Posts tagged kids know stuff

We Do Stuff (A Homeschooling Post)

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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.

I Don’t Know What CNN is Talking About

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Everybody just calm down! Sometimes Wonkette is just silly, but lots of times, they’re really smart. Like this. I was going to look for something like that today, but it was already in my Google Reader this morning. Yay! Too lazy to click over? Oh, it’s just an electoral map that’s very comforting to people like me after watching CNN freak out about the McCain/Palin bump in the polls. I guess they have to freak out about something. It can’t all be sunshine and puppy kisses. Who would watch that? I would, that’s who. I love sunshine! Puppy kisses are ok if the puppy doesn’t have puppy breath. (Sorry Kathi D. I know I just risked losing you as a reader. Please don’t leave me! I love watching puppies kiss other people, I swear.)

Hm, I wish for your sake that I had something else to tell you. Oh, I know: If you know any preschoolers and you want to try to buy their affection with material things, head over to Kids Know Stuff to win a free dvd of Jim Henson’s The Blue Elephant. That way, you don’t even have to buy anything in order to win the preschooler’s affection. Win-win! Just like the election.

Would it Be Wrong?

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Do you think the kids could review, say, wine on Kids Know Stuff? I mean, obviously they couldn’t drink it, but maybe they could tell everybody how much more fun their mommy is when she’s pouring a glass or two of Charles Shaw Merlot. And then maybe we could get free wine delivered to our door so I wouldn’t have to fight traffic to get to the nearest Trader Joe’s. It would be wrong to use the kids that way, wouldn’t it? *sigh* I thought so. How about if they could get me some free coffee? Still wrong? Bummer. I want some free mommy stuff. The Hannah Montana that’s playing in the background right now brings me no joy.

I’m trying to get on a new schedule for fall homeschooling. I’m all gung-ho and inspired in the fall, before the holidays come and I get complacent. And by “holidays” I mean Labor Day. Having a schedule involves actually scheduling things, which involves heart palpitations when I’m behind schedule. I don’t like that. But instead of abandoning the schedule, I’m going to just decide that it’s ok if I’m a little bit behind schedule from time to time. I tend toward the all-or-nothing, so if I have a schedule, I feel like it must be followed to the minute. That’s not true, though, right? I didn’t think so. Not in my line of work, anyway. Kids can feed themselves if they’re hungry and lunch is behind schedule. So says I. And if they don’t like that, they can try to figure out a way to get mommy some wine delivered right to her door. Then I would feed them on time. Probably.

Psst…

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There’s a giveaway over at Kids Know Stuff. Just in case you’re interested.

Yeah, Yeah, I Need to Blog

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Summer is almost over and I’m trying to use it all up. My baby is turning 5 on Sunday and I’m trying to buy her stuff and wrap it all pretty and ignore the fact that my BABY is turning 5! She was supposed to remain a baby. Fail!

I’m trying to get Kids Know Stuff going which involves lots of emails to PR people in which I’m supposed to sound authoritative, like what kids think matters and stuff. And I’m supposed to do all that without using the phrase, “like, kids are important and stuff, you know?” And I’m supposed to do that without getting diarrhea, which is hard because ***TMI ALERT*** I have anxious bowels. I really don’t have time to have anxious bowels right now. Fail!

Fall will be here soon and then I’ll have to switch from feeling good about doing math with the girls all summer, to feeling bad that all we (officially) do is math all during the school year. Unschooling everything else is hard for people who like to check things off of a list. Fail!

*sigh* How we’re using up summer today: water gun fights at a friend’s house. Yay! Goodbye.

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