Magnetix

November 14th, 2006

Ben (7) got some magnetix for Christmas last year; I had seen the commercials with Ben, knew he would like them and told my dad about them when he asked what to get. He was excited to get them, played with them briefly, and they've been gathering dust on his shelf ever since. This weekend I pulled them down, and went around gathering some other various magnets, wires, batteries, a bulb, etc. because Ben was getting ready to start reading about magnetism and electricity. At night, Ben and I are reading a book about chemistry and the elements, and he wanted to try the experiment in which you split water into hydrogen and oxygen, which involves some batteries and wire. In addition his science covers magnetism next. It is always a good starting point but never close to in-depth enough for him so we always use lots of other material.

So I put all this magnetic and electronic stuff in a pile so it would be ready. Well, it was ready all right... for about two minutes. Then Kevan and Ben became little Magnetix fiends as if they had never seen the things before or knew they existed. They literally played with these things for several hours straight that afternoon (Sunday). I was working all afternoon in my office, on work stuff as well as getting their week planned out. They were right behind me with those magnets all afternoon and evening. They built cubes, pyramids, houses, ferris wheels, merry go rounds, spinning tops... My husband and William (16) came down and played also for over an hour. Yesterday, they were still going. Every five minutes it seemed like they were back at the magnets building things.

Last night in between gymnastics and tae kwon do my husband asked if anyone could make a five-faced, five-sides on each face figure. Like a cube only made out of pentagons. Being completely non-visual (can't picture pictures in my head hardly at all) I tried hard to imagine such a thing and stated that it was not possible . Then spent the next 45 minutes (until we absolutely *had* to leave for tae kwon do) trying to prove it. William (16) and I worked on it separately, and then together. Once we decided it couldn't be five-faced, we tried to see how many faces it would take. I almost had a soccer ball going, but then something fell apart and I had to get going so it was not completed. My husband was just glad it was impossible, because he said he had tried to do it for an hour and couldn't do it.

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by way of introduction

November 13th, 2006

Thanks to Ellen for the early welcome! I have a wordpress blog at my own domain (www.unbridledlearning.com), which is used primarily for photos and information for family. I wanted a blog specifically about homeschooling and the community that comes with these kinds of blogging sites also, so this blog is born :)

I am Sarah; I work at home in the virtual education field. I have 3 boys, 2 of whom learn at home. One is in public high school. My husband is an adminstrator at the local community college. We have done public school, private school (at which I taught), charter homeschooling and private homeschooling over the years.

We are a respectful, trusting family with goals of loving, communicative, non-adversarial relationships. I believe in individualized, collaboratively-decided upon, well-researched, thoughtfully carried out education. This includes everything from academic subjects, to physical activity, to hobbies and games, to spirituality. I am looking forward to establishing a "voice" here at homeschooljournal!