Month: June 2018

My oldest, Connor, is a Computer Science kinda guy.  He always has been.  When he was little, he would use an etch a sketch and an old keyboard to “program”.  As he got a little older, he used to draw a cartoon about a Mac computer.  That’s what he did for fun, he has always been drawn to it, it’s how God created him.  Now, he’s a senior in College with a Major in Computer Science, a Minor in Technology, Arts and Media and is looking at graduate schools.  This summer, he’s working at the MIT Media Lab helping to develop programming languages to teach programming skills to kids.  I had to play serious catch up to even be able to converse with him.  However, what he has taught me is that in this day and age, everyone needs to know a little about programming and the logic behind all those languages.  It’s become so much a part of our daily life that we need to teach it, even when we monitor and keep screen time to a minimum.

What is a Computer?

Our cars, refrigerators, our phones, almost everything has a computer in it and it is important to understand the difference between just a machine and a computer.

A computer needs four things –

Input- This is a way to get information into the computer.  A keyboard, a mouse, voice commands, downloaded info, etc.

Processing – It needs the ability to process that information or for the very little, to be able to “think”.

Storage – A computer must be able to store the information and retain it.

Output – There must be a way that the computer gives information back to us.  A screen, a printout, a voice command, somethings.

Code.org has a great video and a physical activity to determine what is and isn’t a computer. What is a Computer?  I loved doing this activity because while we were sorting images that are computers now, like phones, but weren’t 10, 20, or 30 years ago, we got to have a great discussion about change and technology improvements.

Binary Numbers

Computers store and process information in binary.  (bi for 2) Binary is either 1 or 0, yes or no, on or off.

Here’s a great video explaining binary ( heads up, it has a couple kissing briefly and mentions a cocktail party – I would show my kids but just to give a fyi). Binary Numbers

There’s also this book, What are Binary and Hexadecimal Numbers?

All letters are in a combination of binary numbers.  There are 8 bits (either 1 or 0) in a byte of information. As wikipedia says, “The byte (/baɪt/) is a unit of digital information that most commonly consists of eight bits. Historically, the byte was the number of bits used to encode a single character of text in a computer^[1][2] and for this reason it is the smallest addressable unit of memory in many computer architectures.”

So, every letter is a byte of information.  I like to have kids make a bead bracelet using their initials to help show this. Code.org has a simpler version where kids just write their bytes on a piece of paper, Binary Bracelet, but I like to get kids to pick two colors, one for ‘1’ and the other for ‘0’ and then have them build their binary initial bracelet. Some kids like to have a space between their byte’s so I just have them pick a neutral color, Here’s a great Bead Bracelet Kit .  I also use this opportunity to practice counting by 8’s as 8 bits make a byte.  You know, “You have 3 bytes in your bracelet, so how many bits?” “24, because there are 8 bits in a byte and 8×3=24.”

The conversion sheet of binary to letters is on the Binary Bracelet activity on Code.Org.

These obviously aren’t in depth but they are great beginning activities to get kids interested in STEM and to understand some of the basics.

As many of you know, if you follow my Facebook page or see my posts as the admin of the MFW Fan Page on FB, my kids are very much STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) oriented kids.  What many of you don’t know, is that I am not.  I am a liberal arts, love to read, had 8 years of Voice Lessons, love to be on stage kinda girl. I also loved sports, particularly swimming and soccer.  I do love science, math is not my favorite and I like that a computer works but don’t feel the need to understand why.  How did I manage to raise all three who love Engineering?  No idea.

What I did do is follow their passions.  If they showed an interest in a topic, we got books, found small projects or enrolled them in a class.  We tried baseball, basketball, karate, and soccer along with drama, piano, dance and sewing, but it was the STEM activities that really peaked their interest.  So, this liberal arts girl learned how to love and teach STEM.  As a matter of fact, now I teach camps to Elementary students about STEM topics and coach 5 First Lego League Teams and am starting a Jr. First Lego League Team.  God moves in mysterious ways.

Actually, I used to pray every day that God would make me the Mom my kids needed me to be.  I didn’t want it to be about me, but about the plans that He had for my kids and along the way, He changed me.

So, to help those of you who are just starting to teach your kids ( and I think all kids need an introduction to STEM), here’s some ways that I have found to be really effective and fun to teach STEM.

The Engineering Process –

The Engineering Process is really great to teach all kids because it allows and encourages kids to try and fail.  Engineers prototype everything to try and figure out the failure points which means that they purposely try to get things to fail.  If it fails spectacularly all the better!  Then they know what to fix.  The point is not to stay in the failure, just try again.  Aren’t we glad Thomas  Edison kept trying to find the right filament for the light bulb?  He tried over a 100 times, which means he failed 100 times before he had success.

Curriculum –

Crash Course Kids – What is Engineering

Crash Course Kids – Engineering Process

Crash Course Kids has an entire line of Engineering Videos that describe the Engineering Process and define what several different types of Engineers do.  I think they are fantastic. Did I mention that they are free on You Tube?

Engineering Process 6 in 1 Poster – I like to post the Engineering Process when kids are working so that when kids get frustrated, and they will, I can point them to the poster and ask them where they are in that process.  One of my kids’ Robotics Mentors always ends a kid’s statement of “I can’t do this!” with, “I can’t do this, yet.”  In Engineering and life, that ‘yet’ is very important.  She also high fives kids when they, “epically fail’ because it means that they have a new data point for their prototype.  I love that.

100 Science Experiments – Seriously, one of my favorite Science books ever.  It was originally from MFW’s,  “1850 to Modern Times”, but I loved the book so much, I sold the package without this book.  It has a permanent place in my library.

Invention Journal   This journal helps kids to walk through the Engineering Process on any of their projects.

Activities –

I have done this with teams of kids as well as individually.  I like teams because it teaches kids to brainstorm, to listen to others and gives me opportunity to train those who struggle with working together with kindness and respect.  (For instance, the words, “that’s dumb, you’re stupid” or just yelling at each other will get kids a time out of the competition to have a discussion with me about respect and helpful words.)

Make a Bridge  – I like to do this activity several times.  First, I give them Craft Sticks and Wooden Clothes Pins with 3 mins and only the direction to build a bridge between two tables ( no more than 12 inches apart) to hold as many (thin, really light) books as possible.  After it fails, and it will, I talk them through the Engineering Process and watch the Engineering Process video.  Next, I give them a minute to make a sketch and plan and then 3 more minutes to build.  It should be a better bridge, but will probably fail after a book or two. Then read the except about “What’s going on?” at the top of page 33 of, “100 Science Experiments” and let them have another minute to plan and three more minutes to build.  Their bridge should be so much better and hold more. Good questions to ask are, “Are there better materials to use?”, my kids found binder clips to work better than clothes pins and bigger craft sticks are better than popsicle sticks, “Are there different shapes that hold more? How can you stabilize the structure?  What is the consistent failure point and how do we make it better?”

Build Stable Structures – This activity may take several times as well.  Following the above basic structure, I give them uncooked spaghetti and mini-marshmallows and 5 min to build the tallest, stable structure they can.  After the first try, I read page 32-33 of the, “100 Science Experiments”, give them a minute to sketch and plan and then 5 more minutes.  After that 5 minutes, I stop them to go through a “failure point” discussion.  “Where is their structure the weakest?  What’s going to fail first? How can they make it better?”  Give them another minute to plan and then they can fix their previous structure.

The point of these activities is to teach the Engineering Process and the thought that things aren’t going to work perfectly the first, third or even 10th time you build them.  The point is to keep, researching, keep prototyping, keep trying to make it better.

I also love the Mini Weapons of Mass Destruction, series of books to allow kids to practice their hands-on Engineering skills and to challenge them to make a working project even better.

The seminar and article I get the most questions on is from, “Ten Practical Things Every Homeschooler Should Know” so I thought I would start with that.

Today we are going to talk about Parent Training.

“The reasonableness of the command to obey parents is clear to children, even when quite young.”  – Noah Webster

One of the very first things I ask Moms who are stressed and overwrought and clearly at their wits end with this crazy homeschooling thing is, “ If you ask your child to please go to the table and sit down, what happens?”  and the second thing I ask is, “How many times would it take of you asking before your child would do it?”.  More often than not, the answer comes with a pause and a stammer or even an answer that it depends on the child’s mood that day.  Children that do not obey right away make homeschooling 10 times harder than it has to be and if you have more than one child, that can make it almost impossible.  Consider this scenario –

“Johnnny and Susie, please come to the table and sit down.  We are ready to start school.”  Mom asks.  Johnny and Susie keep playing with the legos with no acknowledgement or sign of movement.

“ Kids, it is time for school.  Come over.  I have fun activities planned for today.”  The two briefly raise their heads from their toys at the mention of fun but quickly go back to playing.

“I said, it is time for school, don’t make me count to 3!”  Mom’s voice starts getting louder.  Finally, Mom comes over and takes their hands and puts the toys down and makes them come to table all the while the two have begun to wail which then wakes up little brother who has been taking a nap.  Mom struggles to get them to table and hopes the baby goes back to sleep so she can do school.  Mom is stressed, the kids are whining and crying and it is only the beginning of the day.

The calm, wonderful school day Mom has meticulously planned is now shot to pieces and she just does the best she can to teach the have-to’s in the remaining time.  Anyone would have a hard time teaching phonics and math to children who won’t even come sit down at the table.  It becomes more about just getting it done than really teaching and educating. One of the interesting and more difficult parts of homeschooling is the fact that we are educating and parenting.  We are training their minds and their hearts at the same time.  You don’t stop being the Mom when school starts, you just add the Teacher hat to the mix.

Now, before we go any further, I know that some of you are thinking, “Dawn must have compliant children.  She clearly doesn’t have any strong-willed children.”  Not true, AT ALL.  We are blessed with three children, Connor, and the twins, Caileigh and Collin.  My husband often says that if we would have just had Connor we would have thought we were the best parents ever.  We said, “No”, and he stopped.  We could look sternly at him and he would apologize.  Then we had the twins.  Caileigh, bless her sweet heart, is definitely my child and that is both a blessing and a curse.  I often heard growing up,  “ I hope you have a child just like you!” and I did.  Caileigh does her own thing, in her own time and is willing to let you know when she doesn’t like something.  Her twin, Collin, sees everything in black and white and while mostly obedient, if you do something that he sees as wrong ( like turning the cartoon off while he was watching), he will hold a grudge all day long. I understand, really, I do.  That’s also why I know this works.  I read all the books, went to the seminars, talked to the leaders and gathered all the information I could.

So what is a mom to do?  Plan to spend the summer training your children in first time obedience, no whining and complaining and cleaning up after themselves.  What if you are in the middle of the school year?  Then start where you are.  You can schedule homeschooling light for the next few weeks, take a week or two off or pare down on activities for the next several weeks.  It can be done in the school year, it just might take more of your time, emotions and energy than usual.

Parent Training

First things first, we need to do some parent training.  I would suggest you take a week before you start on child training to train and prepare yourself and possibly your spouse.

In my experience, one of the most powerful and helpful parenting Bible verses is Matthew 5:37 which says, “Simply let your ‘Yes’ be ‘Yes’ and your ‘No’, ‘No’; anything beyond this comes from the evil one.”

When my children were little, I was challenged to really put this into practice in my home.  It meant that I had to take a moment and think about what they were asking and what my response would be.  It meant that if I said,’Yes’, I was committed to doing what I said I would do.  If I said I would make cookies, then I did.  If I said they could play with playdough I needed to be prepared to help get out all the playdough toys and set them up outside on the patio.  (I can not deal with playdough in the house.  It makes me crazy)  If I said that as soon I was done folding the laundry then I would take them to the park, then I did.  Sure life can get crazy and sometimes things happen but I tried to be very careful to keep my word.  I wanted my kids to know that I when I said I would do something then I would.  I didn’t need to promise because my kids knew that if I said ‘Yes’, I meant, ‘Yes’.

This took me a little time to adjust to as I really needed to think about it before I said, ‘Yes’ or ‘No’.  I had to weigh out all that I had to do, what other expectations I had on my time and what was most important that day.  Had I spent enough time with the kids or had I been too focused on other matters.  Did I have company coming and messy kids what the last thing I needed?  Was there a moral or Biblical reason to say ‘No’, or was it just because it might annoy me.  This last statement was one I was also challenged on, did I just say ‘No’ to things because I just didn’t really want to deal with it or did I have a valid reason to say, ‘No’? Don’t get me wrong, there were days when I said, ‘No’ and then I told them, “ Mom, really isn’t up to it today.  Can we do it later in the week?’.  I really tried to limit the ‘Nos’ that had more to do with what I felt like then really whether it was a bad idea.

Saying, ‘Yes’ is far easier than the concept of saying, ‘No’ and meaning it.  Your ‘No’ as parent must hold weight.  If I tell my kids, ‘No’ they understand that I am willing to follow up on the ‘No’.  I do try and give them a why with the ‘No’ so they can learn the whys behind my ‘Nos’ and hopefully begin to see the wisdom and pattern in my ‘No’.

“No, you may not take the toy away from your sister because that is rude and the Bible says that love is not rude”.

“No, you may not play with your brother’s toys as it is not yours.  We must love and respect your brother enough to ask before we touch his things.”  I said this a lot to the twins who wanted to play with their older brothers cool toys.  Actually, they still want to play with his cool toys, but they now ask before they touch.

When I said ‘No’ to my kids, I had to be willing to follow up on whatever the consequences might be.  My ‘Yes’ meant ‘Yes’ and my ‘No’ meant ‘No’.  I didn’t count to three, I didn’t ask several times because they needed to know that I meant what I said and I was willing to follow through.  Was this fun?  Absolutely not.  There were days when I met my husband at the door and said, “The kids are sitting and reading on the couch, dinner is on the table and I won’t be back until they are all in bed”.  Saying ‘No’ and meaning it means that your children will test you on your ‘No’ and you have to have to have the fortitude to follow through.  It will be worth it though.  I don’t get angry and I don’t raise my voice but my kids know when Mom says ‘No’ she means it and they very rarely challenge that anymore.  It makes our home and much more peaceful and pleasant place.

I think that this is very first step in having your children listen to you both as a parent and a teacher and it is up to the parent to determine in their heart and mind to follow the Bible’s advice.

Categories: parenting