More Interest Led Reading

Zoe loves to get craft books from the library and read them for ideas.

Gymnastics Everywhere

 Everywhere she goes she does gymnastics. She practices at home, outside, when we are visiting friends, at arenas, and just about anywhere else that she can think of practicing.

She has taken 3 short sessions of gymnastics in the past. The last session she was bumped up 4 levels and is in a much higher level then her brother. Although some of her moves she was taught, much of it is self taught or I've guided her on how to, since I know a few moves from when I was younger. I can't believe how fast she picks things up. She'll see someone on TV do something and right away she tries and is sometimes successful right away. It's amazing. We all think that this is her thing! She is a gymnast! 

Too bad she missed the Canadian Female Gymnastics Team at the Olympics. She would have loved to watch it!

Here is a sample of what she can do. She can do much more but she is trying to perfect going into and out of the bridge. She can do round-offs and cartwheels into splits.

Petite Papa Noel

Austyn is learning this song to sing at the library. Zoe is learning the chorus to sing with the other children and Austyn is learning as much of the song as he can to sing on his own. This video is Celine Dion's version of it and some of it is translated into English. I think it's a very pretty song. Here are the actual lyrics and the English.

C'est la belle nuit de Noël
La neige étend son manteau blanc
Et les yeux levés vers le ciel
À genoux, les petits enfants
Avant de fermer les paupières
Font une dernière prière.

It's a beautiful Christmas night
Snow spreads its white coat
And eyes lift toward the sky
On their knees, small children
Before closing their eyes
Say a last prayer.

Petit papa Noël
Quand tu descendras du ciel
Avec des jouets par milliers
N'oublie pas mon petit soulier.
Mais avant de partir
Il faudra bien te couvrir
Dehors tu vas avoir si froid
C'est un peu à cause de moi.

Little Santa Claus
When you come down from the sky
With thousands of toys
Don't forget my little stocking.
But before you leave
You should dress well
Outside you will be so cold
And it's kind of my fault.

Le marchand de sable est passé
Les enfants vont faire dodo
Et tu vas pouvoir commencer
Avec ta hotte sur le dos
Au son des cloches des églises
Ta distribution de surprises.

The sandman has passed
The children are going to sleep
And you will be able to begin,
With your sack on your back,
To the sound of church bells,
Your distribution of surprises.

Refrain

Refrain

Il me tarde que le jour se lève
Pour voir si tu m'as apporté
Tous les beaux joujoux que je vois en rêve
Et que je t'ai commandés.

I can't wait for sunrise
To see if you brought me
All the lovely toys that I see in my dreams
And that I ordered from you.

Refrain

Refrain

Et quand tu seras sur ton beau nuage
Viens d'abord sur notre maison
Je n'ai pas été tous les jours très sage
Mais j'en demande pardon.

And when you are on your beautiful cloud
Come first to our house
I wasn't always very good
But I ask for your forgiveness.

Refrain

Refrain

Math that is so much fun?! It's true!!

I know I've said it before, but our math program is way too much fun! We use RightStart Math and do the lessons at our own pace. This lesson that is finally finished was in a previous post and is made for a group of kids to do. We did it on our own. It took some time. This is called the Cotters Fractal Ten Triangle. It is meant to be stuck on a wall and ends up being 6 feet tall when finished. HERE is a recent post I read on another blog that features this triangle on their school room wall. I love their description and details about fractals.

We didn't put our triangle on a wall because we don't have a house to put it on the wall of. We are living with relatives and they don't want this big triangle thing on their wall. The floor was the next best place. There are tiny triangles that we coloured and cut out. Then we took ten triangles and pasted them on a larger triangle so that they were edge to edge to make a larger triangle. Then we took the larger triangles with ten triangles on them and pasted them onto a larger triangle in the same fashion making one large triangle with ten medium triangles that were made from ten smaller triangles. This project helps children understand how tens make up larger numbers and how equilateral triangles can be placed together to make larger triangles.

I have read that some people didn't like this project because it was tedious and time-consuming, but Austyn loved it.

Following Interests for ANY Age

When people ask about our homeschooling they usually ask us if the school gives us their curriculum. When I tell them that we don't follow the school curriculum from our area they usually look surprised. I do remind them that the curriculum isn't free, we pay taxes and don't get any of that money back for school tax (in Ontario) and I probably wouldn't follow the curriculum if it WERE free and delivered right to my door. I generally get a really strange look by this point. You know the look! The one where suddenly I must have three heads.

They usually ask more questions. "What curriculum do you follow?" "But what do we do for math?" "Do they learn to read?" "What grade would they be in?" "Do they get tested?" "What about socialization?" "Why do you homeschool?" I will answer any questions asked very politely, even if they seem a bit defensive or rude. Usually people just sound surprised and confused. I explain that we follow the interests of the kids and I don't make them do anything they don't want to do. They love to learn, they love our math program, they don't get tested and that the socialization I see my kids experience everyday far exceeds what I remember experiencing in school. Usually by this point my kids are talking the parent's ear off and telling him/her things that they do and know.

I think that the concept of following the child's interests is fairly easy to understand, even for a main-stream or traditional type of person. Most people show signs of seeing some benefits and even give me examples of how their kids or grandkids lost interest in a subject or something wasn't taught in a way that they liked and turned them off of school. I think that if more people knew about child-led learning there would be changes in the system to be more flexible to the needs of every individual child. At least that would be my hope.

I am no perfect homeschool mom. We have bumps in the road, but here is an example of following an interest. Some unschoolers who are more radical than I would just leave kids and let them explore on their own in the world. I think this is great if it works for them. I will introduce subjects in our house and see if there is interest. I just don't force anything. This can be done for any age, but sometimes you don't even really have to introduce anything, or at least not intentionally. A good example of this is Zoe's interest in mermaids. She is only 5 and if you ask her what she wants to be when she grows up she will answer quickly because she already knows that she wants to be a mermaid! I would never tell her that she can't. Why should I?! It's a great thing to aspire toward! Why can't she set her sights on being a mermaid? She is only 5 years old. And I know I met someone before who became a mermaid when she grew up! Yup!! I did!! Really!!!! Haven't you ever been to Disney World?!!

This is an interest that can't be passed up in our homeschool. I looked for printables on the internet, she draws mermaids, makes mermaids, watches mermaid movies, and reads mermaid books. The librarian went to work for us, after learning of Zoe's interest and came up with some really great mermaid books and some so-so mermaid books. These three were our favourites.

The Mermaid Secret is a story of two sisters who found out that they had a secret past and their whole view of their world and themselves ended up changing as they went through a strange adventure. The cool thing about this book is that the author is from Alberta and the places mentioned in the book the kids knew well. One of those places was the West Edmonton Mall! So, according to this fictitious story... mermaids have been in the pool there! Both of my kids loved this story.

The middle book is a book all about the history of mermaids and their myths. It's a beautiful book with many fold outs, flaps and much more. We are still getting through this one because it is long and a bit more time consuming than the other two.

The book on the right was a fast read with some of the facts of mermaids that people claim to have experienced. There are sightings, some examination, and a bit of mystery left for the reader to wonder.

Even though this was Zoe's interest, both of my kids loved this subject and even if your life is busy, reading books cover many subjects all on its own. Math, geography, history, myths, reading, language, and much more can be learned just from reading books. Reading can create enthusiasm and ideas in each child to do other things related to what they have read.

I don't know if you noticed this or not, but these three books are not your average 5 year old picture books. They are probably rated for a much older child and are almost novels. I know that even some homeschool families follow age ranges of books very strictly. We don't!!! At all!!! Some of the best books are geared toward older children, but if my kids want to read them, and they don't appear to have any inappropriate subjects in it (eg. sex, drugs, extreme violence) I read them!! The vocabulary is usually more advanced and the stories are more detailed and my children have become accustomed to this. If I never did this they may not have the vocabulary that they have or understand as much as they do. They take in what they know from more rich material and ask questions when they want to know more and leave what they aren't ready for behind until another time.

Well, that's a little more about us and how we homeschool and follow interests.

Fun Math and a Little Distraction

 We skipped a park day because we were having so much fun on a math project. We are working on Triangles for Cotter Tens Fractal. It may sound boring but Austyn loved it. It will be 6 feet tall when we are done.

 While we sat there cutting and gluing, we chatted and out of that chat the kids learned of my pet rock when I was a kid. So, they headed outside and picked out stones to colour on and name. They also made houses out of cups.

 It was a fun distraction!

We are more than half way through the project now. It's a long project if it's only a couple of people doing it. This project was meant for a classroom of kids, I think, but we are still plugging away.

Playing Outside On Their Own

One of the complaints that I always had about my kids is that I could never figure out why they wouldn't go out and play without me. We have always lived in subdivisions and for some strange reason they wouldn't go out to play unless I came too. If I couldn't go out they wouldn't go. 

 

When we are out in the country it's a different story! Here is a picture of them running through the fields. They love playing outside here and who needs parents!? There are wide open spaces. They seem to be drawn outdoors here. They spend hours wandering, playing together, looking for insects, or playing with the farm cats.

Harvesting Beans

 One of the benefits of living in the country is learning about where our food comes from. Thanksgiving Weekend is when farmers take off the beans. 

 The fields around us were no exception. Since Daddy was home he offered to take the beans to the mill for the farmer who does the fields here. The kids got a look in the wagon and felt the beans.

 Daddy and Austyn got their snacks and water ready and loaded up into the tractor. 

Off they went to the mill! Now Austyn wants to live on a farm and Daddy thought the experience was relaxing. We are now looking at farms. LOL!!!

Physical Education for Homeschoolers

 Do your kids go to school? Do they do phys-ed? We do! We have joined in with another local homeschool group for gymnastics. Zoe and Austyn love it! Zoe was too advanced for the younger level so they moved her up to the higher level with Austyn.

 We started Power Skating and Hockey with one of the local groups. It's extra ice time for Austyn and Zoe loved it so much that she decided that she wants to do hockey now. 

 I went out and got her some hockey gear. This is her first time trying out hockey with the group.

She really didn't know what to do and skated around everywhere, but it was cute and she had fun.

We plan on doing some swimming soon. There is an indoor pool near us and they have a good deal of public swim time during school hours. 

Some days I feel a little bad because I feel like my kids have an advantage over other kids because my children can choose an activity and do extra classes of it during the day to get good really fast or they can choose many activities and do some at night and others in the day. I see that other children are restricted to only night time and that limits their time on these types of things. But then I think about the fact that kids in school do phys-ed and my kids don't, other than running around outside and whatever they do on their own. So, for us, this is our phys-ed class.  And yes, in some ways my kids do have an advantage. They could choose to dedicate more of their time on a subject or activity that they are interested in. They have a bit more freedom. It's wonderful!

Adjusting to Change

 Austyn and I have been doing much more school type activities lately. Our homeschooling looks more like school than unschooling sometimes because Austyn has made it clear that that is what he wants. He has been reading from his reader, learning Canadian history, and doing math. Zoe sometimes feels a bit left out so I sit down and do things with her. In this picture she is doing math. She went off track, but this is what I let them do because I find it makes the experience more individual and fun. She decided that she wanted to play X and O's with the tally sticks. She made little pieces of paper and put X or O on all of them and that is what we played for the next few minutes until she lost interest. This is creative and provides confidence. The game itself provides it's own strategic challenges.

 Living with family, they get different experiences. There are many farm cats here. One of them had two kittens and they are kept right outside the door in a little cat house. This little kitten just opened it's eyes. 

 They have been learning to drive because Austyn is going to be old enough to drive a junior dragster. One way to learn to drive is to drive the golf cart and the lawn mower. 

 Zoe didn't want to be left out. They take turns driving with Daddy.

 There are many things to do that they could never do at our past couple of homes. Here Zoe is climbing a tree.

 The hammock provides hours of amusement.

It is very quiet here. We have had the chance to be here on our own for most of our stay so far. We can see far, there are many insects, and many birds. With the land so flat we can see what weather is coming and the sunsets are great.

Going to the Library

 We are frequent visitors at our library branch. They are getting to recognize us. We are there at least once a week and tend to max out our cards since we read so much. 

 I try and make sure we have a wide variety of books to bring home. We like children's picture books from many different authors, audio books, easy readers, and some from the reference section in subjects that are of interest. We read novels once and a while.

One of the librarians suggested that we enter the reading club for the summer so we did. We are enjoying the activities they put on and the kids are keeping track of how many minutes they spend reading or being read to. They may even win a prize at the end.

Being the Model

One of the aspects of unschooling is to pursue our interests. This isn't just for the kids. This is a life choice that should include everyone. Parents can model this so that the kids follow their interests as well. I'm so proud of my husband for going after his interest of learning how to play hockey. I must say that a man in his 30's learning how to play hockey for the first time looks much different than a child learning and this makes me even more proud of him. The kids are also proud of him. We all go and watch when we can. 

It's so cute that Austyn tries to tell him how to improve his skills because he sees himself as a much better hockey player than his Dad. It's wonderful to see them give each other advice. They also understand how hard it can get out there. There is a much better understanding between the two of them now that they both play. It's not as easy of a sport as it looks.

Freedom

 Here we are on a beautiful morning in the park. No people around. It's early and I was summoned out of the house to get coffee (since we were all out).

 As I sit there watching my kids quietly, sipping a Tim's I can't help but wonder if they realize just how lucky they are. Right now most of the other children in this city are sitting in a class room. They have to be quiet and listen for instructions from their teachers. My kids are free to explore and talk and are not confined by walls or instructions. 

 Sure there are no children here at the moment, but why does there have to be? They seem content on their own at this time. Playing, running, digging, talking... why do they always have to have other children around? They have moments of real socialization and other moments of free solitude. 

 Why should they always have instructions and books and curriculum? They create their own. Freely exploring their world with wonder and enthusiasm, they learn so much. 

I think back to my childhood in a classroom and look at the happy faces of my own children and realize with great confidence that they are happy. This is what childhood is meant to be like... Free!

Science Sunday - The Ant Kill

Yes... sadly... they were killing ants. They were trying different things on the ants to see what would kill the ants faster when they came in contact with the different substances. I saw them use, Off Skintastic, water, salt, baking soda, vinegar, chalk, and anything else they could find. This all went on while I picked weeds in the garden. They noticed after they were finished that the ants didn't like to walk on the area that they used to do the experiments. And... yes... Austyn is sticking out his tongue at the ants in the picture above because they can't walk over that big wet spot to get to the ant hole. Sigh... well... I guess this is science, the unschooling way. LOL!!! 

Playing Uno

One of our favourite games is UNO. This time we tried to say the numbers and colours in Spanish. After Austyn tried a magic trick.

Interests are Contagious... Hockey

It is so interesting that when one person in our house becomes passionate about something, it becomes contagious. This has happened a few times in our home. I think that with unschooling this could become more apparent because we are following interests. I don't mean just the interests of the kids but the interest of all of us. Parents could be the model of how people pursue their interests. I'm not as good at this as my husband is. I end up making the needs of everyone else a priority. The point being made here is that when one of us get involved in a particular interest we all end up eventually interested in someway. It could be an interest that moves from parent to child or child to parent.

Austyn has been interested in hockey lately and because of that interest Daddy decided to try out hockey for the first time. We do our best to support each other as much as possible. We all go to practices and games for Austyn even when it`s really early.

When Daddy went to his first practice, it was late at night, but since the kids don`t have to attend school the next day we all went. We likely won`t do it again that late because Zoe can`t handle it, but the point is we did it for support. I think it was important for the kids to see that it`s never too late to try something new.

I'm no hockey fan. I particularity don`t like the fights, but I do my best to support Austyn's interests and use those interests as a means to learn. After all he loves when I do this. I've been reading books to him on the subject and am finding hockey much more interesting than ever before.

Here is a book about the most famous goal, told by a young boy. It`s called The Greatest Goal by Mike Leonetti. It's just one of the hockey books we've read.


Here is a video on the greatest goal. The year is 1972. It`s The Soviet Union against Canada. It`s game eight. All of Canada has shut down to watch. Children watched in classrooms. It was tense and a tied game. With only 34 seconds left, after rebounding twice off of the goalie, Paul Henderson scored The Greatest Goal! People everywhere could recall where they were when they witnessed it! After the game people of all ages left their homes and went into the streets throughout Canada to celebrate together.

So, as you can see, being an interest-led type of homeschooling family can really lead to so much knowledge and life experiences. Now... let's see if my interest in learning Spanish catches on. :)

Pretend Play in Our New House

Somehow kids figure out how to use the entire house as a play area. As you can see here there are a couple of things being played in the living room. Austyn has left his army toys all over in front of the fire place. They then proceeded to play famous people with the stuffed animals. They are famous hockey players and other stuffed animals are asking for their autographs and pictures. Other games they have played since we've lived here are house, hospital, and zoo with the stuffed animals.

Here Zoe is posing with one of the stuffed animals while Austyn takes a picture with his camera.

10 Reasons RightStart Math Works!

Here is Asutyn enjoying a yogurt and RightStart Math. He really enjoys it. We do it many times a week right now.

Here are 10 reasons that this program works so well for him.

1. There is very little paper work. He has never been a huge fan of being told that he has to fill in blanks or do work with a pencil. What work there is is fast and I just photocopy from the work pages provided.

2. It's very hands-on. He loves to manipulate things, build, touch things, and experiment. This program is all of this and more. 

3. It is full of self-discovery. He isn't a fan of being sat down and told facts without any self-discovery. The lessons are laid out in a way that I can follow the instructions easily to allow him time to figure things out on his own. Basically I'm told through the lessons what to tell him and ask him to help him discover the answers on his own. He loves this way of learning since he is a thinker. 

4. Not much emphasis on memorization. This program goes about math in a similar way to how they teach math in China so that the basic understanding of the concepts is well known instead of just memorizing numbers and how the concept is done. It approaches each concept from many angles but in a way that the child understands truly what is happening instead of just memorizing something. This makes math more interesting and fun.

5. Each concept leads into the next concept in a way that just makes so much sense. At the same time they sometimes mix things up a bit to keep interest and help him remember what he has learned in the past.

6. It teaches math with place value as an important factor when naming numbers. So instead of saying twenty this program says 2-ten. Instead of saying nineteen he says 1-ten, 9. Again, this is how they learn it in China, from what I understand. This helps so much. I would, however, like to note that I get him to say twenty and nineteen etc... after learning how the program says it to ensure that he knows both. I know a couple examples of children who didn't learn the names of the numbers that we commonly use here in Canada and when they got to a certain point they had some difficulties. So, if you do this program you may want to consider teaching them both together. Just mention the commonly used name after each RightStart number learned.

7. It's so much fun and full of games. I wish I learned math this way! I am learning it over with him and am so much better at math than I've ever been before. It's a great program that I find is well worth the money.

8. It's learned in a way that falls in line with unschooling. As many of you may know, I tried to set up schedules and follow a whole curriculum with Austyn but it was a complete flop. That is when we moved toward unschooling which is how he seems to learn best. I read many books and articles on unschooling and was amazed at what John Holt said about math and how it should be taught, if it was going to actually be set out for a child to learn. It seems to me that this program is as close to his example of how kids would learn math as I could ever get.

9. The child moves away from counting and toward a faster more efficient way of seeing numbers. It is recommended to start your child with the RightStart program at about the age of five because it is hopeful that by that age they don't have too much of a habit yet with counting things. Instead he learns to see the numbers or sort them without having to count which is much more efficient. Counting is a waste of time. The human eye can see up to 5 items without having to count. They learn to see the numbers quickly through many different common visuals. 

10. Testing isn't a focus with this program. I remember when I went to school we had math tests all the time and even the regular math sheets that we did on a regular basis were taken from us and marked. We were given grades and compared to other children. This isn't how this program is done or at least it doesn't have to be if  you don't want it to. There is not a great deal of testing or marks so far.

Here is their website in case you would like to check it out for yourself. 

http://www.alabacus.com/

Back Yard School

 This is our curious little friend who visits our fence everyday to see what we are doing. 

 Austyn has expressed that he wants to do more structured school and part of unschooling/natural/child-led homeschooling is that I make sure he does what he wants to do. So, if he is asking for more school activities and structure this is what I'm going to provide. 

 With the weather so nice, we've taken much of our time out-of-doors. Here Zoe is working on a paint project that we picked up at the dollar store.

Austyn and I work on his Hawk lapbook that never got finished last year.

iPad Homeschooling

When deciding to purchase the iPad, it was suppose to be mine and I would share it with my family. The reason we chose an iPad over a regular eReader was because there were so many apps that could be used for our homeschooling. I may still get an eReader one day as well since the iPad is so popular in our house. It's used for reading, watching movies, playing games, watching the stars and much more.

Right now I'm looking for books for next year. Most of the books listed for reading next year for the Well-Trained Mind and CM (the two places I look for material to keep around the house) are available on the iPad for free. I've downloaded many reading and book shopping programs and if one doesn't have the book for free another one does. It's great! Some books I'll need to purchase from a book store and have here, but this device will reduce the amount of storage we need for books dramatically.

Netflix has proven to be a well used service in our home. We signed up with them months ago (almost as soon as they were available in Canada). There are many movies that they don't have that we wish they did and one that we loved to watch that they now don't offer. The benefit is that we have a wide range of documentaries, animal shows, and other great movies at our finger tips. I downloaded the app as soon as I got the iPad and we watch movies anywhere in the house, including in bed sometimes. A caution about Netflix is to be sure that you have unlimited downloads on your internet service so that you don`t get a big bill at the end of the month. It happened to a friend of mine. We already had unlimited internet so only paid the Netflix fee.

Here are a list of apps that we love with descriptions:

SketchBook Pro
This is a drawing program. I think I paid for this one. It has many brush styles including leaves and other textures. Zoe plays with this program often and saves her creations.

ABC Phonics Word Family Writing HD
Zoe likes this one. She likes to draw and make letters and she loves to read. This program is all of these. She can trace the letters of words. She can choose a family of words, hear the words, and she can choose upper or lower case letters to trace.

Tumble Books
We have been a fan of Tumble Books online (through our library), so I decided to download some of them on our iPad. Zoe and Austyn both watch these. If you`ve never seen them before, they are popular children`s books, slightly animated and read aloud on the screen. The only problem I find with this program is that it`s not made for the iPad yet so the quality is a bit low, but the kids don`t notice it much. It`s still well worth the money I spent.

Cut the Rope
This one could be debated as educational or not. I see it as educational because it`s playing with gravity and other forces to figure out how to get the food into the cute little green guys`mouth by cutting ropes. Both of my kids love this one. It`s a fun game!

SandSlides
Both kids like this one. It`s sand running out of hour glasses and the purpose of the game is to get all of the sand go where it is suppose to by colour. Drawing lines to prevent the sand from spilling where it doesn`t belong.

Talking Gina and Talking Tom
These two programs are just for fun and a good laugh. Austyn and Zoe both love to play with these guys and they laugh. These games don`t have much educational purpose, but we need programs like this in our lives too. Why not! It`s fun!

Isaac Newton`s Gravity HD
Austyn loves this game. It`s a bunch of puzzles that he solves by placing items in specific spots to try and get the button pressed to move to the next puzzle. It works with gravity and there are sometimes elements added to make it more interesting.

Tinkerbox
This is similar to Isaac Newton`s Gravity HD but you can also invent things. Austyn loves this one and invents things all the time. He will align different items on the screen and when a ball falls out of the hole

Labyrinth 2 HD
I remember these as a kid. The wooden maze with holes. Maneuvering a metal ball-bearing through it to get it in the hole at the end. This one is nice because you can start with an easy board and each board after is more difficult. There are magnets, fans, other balls, and laser beams to keep it interesting. Austyn plays this game just about every day. He is excellent at it.

Air Hockey
We play this one some days. You can choose one person or two. It works just like a regular air hockey table, complete with the sound effects.

Paper Toss World Tour HD
This is a popular game on our iPad as well. Tossing paper into the trash has never been so challenging.

Word Ball
If your kids know The Electric Company they will love this game. I have to admit that I was not too sure about this game when I first downloaded it but am impressed with the results. Austyn has proven to me that he has learned some phonics blends from this game. OU and OW were a breeze for him because of this game. They have to select the letters of specific sounds that are being sung about in the video and after that they have to fling the letters into passing words to make new words.

Wolfram
This reference program does so much I`m not even sure what to share about it. It will tell you about any word. You can count calories with it. You can learn about the stats of your name. You can see who was born in your city. If there is something you want to know but aren`t sure where to look this program could help.

BrainPOP
This program is a collection of animations on a variety of educational and interesting subjects. The characters read mail from viewers and answer their questions on a variety of subjects.

Smarty Pants School
Zoe likes this one. It`s finding letters in signs and matching upper and lower letters. At first when I posted this I said that it was too easy. I take it back. It grows with her abilities and she is spelling words and reading with this app. I recommend it!

Blackboard Sight Words
The downfall of this game is that the words are all in uppercase and are shown on little squares. It shows words and says the word and there is a section to practice spelling the words. Both of my kids like this one.

Science House Video Science
This is a bunch of science videos made by a science teacher. He explains how to do the experiments and stay safe.

Star Walk
We use this one to look at the stars and the night sky any time of day live. We can even see what is on the other side of the earth by pointing the iPad to the foor.

Google Earth
This is so cool to use when looking at different places or reading about places in history. We have seen the Egyptian pyramids from above and there are little write-ups about each thing. It`s a great way to get to know our planet.

Play Along
We have just downloaded this one but it`s pretty cool. There is a violin playing music and you play along on the piano. You can see above the keys which notes you need to press, when and for how long.

Other Apps worth mentioning
Rush Hour
iAptitude (good for testing skills for older kids)
World Spelling Day and World Math Day Apps
Scrabble
Dictionary
GrammarGuide
My First Spanish 100
TAO
Math Bingo
MathPlay
MathBoard
Sudoku
Study Flash
Flash to Pass
Particle Zoo
SkORB 3D
Exoplanet
Planets
Solar Walk
GoSkyWatch Planetarium
3D Brain
AlloFriends
Animals 360
World History Maps
National Geographic World Atlas
Smithsonian Infinity of Nations
Smithsonian MEanderthal
Learn to Draw
Chalkboard
Filterstorm
Virtuoso
Classical Guitar
NoteBrainer
Naturespace
Kids Yoga
myhomework
Adobe ideas
WeatherEye HD
Sims 3 World Adventures
Kindle
Kobo
OverDrive
iBooks
vBookz
Stanza
Barns & Noble

Wish List:

Audubon Guides

SkySafari

iLiveMath Ford Cars

Arithmaroo

Art Authority

ArtPuzzle HD

MathBoard

Spell Board

As you can see we`ve downloaded many apps! Have fun checking them out. If you have an iPad and know of an app that I`ve missed, share in the comments.