photo from Harvest Moon by Hand

Ann shares her nature study with squirrels in an Outdoor Hour Challenge post over at Harvest Moon by Hand.

Lynn gives a list of nine different ways to use coloring pages in What to do with Coloring Pages… posted at Eclectic Education.

Shirley Ann uses the senses of hearing rather than a literal hands-on approach in Praise and Worship in the Home School posted at Bugs, Beetles and Barefoot Days.

photo from Confessions from a Homeschooler

You will not want to miss Erica’s WOW post. She and her children created a three tiered Rain Forest Diorama.

Miss Nirvana was inspired to get crafty after reading a living book:  Book: Mardi Gras: A Cajun Country Celebration.

Jenn perry at Daze of Adventure had her children do cuneiform carvings. Their results are most impressive.

photo from Walking by the Way

If you’re in painting mood, be sure to checkout Ami’s posts:

• Inverted Finger Painting
• Runaway Art
• Snap Paintings

Pamela took a trip to Joshua Tree National Park and blogged about it at Blah, Blah, Blog. Her photos of the desert are beautiful!

Mother Robin says, “This has been a successful way to combine math, culture, home arts and sneak in a writing assignment. She’ll do anything for the camera!” See for yourself at Cooking Mei’s Way: Chicken Tagine with Couscous.

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Am I a “bad” homeschool mom if I don’t use hands-on projects?

And the answer is no, you are not.

If reading a living book and looking at a diagram are enough to solidify the idea, what is the purpose of a craft?

Amy once said , ”Though it might seem crazy, a child doesn’t really need a lot of hands-on activities to learn things or make connections when reading living books!!”

No, that’s not crazy, Amy. That’s correct.

As I commented on Amy’s blog post, for very small children, using hands-on manipulatives is essential for understanding abstract ideas. That’s why doing science experiments and experiencing nature first hand are so important. In math we also want to provide many concrete, hands-on examples of what the Arabic numerals are representing.

What if the living book and the diagram were not enough to solidify the learning?

Then you can evaluate whether a hands-on activity would truly help the concept to come alive for the child. You have to be ruthless here and honestly consider whether the activity is busy work or actually demonstrating and reinforcing a key concept.

So, let’s talk. What are your thoughts on hands-on projects? Have you ever found yourself doing a project that turned out to be more busy work than real learning? How do you evaluate your hands-on projects? Have you ever felt guilt about not doing hands-on projects?

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It seems we keep pulling out our carving tools lately.

First it was potato stamp cartouches, now it’s clay sculptures.

I had planned for Sprite to do some drawing in the Egyptian style, but she was more inclined to reproduce a three dimensional object.

I’m flexible. Why not?

She chose the famous Tutankhamen mask.

I didn’t intervene at all. I just gave her the tools. Through trial and error, she learned what was the best order for putting the pieces together. There were a few instances of taking things off and then putting them back on at a later stage in the process.

I love how she hollowed out eye sockets and then put in “eye balls.”

The book pictured here is Ancient Egyptian Art from the Art in History series. We have a few of these titles, and I really like the way they give a concise overview of art in various time periods. They are full of photographs (as an art book really must be) and vocabulary.

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I’ve discovered one thing that I really don’t like about the Kindle.

It’s cold.

Holding cold metal and plastic is a lot colder to the hands than a paper book. I may have to start wearing gloves to read in bed. Brrrr….

But so far, this is the only thing I don’t like about it. So I guess that I still love it.

[If I had central heating, it probably wouldn't be an issue. I'm wearing my wool socks and wool thermals already.]

How have we used the Kindle recently? We read King Lear from Beautiful Stories from Shakespeare on the Kindle. Then Sprite did some Hands-on Shakespeare with puppets from Nadene’s templates at Practical Pages. In the picture, she’s in her tent, preparing for the show.

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Everyone seems full-swing in hands-on homeschool mode now that fall is officially upon us. Doesn’t it feel good to have a steady routine again? Who has made chili already? We had our first pot of the season last week. What a treat!

• Denise presents Sept-Oct 2010 Math Calendars posted at Let’s Play Math!.
• Debbie Bosworth presents WOODLAND BENCH posted at DANDELION HOUSE HOMESCHOOL.

• Misty presents Games Kids Play and Don’t Realize They’re Learning posted at Homeschool Bytes.
• Lynn presents File Folder Games posted at Eclectic Education.
• Pamela presents Footing Across the Golden Gate posted at Blah, Blah, Blog.

• Cindy presents Sunflower Science (and Art…and Writing) posted at love2learn2day.
• Marcia presents HAMMER THE FLOWERS posted at child in harmony.

• Tammy presents Making borax crystals posted at the tesserae.
• Cherylinma presents Don’t Say No… posted at Talking to Myself.

• Nadene presents Fun with Maps posted at Practical Pages.
• Candace presents Apologia Human Anatomy update (their study of bones) and The Bee Tree at His Mercy is New.
• Susan presents Top Ten Hands On Home School Project Ideas posted at Stitching Life.

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This is probably the main reason I love doing science experiments with Sprite:

Look at that face. The wonder, the joy of discovery. This is hardly work. This is science play!

So although it’s sometimes a hassle to find the supplies, set it all up, and then clean up afterwards, it’s so worth it.

Not all experiments are so glamorous. Here is one where Sprite built a simple scale and measured the weights of various objects.

But this one about density and miscibility was very, very impressive! In fact, Sprite asked if she could duplicate it for fun. This is the second time she did it.

[Visit At Home Science for more details about the experiment.]

The yellow is water. The blue is rubbing alcohol, and the bubbles are oil. Nothing mixed up. It was fascinating, and I admit, we both stared at if for many minutes. Sprite injected more and more oil into the bubble to see how big she could make it. It was mesmerizing.

Then I let Sprite play around, devising her own experiments, “I wonder what happens if I ….”

I love that kind of scientific play. I suppose I should use the word “experimentation” versus play. But what’s the difference, really? She’s enjoying interacting hands-on with the concepts we’re studying in her chemistry curriculum.

I was very impressed when Sprite used the word viscous in talking about pancake syrup a couple of days after an experiment. For Sprite, the activities really cement the ideas. So they are worth the preparation and clean up.

I’ve already bought a steel file in preparation for our rocks and minerals study. Can’t wait for that one.

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We all know the power of repetition in learning spelling. That’s why our teachers made us copy our spelling words ten times each. Unfortunately repetition can also become mindless as your brain disengages from the task. So the balance when teaching spelling is to give our children the power of repetition without the boredom that often accompanies it.

Read the rest of my latest article at Heart of the Matter.

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At the HSS forum a mom explained how she took the math manipulatives down from the bedroom closet shelf. She sorted the goodies into baskets, shelves and drawers, all accessible to the children. Wonderful! The fun math tools aren’t helping anyone on a bedroom shelf.

Sprite and her FREE manipulatives

That started me thinking about the hands-on things we have. Are they really FREE? Does Sprite KNOW they are free to be used at any time? I thought the answer was an unequivocal yes. But then I remember just a few days ago she asked me where the balance scale was. I was surprised that she didn’t know it was on the shelf with the math manipulatives. Granted, that shelf is a bit crowded. Maybe too crowded to invite exploration. I mean, if you’re afraid that things will fall and crash to the floor, it inhibits your desire to poke around.

When I gave her the balance scale, I was quick to put in one of those mom phrases like, “Be careful with it!” Now, why did I say that? What is it about our educational resources that makes us treat them like fine china? We ONLY pull them out a few days each school year. Then we painstakingly put them away once the lesson is done. Why not leave them out all day for exploratory play? Why aren’t they being used more than just a few days a year?

To be honest, I fear that the pieces will get lost. And then I won’t have a perfect tool for homeschool. How ridiculous is that? I am trying to keep it perfect so it can sit on the shelf for the next 20 minute lesson that specifically addresses that theme (which may be months from now). I’ve got a nice collection of math manipulatives, but what good are they really doing us, sitting on the shelf?

Set the math manipulatives FREE! I declare this coming school year Free the Manipulatives Year. Set out the pattern blocks, the dice set, the balance scale, and the counting bears. Make sure little hands can reach them; make sure little minds know they are welcome to do so. Blur the boundaries between math and play. ( I realize that moms of toddlers probably can’t set their manipulatives free quite yet. But be looking forward to that day, and when it comes — liberate the tools!)

I reorganized our shelf that holds the science and math tools. Doesn’t it look better? Neat is so much more inviting, I think, than cluttered. (How do shelves got so cluttered so quickly?) Here are the before and after photos.

And I came up with a very thrifty way to store our graduated cylinders. I used a tissue box plus a lot of paper towel tubes and a couple of toothpaste boxes.  (We keep things like that on hand for crafty projects.) I hot-glued the tubes to each other and to the tissue box so that it’s all quite sturdy. The cylinders go into the tubes upside down. Now they are neat, protected from breaking, AND (most importantly) accessible for chemistry experimentation. The science tools are FREE too!

Graduated Cylinder Holder from Recycled Materials

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Even though she’s ten, I still read books aloud to Sprite.   I enjoy our time together and the shared memories we create through reading. And the best part is that I can sneak in some learning without it being considered “school.” We’ve been taking summer break mainly because her local friends are on vacation now and have time to play. But reading books is plain fun!

Our latest read was The Dragon in the Cliff by Sheila Cole.  I previewed the book first on a four hour bus ride, and loved it so much that I wanted to immediately share it with Sprite.  It is the story of Mary Anning, a working class girl who at the age of 15 found the world’s first complete ichthyosaur fossil. Because of the prejudices against women at that time, she did not receive credit for her discoveries. Even worse, she was misunderstood and despised by her community because searching for fossils was considered inappropriate for a young girl.

I loved this book for two main reasons. First, it shows how far women have truly come in just 200 years. For example, in the book women are assumed to be unable to understand science. I knew that Sprite would find the attitudes toward girls inconceivable. And she did. But it’s important to me that she understand the prejudices that existed and be thankful for the amazing freedoms and opportunities she now has. Secondly, it is a great book to stimulate discussions about science –dinosaurs, creation, evolution, and paleontology. We re-read The Great Dinosaur Mystery and the Bible to answer some of the questions that came up in The Dragon in the Cliff.

The ichthyosaur is actually considered an aquatic reptile rather than a dinosaur. But who knows? Scientists are basing these ideas on bones only. From the fossil record, we know it gave birth to live young, so maybe it was a mammal.  To get an idea of the size of this creature, look at this dramatic image of an ichthyosaur fossil at National Geographic. It is assumed to be similar to dolphins.

As things often work out, while we were in the midst of the book,  I saw this cool glue resist craft featured at Crafty Crow. Perfect! It was a great hands-on activity to complement the reading of the book.

First we sketched the fossil.

Then we used white glue to go over the “bones.”

We let it dry for a day before adding a light wash of paint.

Here is Sprite’s fossil art.

And of course, I had to do it too! Here is mine.

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You all know the wonderful reaction you get when you mix baking soda with vinegar. Well we took it up a notch and created a full fledged experiment with it! Part of our chemistry curriculum is studying the scientific method and performing an experiment. Sprite wanted to test three types of vinegar and see which one would create the greatest reaction.

We used our graduated cylinders to measure out equal portions of vinegar

and baking soda

We did a few trial runs to determine exactly how to measure the reaction. We ended up timing the bubbles and measuring the distance of the foam.

Although her hypothesis was wrong, she did learn more about vinegar’s reactions. We also made the red cabbage litmus test to compare the acidity of each type of vinegar.

This was a really easy and practical experiment for us to do! I consider it a success. She took detailed notes and wrote up a nice lab report.

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