Regardless of your plans this summer, its always fun to make stuff. We’ve found several really easy Origami projects that even younger children will enjoy. Best of all, the resulting art is functional and beautiful. Our favorite project is the box with lid. Not only are these little boxes attractive, they are great for gift-giving, [...]
Posted in Activities, Art, Back to School, Make, Math 
Tags: Art, make, origami, paper crafts, summer crafts 
No Comments »Check out some of the cool projects we’ve collected (from Spottybanana and beyond). We created a tidy Pinterest board for our reader’s convenience. What is Pinterest? If you don’t know, you should probably head over there now and find out about the fastest-growing social sharing site on the internet. If you know about Pinterest, head [...]
Happy New Year. A new year is always an opportunity to look ahead with optimism. Everyone can make a positive impact on our lives and world. Whether or not we actually make (and follow-through on) new year’s resolutions, here are five bold learning ideas that challenge the status quo in ‘education’. Embrace all or just one [...]
Posted in Activities, Homeschool, Interdisciplinary, Learning Methods, Literacy, Make, social change, TED Tags: Empathy, Learning, Share, TEDx, TEDxYouth, tolerance, Toys Comments OffHappy Holidays to all of our loyal readers. We’re looking forward to another great year of sharing learning resources with you. Enjoy these past posts for ideas on extending the fun from holiday gifts, especially if those gifts include LEGO or Apple devices. LEGO Creator – Creative Building Ideas Using Existing Bricks Musical Instruments on [...]
Child’s Own Studio hand crafts stuffed toys based on your child’s drawings. The examples on the Child’s Own Studio website show that no matter how crazy-looking the drawing seems, a cute, creative, and beautiful toy emerges. This is such a great idea that I wonder how Child’s Own Studio will keep up with demand as the [...]
Posted in Activities, Art, Eclectic Homeschooling, Just for Fun Tags: Childs Own Studio, craft, drawings, stuffed toys, Toy Comments OffCyberchase, an Emmy Award-winning animated series for 8-11 year-olds is now completely available online. This fun, STEM-rich series is full of hands-on math, engineering, and physics lessons weaved creatively into the stories. Learn more about Cyberchase over at GeekMom
Posted in Activities, Interdisciplinary, Math, Online Tools, Science, STEAM Tags: computers, Cyberchase, PBS, STEM, technology, Thirteen, WNET Comments OffScoop.it is a fun way to share online articles, videos, photos, etc. around a topic. It is free, easy to use, and fun to curate. We’ve curated an eclectic collection of disruptive learning articles on our Scoop.it specially for SpottyBanana viewers. In our case, disruptive learning means nonmainstream, non- traditional learning ideas outside of the [...]
Posted in Activities, Art, Eclectic Homeschooling, Learning Methods, Literacy, Online Tools, STEAM Tags: content curation, disruptive learning, Eclectic Homeschooling, Learning, online tools, Scoop.it, spottybanana Comments Off
Our Giveaway has now ended. Thanks to everyone who participated. Congratulations to Melissa Taylor for winning the Inheritance Book! Enjoy the free Inheritance Series resources we’ve created and curated just for Inheritance Series fans. Get the Inheritance Vocabulary List Inheritance series vocabulary list - Google Doc (web page) Inheritance series vocabulary list - Google Doc (Downloadable [...]
Posted in Activities, Books, Contests, Reading Tags: Books, Brinsingr, Eldest, Eragon, fantasy fiction, giveaway, Inheritance, Inheritance Series, Paolini, reading, Saphira, young adult literature 14 Comments »Youngzine is a dynamic online news website designed for young people interested in technology, ecology, culture, politics, and news from around the world. Youngzine fills a niche for young people interested in news beyond Hollywood gossip and boy bands. Youngzine’s refreshing mix of content is fun, insightful, interesting, appealing, and appropriate for young thinkers and [...]
Posted in Activities, Culture, News, Online Tools, social change, technology Tags: News, news for kids, youngzine Comments OffSpottyBanana’s Facebook fan page is a great place to find and share learning resources, learning news, events, insightful articles, polls, and more. If you aren’t on our fan list yet, you’re missing out on a large part of the conversation we have with our readers each day! Don’t be shy. Share your learning photos, stories, [...]
Posted in Activities, Just for Fun, Online Tools Tags: community, Facebook, Learning, social media, social networking, spottybanana Comments Off
