Techie Homeschoolers

Finally we have put together NyGirl’s power point presentation into our VoiceThread account. 

I will add, she did this project completely on her own (after a few lessons from me on how to create the Power Point slides).  She also took off on the remaining voice narrations after showing her initially how to do the first one in Voice Thread.  It was a fun project, and I think we’ll be doing a good bit more of these kinds of online presentations for our upcoming lessons.

Take a look (and don’t forget to press the play button):

Enjoy!

We are still studying the solar system, and NyGirl has been enjoying some fun computer projects to show what she’s been learning.

Here is an image she created using Tux Paint.

In case you haven’t checked out Tux Paint, you might want to consider downloading this free computer art tool for kids.

Here’s a small excerpt from their site about what their software does:

Tux Paint is a free, award-winning drawing program for children ages 3 to 12 (for example, preschool and K-6). It combines an easy-to-use interface, fun sound effects, and an encouraging cartoon mascot who guides children as they use the program.

I have had a blast using this with my daughter.  I may have to create a video  showing some of its features and how we’ve used it in our school.

This solar system project is really coming together with all of the online tools we are finding to help solidify her knowledge of each planet.  In my next post, I’ll attempt to show how we create a slideshow in VoiceThread using the Power Point we created on planets.

Until then…

Voicethread is an excellent tool I just found online, as I’ve stated in one of my last posts…I plan to use it for NyGirl’s study on the Solar System to help her present her work.

Here’s a video on the VoiceThread website which shows what it does: http://voicethread.com/#home.b409.i848804

Essentially, you can upload documents or images your student has created (or that you the teacher have created) into a sort of slideshow, and create a voiceover narration for each slide. Then others comment on your slides and documents either by voice or text.

I am so excited that I want to create my first VoiceThread right now, but I am waiting until NyGirl has created most of her slides on the planets in Power Point first. The cool thing about VoiceThread is that it accepts different formats of uploads, or you can find images through the New York Public Library (integrated already in the system).
The possibilities are endless for educators. We can have our students use it for online projects, helping them to develop presentations that get “reviewed” worldwide. We can use them as teacher-to-teacher education, creating content that teaches others how to do things…or we can create materials online for older students to learn as well.

I am definitely looking forward to seeing how we integrate this special tool into our studies.

There is a really cool website I’ve been enjoying for a few years that takes your PDF files and converts them to flip-style online magazines or presentations.

Check out ISSUU.com.

I’ve used this for my Christian women’s ministry site, but never thought about using it to digitize ALL that paperwork we’ve accumulated during our home school.

Well…DUH!  My solution for classwork paper management was in front of me the entire time!

So I’ve recently begun a project to scrap all paper clutter and digitize nearly all of my daughter’s school work (except a few exceptional, “can’t bear to part with it” paper stuff).  All of her artwork will be not only kept in a hardbound cover at home, but digitized as well.

I’ll be sure to keep posted here at the blog about how our paper digitization goes.

Meanwhile, here’s a peak at our History, Geography, and Social Studies portfolio.  This is NyGirl’s portfolio, for grades K-1.  It doesn’t include everything we’ve done, but it shows a good bit of the paperwork we’ve completed last year.

Last week NyGirl and I worked diligently at beginning a lapbook for American Girls, the Kaya series.

To be truthful, I haven’t been much of a project-oriented, lapbooking kind of homeschool mama…as you will see in my next post (which highlights our portfolio in History from K-1 last year).  I have been in LOVE with workbooks and notebooking since Day 1, and we used the classical approach last year.  I totally dug the Well Trained Mind books and forums.  Perhaps it’s because I’m attracted to that method of learning, because I learned best that way.  But I’ve quickly discovered that my children learn in ways that I haven’t been adept at teaching…

Which served as a nice wake up call.

I can’t say I have since ditched workbooks, because I haven’t.  I still use them regularly for math (a combo of Saxon and AO Lifepacs) and Language Arts.  But I am using more hands-on methods to teach now so my kids can pick up and feel objects (our math programs always had great manipulatives, but adding more projects to other subjects like history help my daughter cement the lessons in her mind).

I really like what Mary Pride talks about in her book, when she says to “cut the twaddle”. A lot of what we parent teachers/teachers in general do is simply assign busy-work. When I had an infant/ young toddler these past 2 years, I had to learn to readjust my teaching methods for my then 1st grader to meet her needs and still be able to stay sane!  That meant (for me) assigning lots more coloring and workbook pages than I would normally have liked.  And that was okay for then.

I guess I’d like to experience doing more projects with NyGirl this year.  She is a hands-on kind of girl, but is also a great auditory and visual learner too, so I really have a lot of choice I think with presentation.

It’s not that I need to “make learning fun” for her.  She already enjoys learning.  But for my kids, I want them to appreciate the journey of exploring ideas, and coming to valid conclusions, with limited help.  Maybe this is more of a Montessori method…I’m not even sure what to call it.  And one thing I know will help aid in this process is all of the online helps and technology available to us today.

So…NyGirl really enjoyed putting together her American Girl lapbook pieces…and we’ll have to do more of this I see.

I also enjoyed creating this slideshow using Slide.com.  Lots of fun!!!!

Wow…

Okay, July was lightyears away.

Here we are in November…two days away from Thanksgiving, to be exact, and I’m JUST NOW digging up these wonderful recordings that we did way back in the summer.

But no worries…no longer shall we wait to expose the fact that we began our year-round school in early July.
While we splashed in water fountains and beaches, we had school in between. Those summer days were AWESOME.

Below are TWO recordings we did for our podcast.

1. The first one is a Memorial Day recording we did.  Very quick and simple cast.
2. The second is a lengthier cast that showcases all that NyGirl had learned that day as a wrap-up for the entire week’s lessons.

For the second cast, she wanted to watch me piece all the bells and whistles together to form a podcast.

I showed her how I:

1. grab royalty free audio clips for sound effects and jingles
2. record each individual segment
3. piece the audio clips and segments together in sound recording software to form one seamless sound file

At which point she thought I was done…then the uploading part came.

I can already tell I am going to have so much fun teaching her how to create and upload her own audios at some point. 

Until then…enjoy these 2 audio clips!

 Memorial Day: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

 Weekly Cast: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Here’s an audio lesson I had with my daughter about communities.  It was loads of fun to record this. We talked about urban areas and cities, community involvement, and leadership within communities.

We were following the Houghton Mifflin social studies unit for 2nd grade.

In this episode I kind of used the “scaffolding” approach- asking NyGirl open-ended questions, and expecting thoughtful responses.
I’m hoping that with time she’ll be prepared for public speaking (she has plenty of time!), but it never hurts to begin introducing those types of skills now.

Enjoy!

 Communities: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download