We Do Stuff (A Homeschooling Post)
I have a run-around Monday today, so I’m cross-posting a recent Kids Know Stuff post that Lena wrote. It’s not political!
I’ve been using Kids Know Stuff as a homeschool tool because, as a quasi unschooler, I have to pretend that every single thing we do has some sort of educational value. It might actually be true in this case, though.
Lena and Liberty write their own reviews and sometimes they write Maya’s reviews if they feel like it. Or sometimes they throw a hissy fit and wail about how it’s boooorrriinnnggg and then I have to write Maya’s reviews and then punish them later (i.e. “I wish you could have a friend over, but I’m just ever so tired from writing that review for Kids Know Stuff *sigh*”).
They run the spell check, then we go over the proofreading together and talk about why edits are made. Lena and Liberty can type well thanks to Dance Mat Typing, which they were addicted to last year, but if they’ve had a hard-working day, I’ll let them dictate to me. I type exactly what they say, even if it’s weird.
Sometimes I have to tell them what questions their review should answer, sometimes they’re overflowing with ideas and they need no prompts at all. Sometimes I ask Maya why she likes something and she replies with, “Tushie!” and we just try again later.
The kids choose the transitions between clips, the effects, the titles, the font, the colors, and the music. Lena and Liberty like the colors of the “Buy us stuff we like only!” title at the end of each video to tie in with the product in some way. For instance, brown-on-brown for the Indiana Jones review because, in their words, “Brown is an Indiana Jones color.” (Yes, they both said that at the same time. Sometimes they’re very twin-ish.) Maya usually chooses pink-on-pink. I hope it’s not because, in her world, pink is a tushie color.
It’s been a lot of fun and we hope the site continues to grow, but I have to be careful that I don’t burn them out, which means they won’t update every day. So, since Christmas is coming, you should totally subscribe to our feed so you don’t miss out on giveaways and gift ideas.
We can’t post every day anymore because we’re busy doing a lot of fun stuff during the week. We recorded some of the things we do, but we also do things like go apple picking, volunteer at political things, and go to free concerts. But we have lots more cool reviews coming soon and we’ll have more giveaways, too!
P.S. We forgot to record my gymnastics class, but that’s something else I do. And even though I’m not in the rollerskating part, I was there! I love rollerskating!
P.P.S. We have to do our homeschool work, too!
Lena
The song is Dare by Gorillaz.
October 14th, 2008 at 10:01 pm
This entry makes me think that you are a machiavellian homeschooler, or maybe a stealth homeschooler rather than a quasi-unschooler.