When we think of Leonardo da Vinci, the “Mona Lisa” and the “Last Supper” come to mind — not a brilliant engineer hundreds of years before his time. What many do not realize is that da Vinci was a skilled engineer who inspired the Wright brothers and conceptualized the helicopter. Da Vinci came from very [...]
Posted in Interdisciplinary, News 
Tags: Art, Career, Da Vinci, Engineering, Renaissance 
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Using just drawing paper, a black sharpie marker, colored pencils and markers, these easy optical art projects are great for kids of all ages. What looks like advanced drawing techniques turn out to be quite simple. In fact, none of these projects require a steady hand or straight lines. Optical Wave Designs Julianna Kunstler’s step [...]
Posted in Activities, Art, Make Tags: Art, colored pencils, DIY, drawing, easy drawing projects, kids art projects, markers Comments Off
Makerspaces have finally hit the mainstream. Even churches, schools, and libraries are incorporating makerspaces into their facilities so that community members; especially kids, can tinker, build, and hack toys, devices, and more to make something new. A Google search confirms the craze– the term makerspace returns 44,800 results. Beyond makerspaces, though, is the idea of [...]
Posted in Activities, Art, Back to School, Homeschool, Make, Online Tools Tags: Art, DIY, hand-made, homeschool, make, makerspace, Project-based learning, tinkering Comments Off
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 Comments OffSaturday, September 24 is Free Museum Day. Most Smithsonian and Smithsonian-affiliated museums are free on this day. There are many reasons to take advantage of Free Museum Day, but here are our top ten: Expand your family’s interests. Visit a museum that you wouldn’t normally visit. Seek to find possible new interests. Engage with learning. [...]
Posted in Activities, Eclectic Homeschooling, History, Interdisciplinary, Just for Fun, Learning Methods, Science Tags: aquarium, Art, Free museum day, history, MOSI, Museum, natural science, Smithsonian 2 Comments »Learning opportunities are everywhere. One of the best places to start is in your own backyard. Here are ten lesson ideas that don’t need lots of materials, specific curriculum, or special ability. These lessons focus on learning together, encourage a project-based approach, and are fun for kids of all ages. We’d love to hear some [...]
Posted in Activities, Art, Biology, Environmental Conservation, Games Tags: Art, ecology, Fibonnaci, golden ratio, insects, microscope, observation, photography, play, weather Comments OffIf you are a reading family or just have tons of reference books for your home learning library, you’ll like this project. It’s a fun project, so don’t make just one bookmark. Get the family to make their very own bookmarks, or just have the kids create one for each family member. The great thing [...]
Chrissy Bevens’ compelling article about how an artist’s work and a teacher’s vision transformed the lives of elementary school children is a fantastic story of how powerfully project-based learning can engage children. In the Humane Education newsletter, Chrissy’s article recounts how elementary school teacher, Michele Hemenway, connected with an artist and used his works to inspire [...]
Posted in Language Arts, Learning Methods, News, Online Tools, social change Tags: American History, Art, Chrissy Bevens, Curriculum, Michelle Hemenway, Project-based learning, Robert Shetterly Comments OffCelebrate summer by creating comic heroes and then use this nifty set to learn how to draw them just like the pros. Comic books are fun because they’re easy to read and have cool artwork, a lot of action, and strong heroes.Kids enjoy comics so much they often create their own stories and heros. We [...]
We’re huge fans of interdisciplinary projects, especially those that encourage creativity. We also create projects around our child’s interests, so comic strips and comic books are sometimes part of the learning experience. Pretend play and dress-up are also popular — imagination rules! We’ve created a really fun project that combines the fun of pretend-play dress-up [...]
Posted in Activities, Art, Eclectic Homeschooling, Interdisciplinary Tags: Art, Batman, Bruce Wayne, comic, Comic strip, creativity, interdisciplinary learning, script writing 1 Comment »
