March 23rd, 2010

The Shift to My Niche: Ask Me a Question

I have had a blog since 2003. I have been writing on the Internet about my life in one capacity or another for seven years now and quite frankly, lately I have had to force myself to write. Truth be told, I came very close to shutting this blog down completely when something interesting happened. I listened to my husband and friends who told me to write about Homeschooling.

So I am shifting my writing on this blog to focus on Homeschooling and Educational Travel. Please feel free to ask me any questions as I would love to answer them in an upcoming blog post.

July 25th, 2009

JumpStart Your Child’s Interest in Learning

As a homeschooling mom, I am often looking for educational aids that my daughter will find interesting and will give her me the opportunity to track her progress. I was recently given the opportunity to review JumpStart Virtual World, an online and CD-based  3-D gaming world children ages 3-10, created by  Knowledge Adventurewho is known for the award winning JumpStart and Master Blaster series of educational games.

There are currently two worlds which provide different games and activities in reading, writing, critical skills, math, and art. StoryLand, for preschoolers offers children the opportunity to designs their own homes, read-along with stories and play games like Concentration (which encourages memory),  sorting items based on letters, shapes, and colors, arranging items based on size, and completing various puzzles.

While JumpStart has been in beta since December 2008, there are many additions to it’s world. Adventure Land, for children ages 5-8, includes a number of new games in which “kids are invited to explore a mysterious lost island off the coast of JumpStart.” On the island, children will have to survives missions and explore a number of mysterious discoveries using a combinations of speed, logic, and problem-solving to outsmart the villains determined to thwart their attempts at success. And there is so much more to the world. There are arcade games, music and videos, fun slides, space games and more.

So what do I think of the game? It’s amazing. The online worlds and the the cd-based games offer numerous opportunities for parents to engage their children in learning. It is proof the learning does not have to be tedious and stressful. My only complaint is that my daughter, 3, has a difficult time using the mouse to play the games on her own and gets frustrated. However, because their on-screen characters can wander around the land, I try to use this “rest time” to allow her to learn the use the mouse and the arrow keys.

My daughter absolutely loves this game. We limit her use of TV and video games to about 30-40 minutes a week and while I know that not every game and TV show can be educational, I love that she enjoys this educational game more than any other that we have tried. She loves sliding down the huge water slide and into the water and we spend a lot of time doing this repeatedly. She also enjoys the memory and letter-recognition games.

Take a look at the videos below to see my daughter playing at JumpStart.com.

Creating character

Exploring JumpStart.com

Exploring Storyland

May 15th, 2009

Product Review: Music Lessons from Trebellina

Trebellina is a wonderful CD that introduces and teaches children ages 1-4 music. Unlike many CD’s it is not simply singing and bright colors- it has purpose and focus. From the start, my daughter was mesmerized. She sang along with the notes and she danced as hard as she could. Thanks to the “continuous play” option on the DVD menu, I was able to put it on multiple times to soothe her “more music” cries. 

Trebellina and her friends Rock Bassey, Rest, Rhythmo and the Notes teach musical theory and concepts in a way that keeps children engaged and interested. The animation is filled with bright colors and is not too elaborate that it takes away from what is being said.

My daughter has always liked music, a preference that she inherits from me. I play piano by ear and while I also read music, I have always believed that learning the notes is the most difficult part of learning the piano. However, Trebellina tries to teach the notes of the treble cliff as well as attempting to teach pitch. Each note sings its name and my daughter sings in reply. for her, Trebellina is a fun way to sing and make noise .

In addition, the instrumental interludes includes the use of different instruments which are all introduced to the viewer. From maracas to bongos, Trebellina is packed with a nice range of instruments, sounds, and rhythms.

Here is my daughter dancing along to the music and playing her imaginary instruments that Trebellina introduced to her.

January 7th, 2009

Homeschooling: a continued discussion

I was recently interviewed by NYC Education Examiner Lorri Giovinco-Harte regarding my experiences being Homeschooled and how those experiences shaped my views of teaching. Read the interview here.

I am not going to say much here because I really want you to read the interview, however, there are some additional points that I would like to make.

Firstly, I believe that any parent who can make the time to homeschool can do so  successfully if he/she is also willing to seek out information. There is so much information that we as taxpayers do not know, but homeschools do not have to be expensive. In fact, if you pay PS taxes, you may be able to take advantage of a lot of educational resources offered by your district.

Secondly, I do not believe that all people who enter the teaching field are good teachers. However, I do believe that so many good teachers don’t reach their full potential because they are overwhelmed and under-supported. If the teachers feel this way, then how must the students? It’s a dangerous situation that could be controlled if the focus of Public Education were actually to educate.

And finally, while I believe Homeschooling is amazing, I do think that it is important for children to be given exposure to traditional academia if possible. I have known a few people who were homeschooled straight through HS and had problems adjusting to college- sitting in class and finding their places in a traditional classroom setting. This is not to say that a child can be homeschooled and go straight to college with no problem. Just know that every child is different and some do better than others.

With that said, go read the article!