Lessons from the Tree House - Review

One awesome treehouse we saw at the Enchanted Forest in BC

A dear friend of mine keeps an eye out on the WWW for me.  She sends me links that she thinks I would enjoy and we have a great little email friendship going.

The other day she sent me a link to this page.  I was excited as I checked out this lady's two e-books that she was offering.  It seemed it was right up my alley.

I mentioned in a post a few months ago about my math/practical gardening lesson I was teaching my boys.  I also had a post about some of the catalogues I order each year.

Take these two things, add them together and you have a perfect mixture to want Carol's e-book on Lessons from the Seed Catalog. 

Then I saw that she had another called Lessons from the Hen House.  HEY, I want chickens!  So I clicked on over and checked that one out as well.

If you are anything like me and you love what you see, you go checking to see if there is more...

...so I found her blog.

Then I read an announcement that her next installment called Lessons from a Tree house was coming out soon and she needed some people to "test" it out.  Hummmm, check out something that I already think looks awesome, or not...tough decision right?!

I got my copy and sat down right away to read it.

It is simply amazing.

I am totally in love. 

In it there are three sections, the design stage, the building stage and the enjoyment stage.

Each section includes many wonderful activities to do with different suggestions for each age group.  For example: In the Design stage she suggests  to draw up your plans.  Under that there is a breakdown for older children (Using a computer aided drafting program) and younger children (drawing by hand).  This takes all the thinking out for me.  I often want to have my older two do something and am left floundering as I try to think of an easy way for my youngest to also be involved.

At the end of the e-book you will have a completed tree house.  How cool is that?!

Just in case I was totally out to lunch in the "knowing what kids like" department, I checked with my boys, reading a few things to them and asked them if it sounded like something they wanted to do.

My oldest was particularly excited about the research that she encourages in the book.  He wants to go to a garden center and check out the trees.  My second son was especially excited about the design phase.  He even went so far as to ask me if we might use some of our funding for buying a drafting program for him.

I am excited to implement a few of the ideas now, and then when we finally have a place to call our own, let them have a few months of just learning in this new hands on sort of way.

Cheers

Disclaimer:  I was provided with a free copy of all three e-books for my review of this new Lessons from a tree house.  No matter what my opinions were, I was able to keep all of the lessons.  All opinions expressed are my own and have not been influenced by the author of the e-books.

FUN Review

When we are finished a unit, lapbook or whatever we are studying, we do a review.

Sometimes it is really simple, me asking questions and giving each a candy for correct (or close) answers. 

Sometimes it gets more elaborate.  Let me share (because that is what I do :D)

This is my famous "pocket game"  (for lack of a better name):

There are 30 numbered pockets that each hold something. 

I am usually really cheap and buy huge packs of small toys and put them in.

Here is how we play:

1.  Buy (or scrounge from around your house) enough toys.  We need to have 15 different toys that pair up.  So for instance, those little paddles had a red one and a green one.  Sometimes it is just two packs of gum that are different, or sometimes two chocolate bars...but whatever it is, it has to sort of match. (for a total of 30)
2.  I make a list of questions for review.  Things we were "supposed to" learn.
3.  Ask questions.  For every question answered right, the kids get to pick two pockets. 
4.  For each time they get a match, they get that prize.  If they don't get a match, they have to wait for the next time it is their turn. 

Sometimes they get lots of loot, sometimes they don't. 

Sometimes they get stuff they don't like.  (I buy for boys and girls as we have both in our little science group that I teach)

AFTER it is totally done, I let them trade.  Not everyone wants two pairs of super awesome heart glasses, or two valentines straws...but some do.  So, if they want to trade amongst themselves, or with me (when I have extra stuff) then it is done at the end.  Then everyone is hopefully happy and has a pile that looks similar to this:

Horray for making learning fun.

We have played this so many times.  I have taken it into my son's classes when they were in public school for a fun game.  I have used this at adult parties.  I use it at Christmas time instead of stockings some years.  The uses are endless.

All I did to make it:

1. I took 2 king size sheets and sewed them together, right sides together.  Leave a spot to turn it right way out, turn out, then sew shut.
2.  I took 6 long strips of fabric and sewed them on the front. 
3.  I sort of measured the pockets so that there were 5 pockets each strip.  Then sewed that as well.
4.  I took some puffy paint and painted numbers on each one.  (there are a few that got a bit messed up as my boys were pretty little when I made it, and "helped" me!)
5.  At the top I found that having some sort of hanger works great when you are playing, so I sewed some loops at the top.

Super simple.  If you make one, I would love to see it.  (plus I am sure you can make it WAY nicer than mine...this was made 11 years ago with scraps I found all over...really cheap, if you actually spent a few $$$ it could be quite cute.)

How do you make learning fun?  Or what was the best idea you have ever seen for making learning fun?  I am always looking for new ideas.

Cheers

PS...don't forget to enter the giveaway below...it ends Thursday night at 8pm.