D is for Using a Digital Camera as a Tool to Teach

 

I'm currently participating in an ABC's for homeschooling challenge.  

Since it falls on Tuesdays, I am adding a technological slant to the challenge.  

I hope you stay tuned and enjoy my entries.

I started out my blog for various reasons.  The most important reason is that I wanted to record life lessons for my children.  I have found, through blogging, that pictures can carry the messages a long way.  Visual cues provide visual learners a way to relate to the information with a much more keen interest in the content.  I, myself, am a visual person so I understand this concept.

Digital cameras can be wonderful teaching tools.

In my blog reading, I have sought out blogs that provide rich images of how mothers organize their own homes.  I am loving this springtime cleaning season.  Many mom bloggers are taking before and after pictures of their decluttering and reorganization of specific rooms.  I love seeing their ideas come to fruition.  The explanations provided entice me to try out some of their ideas, often with my own tweaking.

You might think that I am only referring to myself and my enjoyment of taking photographs.  I have been fortunate enough to have taken some lessons in photography in my junior high and high school years.  They have shaped the way I take photographs.  I don't claim to be an expert.  I just know what I want to convey through my pictures.

Picture-taking is essential for me for several reasons.  Yes, I capture memories.  Yes, I love to record vacations and milestones.  Who doesn't?  I, more importantly, want to teach with my photographs.

Picture of organization of a bedroom, essential to homemaking

For example, to teach homemaking to my children, I am taking before and after pictures of my decluttering efforts in my own home.  I want to show my children about the importance of organization for a home to run efficiently.  It is important that they learn the skill of organization for when they have their own homes.  I am taking the time to jot down notes and adding before and after pictures to my blog entries about organization; I want to provide my children with examples of cleanliness in a home.  It might give them inspiration to reorganize their own bedrooms after seeing what I can do.

Picture of a cooked meal is a wonderful teaching tool.

Another way I use photography to teach my children is in the area of cooking.  I am enjoying blogging and taking pictures of meals (and their ingredients) that my children can make for themselves.  I have blogged about making soups, salads, and tacos.  I have made a point about making meals that are colorful for the eyes, too.  A melody of colors in a meal can lure people into eating your delicious, healthy meals.

Pictures of gardening help teach about science.

Of course, I must mention gardening.  My children should know about plants for science.  Is there a better way to learn about plants than to plant seeds and watch them grow?  I love the fact that out of seeds something big, juicy, and delicious grows out of the earth to eat.  My children have gardened for several years, but with pictures, those memories have been recorded for later viewing.

Well, thanks for reading this entry.  I hope I have provided some advice on how to use a digital camera to teach in your homeschool.  Even if you don't homeschool, all adults and children can use digital cameras to capture memories to teach others on any given subject, including family history, for example.  I hope you will give it a try, if you haven't already.  Photography can provide a different dimension to learning for your children.

 

How about you, my readers?  Do you own a digital camera?  Do you let your children use it?  I encourage you to use a digital camera to create opportunities to provide visual aids in your teaching.  Photography, in itself, can be quite fun, too!

I pray that God gives you all, my beloveds, His wisdom and peace.

This has been an entry for the Technology Tuesdays series.

Training Up a Child

Training is part of a child's upbringing.

Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.

--Proverbs 22:6

I thought I would start this entry in a funny way.  Perhaps seeing this picture of a train will remind you of this entry.  This old Hot Wheels train has been in our family for many years.  You can see how old it is by looking at its wheels.  Yes, it has been played with so many times.

Just like that Hot Wheels toy has been played with many times, this Bible verse has been used many times as well.  I like to use a concordance, specifically The New Strong's Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible.  I use it to define words that I might not understand.  I use it to help me get a better grasp of something special in the Bible.  It is a perfect companion for Bible studies.

Let's break down the verse I am focusing on:

train-to discipline; to hone in on the learning; to dedicate

child-youth

way-journey; course of life

old-grown up

depart-reject; leave undone

Now that we have a few definitions, we can understand more fully what the Bible verse says.  Basically, the parent, guardian, caretaker, teacher, or any other such person dedicates his/her life to raise the youth.  This person must discipline and/or hone the learning for the child.  This individual is charged with showing the child the journey or the course of life that he/she should follow.  When that youth grows up, because of all the learning he has done, in the hands of the teacher, he will leave nothing undone.  

He/She will not reject their learning because it is ground down into their psyche.  Now, I'm gonna give you the definition of psyche:

psyche  psy·che (sī'kē)
n.
 The mind functioning as the center of thought, emotion, and behavior and consciously or unconsciously mediating the body's responses to the social and physical environment.

psyche. (n.d.). The American Heritage® Stedman's Medical Dictionary. Retrieved March 27, 2011, from Dictionary.com website: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/psyche

I added psyche to the mix because it explains why the child will not veer from what he has learned.  It is like the child has information seared into his brain, like a rancher who brands his cattle for identification.  This is like when a person burns songs onto a CD.  

I'm just trying to help you, my reader, understand why it is so important to take the time to assess what the youth around you are learning.  

Our children are constantly learning from us, whether we understand it or not.  I think it is important to purposely teach our children what they need to learn.  After all, our children are a reflection of us.  We must teach our children quickly before they leave our homes.  It is important to note that what we teach them will determine how they interact with the world around them.

Oh, there is so much to teach.  

Will we fit it all in?  

With God's help anything is possible.

How about you, my readers?  Do you every wonder what your children are learning?  Are you taking time to discuss with them their path in life?  I hope you do have conversations with them.  Our youth need direction.

My beloveds, may God bless you all with His peace and wisdom.

This has been an entry for Spiritual Sundays.  I hope you enjoyed it.

To compile this mini- bible study, I visited: http://www.biblestudytools.com/

Word World Website to Teach Reading

Word World Website teaches Reading.

A dear friend of mine in the homeschooling community told me about a wonderful website that I wanted to share with you.  You can find it at:  

http://wordworld.com/index.php

Word World is an educational website that teaches reading.  I especially like the vibrant colors and picturesque view of the world of words.  I enjoy watching the stories as the characters, which have their names written on their bodies, interact with each other.  This certainly is a great website for kindergarten age children.  It is based on a cartoon series that has appeared on Public Broadcast Station.

The following are sections within the website:

Ebooks- A child can view books like The Big Race, Totally Terrific Duck, Duck's First Sleepover, Snug as a Bug, and A Smile for Crocodile.  Each story has a synopsis, with the educational target areas in the fields of phonics, comprehension and vocabulary.

My daughter enjoyed reading The Big Race on Word World.

(My daughter viewed the Ebook, The Big Race.  It read the story, highlighting each word as it was said; she had a little bit of time to create the word.  That portion went a little too fast; however, the story was fun to watch.  This is akin to the website http://www.starfall.com/.)

Videos- A child can watch an episode or have a sneak peek; again comprehension, phonics, and vocabulary are explained on the right hand side.

Duck's Alphabet- This is a game that a child can play to learn letters and their sounds.

For Kids- This area includes the following:

--Activities Sheets-coloring sheets, activities, games

--Episode-Related Activities- list of episodes with a particular game

--Birthday Supplies- invitations, banners, thank you notes, and certificates

Parents & Teachers- This area includes the following:

--Introduction- There is a welcome page to teachers and parents.

--Educational Philosophy- There is an explanation of the use of phonics and words to teach reading based on research, with an emphasis on using the print awareness and letter recognition to aid comprehension; also emphasizes social side of the stories.

--Department of Education Funded Study- According to Education Week, about the selected children viewing the cartoon on PBS during school time-- "the gains the program viewers had made in expanding their oral vocabulary skills and in reading and recognizing words significantly outstripped those of their counterparts in regular classes [who did not watch the show during school time]."

--Parent Viewing Tips- Listed are activities parents can do while and after watching the show.

--Teacher Viewing Tips- Listed are activities teachers can do before, during, and after the show.

--Episode Descriptions- Listed are episodes with a short description of the plot for each one.

Workbook on Word World ties in with The Big Race.

Finally, I was fortunate enough to have a workbook featuring the cartoon Word World.  I found this page that ties in perfectly with the Ebook The Big Race.  

I believe the PBS cartoon, website, and workbook related to Word World are wonderful ways to show a child how to read.  The more a child is exposed to a theme that he/she enjoys, the more likely they are to learn from it.  In our case, I knew that my daughter had been watching the show.  I had bought her the workbook because of that.  Finding the website was a bonus, thanks to a fellow homeschooling mom.

Thanks for reading about our reading fun!

How about you, my readers?  How do you encourage the children in your life to read?  Do you have oodles of books in your home?  Do you let your children read from educational websites?  I encourage you to give this website, Word World, and others like it, a try.

God bless you all with His peace, my beloveds.

This has been an entry for Technology Tuesdays.  I hope you enjoyed it.