Longitude

This is for my friend, K’Lyn…..     

About a year ago, my children and I began to study latitude and longitude.  The very best thing I found that helped us get the concepts down was a wonderful book called “SeaClocks: The Story of Longitude” by Louise Borden. 

Before the late 1700’s, sailors knew how to measure latitude (location north or south of the equator), but longitude was not measurable.  Many lives were lost when ships, not knowing where they were, crashed into a land mass or a rocky shoal or got lost during storms.  The problem became significant enough, that in 1714 the British Parliament voted to award 20,000 pounds sterling to anyone who could solve the latitude problem.

Enter John Harrison.  Harrison was a clockmaker from Yorkshire, England.  His clocks were renowned for their ability to keep accurate time and to keep working for a long time.  Harrison and his time-pieces were able to solve the problem, but convincing the Royal Academy of Science and the Board of Longitude was another matter.  Harrison spent his entire life working on this problem and after his death his son, William, carried on his work. 

Two hundred years later, a naval officer named Rupert Gould stumbled across Harrison’s “chronometers” and devoted his life to restoring these machines.  They are now displayed at the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, England and at The Worshipful Company of Clockmakers museum at Guildhall in London, England.

The story is awesome and entertaining.  I recommend the picture book for children and then read the longer biographical book about Harrison and Gould, “Longitude:The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem ofHis Time” by Dava Sobel.  There is also a movie starring Jeremy Irons “Longitude” that would probably be a little boring for children, but teens and adults would enjoy it. 

               

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This is a magical day for you.......

When Natalie and Noelle were about 5 or 6, I finally learned how to make a good loaf of bread.  After serving it for dinner, talking about it throughout the meal, and discussing my plans for rolls, cinammon rolls, and bread in our future, Noelle said, "This is a magical day for you, Mom!" 

Since then I think of that phrase everytime something really 'clicks' for someone at our house.  Today, it was Benjamin. 

Benjamin is nine years old.  He is a pretty good reader for his age.  Every morning during scripture study, he reads his assigned verses with ease.  However, getting him to read anything for fun, to himself, is like pulling teeth.  So, he spends a portion of every school day reading to me.  We usually have to wrangle to find a book we both agree to read.  He has to like the story; I have to like the story, too, and be satisfied that it is somewhat of a challenge for him.  This combination is never easy.  We have spent a great deal of time and money finding such books.

Last Friday I assigned each of the girls, Natalie, Noelle, and Amanda, a physicist to study about and write a paper on.  They chose respectively, Isaac Newton, Galileo Galilei, and Aristotle.  Benjamin wanted to be included and he wanted to research Albert Einstein.  Honestly, I was busy helping the girls and hadn't thought much about what he could do.  I figured we'd study something together.  Before I knew it, he had picked up "Who Was Albert Einstein?" by Jess Brallier and read two chapters.  Then, as if that weren't exciting enough, over the weekend he finished the book!  I must admit to being dumbfounded.  All the time I have spent finding silly little "boy books" for him to read, and he started with a biography about Einstein!  I'm certain that last week at my suggestion that wouldn't have been the book of choice, but he had his own motivation and that was the trick.  This is such a key to education.  Being immersed in the process so that these moments of inspiration and understanding can be found.  He wouldn't have been inspired to read Einstein if we hadn't been learning about science. 


This morning he made a poster showing what he had learned, and this afternoon he and I and Bethany spent some time reading and doing activities from "Albert Einstein and Relativity for Kids: His Life and Ideas With 21 Activities and Thought Experiments" by Jerome Pohlen. 

So, I wanted to let you know that I love both of these series, "Who Was" biographies and "For Kids" series.  I have over 20 biographies and they are awesome!  My ultimate top pick for biographies for kids.  I have three of the "For Kids" books and I love them, too.  I will be buying more.

But more importantly, I wanted to share Benjamin's magical day.  I told him today, since he had completed his first chapter book by himself that he didn't have to read to me everyday anymore.  (He really hates to.  He thinks it is baby-ish.)  He was so happy!  "That's all I had to do?  Read a book by myself?"  Who knew it could be so easy?  But we both know he wasn't ready for it before today. 

So, then I asked, "Benjamin, what are you going to read today?" 

He went straight to the biography shelf.  "I like these books," he said.  Then he made a pile of the ones that he wanted to try and ultimately chose "Who Was King Tut?"  by Roberta Edwards.  After two chapters we had a discussion on the Nile River (yes, geography!), mummies, and being married when you are ten years old! 

For a homeschooler, a day like today is like watching your baby take his first steps.  I would never want to miss this!

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Geography at Our House

I am super excited to post this blog.

As you may have noticed, especially if you know me personally, I have a thing for geography.  Honestly, I have always loved maps.  In the sixth grade we were required to memorize all the capitals of the states and all the countries in Europe and Asia (not sure why those continents were chosen), and I thought it was great.  To this day that experience has helped me be more aware of places in our world.  I feel less sure of Africa and South America.

I have wanted to give my children that same confidence and ability to place things correctly. I especially find it invaluable to be able to know not only when but where the books we are reading and the things we are studying have taken place. I have, over the course of the last year or so, developed a system that I believe has helped us accomplish this goal.  Since it involves several books, including one I made and which you can easily make, too, I decided to share.  The wonderful part of it all is that in the process we have also stumbled a way to review everything that we study, practice low-pressure test-taking, and my children love doing it.

If you want to make a geography book, I will be happy to help you!

I'll even make them for you if you want.

                                        These are our geography books.  Inside are maps divided into sections; blank maps of 1) the world, 2) the United States of America, 3) Idaho, 4) South America and 5) Africa.  These are the areas of focus that we will tackle this year.  I knew we couldn’t do the entire world, so we are focusing on these parts.  Because we are starting with some of this under our belt, this is not a complete beginning.  If it were I would have limited myself to world, USA, and Idaho. 

 

Each day (at least 3 times a week), we have a geography drill.  I tell them which map we will work on and then give them a list of things they must place on their map.  For at least 2 months all we did was the world.  Then for a month we only did the USA.  I am now going to add Idaho, but we will continue to review and add to the bigger maps each week.  It is kind of a balancing act; do what you feel you need and what your children are interested in and can handle.  These are two examples:

World Map

Draw and label the Equator, the Prime Meridian, the Tropic of Cancer and the         Tropic of Capricorn

Label 7 continents

Label 4 oceans

Label 6 mountain ranges (Alps, Andes, Appalachians, Himalayas, Pyrenees, Rocky             Mountains)

Label 2 deserts (Gobi and Sahara)

Label 3 rivers (Amazon, Mississippi, and Nile)

Label 2 canals (Panama and Suez)

Label 5 Seas (Caribbean, Caspian, Mediterranean, Red Sea, Sea of Japan)

 

                  United States of America

Label 50 states; shade the original 13 colonies

Label the bordering countries

Label the bordering oceans

Label the Gulf of Mexico

Label the Rocky Mountains and the Appalachian Mountains

Label the Mississippi, Missouri, and Ohio rivers

Label the Great Lakes

Label Washington, DC

Label Boise, ID

Label Cheyenne, WY

Label Salt Lake City, UT

I do not know why this picture is sideways-I can't make it change!

 

Yes, my children can do this after limited, consistent practice.  The youngest ones have abbreviations they use if they can’t spell everything.  And, they can’t correctly identify each feature.  But, they can do enough that they feel good about it and they learn more every time.  About once a week I ask them to fill in a couple of new things that I teach them and then we add them to our list to label.  Occasionally, I use a fact from www.famousdaily.com to which I subscribe in order to add a challenge to their map making.  For example, today (September 11) in 2001 - The twin towers, a symbol of New York City centered in the heart of Wall Street - are destroyed during the worst terrorist attack in US history.  I would have the children locate and label New York City and we would talk about this event.  Also, 1940 - World War II: Buckingham Palace is damaged during a German air raid.  We could locate and label London and then I would google/images 'Buckingham Palace' and talk about the building: what it is and some history about it. 

Okay, all this takes about 30-40 minutes.  We are all having fun!

Something else that I have done occasionally for a lot of years is quizzing my kids on what they have learned.  So, when the mapping is finished, we turn our papers over and we have “M&M” school for about 20 minutes to finish this exercise.  On the back of the maps I quiz the children on things I want them to remember or to memorize.  I ask them to demonstrate mathematical principles.  (We don’t review facts; I ask them things like ‘illustrate the commutative theory’.)  I ask them list the first 10 (or 15 or 20) presidents of the United States; however many they have learned so far.  I ask them define parts of speech.  I ask them to write the symbols for different elements.  (Last year we studied chemistry.)  I review anything we have been studying and I reward them with M&M’s if they get the right.  I’m pretty lenient if I know they are trying hard, and I give allowances for age and ability.  Some questions are geared toward a particular child and some are worded to include different levels of ability.  I can say, “Bethany and Benjamin draw a right triangle.  Amanda draw a right triangle and label the hypotenuse.  Natalie and Noelle and Tanille, draw a right triangle and demonstrate the Pythagorean Theorem.”  or  “Benjamin and Bethany list five proper nouns.  Older girls list 4 noun jobs.”  [subject, direct object, indirect object and object of a preposition]  Everyone works hard for M&M’s!  By the end they have each earned, on average, 15-20 M&M’s. 

A Sentence a Day

 

 

Oh, and I also write a sentence on the board from “A Sentence a Day: Short, Playful Proofreading Exercises to Help Students Avoid Tripping Up When They Write”.  I have liked this idea for years and I have finally found a book with sentences that are pretty easy yet help them learn and I don’t have to make them up!

 

Yes, this does take an hour of our day, but everyone loves it and since it covers a little bit of everything, on days when a lot isn’t getting done academically, I feel like this at least gives us all a little review and keeps our minds fresh.  I hope this gives someone else a good idea!  ;)

 

*Two resources that I use for deciding what to label on the maps are easy to find and any will do.  I have a children’s atlas that I use all the time.  But, my wish is to have this one:                                              



World Atlas

Mine is very much like this one.

                         

 

 

 

 

 

 

I also found this great resource this summer.  This is my current favorite geography resource:  I can’t wait until we can locate and label all these cool things!  (I bought this at www.lovetolearn.com .)

Facts & Landmarks Flashcards and Games

   

And a FABULOUS, I am not exaggerating, resource for learning the 50 states is:

The Little Man in the Map With Clues to Remember All 50 States

 

 

** I print my maps at http://www.yourchildlearns.com/megamaps.htm   , but any good website will do.

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