In addition to receiving and processing information, learning is affected by how the child responds to the organization of the material. Consider these four basic types. (Remember it is not a box to keep your child in...these are cues to keep in mind when you create and teach lessons.)

CONCRETE/SEQUENTIAL ... These Students:

- Apply ideas in a practical way and focus on facts.

- Work well within limits and produce concrete products from abstract ideas.

- Like to work systematically (step-by-step) and pay close attention to details.

- Want a schedule to follow that makes sense to them.

- Want to know what is expected of them.

- Like establishing routines and methods of doing things.

- Do not like working in groups.

- Ask when they are learning are: What are the facts I Need? How do I do this? What should it look like? When is it due?

These children deal well with strict guidelines that are clear and unwavering. They are highly systematic and function well with clearly defines steps. Stress individual projects with clearly spelled out goals.

Next consider:

ABSTRACT/SEQUENTIAL ... These Students:

- Are always looking for the underlying principles.

- Like to analyze ideas, research, and provide logical sequence.

- Want to use exact, well researched information and logical reasoning.

- Learn by watching, than by doing.

- Want to have sufficient time to deal with the project thoroughly.

- Want black and white...right and wrong answers.

- Are not diplomatic and like to monopolize a conversation.

- Want to know:

o How do I know this is true?
o Have we considered all the possibilities?

These students want clearly defined goals but can use their imagination to find the steps to achieve the goals. They tend to over-analyze and may get trapped in minutia. They are willing to create their own methodology. They want a clear answer to problems, and want to prove them.

Next consider:

ABSTRACT/RANDOM ... This student:

- Is always looking for the personal relevance as they listen.

- Seek to understand feeling and emotions of people.

- Focus on the emotional needs of others and seek to bring harmony to group situations.

- Want to personalize their learning and focus on the broad general principles.

- Need to maintain friendly relationships with everyone.

- Decide with their hearts not their heads.

- Find it difficult to explain or justify their ideas.

- Avoid exact details and resent any criticism.

- Find it impossible to focus on one thing at a time.

- Ask: What does this have to do with me? How can I make a difference?

These students evaluate ideas on a personal and emotional basis. They are social but don't like to get bogged down in minutia. They go for the big picture, and get frustrated when forced to learn concrete facts.

Consider this:

CONCRETE/RANDOM ......These students

- Think fast on their feet.

- See many options and solutions to things.

- Want a compelling reason for doing something and find different ways to do them.

- Rely on instinct and insight.

- Want general frames rather specific details.

- Do not like restrictions, limitations, formal reports, routines, re-doing things, keeping detailed records or explaining how they got an answer.

- Ask - How much is really necessary?

This student is all over the place. They are a mass of creativity and imagination. They are problem solvers and want to discover how to do things themselves.

These characteristics give you an idea as to what your child does after he/she has received the material. Focus their lessons while taking their organizational mind-set into consideration. Don't have your Abstract/Random learner write a report on the digestive system...have them make a clay diagram of the digestive system and tell you how everything works...get my drift.

You have the knowledge and the power ... Now go out and create the best learning environment for your individual child!

Pam Connolly is a professional educator with the San Diego School District. She
has been teaching kids how to type for over 11 years. To teach your child typing,
visit http://www.1stoplearntotype.com. To improve your child's memory, visit http://www.1stopezmemory.com.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Pamela_Connolly

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You'll find many more activities just right for homeschoolers in our new e-book,

101 MORE Hands-On Tried & True Homeschool Curriculum Ideas You'll Love! Publication is scheduled soon. Good news! Hands-On Homeschool Newsletter subscribers will receive very special pricing.

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6. Homeschool Curriculum Ideas of the Week
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These activities require the use of a large stack of discarded magazines. The best ones are National Geographic, women's magazines, and any others with lots of color photography. (Hint, your local library likely has boxes of old National Geographics they would just love to give away!) Color newspaper ad inserts and catalogs also work very well.

1. This is an environmental awareness activity. Have the children collect photos of different types of environments, such as forests, desserts, old barns, urban office buildings, seashores, inner city neighborhoods, contemporary homes, mountains, lakeshores; as many different environments as possible. Mount these pictures on construction paper and use for a variety of projects:

a) Let each child select his or her top three choices of places to visit, as well as last choice, and discuss why.

b) After discussing their most and least favorite places, have them close their eyes and imagine a trip to each of these two places, then write down their imaginary experiences.

c) Use these photos and written descriptions / "experiences" as story-starters.

d) Discuss some ways that the least appealing environments could be changed to become better places to visit or live. Encourage your children to suggest ways that an environment could be improved. Think of other ideas to encourage discussion and activities around these concepts: our need for environmental awareness, the value of beauty and quiet, how lifestyles are affected by environment, our responsibility for environmental and forest conservation, and creative expression and communication using environment as a theme.

2. Look for geometrical shapes in everyday things. Have the children find pictures of items that have easily identifiable shapes, and cut them out. Look for pictures such as the following: sailboat-triangle, tire-circle, basketball-sphere, picture frame-rectangle, ice cream cone-cone, block-cube. Young children can simply glue the pictures onto pages that they label and make into a "shapes" book, or to a "shapes" poster.

For a more challenging project, make a Shape Bingo game. Place each shape-picture somewhere within a nine-square Bingo card grid (middle space is FREE), creating eight picture squares. Make enough of these Bingo cards for each player. Make flash cards with one shape-word or a shape-drawing on each. Now all you need is a supply of beans or disks, and you are ready to play.

Give each player a Shape Bingo card. Choose a leader to hold up flash cards one at a time, and if necessary, say the name of the shape. Players then cover one picture shape on their bingo card for that geometric shape, if they have it. The game continues until someone gets three in a row. Hint: This game is fun for older kids to make - for younger ones to play.

3. This idea might seem obvious to some. We used it time and time again at our house. Our children loved to draw, especially animals, and ESPECIALLY exotic animals such as leopards and rhinos. Unfortunately, these animals are rather difficult to find (for most of us) in everyday life. Solution? National Geographic! My children spent hours scouring N.G looking for photos of their favorite animals to draw. The variety of animal species is amazing and the photography is superb, so don't overlook N.G. and other high quality magazines when looking for animal subjects to draw or paint. Try oil pastels (very affordable) on colored construction paper. Lovely!

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7. Free Online Homeschooling Resources
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http://nlvm.usu.edu/en/nav/vlibrary.html
Virtual library of math manipulatives for K through 12, from Utah State University. The goal is to actively involve students to learn mathematical concepts through the use of manipulatives: physical objects that help students visualize relationships and applications.

http://www.brainpop.com
Dynamic online K through 12 learning tool that includes animated content, engaging format, and a unique interactive learning experience. Used and highly recommended by many homeschooling families. Subjects include science, English, math, social studies, technology, and health. Paid subscription service, but very affordable for home use, well worth it, try the 14-day free trial.

http://www.activityvillage.co.uk/index.htm
Over 2000 pages of activities for parents and teachers of children under 10 years old, including:

Educational resources
Home school resources
Learning games
Kids crafts
Puzzles, word searches and Sudoku for kids
Jigsaws
Jokes for kids
Parenting articles
Family recipes
Coloring pages
Printables of all sorts
Free newsletter
... and much more!

http://www.hud.gov/kids/
An interactive site that includes activities that teach kids how to be good citizens. Our favorite is "Meet Cool People," where kids can learn about volunteering in their communities, and garner ideas for helping the homeless.

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