Creative Hands on Learning

I attended public school from Kindergarten through part of 9th grade. During those years, I had some good teachers, some bad teachers, and two fabulous teachers. My kindergarten teacher, Mrs. Andrews, was amazing and I have wonderful memories of all the fun things we did in her class. Each week we focused on a different letter of the alphabet and one of my favorite memories from her class was on letter D week. Mrs. Andrews came into class dressed up as a baker with doughnuts in sandwich bags pinned all over her apron. We also got to go on a field trip to a bakery to see how doughnuts and other goodies were made. Some other memories I have of Kindergarten are making stone soup, show and tell, our class guinea pigs, craft projects, making ants on a log and milkshakes in the cooking corner, and the end of the year class picnic at Mrs. Andrew's house. She was a memorable teacher.

My fifth grade teacher, Mrs. Hoffman, was my other favorite teacher. She was beautiful, kind, and very creative. While studying Native Americans, we built hogans out of popsicle sticks and wove mini blankets. Mrs. Hoffman also had us make up our own Native American names and then we wrote stories on pretend bark describing what our Native American names stood for. I gave myself the name of Sun Dancer because I loved tap and ballet. While learning about the legal system, our class put on a "Jack and the Beanstalk" play where the Giant was suing Jack for trespassing and stealing. We got to perform our play at the town court house. I played the judge and my two best friends were the lawyers representing Jack and the Giant.

When I think about what kind of teacher I want to be to my children at home, I often draw inspiration from Mrs. Andrews and Mrs. Hoffman. I like to include plenty of creative hands on learning projects because I know these are the things my kids will remember years down the road. I have posted photos of our latest projects throughout this post. I like to keep the projects simple and use materials we already have around the house. We recently finished up our World History section on the Greeks. We made mini coil pots out of fimo clay which both my kids loved doing. The pots only took 10 minutes to bake in the oven and the kids have had fun using them for play cooking and as a place to store little treasures. Right now we are learning about Ancient China so we used our play dough to make Terracotta Warriors from the Ch'in Dynasty and also a replica of the Great Wall. Jacob was especially fascinated by the story of the Terracotta Warriors and we found a great book for kids called The Emperor's Silent Army.

Today we learned about Scythian and Mongol nomads. The Usborne Book of World History had instructions for an applique craft and we decided to give it a try this afternoon. We simply cut out red felt hearts and stitched them onto a larger square piece of white felt. The kids wanted to add a button to their mini quilts which was fine with me even though it was not historically accurate. Everyone needs to learn how to sew buttons on in this day and age! Jacob is getting much better at sewing and did most of the project himself. Rosa needed more help but she is catching on to the concept of sewing and never lost interest throughout the whole project. I want both my kids to know how to sew at least in a basic manner so they can repair their own clothes and such. I spent too much time in college helping my male friends mend their clothes and backpacks and I don't want my own children to be lacking this skill.

Last but not least, Jacob has been loving the K'nex Super Structures 50 Model Building Set he got for Christmas. He has built all the models in the book that came with the set and has branched off to build his own impressive creations. The train was Jacob's own idea and built with no help from us. Jacob definitely has a talent for designing things and he is already way ahead of his parents in this department. I highly recommend this K'nex set if you have a child who loves to build. Jacob built his own Parthenon out of K'nex while we were studying about Ancient Greece and he often builds things related to what we are studying with no prompting from me. This is the kind of enthusiasm and creative learning which I love to see happening in our home. I want Jacob to look back at his time homeschooling as an exciting time of creative learning and discovery just as I look back with fond memories on my time with Mrs. Andrews and Mrs. Hoffman.

Homemade Stage and Puppet Theater

I was recently reading the book The Creative Family: How to Encourage Imagination and Nurture Family Connections. This book had a wonderful idea on how to make an inexpensive theater stage using a tension rod and long curtains or bed sheets. I realized we had an extra shower curtain rod and some long curtains in the house which would make a perfect theater stage. The shower rod was long enough to fit between our kitchen and living room. The couch in the living room became a comfortable place to sit and watch the plays put on by Jacob and Rosa. Jacob made up a cute play about a king and a fairy who had to defend their kingdom from a terrible dragon. Jacob also came up with the idea to make a back drop from a large sheet of paper which he clipped to the theater curtain.

Later that day, Jacob dictated his play to me and I wrote it out for him on primary handwriting paper. He then copied his play and added illustrations for his writing/handwriting lesson over the next several days. We printed off paper with primary handwriting lines and a place for illustrations from Los Banos Homeschoolers. This is great paper to use when your younger child wants to write their own story with illustrations.

Our stage was easily converted into a puppet theater with the addition of a blanket draped over our two kitchen stools. The total cost of our stage and puppet theater was $0 and it was easy to take down and put away when the kids lost interest in it. The Creative Family book, where I got this idea, has lots of other great ideas for nurturing creativity in your children and it is a book I would definitely recommend.

Amazing Building Toy: Kapla

Jacob loves building toys such a Lego's, K'nex, and Lincoln Logs. My latest discovery in building toys is Kapla planks. Kapla planks are precision cut so that each plank is exactly the same size and weight. This allows children and adults to build amazing creations from their imagination or from instructions provided in Kapla books. We have a basic block set but I wanted something that would take block building to the next level. We have added Kapla planks to our wish list thanks to all the wonderful reviews I have read. Kapla planks are more stable then other types of building blocks. Their design allows a young builder to create bigger and more complicated construction projects such as bridges, huge towers, and replicas of famous architecture like the Eiffel tower. Kapla planks would be a great Christmas present for your budding engineer or architect.

According to Wikipedia, "Kapla planks are very well known in Europe and a huge Eiffel Tower made of thousands of Kapla planks is currently exhibited in the new Cité de l'Architecture in Paris. Kapla has also shown at the Louvre and at the Children's Museum of Manhattan. Kapla building is meant to enable creativity and expression. There is no right or wrong way to build. There is no glue, no snaps, no interlocking parts - the planks are simply stacked and they remain in place thanks to gravity, creativity, and imagination."

The blocks are made from safe, non-toxic pine wood and are certified green from renewable forests of Marine pine near the Bordeaux region of France. What I like best about them, besides their building versatility, is their small size. We don't have room for a huge block set in our house even if we wanted one. Kapla planks store easily in a box or bin.

If you want to see some great pictures of what you can build with Kapla planks check out the Build Something Cool blog. You can find a number of Kapla sets and other cool building toys available through Amazon.com at the Kids Love Learning Store. The Kapla website is another good place to see examples of what you can build with Kapla planks.

Castle Update and Fun with Playmobil

There was quite a bit of interest in the Melissa and Doug Princess Castle I wrote about a few days ago. Well, Amazon must have heard the buzz because they have raised the price of the castle to $72.99 with free shipping. The Medieval Castle is still holding at $67.99. If you want either of these castles for Christmas, I would recommend ordering soon. I have learned from previous experience that popular well priced items on Amazon sell out quickly before Christmas.

I wanted to share some of the Playmobil sets that go perfectly with these two castles. Rosa got the Royal Bedroom, Royal Nursery, and the Dream Garden Super Set for her birthday. Both Rosa and Jacob have spent hours playing with these. You can see more royal sets here. I am very grateful for Playmobil toys because they have entertained my children for many hours while I have gotten things done around the house. My children have made up a variety of stories using their Playmobil figures and they have combined them with their legos, lincoln logs, k'nex, blocks, and wooden train set. I will post a picture below of what Jacob's room looks like when he combines all these toys to create his own make believe world. I love seeing his imagination at work until it is time to vacuum.

The Playmobil knight sets have also been a hit with Jacob. His favorite sets so far are the Treasure Transport, the Attack Tower, and the Attack Cannon. Jacob also has a number of Playmobil pirate sets. The Corsair Pirate Ship is an excellent deal at $29.99. You can check out more pirate sets through Amazon here. My children are very fortunate to have a generous great aunt and great grandmother who buy them most of their Playmobil sets.

We began collecting the Playmobil Roman sets when Jacob bought the Roman Commander's Tent with his own money. He had won the money by catching a pig at our local fair's pig scramble. I am beginning to think we have enough Playmobil but Jacob just loves it. We are studying ancient Rome later this year in our World History unit study. I know Jacob will have great fun acting out some of the Roman stories we read with his Playmobil Roman figures.

If you do get Playmobil toys for your child, I would highly recommend buying medium size plastic bins to store the pieces in. We have only lost a few pieces because I require my children to pick up the smaller Playmobil toys at the end of the day and put all the little pieces in the appropriate bins. If any Playmobil pieces are left out, I pick them up myself and put them away downstairs. The child who lost their pieces can earn them back by doing extra chores for me.

Learning Through Creative Play

Last week was my daughter, Rosa's, birthday. I love shopping for children's toys and I am always on the lookout for toys that will help develop my children's creativity and imagination. Research studies have shown that high school seniors and college students who score high in creativity do better academically.

According to an article titled "Fostering Creativity" in Child magazine, "Creative play is the foundation of critical thinking, of making life meaningful. It is essential to child growth and development, and we're interfering with it in ways that are incredibly worrisome." This article and other books I have read make the point that push button electronic toys marketed as "smart toys" may actually be doing more harm than good. A child who plays with only push button electronic toys is not developing creativity. Instead, these types of toys are teaching children to become passive absorbers.

We have a few push button electronic toys in our house that were given to us. I don't believe having a few of these types of toys around is harmful as long as the majority of your toys don't fall into this category. I have found that my children quickly loose interest in the electronic toys anyway and they basically just sit on our shelves. The toys which are played with the most in our home have been building blocks, legos, k'nex, lincoln logs, playmobil toys, dolls with their clothes and accessories, a wooden train set, a play kitchen, and other imaginative and building toys.

I found a wonderful wooden castle for Rosa's birthday priced under $65 with free shipping through Amazon.com. Both of my children love playmobil toys and my son has a playmobil castle. Rosa has been wanting a castle of her own and the playmobil magic castle is around $140 which was more than we wanted to spend. I had also read in reviews that the Playmobil castle comes apart easily and we have had this problem with our son's playmobil castle. The castle in the pictures above is a Melissa and Doug castle and it was a wonderful deal. All of Rosa's playmobil figures and furniture fit in the castle and it is very sturdy and well made. I was really excited to get it for less than $65 because it costs $99 at Target. If your little girl or boy is wanting a castle for birthday or Christmas, then I highly recommend the Melissa and Doug castles. They have a similar castle for boys. Over the next month or so I will be sharing some of our other favorite toys that help develop creativity and imagination.

"Fostering Creativity," Child, September 2006, p. 68

Learning Through Dress Up

When I was growing up, one of my friends had a dress up trunk which I thought was the coolest thing. There were old lady wigs, long dresses, high heel shoes, gaudy beads, and big clip on earrings. I wanted my own children to experience the dress up fun I had as a child so I set out to stock a dress up bin for them. Their bin is full of old Halloween costumes, hats, dresses, funky clothing, purses, beads, and lots of other stuff. Both Jacob and Rosa enjoy dressing up as different characters and then acting out whoever that character is. Some of the characters they enjoy dressing up as include a chef, king, queen, princess, knight, pirate, tiger, lion, ballerina, fireman, etc. I love how dressing up really sparks their imagination.

There are many inexpensive resources for dress up clothes. Goodwill, Salvation Army, or any other second hand store is a great place to find stuff. Large pieces of cloth cut into 4 foot by 4 foot squares make wonderful capes. Jacob's favorite cape is a square cut from my husband's old purple graduation gown. This gown had been saved by my husband's grandparents who he lived with at the time and it was returned to him a few years ago. The purple cape has been around for a couple of years and it is the item most frequently used in the dress up bin. My son likes to secure the cape in front with a small to medium size binder clip or small chip clip. My clips are always disappearing around the house and Rosa will come to me with her pink cape searching for some type of clip to secure it with. I like having the kids use clips because they come off quite easily so the cape does not pose a choking hazard if it gets caught on something. I really need to go out and buy a big box of binder clips because we can never seem to find a clip when we need one.