Tangrams are great for math. They help with spacial awareness and they’re fun.

We have a great book the kids like to use with the tangrams, “Grandfather Tang’s Story” by Ann Tompert.  It’s a great story with different puzzles through out.

You can find lots of different Tangram sets on the web. We are particularly fond of out wooden set, but I would love to have a travel set as well.

I don’t know about you but I love buttons. No, it’s not some weird fetish. It’s just a warm memory of my Grandma. She had humongous jar of buttons. Actually it probably wasn’t that big but everything seems bigger when your a kid. I used to love to look at the buttons when I visited her. I would pour then out and sort them. You can do a lot with buttons. There are different shapes, sizes , colors and textures.

I now have have my own button collection although not as big as my grandmas. My daughter loves to look at them. She will sort them and tell me what color they are, which ones are here favorites etc.

We use them for word bingo. A great spelling/reading game.

We also use then for math checkers. And once for a Medieval History craft project we made button bracelets. Can’t find the picture for the life of me though. We learned that buttons were a status symbol for wealth and people sewed them to their clothes for decoration. See I ‘m not the only one who loves buttons.

We use a great curricula by Pandia Press called “History Odyssey”. This year we are studying the middle ages. One of the books we use is called “Days of Knights and Damsels” . It has all kinds of projects to go with our lessons.

We used plastic milk cartons to make armor and helmets. We also made some falcons for hunting. The kids really enjoy history especially the projects.

BedZED

Originally uploaded by telex4

This is another interesting series from Big Ideas That Changed The World. A very interesting look at Consumerism.

Here’s a link to BedZed information too.

London peace demonstration I

Originally uploaded by Orhan Tsolak

This is a series of videos that everyone should see. Tony Benn has a great way of conveying the basics of democracy and history.