Monday 25 January 2010

Groovy Greeks and DIY

Well it's been a slow day here. Apart from a visit to the Ancient Greeks this morning (lapbooking the Mycenaeans to be precise), the day has just drifted. I was sceptical about the lapbook approach, thinking it all seemed rather contrived, but it is a good way of presenting information in small bite-sized chunks. Ds1 is more reluctant to participate, but it seems an effective - and painless - way of learning for ds2. (Dd was keen to do one on dogs, but her attention lapsed after colouring in the first picture lol. ). And I'm learning too: if we did anything on Greeks at school it must have completely bypassed me.

We have a box set of cheap DVDs on Ancient Greece and played the first one in the set last week. They're not the most exciting documentaries (I think we've been spoiled by some good BBC ones), but from the things that ds2 has been mentioning today he's taken on snippets of the information. We always find this with DVDs and tv documentaries, how much the kids take on and how much they remember. Far more than me most of the time! I confess that I bite my tongue when parents say that they don't let their kids watch dvds or access the computer. I know it's a personal preference, but if you have children who struggle to access information in books, or who learn in a very visual or auditory way then DVDs/tv documentaries/the web can be such a wonderful resource. It's a shame to dismiss them completely.

[Thinking of this, Ds1 answered a question on the programme 'Eggheads' a few days ago. It was about a particular dynasty. When he answered correctly I asked him how he knew. 'Oh don't you remember, we did all about that when we did China last year.' Erhum. Let's just say he has a better memory than me.]
Over the weekend we were busy doing some house things.
Dh trimmed a shelf we found in the garage and then translated a dog template that I'd made into a wooden bookend.

Here the kids are helping to put up the brackets.


And here's the MDF scottie dog after his second coat of paint.

And the finished result (the wire going underneath are dd's Christmas lights that stay up all year round):
In the meantime I was solving the dog overcrowding situation and making one of these:


Which allowed for some rehoming:

5 comments:

Maire said...

Love the dog hangers and the bookshelves and totally agree about audio visual learning.

Lynn said...

"I bite my tongue when parents say that they don't let their kids watch dvds or access the computer. I know it's a personal preference, but if you have children who struggle to access information in books, or who learn in a very visual or auditory way then DVDs/tv documentaries/the web can be such a wonderful resource."

With you and Maire on this!
I have been amazed how much info Emily retains from Horrible histories DVD's or any Movie that she watches.

I found an online fun quiz on the Simpsons.At the other end of the scale to history :-)She got many more questions right than Alan! xx

Carol said...

I must admit that I think TV can be a great resource when used discriminately. News triggers discussions - eg recently about the Haiti earthquake which led on to a bit of geography and geology. Many of the documentaries are alot more "current" than alot of books to be found in libraries....I could go on! I guess it's about balance and learning from all sources - learning to be critical and not accepting everything as gospel....
OK it's confession time now...... my daughter learnt to recognise numbers 0 - 10 by the time she was 2 from watching "Numberjacks" on cbeebies! Can't say I had anything to do with it :-(

Big mamma frog said...

Yep my kids have learnt from all sorts of sources; even programmes like Top Gear have provided snippets of information that get assimilated and come out late when I least expect it! Of course not all the information is good or factually correct, but that in itself is a discussion - the 'don't believe everything you see/read/hear' discussion. And we've had some great discussions about advertising too, about what advertising is, how it works, why it works,and why we should question it. It's all learning in progress.

Jacqui said...

Hi - thanks for your visit.Yeah a bit worried that the thornless thorn might be a bit too tender, but we'll give it a go. Agree with others here. My (schooled) dyslexic son passed his History Higher by watching the History channel and discussing stuff with us.