I think most kids are born natural storytellers. By the age of 5, they’ve already come up with hundreds of unique story plots, plays or songs. Their imaginations are incredible. Unfortunately, most kids lose that drive and excitement for creating their own imaginative worlds by the time they’re 8 or 9. By focusing on perfect…
Tag: connections
An Untraditional Unit Study
When I was first introduced to the concept of unit studies, it really appealed to me. Even as a public school teacher I could never understand spending 45 minutes reading a book, then the next 45 minutes learning history totally unrelated to the literature we’d just read. Then it was crazy to be whisked off…
Why Lesson Plans Don’t Work Part 2
When I wrote last week about why lesson plans don’t work, I realized this position would be a bit controversial since almost all schools, including many homeschooling families, rely on lesson plans. But I feel it’s important to get the message out that most learning doesn’t need to be strictly pre-planned; in fact, in most…
25 Connections Game: Designing Clothes
Today in the 25 Connections game I’m going to tackle the topic of Designing Clothes. In case you’re new to these series of posts, I’m taking a topic and connecting it to 25 other ideas, resources or topics. Sometimes we might feel that our children have limited interests. How can we widen their world and…
25 Connections Game: Gymnastics
Welcome to the third post in the 25 Connections series I began a few weeks ago. In this game I’ll connect the topic of gymnastics to 25 other related topics or resources. Remember, we all make connections every day. The more connections we make and the more diverse those connections are the more creative, innovative…
25 Connections Game:Castles
Last week I started a series of posts I’m titling the 25 Connections Game. Each week I’ll take a different topic and see how I can connect that topic to 25 related topics, resources, or ideas. Today I’m going to look at the topic of castles.
From TMNT to Sushi
My son has a passion for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. If you ask him which one is his favorite, he’ll say, “All of them.” He looks forward to the Saturday morning cartoon, watched all the movies and, of course, was Michelangelo for Halloween. Many parents might see this passion as “cute” or “nice” or “fun,”…