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Mary G
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I just started reading Terrie Lynn Bitner's book Homeschooling - Take a Deep Breath -- You Can Do This! -- it's pretty good so far.
I thought y'all would appreciate this quote, particularly in light of the Christmas toys probably strewn throughout your houses:
"When you buy gifts for your children, sneak in a few educational toys to build that supply. My definition of an educational toy is one that is messy and has lots of pieces. Toys with one neat piece are great for homemaking, but they seldom manage to teach anything. Those tiny building toys are painful to step on in the dark, but they teach everything from creativity to geometry. Finger paint is hard on clothes, but is a fascinating method of exploring color and design."
Isn't that a wonderful way of saying education SHOULD be play?
I also like her explanation, at the beginning of the book, of how unimportant it is to know EVERYTHING when you go to teach your own children.
"Stop worrying about what you don't know. If you and your child spend a few hours struggling over three different math books and a Web page until you both understand how to multiply those fractions, you can count it as the best of quality time. My children still talk about some of those days, especially the times they were the ones who figured it out and explained it to me. They didn't think less of me because I didn't already know. They just thought more of themselves for participating in the solution."
Pretty cool way of looking at it, huh?
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Elizabeth
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Mary G. wrote:
"When you buy gifts for your children, sneak in a few educational toys to build that supply. My definition of an educational toy is one that is messy and has lots of pieces. Toys with one neat piece are great for homemaking, but they seldom manage to teach anything. Those tiny building toys are painful to step on in the dark, but they teach everything from creativity to geometry. Finger paint is hard on clothes, but is a fascinating method of exploring color and design."
Pretty cool way of looking at it, huh? |
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REALLY cool way of looking at it. I  this quote! Thanks for sharing Mary--and yes, your timing is perfect!
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Elizabeth Foss is no longer a member of this forum. Discussions now reflect the current management & are not necessarily expressions of her book, *Real Learning*, her current work, or her philosophy. (posted by E. Foss, Jan 2011)
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Sarah
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The kids got a gift with 1350 pcs and I was considering returning it, but maybe I'll rethink it. . .
How do others handle toys like this? Do you leave it within reach or take it out now and then?
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cathhomeschool
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Sarah wrote:
| How do others handle toys like this? Do you leave it within reach or take it out now and then? |
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 I just HAVE to share our very recent "outside-the-box" solution. We don't have basements here, and our house is a one story house. We have a split floor plan (with master on one side and 3 bedrooms on the other), so we just turned the master bedroom into the school room, and the master closet (which is almost 10'x10') into the "lego room" (aka. the-room-for-toys-with-a-thousand-pieces -- K'nex, legos, erector sets, etc). I LOVE this arrangement and so do the boys! The kids are able to play with their toys and build to their hearts' contents, and don't have to pick up that area unless it needs vaccuming. I leave it all accessible to them all the time. They do bring pieces and creations out, of course, but the bulk of the pieces that would get stepped on remain contained in the closet.
BTW, I LOVE the quotes from the book. What a lovely way to look at toys and at homeschooling and learning!
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Elizabeth
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cathhomeschool wrote:
I just HAVE to share our very recent "outside-the-box" solution. We don't have basements here, and our house is a one story house. We have a split floor plan (with master on one side and 3 bedrooms on the other), so we just turned the master bedroom into the school room, and the master closet (which is almost 10'x10') into the "lego room" (aka. the-room-for-toys-with-a-thousand-pieces -- K'nex, legos, erector sets, etc). |
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THIS is what engineers do! They have LEGO rooms. How completely cool! You too are inspring me today. I want to pull out every toy with little pieces that we own.
Or maybe it's just that I'm growing increasingly weary of the ultimate light sabers and the Bop-It already. Note to self: never go Christmas shopping with indulgent aunt again  . Back to the "nothing with batteries" rule.
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guitarnan
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We adore Legos here...and puzzles...and art supplies...and board games...I'm sure my friends hate it when I give their children gifts that must be played with as a group, or stored in a big Rubbermaid bucket!
My parents still have my dad's Erector set and the sets they added for my brother (who still plays with programmable Legos at age 41!). I have exactly half of the set of wooden blocks my grandfather made for me and my brother (he sanded the corners off, so we couldn't get hurt). Blocks plus Brio train set equals heaven!
My son, almost 14, LOVED the huge Lego set he received for Christmas from us. He can't wait to get to the Potomac Mills Lego store!
Hang in there, everyone, and put out those building toys, piles of newsprint (cheap at www.dickblick.com!) and cardboard pieces for building your own doll furniture. Later, when you need to explain area, volume, etc., you can relate it to these building toys and the children will understand!
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Mary G
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BTW, the reason I personally thought this quote completely appropriate -- dear 6 yo son got the Millenium Falcon from Santa -- 985 pieces later, 16 yos and 6 yos had a blast putting it together. ALMOST made 6 yos forget he had pneumonia!
And what a great bonding and learning experience for the both of them!
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That's exactly the set my son received. I predicted a four-hour assembly period, but he did it in three. (Yes, he's a Lego whiz.)
Any toy that drives thoughts of pneumonia away is truly a super-toy!
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Becky Parker
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We love legos too. I wish I had a lego room, but I don't. One thing that helps with clean up around here is an old king sized flat sheet in the lego bin. The kids spread it out on the floor before they dump the legos. The legos are dumped and played with right on the sheet. At clean up time, all completed projects or projects in the making are taken off the sheet and the rest is bundled up and dumped neatly back into the bin. Of course, there are always a few strays but this method really helps with clean up. I think it allows me to be more at peace with the creative methods around here because I know clean up wont be too difficult. I love when my kids are creative, I just have a hard time with the clean up!
Becky
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Mary G
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Becky -- this is such a simple and GREAT idea. Wish I'd thought of it  !
Now, do you have a solution to a lovely, angelic 3yos running off with various parts just to get his older brothers' attention 
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Okay. . .you convinced me. I thought it was a great toy until mother-in-law got in my ear about how terrible it was. I'm going to go get it out now. . .and I LOVE the sheet idea! 
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Okay, help me understand, here. The Millenium Falconis a hundred dollars. They spend three hours putting it together and then what? It says it's for ages 9-up. I know my 13 yods would love putting it together but I don't see him running through the house pretending to fly it.And I don't see him letting the 5 yo run through the house with it either. Do you spend three hours putting it together and then take it apart and do it all over again? We have jillions of LEGOs but not all that many sets like this, mostly because I don't see long lasting play value. So, since we don't have them, I don't really know what kids do with them. A hundred dollars is a whole lot of money for something you spend three hours constructing and then you just look at. Isn't it?
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Marybeth
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I loved that quote!! I am going to put it up in our toyroom so when I can't figure out how to put together some Imaginext toy I will be reminded to not swear and hide it away in a closet. 
I am happy to see ds does not get so easily frustrated by toys with many pieces and thank God my dh is an engineer!!! I am completely worthless with Legos and such.
Marybeth
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Mary G
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Elizabeth wrote:
| Okay, help me understand, here. The Millenium Falconis a hundred dollars. They spend three hours putting it together and then what? It says it's for ages 9-up. I know my 13 yods would love putting it together but I don't see him running through the house pretending to fly it.And I don't see him letting the 5 yo run through the house with it either. Do you spend three hours putting it together and then take it apart and do it all over again? We have jillions of LEGOs but not all that many sets like this, mostly because I don't see long lasting play value. So, since we don't have them, I don't really know what kids do with them. A hundred dollars is a whole lot of money for something you spend three hours constructing and then you just look at. Isn't it? |
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Well, to be honest ... Santa got the MF at Target right after Thanksgiving for $49, but I hear what you're saying. I wouldn't have had Santa get it, but it was THE one thing son wanted. Also, he's gotten "kits" before and after building it once or twice, cannibalizes the parts to make new and interesting collections. So, for Thomas it does have long-term playability. I grew up with the standard bricks (they had slopes and doors and that was it for variety)and I thought I'd never have the kids get these kits, but as I said, it has worked in our house. The kits have unique pieces that are fun to make into something else.
Just my $.02!
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MacBeth
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Elizabeth wrote:
| Okay, help me understand, here. The Millenium Falconis a hundred dollars. They spend three hours putting it together and then what? It says it's for ages 9-up. I know my 13 yods would love putting it together but I don't see him running through the house pretending to fly it.And I don't see him letting the 5 yo run through the house with it either. |
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I guess the object is just to put it together...once. Trip had a space shuttle, and spent some time putting it together. Paul took it apart, and all the pieces are now in a big bag. I doubt Trip will ever take the time again.  And that is the biggest problem here. Anything that goes together, comes apart.
This is, I think, what we really want to happen, in the end, though, isn't it? At Trip's age (nearly 14), he takes everything apart, and redesigns things into other things. This is the ultimate result of buying the huge LEGO sets and letting them put them together, no matter the disassembling process later. A few weeks ago, Trip took two RC vehicles and merged them, creating a 6 wheeled all-terrain RC vehicle that can really travel over nearly every obstacle.
I am considering getting the LEGO Mindstorms robot kit for his birthday...I see it has 718 pieces, and is fully programmable . But I am wondering if, at this point, something with instructions would be more limiting?
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cathhomeschool
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Elizabeth wrote:
| THIS is what engineers do! They have LEGO rooms. How completely cool! You too are inspring me today. I want to pull out every toy with little pieces that we own. |
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I'm not really sure that we own any toys without hundreds of pieces. That's why the lego room is so wonderful! My engineering side totally understands their desire to build and create, and I love legos, but my "mommy" side can't handle the major mess. (You ladies don't realize just how many legos we own!) We did try the sheet idea for a while, but we had too many piles of "these are the pieces I'm currently working with and I don't want them mixed in with the general box." And my oldest's projects take days or weeks to complete, so the piles stay out for a long time. Right now he's working on several fighter planes and on an enormous galleon w/ moveable yarn rigging and paper sails. Clean up just isn't easy!
We also have brio/thomas train sets. Since the wooden pieces are large and easier to clean up, we put that in our breakfast nook, which we quit using as an eating area. We don't have a train table because that would confine them to a basically square layout. They build on the floor and play, then take it apart and start all over every few days. Works out great!
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cathhomeschool
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MacBeth wrote:
At Trip's age (nearly 14), he takes everything apart, and redesigns things into other things. This is the ultimate result of buying the huge LEGO sets and letting them put them together, no matter the disassembling process later. A few weeks ago, Trip took two RC vehicles and merged them, creating a 6 wheeled all-terrain RC vehicle that can really travel over nearly every obstacle.
I am considering getting the LEGO Mindstorms robot kit for his birthday...I see it has 718 pieces, and is fully programmable . But I am wondering if, at this point, something with instructions would be more limiting? |
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We take everything apart and reuse the pieces too, though Star Wars is generally an exception. Their Millenium Falcon (the old one, not the current model) never gets taken apart. It gets broken by littles and then fixed by the older ones pretty regularly, but that's ok. The other factor for us in buying sets and not just bricks is that the sets come with people. My boys have created an entire lego world using individualized lego people. They have built themselves and their closest friends in lego men, and then they add characters from whatever chapter books they're currently reliving. (Right now, they have a lego Achren, Dalben and Guiddion from Prydain, and Dick, Joe, Bill and Pete from Coot Club.)
MacBeth, when is Trip's birthday? I'm thinking of getting the same thing for Nicholas' birthday in March. I think that they'll e able to add their own legos to the robots. What I'm really after is the computer program and the main programmable module that the legos must be built around.
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BrendaPeter
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Elizabeth,
I've repeated exactly what you wrote literally hundreds of times to my sons. They LOVE Legos. When you ask them what they want for a gift, it's always a Lego. We regularly purge toys - we've yet to purge Legos.
At the moment we have three 8'long bookshelves where they display their completed projects. They take them down regularly & play with them. We save the instructions in a couple of those plastic magazine organizers. We also keep a big plastic bin with assorted pieces, people, etc. that they use over & over again to create all kinds of projects.
I guess what I'm trying to say is that we've never had any regrets about spending $ on Legos.
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guitarnan
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My son regularly dismantles his Legos, even the Star Wars ones, and creates new constructions (usually military aircraft) using photos from books as his guide. It's actually pretty amazing. He also rebuilds the original creation, because we save all the instruction books. Sometimes his buddies come over and they spend days on end creating a medieval fortress, or a futuristic village, or whatever else they can think of.
And...don't tell...he does run around the house pretending to fly it...
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MacBeth
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cathhomeschool wrote:
| MacBeth, when is Trip's birthday? I'm thinking of getting the same thing for Nicholas' birthday in March. I think that they'll e able to add their own legos to the robots. What I'm really after is the computer program and the main programmable module that the legos must be built around. |
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His birthday is mid-Feb. I almost bought the robot kit for Christmas, but I needed to save up a bit. Now that I have enough, I see that Amazon is out of stock. I hope they restock soon enough.
I like the idea of buying it for the program and module, and adding his own imagination to the engineering part. I suspect that this will happen rather quickly. I just hope they don't design something that Terminates us!
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4Real Forums : Living Learning
Topic: A Timely Quote
