January 2013

Sunday, January 27, 2013

What we're reading: Buck-A-Book Week edition

This week, Sarah got money to read books.

OK, not really. But it's Buck-A-Book Week, a fundraiser to support our town's Literacy Council and its programs, and for each book kids read, they can collect pledges to go toward local literacy programs.

Sarah pledged to read 10 books - and I'm proud to say she reached her goal!

As she was reading, I snapped photos of her with each book, and we added a special message to a supporter on each one of the pictures.

So here's a look at what we're reading, photographic-like, with shout-outs to those who have helped Sarah raise more than $175 for the York County Literacy Council!

And for those who'd like to know more, here's a list of the 10 books pictured:

Many thanks to all of Sarah's sponsors - we had a lot of fun "reading for you!" Special thanks to a sponsor who is not pictured (because we have a special photo gift for her still to come) - my mom, Joan Concilio.

Another special thanks goes out to everyone who supports Sarah's love of reading, both by recommending great books, lending books to us and buying us books!

Those of you who are our Facebook friends know that for her coming 13th birthday, ALL Sarah has asked for is giftcards to Books-A-Million and Barnes & Noble to go book-browsing!

I've got no problem with that!

Thursday, January 24, 2013

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Our scrapbook: Photos from the Wolf Sanctuary and Wilbur Chocolate in Lititz, PA

We spent all day Saturday in neighboring Lancaster County, visiting some cool places in the town of Lititz.

First up was a trip to the Wolf Sanctuary of PA, a place we visited a few years ago with Sarah's Wildlife Watchers 4-H club and wanted to return to as a family.

I was amazed at how popular the tours of the sanctuary had grown - when we went before, it was a group of about 20, and this time, there were several groups of about 40 people apiece going through the hour-and-a-half-long tour to see about two-thirds of the more than 40 wolves currently on the property.

Here in Pennsylvania, it's illegal to keep wolves indoors - and in almost if not every state, it's illegal to keep them as pets. The sanctuary exists to take wolves seized by game officials and give them a proper home. It's not a breeding facility or a "rehab and release" place; once the wolves come, they're there for life.

The organization is almost entirely staffed by volunteers, plus a paid "wolf master" named Darrell who matches up the animals into packs (which we learned is QUITE the process) and so on!

Our tour guide, who you can see above giving a snack to one of the wolves in the sanctuary's "Big Pack," was Chuck Rineer, also a noted wildlife photographer. My photos are just snapshots we captured during the tour - if you want to see GREAT shots of the wolves at the sanctuary, check out Chuck's site here.

Chuck told us a TON that we didn't know about wolf body language and communication - and how the volunteers know when they need to stay away from a wolf! When you see the photos, you think, "Oh, how cute, it looks like an overgrown dog," but one thing you learn quickly is that the ONLY relation between these animals and how your dog behaves is in appearance.

These are wild animals - they are not trainable, they are not "social" (most of the wolves, unless they were bottle-fed upon arriving at the sanctuary, don't like to be touched), and they only come up to the fence when you're touring because the guide carries a large bucket of raw meat.

That said, they are incredibly intelligent, incredibly gorgeous creatures who I'm so glad to know are safe in the sanctuary! (They are IMMENSELY well cared for, by the way - though my pictures can't do it justice, they have big spaces to call their own and a caring crew looking after them, including a veterinary team that donates the cost of the labor to care for all the animals.)

If you're in Pennsylvania... I highly recommend a visit! Tours are best in the winter months - the wolves are most active - and they're reasonably priced at $12 per adult on the weekends.

After we left the sanctuary, we headed about five miles up the road to the town of Lititz proper. There's a lot of cool shopping there, as well as the Wilbur Chocolate Company. Wilbur is the maker of Wilbur Buds, something that many people would say bears a resemblance to the possibly more famous Hershey Kiss - except that the Wilbur Bud predates the Kiss!

While there isn't an official "tour" of the factory, there is a small museum dedicated to the history and art of chocolate-making, and a change to see several goodies made behind glass. We sat and watched most of the video on how chocolate is created from cacao beans, and that was pretty cool! (And free!)

Finally, we closed out our Lancaster County day by visiting the Lancaster Barnes & Noble... which was fortuitous, as it was educator week, with a discount of 25% off your purchase instead of the normal 20%.

And guess what? B&N gives educator discounts to homeschoolers if you provide your affidavit (which I happen to carry in my wallet so that I can get A.C. Moore's educator discount!)

Many books. Wolves. Chocolate. Good day in my world!

Monday, January 21, 2013

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Lego-sorting: Not a job for the faint-hearted

We had an incredibly busy weekend, including a long day Saturday spent on a family field trip to a nearby wolf sanctuary that I'll be posting about later this week.

Add in some basic and much-needed housework like laundry, dishes and getting the approximately 80 pounds of pet hair off my floors... and I was BUSHED by Sunday night.

Sarah wanted to play Legos in her room, and I offered to go up and keep her company. In addition to her dozens and dozens of finished models, she has a huge plastic tote of "extra bricks" and I started sorting through it while sitting on her floor, looking for a particular piece.

I was just going to sit and relax... but somehow...

It turned into a total Lego-sorting free-for-all. The end result is going to be that we will no longer need the huge tote I'm dazedly leaning on in the photo above. Instead, we're using two of the Lego brick-sorters you can see to the right of the picture (baseplate on top, three removable drawers below.)

We already have one, and as soon as we get a bit of extra money, we've got plans for the second! (I hear, by the way, that there are LEGO-sponsored bloggers. Hey, LEGO company, over here, pick us!)

Sarah decided to photobomb when Chris unexpectedly came up to take a picture of me in all my "this is a baseplate, this is a brick, this is a window, this is a castle wall, this is a minifigure piece" glory.

All of this, by the way, is in preparation for some work we hope to do in Sarah's room shortly. Size-wise, it's tiny - in fact, she's basically on her bed, which is against the wall, and that is the sum total of space side to side.

She needs more storage, so we're hoping to get built-in shelves put up on the walls on either side of me (around the closet door that's behind me). Since her room is tucked into the eaves of the house, standard bookshelves don't make the best use of the space, but built-ins would add a LOT of room!

I'll keep you posted... I do love a good remodel! And if you have any Lego-sorting or displaying ideas, I'd love to see them!

Friday, January 18, 2013

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Our fitness is pretty funny-looking: Video games for physical education

My husband and I do all of our work - and most of our recreation - on side-by-side laptops. My 77-year-old mom keeps up with friends and reading via her iPad.

While we don't have the latest and greatest video-game systems (no Xbox 360 here, unfortunately; not even a PlayStation 3!), technology and especially digital games are a huge part of our lives.

Is it any surprise that they're a major part of our almost-13-year-old daughter's homeschooling experience as well?

That's why I'm taking part in the iHomeschool Network's "5 days of..." Hopscotch series this week with a look at 5 days of video-game learning.

Today, we'll finish up the series with a look at some of the video games that literally keep us on our toes.

Video games for physical education and exercise

With the exception of my tae kwon do practice and some really pitiful family games of tennis, we're NOT a particular athletic or graceful bunch.

Disclosure: While a couple of affiliate links are included in today's post, as with the rest of this series, everything on this list is here because we highly recommend it!

The way we meet our physical education "requirements" for our homeschooling documentation is simply to incorporate as much movement as possible into our everyday lives.

We do a LOT of walking and hiking, especially when it's not winter. Sarah bikes and rides her scooter a lot. We play badminton all summer. Sarah loves hula-hooping. We do some incredibly physical projects in our garden. (Landscaping is HARD work!)

And, as we do with almost everything, we use video games and apps, not as a replacement for other activities but as a fun supplement when we need to stay in the house (or a helpful tool when we leave it).

Country Dance - This Wii game is our newest "workout" addition. This sucker is HARD WORK! We are all sweating within one song. Don't underestimate how much fun, and how much exercise, come with these or any of the Just Dance series games. One caveat: We're fairly particular about our lyrical selections. There's maybe one or two songs on Country Dance that I don't prefer for that reason, but they're still way better than some of the Just Dance. If I had to recommend one of those, it'd either be the Disney Party or either the first or second Just Dance Kids games. They're not just "little kid" songs either; they're family-friendly, and not annoying to adults! One other caveat: You will look ridiculous doing these. Don't let anyone videotape you. Ever. (These are available on Wii, and most are also available on Xbox 360. A few are for Playstation 3 also.)

Wii Sports - This comes bundled with most Wii systems. I'm not sure if there are matching ones for other systems, but it's a simple way to play baseball, golf, tennis, bowling or boxing. The skill drills in here are phenomenal - I used to bowl competitively, and the bowling drills are as realistic as I could ask for! Chris, Sarah and I will often spend an hour playing these together in the evenings, and sometimes my mom will even bowl with us! It's a good way to teach the rules of these sports (for instance, how foul balls work in baseball) even if your child isn't geared toward team-sport participation.

Wii Fit Plus - Sarah and I can easily each "exercise" for an hour on this and not realize we're doing anything but playing games. In addition to regular fitness drills, there are a LOT of these that deal with balance and coordination. I mentioned before that with Sarah's Asperger's and sensory-processing disorder, her proprioceptive sense, or her sense of her body in place, is sometimes "off." There are a TON of great things here that match a lot of mainstream occupational therapy concepts, without the cost. And I can do yoga and step aerobics - which is great!
Pedometer on 3DS - Sarah figured this one out, not me! Her Nintendo 3DS, which she saved up for and bought with her own money, comes with an integrated (and surprisingly accurate) pedometer. She routinely takes it with her and tracks her steps! In some games, walking even gets you extra game coins or bonuses - which of course is all the more incentive to do it!
Runkeeper app - I guess this is my version of the pedometer. We have the Runkeeper app on my phone, and when we go on hikes or walks, we keep track of our distance and time. It even maps your route down to a scarily accurate level! While it's technically not a "video game," it's definitely a way I've used technology to up our family's fitness level, so I wanted to include it!

There are plenty of even more "dedicated" exercise video games, of course, and games for platforms other than the ones we're most familiar with. The Jillian Michaels Boot Camp ones (which I tried, and basically stunk at!) are hardcore workouts made more fun by being able to track your progress on-screen. There are plenty of others in that vein.

Exercise is probably the easiest "subject" for me to justify in video games - because it's so quantifiable. We're sweating, and we're burning calories, so we know know it's working!

That doesn't mean we don't enjoy fresh air when we can. But I'd say that video games are our main equivalent for "indoor gym" or "indoor recess" at my daughter's former public school!

The rest of the series

Sunday: Why "All my kids want to do is play video games!" isn't such a bad thing (introduction)
Monday: Virtual friends, virtual art: Video games for social skills and creativity
Tuesday: Digital currency: Video games for math
Wednesday: Pixels and punctuation: Video games for writing and spelling
Thursday: Bringing the past to life: Video games for history and geography
Today: Our fitness is pretty funny-looking: Video games for physical education

You can read all the posts here!

More five-day fun

This post is part of the iHomeschool network's January 2013 "5 days of..." Hopscotch series.

You can see how some of my fellow bloggers are spending their five days here.

We're sharing everything from tips and tricks for getting out of debt to using posterboard in your homeschool, from catapults to eating whole foods.

We sure are an eclectic group - I hope you'll check out more!

And if you're into the things we do in our family homeschool, check out my previous "5 days of..." series, 5 days of real-world math.

Thursday, January 17, 2013

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Bringing the past to life: Video games for history and geography

My husband and I do all of our work - and most of our recreation - on side-by-side laptops. My 77-year-old mom keeps up with friends and reading via her iPad.

While we don't have the latest and greatest video-game systems (no Xbox 360 here, unfortunately; not even a PlayStation 3!), technology and especially digital games are a huge part of our lives.

Is it any surprise that they're a major part of our almost-13-year-old daughter's homeschooling experience as well?

That's why I'm taking part in the iHomeschool Network's "5 days of..." Hopscotch series this week with a look at 5 days of video-game learning.

Today, we're talking about the ways modern technology is helping us learn about the past.

Video games for history and geography

Disclosure: While a couple of affiliate links are included in today's post, as with the rest of this series, everything on this list is here because we highly recommend it!

Let me just start out by saying I'm not a history buff. At. All. Sarah actually really enjoys history - everything from Native Americans to the Titanic to Elizabethan England. As we've delved into the topics that she's most interested in, I admit, I was surprised to find her requesting some related video games. These were things she knew about, some from friends, some from public school, that I wasn't familiar with.

Hidden Mysteries games - This series, for either PC, Wii or Nintendo DS, is in some ways comparable to my favorite Facebook time-waster, Hidden Chronicles, where you find objects in a whole bunch of different scenes. Except, guess what? THIS series comes complete with serious history facts, as well as some bonus logic puzzles that you really have to think to work through!
We had gotten the Civil War and Buckingham Palace combo pack, I think at our library's discount media sale, for something like a dollar. And Sarah loved them! She was telling me all about letters written from Antietam and how the Changing of the Guard works! For Christmas, she asked for and received another combo pack, this one featuring her favorite historical topic from the past year. It was a Titanic and White House set, again surprisingly fact-filled. There are some more in this series I'd like to pick up after trying these discs - Notre Dame and the Salem Witch Trials among them! I think they'd really spark Sarah's interest, because she can and does play the others for more than an hour at a time!
The Oregon Trail - C'mon, you didn't play this in the fourth grade obsessively, like I did, scrambling to earn computer time in class so you could sit on that ridiculous plastic chair and look at that boxy screen full of wagons and oxen?? OK, nostalgia time is over, but this truly is a great game straight out of history. Apparently now you can get various computer versions of this, as well as a 3DS and Wii version, and even apps for your phone. (There's a whole list here.)
More classics - The Amazon Trail and Galleons of Glory were two other titles I played, and that you can still find (especially if you're tech-savvy; there are online emulators that work great for both.)

Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego? - This is a "classic" that's gotten new life both as a Facebook game and for more modern computer systems. An INCREDIBLE geography reference - you will learn where Myanmar is or was, where Burkina Faso is or was, and where a whole host of other neat-sounding world places are. And it's actually fun - not "so educational" that your kids will roll their eyes at you. (I'm a little bit guilty of trying to go that route at times, and Sarah will tell you that "Math Circus is just math with ugly clowns.") This one, she enjoys. Even though we have to look up almost every clue, we do it together and have a good time researching!

I'm sure there are more modern games that have a historical twist, too. These are the ones I'm most familiar with because they're our style of game, but I know there's some good stuff out there in the World War II realm! (And a couple of Sarah's older friends love Red Dead Redemption; I don't, particularly, but even that seems to have taught Sarah about the Wild West, when she's happened to see them playing! That's not one WE'LL be buying, however.)

Wikipedia even has what I think is pretty cool - a list of video games with historical settings. I wouldn't suggest there's a year's worth of curriculum in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, which is mentioned there, but some of the American Girl ones listed sound pretty intriguing, especially since we're reading several of those book series now!

The rest of the series

Sunday: Why "All my kids want to do is play video games!" isn't such a bad thing (introduction)
Monday: Virtual friends, virtual art: Video games for social skills and creativity
Tuesday: Digital currency: Video games for math
Wednesday: Pixels and punctuation: Video games for writing and spelling
Today: Bringing the past to life: Video games for history and geography
Friday: Our fitness is pretty funny-looking: Video games for physical education

You can read all the posts here!

More five-day fun

Wednesday, January 16, 2013

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Pixels and punctuation: Video games for writing and spelling

My husband and I do all of our work - and most of our recreation - on side-by-side laptops. My 77-year-old mom keeps up with friends and reading via her iPad.

While we don't have the latest and greatest video-game systems (no Xbox 360 here, unfortunately; not even a PlayStation 3!), technology and especially digital games are a huge part of our lives.

Is it any surprise that they're a major part of our almost-13-year-old daughter's homeschooling experience as well?

That's why I'm taking part in the iHomeschool Network's "5 days of..." Hopscotch series this week with a look at 5 days of video-game learning.

Today, we're talking about the ways some of our favorite video games have improved Sarah's writing and spelling skills (not to mention her reading!)

Video games for reading, writing and spelling

When I sat down to write this post, I asked Sarah what video games she plays that she thinks involve the most reading or writing. An interesting thing happened - as she was giving me her list, she mixed in things like crosswords and other "traditional" games, not really distinguishing between "video games" and "not video games."

Disclosure: While a couple of affiliate links are included in today's post, as with the rest of this series, everything on this list is here because we highly recommend it!

That really interested me - and kind of solidified an idea that I had going into this series and couldn't quite put my finger on.

My thought is that the division between "video games" and other stuff is pretty artificial. I mentioned in the introduction to this series that it really bothers me to hear people set different time limits for "educational video games" versus "regular video games. And I think this gets to why - the medium is not the message. If Sarah is reading about pet care, the location (on a screen in Pet Vet, or in a book by National Geographic) is just the medium. She's doing the work - and the message is still there!

With that in mind, here are the games we came up with that dealt most heavily with these language-arts-type skills.

Wheel of Fortune - Sarah plays this on her 3DS, and we'd love to have it for the Wii as well so we can play together! It's helped her word-building and recognition skills immensely (as has watching the show) - she now understands how words are put together, and that picking random letters isn't as useful as critically thinking about what combinations make the most sense. It sounds strange, maybe, but that was a skill she'd lacked. She never was able to sight-read words because she just didn't know how to "guess" what made sense in context, and I think Wheel of Fortune has helped her start to see letters as part of words and words as part of phrases. (As a side note - she loves to play Jeopardy, too, and when I asked her, "Well, don't you have to spell the answers right in that?" she told me that it's multiple-choice - and that she wishes it wasn't! Who knew?!)
Moshi Monsters - I mentioned when we talked about games that promote social skills that Sarah loves leaving notes for her friends (and getting them in return) in this web-based game. She quickly found out that she gets better notes in response when her messages are understandable, and she loves receiving messages with new words! The best example there? When she asked me, "What is SALUTATIONS?" Now she leaves "salutations" for all her friends. Influencing the world with one word of greeting. Or... something!

Pet Vet series - This was far and away the "reading" winner (in addition to being a key math game in an earlier part of this post series) - and in fact, as we talked about it, Sarah decided she wanted to play right now and sat down beside me to treat some animal diseases as I finished this post. She's now deciphering words like "cornifications" and "antifungal." All of the game interactions are text-based as well as visual and aural, which makes it great for a variety of types of learners, and playable (though not very easy) for even struggling readers.

The rest of the series

Sunday: Why "All my kids want to do is play video games!" isn't such a bad thing (introduction)
Monday: Virtual friends, virtual art: Video games for social skills and creativity
Tuesday: Digital currency: Video games for math
Today: Pixels and punctuation: Video games for writing and spelling
Thursday: Bringing the past to life: Video games for history and geography
Friday: Our fitness is pretty funny-looking: Video games for physical education

You can read all the posts here!

More five-day fun

Tuesday, January 15, 2013

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Digital currency: Video games for math

My husband and I do all of our work - and most of our recreation - on side-by-side laptops. My 77-year-old mom keeps up with friends and reading via her iPad.

While we don't have the latest and greatest video-game systems (no Xbox 360 here, unfortunately; not even a PlayStation 3!), technology and especially digital games are a huge part of our lives.

Is it any surprise that they're a major part of our almost-13-year-old daughter's homeschooling experience as well?

That's why I'm taking part in the iHomeschool Network's "5 days of..." Hopscotch series this week with a look at 5 days of video-game learning.

Today, we're talking about how some of our favorite video games have tons of math included.

Video games for math

Disclosure: While a couple of affiliate links are included in today's post, as with the rest of this series, everything on this list is here because we highly recommend it!

There are a lot of "math games," especially web-based ones.

I'm not opposed to those, but if you have a math-hater, math facts with circus animals are still math facts, you know?

The thing is, we've realized that the games that Sarah LOVES playing most have a huge math component.

Lego Star Wars - This whole series is for the DS, Wii, Xbox and Playstation systems (and includes Lego Pirates of the Caribbean, Lego Batman, Lego Lord of the Rings and a bunch more) is a TON of fun for Lego-loving kids like mine. And guess what? You break bricks and collect coins. You use those coins to complete various challenges. And that means keeping track of the coins, as well as working on your logic and critical-thinking skills, which are a key part of real-world math!
Club Penguin - Sarah loves this web-based game, probably more than any of her others. It's got a "mission" or "quest" format that you unlock progressively, which keeps the kids coming back, and to unlock various parts, players need to complete challenges. Many of them? Yep, math-based. There's also a money component here, where you need to save up to buy igloo upgrades for your penguin's domicile and, you know, cool penguin clothes.
Moshi Monsters and Webkinz - I mentioned these for creative play yesterday, but both have a significant math component as well. They have logic games, mini-games that are actually straight math-based (like Moshi Multiply, oddly one of Sarah's favorites) and, as with Club Penguin, a significant money component that leads to all sorts of adding, subtracting and more!

Nintendogs and Cats, Pet Vet and Horsez - Again, the money component of these games is key. More so than in some other games, Pet Vet in particular requires you to really work for the coins to then buy upgrades, and there's a lot of logic required about what upgrades you spend money on. Buy a horse stable and you can care for horses (and make more money), but you'll have to spend a good bit up front. These are some longtime favorites of ours for science as well, again especially the Pet Vet ones!
Angry Birds - These apps/web-based games are HUGE for learning physics. (And it's not terribly inaccurate physics - says this math major!) Sarah loves them, and likes doing things like saying, "Well, I'll need 100,000 points for three stars, and if I have two birds left, that means I'll get 20,000 points for them, so I'll need 80,000 before I'm done."
Rush Hour - This app is based on a board game, and we have that version as well. We play it more on our phones, though, because it's great for something like passing time in a waiting room or in line! It's a logic puzzle based on getting a particular car out of a well-packed gridlock.

These are just some of the games WE play. My challenge and encouragement to you is to look for the math in the games your own family enjoys, and, without being heavy-handed (there's an art to that!), to discuss it. If you're laying Minecraft tiles, be overt in talking about how you'll use 20 tiles to make the floor of your house, and if you can, work in that there are four rows of five tiles. If you play Roblox, same idea. I talk a LOT about real-world math and logical thinking, because I truly believe if you get the idea, you'll be able to get the "math facts" down without issue!

The rest of the series

Sunday: Why "All my kids want to do is play video games!" isn't such a bad thing (introduction)
Monday: Virtual friends, virtual art: Video games for social skills and creativity
Today: Digital currency: Video games for math
Wednesday: Pixels and punctuation: Video games for writing and spelling
Thursday: Bringing the past to life: Video games for history and geography
Friday: Our fitness is pretty funny-looking: Video games for physical education

You can read all the posts here!

More five-day fun

Monday, January 14, 2013

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Virtual friends, virtual art: Video games for social skills and creativity

My husband and I do all of our work - and most of our recreation - on side-by-side laptops. My 77-year-old mom keeps up with friends and reading via her iPad.

While we don't have the latest and greatest video-game systems (no Xbox 360 here, unfortunately; not even a PlayStation 3!), technology and especially digital games are a huge part of our lives.

Is it any surprise that they're a major part of our almost-13-year-old daughter's homeschooling experience as well?

That's why I'm taking part in the iHomeschool Network's "5 days of..." Hopscotch series this week with a look at 5 days of video-game learning.

Today, we're talking about how some of our favorite video games have helped Sarah develop her social skills - and her creativity.

Video games for social skills and creativity

Maybe these two topics aren't the first two you'd group together. They weren't for me - until I started making two separate lists and realized that they overlapped ENTIRELY.

Disclosure: While a couple of affiliate links are included in today's post, as with the rest of this series, everything on this list is here because we highly recommend it!

The interesting thing is, these are two areas we were told that many kids with Asperger's (like Sarah) struggle with - social skills, and playing creatively. And at times, I see it. But other times, I don't - like when Sarah shows me the way she "saved a tree" in Minecraft by putting walls around it, or writes nice notes for her virtual Moshi Monsters friends. And that, to me, is so much of why we value video games as a tool in our learning arsenal - because they are great ways to show off the best parts of Sarah!

Minecraft - I could write a book on this, Sarah's new favorite game, which basically involves placing various material blocks to "craft" or make things. She has the Pocket edition for her phone, and we're planning to buy the PC edition next week. The two operate similarly, but there's one big difference - you can play the PC one with friends on a server, and the Pocket one is all individual.
Sarah's favorite thing to do is build in "creative" mode, where you just get unlimited materials and do virtual construction. In "survivor" mode, there are bad guys to avoid, and you have to work for the materials, so she only does that if she's really feeling up for a challenge! She and her friends frequently share YouTube videos of how to build different things, and it's been great to watch Sarah figuring out how to use various materials to make the things she wants! (And to see her and a friend at 4H this week excitedly saying, "Did you see the alien I made? Did you see the castle?") The alien, by the way, is what's pictured here. He's crafted from a tree!
Moshi Monsters - This was one of the earliest web-based games Sarah started playing, and she still spends a lot of time on it. (It's not just web-based; there are Moshi-themed Nintendo DS games as well, and possibly some for other platforms!) You have a monster. He plays mini-games, you can decorate his house, and you can make friends with other people's monsters. Sounds simple, but amazingly, it's home of a TON of amazing games inside, including one we'll talk about later in this week's series that's - gasp - math-themed. The coolest thing here is how Sarah has friends who she gets together and plays with, while doing things like "creating" or "growing" Mooshlings, which are little pets for the monsters.
Webkinz - Another web-based game based on actual stuffed animals that come with codes to unlock their virtual counterparts. At last count, Sarah had almost 50 of them, and it's been amazing to see her build the virtual world that they live in! She then gets out old shoeboxes and things and makes them "real-life" rooms to match, which is super-neat! Much like with Moshi Monsters, in addition to the creative play, this game has a lot of actual educational mini-games inside it!
Art Academy 3DS - This is on Sarah's "wish list," and she can't wait to get it. It is a full drawing tutorial inside a 3DS game! We've been playing the demo version in the store and we can't wait until we get the real thing.
Camera and sound recorder on 3DS - Yet another unexpected win for creativity: Sarah, who has a digital camera, loves the camera on her 3DS because she can then edit the pictures right on screen. You can even add sound and make them look 3D! She also likes recording sounds - like our dog barking - and editing them. She's found out that speeding it up makes him sound like a little dog, and slowing it down... well, our dog can't possibly sound any bigger, but she got the idea that if he COULD, he would with the sound slow!

I feel like our story with social and creative gaming is just beginning, despite all these favorites. I think it's something that kids of any age can appreciate, but the older Sarah gets, the more she's really digging into and embracing the idea of virtually hanging out with her friends - creating worlds full of stuff they love and challenging each other to be even more creative!

The rest of the series

Sunday: Why "All my kids want to do is play video games!" isn't such a bad thing (introduction)
Today: Virtual friends, virtual art: Video games for social skills and creativity
Tuesday: Digital currency: Video games for math
Wednesday: Pixels and punctuation: Video games for writing and spelling
Thursday: Bringing the past to life: Video games for history and geography
Friday: Our fitness is pretty funny-looking: Video games for physical education

You can read all the posts here!

More five-day fun

Sunday, January 13, 2013

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Why "All my kids want to do is play video games!" isn't such a bad thing

My husband and I do all of our work - and most of our recreation - on side-by-side laptops. My 77-year-old mom keeps up with friends and reading via her iPad.

While we don't have the latest and greatest video-game systems (no Xbox 360 here, unfortunately; not even a PlayStation 3!), technology and especially digital games are a huge part of our lives.

Is it any surprise that they're a major part of our almost-13-year-old daughter's homeschooling experience as well?

That's why I'm taking part in the iHomeschool Network's "5 days of..." Hopscotch series this week with a look at 5 days of video-game learning.

This series is for you if...

You don't limit your kids' screen time. We don't limit Sarah's, other than as part of some general family "things," like not using our phones during dinner, that we all do. This has opened us up to a lot of criticism, and I'm sure if you're a non-limit family, you've gotten that too. I'll share some discussion points that worked to reduce that for us, and hopefully you'll find those helpful as well.

You DO limit your kids' screen time. We don't, but that's OK! I told my friend Judy in a comment the other week that our decision is the right one for our family right now. If I had 5 kids? If Sarah were 7? If I didn't need to be on my computer 10 hours a day to do my various jobs? I don't know. If you do have limits, though, I encourage you to take them out every so often and re-evaluate. Is what you're doing still working for your family? Do age, interest or social needs change them? I hope this series will help you ask - and answer - those questions.

You're trying to decide if you should limit your kids' screen time, but aren't sure what makes the most sense. Please, whatever you do, don't set different limits for "educational" and "non-educational" games. That's about the only thing I have a hard time supporting. But, as I mentioned, we'll walk through the ways video games have helped us on our homeschooling journey, and whatever limits (or not) you end up with, you'll be able to see what good stuff is coming from the screen time you allow!

What we'll talk about

Today: Why "All my kids want to do is play video games!" isn't such a bad thing (introduction)
Monday: Virtual friends, virtual art: Video games for social skills and creativity
Tuesday: Digital currency: Video games for math
Wednesday: Pixels and punctuation: Video games for writing and spelling
Thursday: Bringing the past to life: Video games for history and geography
Friday: Our fitness is pretty funny-looking: Video games for physical education

You can read all the posts here!

How to use this series to level up your homeschool

If you think, "All my kids would do is play video games!" when you hear someone talk about unschooling and child-led learning, you're not alone.

When we talk about our unschooling approach, in which Sarah is not "required" by us to do anything, but rather we help her discover the things she's most interested in, this is the response we most often hear.

It might be true. But from talking with unschoolers (and relaxed homeschoolers) across the country, I find that it's generally not.

If I ignored my daughter for 18 hours straight, she would probably play video games or apps for about 10 of them. In good news, I don't (ignore her, that is), and if you're interested in reading this homeschooling blog, you probably aren't the type to ignore your kids.

When you're engaged as a family, no one routinely plays video games for 10 hours or more straight. Honest.

You want video games to be a tool in your arsenal, not a master. That's my end goal for this series.

Maybe your kids have a half-hour a day of screen time. Maybe there are days where they're in front of a device of some sort for 8 hours. Either way, that time is important.

By Friday, I'm hoping to give you several concrete ways to be intentional and purposeful about video games in your family - and share some of the awesome benefits we've seen in our own family's learning journey.

That's how you'll level up your family's homeschool - through this or any other series. By thinking about what your needs are, by picking the parts that work for you, and by being willing to let go of whatever isn't working.

I can't wait to help you "level up" like that!

More five-day fun

Wednesday, January 9, 2013

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The intangible things that God provides

My friend Jessica at Bohemian Bowmans has this linkup called Birds of the Air. Its focus is on how God provides the things that are helping us get by. And I've always wanted to participate... but... I haven't.

Here's the thing. I don't have "stuff" needs. Not really. Even when I talk about ways you can support our family, most of them aren't things that directly have people giving us items or money. Shop at Giant, and you can help us earn reward points that we can use to buy stuff we need. If you're buying a book anyway, do it through our Amazon affiliate links and we make a few cents for the thing you bought at the same price you'd have paid otherwise. Need a website built? Let me know, because I do those at reasonable rates.

Would I love it if someone mysteriously slipped us an Amazon giftcard, a Paypal payment or a Giant giftcard? Er, sure! That'd be awesome. But those aren't our deepest needs.

We are very blessed. We have a roof over our head, food to eat, and a car to drive. (More on that in a minute.) We have warm clothes. We have each other (sappy, but true). We have great friends and a church that just might maybe be starting to feel like home. We all enjoy relatively good health.

So when I see Jessica's posts, I'm always thrilled and a little in awe at the generosity of humanity. But I don't look around and feel like I have things to add. God is providing for us, but in ways that are really hard to write about coherently.

Today, though, I want to try. Because I am blessed, and I am happy, and I have so much to be grateful for. So here are a few of the latest random pieces of goodness that have come our way.

Oh, the car

The car. Chris and I have one between us, and it's a 2003 Ford Taurus with about 120,000 miles on it. I waxed poetic about it on the personal-finance blog I write for professionally. But, uh, it's got its foibles. Like how it kinda didn't run except in a putt-putt-putt way this weekend, while my best friend and I were 50 minutes from home. It's had some problems all year, and we almost were ready to part ways, but the fact is, we need to not have a car payment, and this is a decent vehicle most of the time.

So here's the blessing: My best friend's husband changed all six of our spark plugs - at no charge - and it runs MUCH better. There was still some work to be done at the garage, but over three trips (you can't leave the car there long when it's your only one, you see), our total bill was under $150, which is pretty much unheard of. AND we have new wiper blades that don't squeak.

All this is a blessing.

School

I got a note today from one of the teachers at Sarah's former public school. I had a message for one of her family members, actually, but had her contact info and asked her to pass it along. Anyway, she sent me a quick note back and said she'd do so - and asked how Sarah was doing with homeschooling. And she said she reads the blog when she can to keep up with what we're doing!

To me, that's a blessing - a teacher who cares about students even when they're not "her" students. Her short note made my day, because it reminded me how many people have really helped us out on our educational journey.

Friends and fun

I mentioned that I'm going scrapbooking this weekend with a group of ladies who are truly my best friends. My very very best friend and I went last weekend to a smaller retreat.

That I can do these things is a huge blessing - and that I have transportation (and MULTIPLE offers of it) so that Chris can keep our car is awesome! (Bonus blessing: The photo prints I ordered, which said they'd be here the day we leave at the earliest, came today, as I had secretly hoped they would. Yeah!)

Meanwhile, Sarah has made two new friends - the daughters of some online friends of mine, also unschoolers, who are about her age. These three girls are on Google Talk or chatting by email or webcall daily and then some. These are people who "get" Sarah, who are into the things she's into, and who she absolutely just is thrilled to connect with. And I'm thrilled, because Sarah doesn't have a lot of female friends, and until now, she didn't have any friends who understood our lifestyle of staying up late, unlimited texting, and all that jazz. Even her best friend locally would have to tell her, "Uh, Sarah, stop sending me messages, I have all this homework." So it's GREAT for her to connect without reservation to these girls, who are just amazing young ladies.

Oh, and when our travels kept us out of church for two weeks, the kids' program sent Sarah a "we miss you" postcard. It made her day!

Yep, these are blessings too.

Work

Our financial situation is interesting. Those who don't know us, I guess, think we're doing quite well - we have a big house, our car is paid-for, we have two steady full-times jobs, and several steady part-time streams of income. We ARE well-off in so many ways. The bills are all current, there is always grocery money, and we have some leeway for other things.

But what you wouldn't know (unless you read the much-larger-than-this-one website where I put the ugliness out there) is that we're on a quest to pay off almost $90,000 in non-mortgage debt. It's essentially a five-year plan that we've worked hard to get down to four years, and we'd like to cut it down even more here as we start Year Three.

So lots of money comes in - but LOTS of money goes back out to get these balances down as much as humanly possible. We actually try very hard not to have much disposable income - because we want to take every extra cent we can and hit the debt.

To do that, we often try to spend less for things. But we also try to earn more. We LIKE the work we do (at least most of it!) and we like being able to do it even in our free time.

In great news, today, I finalized an agreement to help revamp one website for a friend and convert it to a new platform, and to do some updates on another site. That's great - and will help us pay down the cards even faster. I've got two other projects in the works as well, and again, it's just so awesome to be able to earn money doing something I really enjoy, and to have people who think of me when they need quality work done.

THAT is a huge blessing!

So those are just some of the "intangibles" that God has provided for us lately. We truly do believe we're blessed - and we're trying hard not to take things like new clients as a boost to our own egos (yes, I'm talking about me). Good things come from God - and while I'm good at what I do, He's a whole lot better at what He does. :)

Monday, January 7, 2013

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To the moon and back: Best resources for space and solar-system study

One of the "learning kicks" we've been on for more than six months now has been outer space.

Sarah's been a longtime Star Wars fan (and recently became interested in Star Trek). Then, when a church we attended for a while showed a clip of Buzz Aldrin taking communion on the moon (which I wrote about back in July), she started wanting to know more and more about lunar exploration.

So on one of our trips to the library, we checked out a Neil Armstrong biography and read it cover-to-cover together. That was over the span of a couple months, but Sarah's interest didn't wane.

Disclosure: This post does have some affiliate links, which will make me a little bit of money if you choose to purchase any of the products I've mentioned through them. I only link to things we legitimately use and recommend, so if you see such a link, it's because we really do believe in the book or item!

So we started digging around for more solar system stuff, but Sarah kept beating us to the punch! The Mars Rover Curiosity's trip was news to me - but not to Sarah, who'd started following the rover on Twitter. The same was true for the SpaceX Dragon mission - Sarah was the one who told me about it!

But with some help from Homeschool AV Guy, aka my wonderful husband, Chris, we found some great space resources, especially related to the U.S. moon missions.

We're still pursuing this topic, so I fully expect our list of resources to grow. But here's a look at some of the many highlights of our study so far. I hope this will prove a great starting point - or diving-deeper point - for anyone interested in learning more about our solar system!

Books

Neil Armstrong (Sterling Biography series) - This was the book that started it all for us! It's a great read for anywhere from a third-grade through an eighth-grade level.
Space: A Visual Encyclopedia - This is one of the DK Books series, and it's great for browsing and researching.
13 Planets: The Latest View of the Solar System - A National Geographic title, which means of course Sarah loves it!
Solar System: A Visual Exploration of All the Planets, Moons and Other Heavenly Bodies that Orbit Our Sun - I'd actually browsed through another book in this series about the periodic table of elements, and this one looks even cooler. The imagery includes both photographs and computer simulations and is phenomenal. Kids will love it, and there's detailed info for adults or older students to read.
There's No Place Like Space! - Great for younger kids, this is a factual book from the Cat in the Hat Learning Library series.
Midnight on the Moon - This fictional book is part of the incredibly educational Magic Tree House Series (it's Book 8, if you're checking your library shelves). Accompanying it is Magic Tree House Fact Tracker: Space, a nonfiction companion. I can't say enough about this series, which Sarah loved when she was younger!
This Place Has No Atmosphere by Paula Danziger - I read this fiction book when I was about middle-school age, and recently reread it. It's a fascinating middle-grade or even high-school read - and surprisingly informative about what life might be like on the moon in the future!
Buzz Aldrin's autobiography, Magnificent Desolation - This is a book more geared toward adults or older teens. It's a fascinating read that I really enjoyed, more about Aldrin's life AFTER the moon.

Movies/TV

From the Earth to the Moon - This is the HBO miniseries documenting the U.S. missions into space and particularly those surrounding the moon landings. It is phenomenal. Tom Hanks is executive producer and episode-intro narrator. (Also interesting: The episode intro for each includes audio of John F. Kennedy's speech Sept. 12, 1962 speech promising we will go to the moon in that decade, which Sarah absolutely loves and has memorized parts of.)
Apollo 13 - I had never seen this from start to finish, believe it or not, but I'm incredibly glad I did. While there are a few notable liberties - like, you know, "Houston, we have a problem," this is pretty close to the story of what actually happened. Watching this and then watching the accompanying episode of From the Earth to the Moon was a neat study in comparisons.
The Right Stuff - This film is based upon the first astronauts, the Mercury Seven team (including Gus Grissom, Deke Slayton and John Glenn). We're slated to watch this next!
In the Shadow of the Moon - We picked up a copy of this incredibly cheaply at a book and movie outlet on our Rehoboth Beach vacation. It includes interviews with most of the astronauts who walked on the moon, though notably not Neil Armstrong. Seeing these men later in life is fascinating in its own right!
For All Mankind - This film from the Criterion series is a documentary about all 24 men ever to land on the moon, told in their own voices. We haven't watched this yet, but Chris raves about it and it's in our queue!
Cosmos - This is the Carl Sagan miniseries originally broadcast on PBS, probably one of the most noted pieces of space television ever aired.
The Planets - This is one of the BBC Films documentary series, and if you've never seen those, you're missing out. We have several of their box sets and they're fantastic; this one included.
A Trip to the Moon - This early science-fiction silent film imaged what it would be like to travel from the earth to the moon. Amazing to compare what was and wasn't accurate!
Spacecraft Films - Here, you can literally get every minute of footage taken on the various space missions in DVD form here. GREAT for aficionados!

Toys and games

Sarah is saving up to try to buy some of the larger space Lego sets. Some of her favorites:

Lego Shuttle Expedition
Lego Space Center
Lego Education Space and Airport Set
Lego Space Shuttle
Lego Space Moon Buggy (This one wins the "in our price range" award, and in fact we have a couple!)

Another just-for-fun favorite has been I Spy Universe, a Nintendo DS game Sarah bought when she first got her 3DS.

Music

Many thanks to the Christian Unschooling group on Facebook for a TON of great suggestions here! NOT all of these are appropriate for all ages, though Sarah has heard them all. Some are loosely about space, some use space as a metaphor for other topics, and some are factually-based "learning songs." If you have 45 minutes or so, I really do recommend listening to the Holst orchestral suite, as that's one I played several movements from in high school band and it really does speak to you about the nature of each planet as you hear them.

Places to visit

NASA's Wallops Island flight facility - You might remember we almost sort of visited this when we went to Chincoteague, Virginia, this summer. We hope to return in the spring for a tour! As I mentioned in that post, we'd found a lot of info on chances to watch rocket launches there.
Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum - This was a big part of our summer visit to Washington, D.C. Even if you can't go in person (and I highly recommend it; admission is free), there are great online tours via the website.
Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum Udvar-Hazy Center at Dulles Airport - We didn't get to see this on our D.C. trip, unfortunately, but it is actually home to some of the larger space vehicles that don't fit in the main collection. We're planning to go back for this one!
Locations of the four decomissioned space shuttles - If you're able to go to California, New York or Florida, you can see space shuttles Endeavor, Enterprise and Atlantis respectively. Space Shuttle Discovery is now at the Udvar-Hazy Center! (Each of those other locations has an accompanying space museum, not the least of which is the Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral, Florida. Those are probably awesome, but I can't speak to them as I'm more of an East Coaster!)

Online resources

Astronomy Calendar Connections - This resource over at 1+1+1+1 is something we used over the summer and loved. A fact a day about space!
How far away is the moon? This is a Veritasium video - an awesome science series!
Star size comparison - This video shows how our sun ranks among other celestial bodies and is pretty amazing.
Several space unit study boards on Pinterest - There are literally hundreds of great ideas here; I could spend all day sharing just those.
NASA eBook features - Generally designed for older students or adults, these are digital guides published by NASA on everything from shuttle re-entry to the development of pressurized space suits. They're academic-style treatises, but incredible information from the original source.
NASA education home page - This includes a catalog of resources for educators, from CDs to DVDs and more.
The Project Apollo archive - Tons of photos and more here from the Apollo space missions.
Mars Curiosity Rover home page - This whole site is great, but their resources for students include a lot of especially cool things, like Rover free printables and help for research reports.