Laura Grace Weldon
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Big Topics Feed Kids’ Brains
Beach after oil spill
Just try talking about an issue of substance in front of your kids. If they’re like mine, they dig right in with questions and opinions. That’s what makes dinner table conversation so lively. No surprise, research says that family discussions about current issues boost kids’ reasoning and mathematical skills. Unlike more casual chats, conversations about social and political concerns help kids make sense of big concepts including numbers. That’s because parents tend to give examples, use real life mathematics, and ask children to think for themselves. Continue reading »
Back in 1964, sci-fi writer Arthur C. Clarke introduced a program on future predictions by stating: The only thing we can be sure of about the future is that it will be absolutely fantastic. So, if what I say to you now seems to be very reasonable then I’ll have failed completely. Only if what I tell you appears absolutely unbelievable have we any chance of visualizing the future as it really will happen. Among other developments, Clarke predicted the emergence of the Internet, telecommuting, and remote surgery. Fantastic. Just like the predictions kids gave when I asked them about the future at a multi-age homeschool program. The youngest ones jumped in eagerly… Continue reading »
Mention paper plate projects to my kids and they’re likely to scoff. That’s because well-intended adults cheerfully made them suffer through paper plate crafts when they were small. But they’re intrigued by the complexity of Bradford Hansen-Smith’s paper plate designs. Continue reading »
Stuck inside? Might as well extract some fun out of all that togetherness. For true cabin fever recovery, try something you’ve never done before. These fun ideas are excerpted from Free Range Learning by Laura Grace Weldon. Continue reading »
Hoping to spare my kids my own geography impairment, I hung a large world map in the kitchen a few years ago. But how to make that map a go-to place? I know the ho-hum status educational products achieve around here. I don’t really believe anyone sits on the toilet studying the expensive shower curtain I bought featuring SAT vocabulary words on it. I know our stack of handy reference place mats haven’t been out of the drawer in years. Yet that map is in use every day. Let me share the secret with you… Continue reading »
