Category: Children Learn While They Play

365 Snap Shots of Life Blog Challenge: Day 48

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 – EVA SANTIAGO copyright 2012

When You Wish Upon A Star lyrics

When you wish upon a star
Makes no difference who you are
Anything your heart desires
Will come to you

If your heart is in your dream
No request is too extreme
When you wish upon a star
As dreamers do

Fate is kind
She brings to those who love
The sweet fulfillment of
Their secret longing

Like a bolt out of the blue

Fate steps in and sees you through
When you wish upon a star
Your dreams come true

Fate is kind
She brings to those who love
The sweet fulfillment of
Their secret longing

Like a bolt out of the blue
Fate steps in and sees you through
When you wish upon a star
Your dreams come true

[ From : http://www.elyrics.net/read/d/disney-lyrics/when-you-wish-upon-a-star-lyrics.html ]

30 Day Blog Challenge: Day 27

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Day 27 Question # 27

What is something you were initially reluctant to let your children have or do, but to which you ultimately acquiesced after much pleading and begging on their part?

Answer: Well, my husband and I have a policy that states that if our kids beg us about anything, we turn a deaf ear to them. When I first heard of Facebook I was curious about it. I had heard of MySpace on the news and it wasn’t getting any votes from me. So when my best friend from high school sent me a friend invite to join her on Facebook, I tried it.

For a little while I really didn’t get  the hype about it. When I discovered that I could reconnect with old friends, family members and even classmates , I was hooked. Naturally, my kids were also curious because I would get really happy when I would find a person I hadn’t talked to in years. So after  being on Facebook for about 6 months, my older girls asked me if they could open an account. I pondered it awhile. Then I reasoned that since we have a family computer in a centrally located part of our home, where I can monitor their activity in cyberspace, I didn’t see a problem, so I agreed.

We all have Facebook accounts now, even my husband.  I see Facebooking has more positive effects than negative. I think what really helps is monitoring my kids and also limiting how much time they are on there per week. Being that I home school my kids, they get to stay connected to their friends and they can also connect with other home schooled kids. So no, they didn’t beg me. I just thought it was a good idea and so far I have not regretted it.

Part Three

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Who is up for some States/ World Capitals Bingo? This game I came up with to teach my kids U.S. States and World capitals. Using some plain white card stock  I designed a two sided board; on one side are the names of U.S. Capitals and on the other side are various capital cities from around the world. For chips I cut up red card stock paper into small squares.
 
The object of the game is to get a vertical, horizontal or diagonal row of capitals and then you call out Bingo!  I have written then names of all the states and different countries on small cards. Once I call out the state or country the first student to raise their hand can answer and if he is correct, he has to look up the city he said as his answer on our Rand McNally Classroom World Atlas. Then we continue until the first player calls Bingo!
 

Part Two

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LEGOS!
 
 
 
Building with Legos is a serious business
 
around my home. My 13 year old son and
 
his 10 year old sister have been playing
 
with Legos for years. They have built a
 
whole world of Legos and they dubbed it
 
LEGOLAND. My son can go on the Lego
 
web site, look at the schematics for a Lego
 
car model for a few seconds and then a few
 
hours later, he’s built the same car from
 
memory.
 
What’s really going one underneath all
 
that playing? Well for starters, building
 
with Legos teaches problem solving. It
 
allows for creativity which leads to some
 
great inventions! And also I believe there
 
are things going on in the child’s brain
 
that defy labeling. So next time your child
 
is engrossed with Legos, don’t pull her
 
away from them, go buy her another few
 
hundred blocks and encourage this type of
 
creativity.
 
 

 

 

Part One

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Let’s play! That’s one of a child’s favorite things to do; unfortunately as they get older games are left out of their education. Why get rid of such an important tool? I have integrated games as a way of teaching new concepts and reinforcing material I’ve taught in the past. This will be a series of blogs where I will share some of my ideas on how you can create your own games and implement them into your curriculum.
 
Trivia games such as Trivial Pursuit are great for learning and retaining facts about different subjects. I created my own version. I found an old Trivial Pursuit game board and kept all of the game pieces; the only difference is I have come up with my own questions using the various subjects I’ve taught over the years. So my home version of Trivial Pursuit has different categories such as: Bible Knowledge, Art, Sciences, Geography, Famous Quotes, History, The Language Arts and Spanish. We have a great time playing our home version and as new material is learned, I add to my question bank.
 
See, I told you a little imagination is all you need…enjoy your day!