Monday, October 31, 2011

Radical Tuesdays- Curriculum

The next time someone asks me what curriculum we use, I'm going to say youtube.  I usually say "real life," which is true, but so often things come up that would be very difficult to take my kids to see or experience.  Some things, like the tornadoes we just watched, I wouldn't want them to experience too closely!  Youtube lets us see those things that other real people have really seen and video taped.  I love books, I even enjoyed workbooks as a kid.  My kids like the occasional math or reading workbook or coloring books that are designed to "teach" colors and shapes.  However, there is something much more REAL about seeing something someone else has seen.  It lack some aspects of the real life experience, but it is WAY better in other ways than reading about something in a book.      

Inevitable Monday- Tornadoes

On our walk to the bus stop, E saw some leaves swirling around in the air.  I said, "That's like a little tornado!"  Of course the girls wanted to know what a tornado is, and I reminded them of Wizard of Oz and how Dorthy got caught up in a tornado.

The rest of the walk, we were running away from the tornado!  We had to hurry to get away before the tornado got us.  "Let's go hide somewhere safe!" the girls yelled.  "We need a storm cellar!" I said.


"What's a storm cellar?" they asked.  I compared it to their grandma's basement, but told them that her basement has one side open to the outside, because she lives on a hill.  People who live in places where there are real tornadoes often have basements that are completely underground.  They hide in their storm cellars so that if the tornado picks up their house and carries it away, they will be safe.


"What places have real tornadoes?" they asked.  I told them that there are tornadoes in the mid-west, but that didn't have much of a reference point for them.  Since we got home I showed them the mid west on the globe and we watch some youtube videos of tornadoes.

Tornadoes led to whirlpools.  


What topics came up at your house today?  What connections happened?