Throwback Thursday: Early Education Priorities

This post was originally published in August of 2013.

Kids were tested going into Kindergarten on their knowledge of reading, Math, Science, and Social Studies. What was the best predictor of later reading and Math tests (2nd grade and up)? Science and Social Studies, in that order. Kindergarten reading was not even correlated to 2nd grade reading. Early reading certainly didn't cause higher reading scores. It is much more important to do Science with your kids than any other subject when they are young. This is great because most young kids would rather do Science than reading anyway. Everyone's happy! Also interesting is that early reading doesn't improve later Science and Social Studies scores. Since those subjects are most traditionally taught through reading, I found that interesting. So far the research hasn't figured out why, but still fascinating.

The best way to improve Math scores is going to surprise you. Fine motor skills help with Math. The larger the fine motor deficit, the more impaired later Math becomes. This is most obvious when replicating figures or models, but is true for all areas of Math. They tested many different ways to improve Math scores and the top interventions are: drawing (but not coloring), Legos, fuse beads, pattern blocks, Montessori triangles, puzzles, paper folding, blocks, knob cylinders, and Colorforms. No worksheets, flashcards, or tutoring made the list. Kids tend to shut down when forced to do something they think they aren't good at, but hand them a bucket of Legos or teach them paper folding and they are willing and successful. 

Now for something that makes me feel old. These studies weren't just done with young children. These studies went all the way through college students. At the beginning and the end of the college student study they needed a novel way to test their ability to do mental rotation. Something the kids hadn't done before and were unlikely to practice in between the two tests. They used Tetris. For those of you who are around my age you just freaked out a little that college students have never played Tetris. I was presented with this information at a conference. The group of young guys in the row in front of me spent about 5 minutes debating what Tetris is before using their smart phones to look it up. They decided it must be a game for old people. 

It's well known that the current educational policy is dill and kill. Everyone says they want their kids to have critical thinking skills. You need to know that these are learned before/after and outside school, usually through play. Music, sports, fine motor, problem solving, etc. It's also important to realize that most colleges care more about these activities than you might expect. When looking at two kids with identical grades and test scores the one that will stand out is the one who was involved in things outside of school. This is also one reasons the homeschooling movement is growing in the United States.

Throwback Thursday: Eye Droppers

This post was originally published in January of 2013.

One of our favorite fine motor activities is using eye droppers . We have a couple of different ways we use them.

Here you can see the kids have a few different colors of water and are dripping them onto coffee filters. Once these dry, they make pretty circles to hang up.  

 

  In addition to how great this is for building fine motor skills, this also offers the opportunity to experiment and talk about why the water spreads. The water spreads on the flat parts first, but slowly it will climb up the higher parts. I love when I can add in a little Science to an art project. We were also able to talk about what happens when the colors meet and start mixing.

Another fun activity that I borrowed from their Montessori school is moving all of the water from one small container to the other. These are small bowls and while at school they use glass, these are plastic. The kids may be great at taking care of their equipment, but Mommy is a klutz and tends to break or get hurt with glass. This takes a lot of patience and really builds those finger muscles that will later be important for writing, typing, playing piano, using chopsticks, and many other things in life.

 

These red trays are great. I got them at IKEA when they were on sale for 1/2 of their regular price. The kids can open and close them and they are the perfect height for doing art work over the tile. At the top they have two circles for cups (or for marker lids) and one long tray that we use for markers/crayons so they aren't rolling over the kids paper.

I also have visions of eating breakfast in bed on one of these trays, but since I refuse to get up and make breakfast before getting back in bed I don't think it will happen. haha

Flying Homemade Kites

One of the awesome parts of our curriculum is that it connects everything. The language arts books align with the science and social studies curriculum and they include art and other types of learning in almost every unit. Here they were reading Ben and Me, studying electricity and magnetism, and used their artistic and fine motor skills to build a kite. These were nice kite making kids using a light weight cloth rather than paper.

Both kids pulling their kites 

Running through fields is pretty much a perfect school day 

Beautiful

So I didn't get any up close pictures of the kids or the kites, but this was such a fun lesson and we certainly picked a beautiful day to do it.

Denver Children's Museum, part 4

This post shows just some of the ways to explore air at the museum.

First you designed a glider then tested it with a high blast of air. 

Aiming it and timing were key to getting it through the tire (seen in first photo).

Testing wings against an air current 

Animal wings, airplane wings in various shapes and more 

Using a small fan to control the giant fans on the ceiling

Denver Children's Museum, part 2

This post is about two different areas in the museum - the fire truck/station area and the bubble area!

Driving a firetruck 

Checking the gauges 

Hesitant to go down the fire pole 

Bubbles filled with vapor 

Catching bubbles

Denver Children's Museum, part 1

We visited the Denver Children's Museum and had a great time. This is the first of 5 posts about it.

They found a door just their size! 

This was in the veterinary area. We are looking at an x-ray to see if the animal is ok. 

Clearly this puppy needs a complete check up! 

They decided he needed some shots to get better. 

This was from a different area - here they are acting like animals.

Wordless Wednesday

Rainforest Dioramas

The end of our rainforest unit required the kids making a diorama. I gave them each a shoebox, open access to all of the art supplies, and a rubric. Then they asked if they could use some of the plastic animals and plants and I agreed. They both did a great job.

Both of them side by side

SweetSon's diorama

He built trees and even had a monkey hanging from the vines connecting the trees. There is an ape sitting on the large rock as well as many other animals hidden. There were 7 different animals included in his diorama. He had a plan from the beginning when he started painting the background and it seemed to all work perfectly for him.

Sweet Daughter's diorama

She stood the shoebox up and went in an entirely different direction. She also has 7 different animals hidden, but I loved that she used (with permission) some of the blue strings off of a pompom to hang as rain. She also included a human figure to be a scientist observing the animals. She didn't have a plan until it all came together and looked great.

iCream (ice cream frozen with liquid nitrogen)

We had the opportunity to visit an iCream Cafe. They currently have 4 open: Dallas, Chicago, Dubai, and Kuwait City. Here you choose the type of treat you want (ice cream, yogurt, sorbet, and more) and the mix-ins/flavors you want (fruit, candy, flavors, and more). They mix everything together and then use liquid nitrogen to freeze your personal combination.

You can see the cold smoke starting to come out

They were trying to catch it

Overall the ice cream tasted great. We each got exactly what we wanted and they were all unique things we couldn't get at other places. The experience of seeing it made was also cool. The price does mean I can't imagine us going back unless it was a really special treat though.

Perot Museum, Dallas 4

Kids need to move and the Perot Museum has an entire area just for understanding the science behind sports.

Here they are racing some of the fastest runners in the world!

The video runners are long gone, but look at how cute these two are!

The blur on the right is Sweet Daughter and she clearly won this time.

You can also check your form doing various other activities. Here Sweet Daughter is throwing a football. Then you use a computer terminal to break down your throw versus a professional.

Sweet Son went for shooting a hockey puck.

Perot Museum, Dallas 3

Continuing to explore the Perot Museum we found tons of hands on experiments.

 In the science lab getting ready to explore the bacteria inside our mouths!

Your family might be nerdy if...

Robotic cars - we visited this activity multiple times

Building a bridge that won't fall down

Perot Museum, Dallas 2

This is the second post in the series about a trip to the Perot Museum.

College students explaining the seasons and phases of the moon by literally placing kids inside the materials

The entire reason for the trip was a birthday party. Happy Birthday C!

It was dinosaur themed and they LOVE the tails.

Perot Museum, Dallas

We went to explore the Perot Museum in downtown Dallas. This wasn't our first trip there, but it is always fun.

Frogs near the entrance

Lots of frogs near the entrance

In the music lab he is using a midi sequencer

She loved using the drum set 

(this is a very loud room)

Wordless Wednesday

Butterflies in the Backyard!

Once we finally convinced the butterflies to leave their enclosure and go free, they stuck around for about 30 minutes.

It actually walked onto his hand.

She also had one that was perfectly happy being carried around!

See what I mean about calm and friendly?

Here they are passing one of the butterflies back and forth.

They did eventually all fly away, so I know they weren't hurt. We also left some orange slices out in case they had trouble finding food. It is November after all!