Wednesday, July 18, 2012

Murder, Mystery, and Mayhem, Oh My!



One of the classes I'm working on for fall involves exploring beginning logic topics using detective stories, among other things.  The children will be reading from Illustrated Junior Libraries The Mysteries of Sherlock Holmes, and The Father Brown Reader, Stories from Chesterton, adapted by Nancy Carpentier Brown.

Mysteries of Sherlock Holmes     Product Details


http://www.amazon.com/Mysteries-Sherlock-Holmes-Illustrated-Library/dp/0448409577/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1342621848&sr=8-1&keywords=illustrated+junior+library+the+mysteries+of+sherlock+holmes

http://www.amazon.com/The-Father-Brown-Reader-Chesterton/dp/0976638673

We will practice using deductive (or inductive) reasoning skills as they read.  I am creating info on some things for them to look for in their reading each week, and also using some of the handouts from the Scholastic site regarding detective stories:

http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/lesson-plan/exploring-mystery-genre

In class, we'll be using A Case of Red Herrings and the Mind Bender Warm-Ups books to train our brains.  I'll be sending home some of the puzzles from Mind Bender A1 through 4 for them to work on as we move through the course, as well as providing links to online logic games and puzzles.

A CASE OF RED HERRINGS CRITICAL THINKING BOOKS BOOKS A1 - 1     


http://www.amazon.com/Case-Red-Herrings-Mysteries-Questioning/dp/089455462X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1342622018&sr=1-1&keywords=a+case+of+red+herrings  (this is an updated version of what I own....)

http://www.amazon.com/Benders-Grades-Deductive-Thinking-Anniversary/dp/B003ZOLGZG/ref=sr_1_7?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1342622165&sr=1-7&keywords=mind+bender+warm+up

http://www.amazon.com/Mind-Benders-Deductive-Thinking-Skills/dp/B004RHLX30/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1342622220&sr=1-2&keywords=mind+bender+A1%2C+A2%2C+A3  (these are an updated version of what I own....)

We'll also be discussing elements found within the Bluedorns books The Thinking Toolbox and
The Fallacy Detective.

       

http://www.amazon.com/Thinking-Toolbox-Thirty-five-Lessons-Reasoning/dp/0974531510/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1342622308&sr=1-1&keywords=the+thinking+toolbox+thirty-five+lessons+that+will+build+your+reasoning+skills

http://www.amazon.com/Fallacy-Detective-Thirty-Eight-Recognize-Reasoning/dp/0974531537/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1342622357&sr=1-1&keywords=the+fallacy+detective+thirty-eight+lessons+on+how+to+recognize+bad+reasoning


We may dabble in some more mathematical forms of logic using the game of SET and The aMAZEing Labyrinth:

Set


http://www.amazon.com/SET-Enterprises-100-Set/dp/B00000IV34/ref=sr_1_1?s=toys-and-games&ie=UTF8&qid=1342623376&sr=1-1&keywords=SET+game

Ravensburger Labyrinth Anniversary Edition Family Game

http://www.amazon.com/Ravensburger-Labyrinth-Anniversary-Edition-Family/dp/B004G8QNO4/ref=sr_1_cc_2?s=aps&ie=UTF8&qid=1342623190&sr=1-2-catcorr&keywords=the+amazing+labyrinth+game+ravensberger

I also have a Wishbone game, a Crime Lab kit, a Fingerprint kit, and other logic related puzzles we can delve into as we go along....

Regarding Sherlock Holmes, I'll be using these Dover resources as well:





So that's my idea for studying logic this fall... how do you like it?

Regena
















One of my Culture Swap Packages Arrived in the Phillipines!

Yeah!  One down and two to go.  I hope everyone receives their packages intact.  Read about it here:

http://gensanmommyjournals.blogspot.com/2012/07/worldwide-culture-swap-group-62-from.html?showComment=1342614742010#c2325971543024728028

And if you'd like to participate in a cultural exchange, you can find information about that here:

http://www.worldwidecultureswap.com/

I will caution you to read carefully their cautions about attempting to protect yourself from getting burned, as it has evidently happened to a lot of folks participating....

Regena

Tuesday, July 17, 2012

A New Edition of The Carnival of Homeschooling is up....

I have no idea why I can't seem to add gadgets or widgits or whatever they're called to my blog, but I always get a message that the link is illegal in some way, so I've sort of given up trying....  Anyway, I've known quite a few homeschoolers over the years who post to The Carnival of Homeschooling, and they always seem to provide good information.  Their current issue would be especially good for those just getting into the business of homeschooling, so at least I can provide the link:

http://whyhomeschool.blogspot.com/2012/07/carnival-of-homeschool-week-342-change.html

Enjoy!

Regena

Monday, July 16, 2012

Geography in a Box....

Here is one of the projects I'm working on this summer.  I've been creating Montessori-type geography boxes to use with a class I'm going to be teaching this fall (Intrepid Explorers):


Here are some of the books I'll be using with the class:  A very old UNICEF's Festival Book that I received as a child; Dover's Around the World coloring book; a couple of small DK books that came to us in kids' meals at Chick-fil-A (Children of Europe, from Children Just Like Me, and Kids' London, from DK Travel Guides); The Igloo, Charlotte and David Yue; Africa for Kids, Harvey Croze; Usborne Stories From Around the World, Heather Amory; Children from Australia to Zimbabwe, Maya Ajmera and Anna Rhesa Versola; Children Just Like Me: Celebrations!  Barnabas and Anabel Kindersley.  Additionally, I'm using map work pages taken from old Instructional Fair (T. S. Dennison), McGraw Hill, and Weekly Reader Map Skills books.  I've had these copies around for years, so don't know the names of the books that would include them, sorry!  As I used these books with my boys at home, I would make a copy for my master file of a particular map page that I thought I could use with co-op geography classes, so these came from a variety of different books.  I'm using mostly things related to entire continents, such as an "Explore Antarctica" page or and "Explore Europe" page.  I know that the things from McGraw Hill are from their Complete Book of Maps and Geography, from the back, where the general work is for older children.  This includes work on latitude and longitude, etc.  They now have out a new version of the book that includes stickers and a poster, but I would assume the content inside is still very similar:





This is a heavy cardboard suitcase type box that came with Kindermusic stuff years ago.  I painted it and used some of my cultural stickers to decorate it.  I'm using it to hold the passports, stickers, etc. that we'll use each week.



And here is what's inside.  I got the passports (which come with stickers), cultural stickers, and world maps with animal stickers (showing all 7 continents) from Oriental Trading.  Some of the other stickers I got at my local parent-teacher store....




Antarctica - not much for this box.  I have a couple of books to use, as well as some websites, snowflake stickers, and they'll be doing a small lapbook project which contains mostly information on penguins, the primary residents of the land in Antarctica....  The books are:  Super Cool Science: South Pole Stations Past, Present, and Future, Sandra Markle; and The Last Frontier: Antarctica, Geoffrey T. Williams.  One of the websites is:  http://www.discoverfrance.net/Colonies/Antarctic_Treaty.shtml



Australia - I have some stickers and continent shaped maps that I got from Oriental Trading Company several years ago.  I looked again this year but don't see them offered now.  I have divided up a set of Nat Geo geography cards according to continent.  I have some flags of the world pencils to hand out, as well as leis to represent Polynesia.  There's a thunder tube to listen to, and they'll make a small koala to take away as a souvenir of our trip....  I also have a small map quiz for them:


The Australian map quiz page I got from the internet does not have a link listed on it, but here is another one that might prove useful:




This is a boomerang that I got for my older son when he was very little.  I like the Aboriginal art on it, although we've never managed to get it to work (it IS supposed to be a working model, LOL)....  I have some Australian prints that I'm getting laminated right now which will show other features of the continent, as well as more Aboriginal art examples....


Europe box


A Spanish lady and a pair of Dutch dolls I recently picked up on a yard sale morning.  I have examples of various coins from different countries that we've collected over the years.  I'll be handing out flags of Europe key chains to the kids (Oriental Trading) and also shown here are a couple of small puzzles that we got in Scotland for our oldest when he was very young (badger and native cow)....


Here's more of the things we'll be using for Europe, including cards from the Nat Geo set (which I don't think is in production any longer as I've looked for more of these); a tape of Celtic music; some landmarks from the Safari Ltd. Around the World Toob (purchased at Michael's); map work, etc.



I am including an Arctic region box, as well as the continent boxes.  I have some notebooking elements to use, more snowflake stickers, and the various items found in the Safari Ltd. Arctic Toob:





South America - more geography cards, map work, a book on Tierra del Fuego, a CD by Andes Manta (they have songs up on You Tube, also), small clay ocarinas (Peru) to give the kids that I got from this place:


...and the animals from Safari Ltd.'s Rainforest Toob:





I found a Mexican marionette during my yard saling; I also have in this box some soapstone Inuit carvings to represent Canada.  I have tapes of Caribbean and Mexican music, as well as some dulcimer music.  The small yellow boxes you see are Guatemalan worry dolls that I plan to hand out to the children, which I got from here:




More geography cards from the Nat Geo set; a couple of Toob items related to North America; some Canadian coins....


I have various U.S. related stickers and some info received in a geography exchange from a family in Ohio (who also sent things from their family home state of Oregon). 

I'm still awaiting some geography exchange items from Africa and Asia, so I'll post pictures of those boxes later, when I can hopefully include those items....

Stay tuned for more!

Regena
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