The crinkly bits

Did I mention we are going on a cruise? In two weeks time we'll be sailing off toward New Zealand! Can you tell I'm a bit excited?

Anyway, we are using this upcoming holiday as a starting point for some cool homeschool activities.

First up, I got the kids to write a paragraph about fjords and how they are formed.

I think in this age of information overload, one of the most important skills is to be able to find relevant, reliable sources of secondary information and then be able to put that together in a logical, readable way that achieves the writing goal.

The other thing I want my kids to be able to do is use technology. Rather than associate writing with the tedious (for them) process of handwriting, I let them use word processing to write. They can copy and paste, but the text must be properly referenced and support their ideas. They have to do a bibliography.

They quite enjoyed the process and Video Boy especially enjoyed including references to Slartibartfast and Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy!

We then got out our Mapping the World By Heart maps, which do not include detailed maps of New Zealand, but does have a Pacific map, which includes Australia, New Zealand, Indonesia, and south Pacific Islands.

Wombat Girl took great delight in explaining it all to her Dad:

They are now busily working cooperatively on preparing a Powerpoint presentation on New Zealand facts:

• government
• population
• cities
• money
• languages
• religion
• agricultural and industrial products
• major export and imports
• ethnic groups

They are working really well together and I haven't heard one peep of complaining!!

We might also do some research on food (cooking time!), music (and put together a NZ playlist on iTunes) and language.

So we have English, Geography, Technology, and Music all covered for the next couple of weeks (as their mother excitedly counts down the days until I don't have to do any housework or cooking!!).

This will be us again in 2 short weeks!