Monday, January 31, 2011

February planning

So here we are with February knocking on our door and there are things we can note and use in curriculum planning...
  • 100 days of school
  • Groundhog Day
  • Presidents Day
  • Black History Month
  • George Washington
  • Abraham Lincoln
  • Music
  • Sports
  • Valentines Day
  • Chinese New Year
  • Winter Olympics (although not this year)
  • Blizzard Cooking

So many things to look at - but to start at of course is Groundhog Day. A quick trip to wikipedia reveals the following: Groundhog Day is a holiday celebrated on February 2 in the United States and Canada. According to folklore, if it is cloudy when a groundhog emerges from its burrow on this day, it will leave the burrow, signifying that winter will soon end. If on the other hand, it is sunny, the groundhog will supposedly "see its shadow" and retreat back into its burrow, and winter will continue for six more weeks.

But there is more to it than that of course, and a brief bit of research between the library and the Internet, and your students can learn about holidays celebrated about the world in February, and the symbols (birthstones and flowers etc) and all sorts of other things that can make a cold month not seem so stifling.

Saturday, January 15, 2011

Boxing day sales netted a treat.

So given my kids dumped milk on my netbook and my regular computer bought the farm on Christmas Eve, I was scouring the net for a new laptop... as it's hard to put together a lesson plan for online schooling without the computer to do it on.

Taking advantage of the Google Search engine I scoured high and low, and ended up with a rather promising lead that led me into a big box electronic store on Boxing day.

Holy cow, that was more painful than Black Friday. People were lined up early to get the steals and deals, and I just wanted the best bang for my buck - which may or may not have been the computer they advertised. Fortunately being prepared, coming early dressing warm and knowing that you may not get precisely what you want helps. For me - I wasn’t looking at a system that was advertised as the door buster special, so it helped infinitely. My system was still on sale and I found something I really would like.

Moral of the story, do not bring your kids to this. First of all, they will ask why Santa exists if all these people are returning presents. However if you are looking to teach them about consumerism, as well as economics and how to be thrifty - this might be something for an older child or early teen.