Homeschooling and lifelong education . . . one day at a time
To prepare for Earth Day and Arbor Day, we learned about conserving trees by recycling paper in our kitchen. Reading The Great Paper Caper, a silly mystery story, prompted this fun, hands-on science lesson.Continue Reading
One subject keeps my preschooler interested right now, and that is princesses. She loves Sofia the First. She loves the other Disney princesses. She loves ponies with long shimmering hair. She loves dressing like a princess and acting like a princess. If I can add princesses into school time, then I’ll get her attention. This week for Princess School, we did a Rapunzel engineering challenge as we built a block tower for Rapunzel to let down her hair from. Of course, then we needed to act out the story with our new scenery.Continue Reading
My son loves computer programming using Scratch, and he has always loved using Snap Circuits to create his own electrical circuits. As Christmas approached last year, I wondered what I could get him that would truly meet his current needs and interests, as well as being something he can grow with this year. Due to my husband’s own insistence that I focus on STEM concepts with my son, I was drawn to the concept of a robot.
I decided to go with the GoBox, which packs the GoPiGo robot car (including a Raspberry Pi) with a monthly kit of a new challenge or sensor to add to the robot. As we pondered what to do for last weeks’ science fair, we decided to get even more familiar with the robot. In addition to programming the robot car to go around the room and return to start, we made a presentation about what robots are and are not. Further, after reading some fun stories about robots, we researched and discussed what a robot really is and how the stories were accurate and then how the stories bent toward fantasy. Understanding robots is much more fun with a robot to program yourself!Continue Reading
When my son was a toddler, his favorite page in The Cat in the Hat was the “Look at Me! Look at Me! Look at Me Now!” page, in which the Cat balances and hops with all sorts of fun items. I have to admit, this is a favorite for me too.
“It’s fun to have fun but you have to know how.”
Now that my preschooler is also old enough to enjoy reading the book as well, I though it was time to put our favorite book it into a mini-science lesson. Today’s challenge was to balance the items from the book in a tall tower. While we were busy balancing like the Cat in the Hat, we learned about the center of gravity.
About Rebecca Reid
Privacy and Disclosure Policy
Book Review Policy (at Rebecca Reads)
Contact Rebecca Reid
