Discovering Mudcloth

The Smithsonian has a website with online exhibits -- what a wonderful idea.

A few weeks ago I wanted to do a unit on Africa for my second-grader. We found some wonderful books at the library, but I wanted to integrate some art with the project. Fortunately I stumbled across this excellent interactive site provided for our educational pleasure by our national museum.

I give this site an A+.

When you first click on the site, you are welcomed by a flash intro depicting an African mudcloth.

http://www.mnh.si.edu/africanvoices/mudcloth/index_flash.html

From there you are taken to an online exhibit (what a cool idea that is) called "Discovering Mudcloth." Used in contemporary fashion, this art form was created by women in Mali's Bamana culture centuries ago. "People around the globe relate to the rich graphics of Malian mud cloth, or bogolanfini, as a symbol of African culture and heritage," states the website.

You can explore links to the artist Nakunte Diarra, the designer Chris Seydou or the painter Ismael Diabate. But don't miss the link on the top right to "Make Your Bogolanfini," which leads you through the steps to creating a virtual mudcloth online and directions to make the real thing at home. In each step, you are given details about the techniques with tidbits about ancient and present-day Malian culture. If you make the mudcloth online, it will take less than 10 minutes and you can print it out when you're finished.

If you visit this site, please use the blogger comments at the end of this post to add your evaluation.

WebQuests: A busy mom's creative dream come true

Note: I receive no compensation whatsoever for promoting any website. I will only blog about websites that I believe have merit for homeschoolers.

In my search for science projects for my daughter, I came across a wonderful site full of WebQuests. What is a WebQuest, you ask?

For the official definition, visit the homepage of webquest.com but for us laymen and women, a WebQuest is like an internet treasure hunt. The whole thing began in 1995 at San Diego State University when Bernie Dodge and Tom March came up with the idea to make good use of the internet while engaging students in the kind of thinking required in the 21st century. Each summer since then waves of teachers have dreamed up new WebQuests at the "Teach the Teachers" consortium for the San Diego Unified School District.

WebQuests soon spread all over the world with special enthusiasm in Brazil, Spain, China, Australia and Holland.

While I have a master's degree and have taught language arts for middle school and university students, I still don't feel competent putting together a social studies unit for a second-grader. So I really appreciate the expertise of these teachers who have offered these free treasure hunts for our kids. These quests are great for those times when you want your child to do something independently that is still fun. The homepage can be found at:

http://www.webquest.org/

I did a search for second grade social studies and came up with this page listing numerous WebQuests for that grade and subject area alone.:

http://webquest.org/search/webquest_results.php?curr=currsocial&grade=gradek2&Submit=Search+Matrix

This stuff could keep us going all year! I'm excited. Here's a sampling of what I found:

• The Martians Have Landed This web quest focuses on plant growth and the life cycle of flowers. In the introduction the students are informed that their are aliens that are about to approach earth. The task for the students is to work in cooperative groups to develop instructions for the aliens to grow plants. It is also their job to explain why plants and flowers are so important. At the end of the webquest the students will have explained the parts of plants, their functions, and the importance of plants on earth.
• Quilting Lesson In this unit, third grade students are combining math, social studies, and research to create a quilt that visually represents Mexico.
• Bully Quest
• The Pilgrims and Me Students will learn about life in colonial times. Specifically, they will compare their lives today with the lives of pilgrim children in the areas of food, clothing, games, schooling, homes, and chores.
  Australia Adventure
• A Quilt to Freedom" A Quilt to Freedom" asks students to research important African American leaders and events. After answering a variety of questions, students will create quilt pieces detailing their leader or event in history.
• Explore Puerto Rico Students explore various websites to collect information about Puerto Rico. In phase one, they research and answer various questions about Puerto Rico and its culture. In phase two, they create a product to show off what they have learned and to be displayed in the school.
• Learning About Laws
• Wolves- A 'Howl' Of A Time In this Wolf WebQuest students are given the task of learning more about wolves in order to protect an orphan wolf. In groups of 4, each person is given a role and a worksheet that needs to be completed. Students are given a list of websites (resources) to visit where they will find answers to the questions. Students are then asked to create a poster with their findings and present the finished product to the class.
• Tornado There is a nasty thunderstorm happening outside. It's pretty dark too. Suddenly, the principal comes on the PA. Unfortunately, you're in the washroom and can't quite understand what she's saying. You definitely hear the words, "tornado", "evacuation", and "arena". Having practiced for tornadoes you know that the washroom is fairly safe as it's an inside wall. You and your friends crouch against the wall and wait. There seems to be some action in the hallway so you assume the tornado is on the way...
• Democratie in Athene (Democracy in Athens) Student research Athenian democracy and compare it with present day democracies.
• Colonial America K-2 students explore the daily lives of a typical colonial American family, including chores, clothing, food, trades, school, and entertainment. Students will investigate the effects of winter on all of these components, and compare it with an American winter today.
• Making Money Introduces children to the vocabulary terms: goods,services, consumers and producers. The students will form "The Cheerful Chore" company and design a poster promoting the service their company will provide.
• United States Monument WebQuest A second grade WebQuest on six United States Monuments. The students will research some monuments, write summaries, create their own monuments and present them to the class.
• Journey to Japan Learn about daily contemporary life in Japan by gathering information about food, school, hobbies, holidays, folktales, and popular cartoon and movie characters. Create a book about yourself as a Japanese child and tell about your favorite things.
• Break-Out at Rolling Hills! This is a WebQuest designed for a second grade animal unit in preparation for the spring field trip to Rolling Hills Zoo. The animals have broken out of the zoo to go to Dairy Queen and the students have to create facts about the animals and persuade the angry zookeeper to take them back. The students in teams have to create habitats which will then transport the animals back to Rolling Hills safely. This is a two-task WebQuest which requires Internet research as well as constructivist thinking on the part of the students.
• Plan a Rainforest Festival Designed for second graders to research weather conditions in the rainforest. The students help native Amazonians plan a festival.
• Here's the Holiday for You First and Second grade students research different holidays. Holidays include Thanksgiving, Columbus Day, Flag Day, Fourth of July, President's Day, Veteran's Day, and Memorial Day. This WebQuest comes complete with lesson plans and a Holiday Journal.
• Cinco de MayoBackground and celebration of Cinco de Mayo

You can find similar material for grade levels preK through grade 12 by doing a simple search from the homepage. If you use this site and have comments, please use the comment button below and share with all of us.

Accidents happen . . .

Homeschooling is not something I ever dreamed of doing -- single or married. That was for other people -- you know, people who are "together." It was for those organized supermoms who got married when they were 24.5 years old to a clean-cut engineer with a good job.

I, on the other hand, am a mess: single, unemployed and lacking excess energy.

But I've never been conventional.

When I was 35 years old, I realized the dream of getting married before official oldmaidenhood was not going to happen. Instead of moping about it, I decided to do something that no married woman could do. I took a leave of absence from my secure job at a university and flitted to Japan for a six-month exchange program teaching English. It was a perfect fit. Unable to bear the thought of returning to my average, but stable life in the U.S., I struck out on my own in Japan, landing a job with a private Japanese school, learning the ropes of English teaching as a business and having a blast along the way.

But there was tragedy, too. In 1996, when I was just 36 years old, my mom died in a car accident. Since my dad had died when I was eight years old, this left me feeling very small in a very big world.

With my 40th birthday approaching, I happened to read about tens of thousands of orphaned girls in China, victims of the one-child policy (read my article on the one-child policy here: http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/355978/chinas_one_child_policy_leads_to_adoption.html) My heart was captured by this image and I was frustrated by the fact that I was single. Who would give me a Chinese baby? My friends challenged me to go for it. Within 18 months, all the doors opened and we two -- both orphans -- were tied together into a family.

It has been the most rewarding as well as the most difficult thing I have ever done. There is a reason most people are married and in their 20s or 30s when they have children!


Out of necessity, my daughter was in daycare almost immediately and she spent most of her life up to age 7 in a school setting. Last year when we went to Japan again for a short-term stint teaching English, Bonnie went to a Japanese school. I didn't think I had a choice. It was a wonderful experience for her and I'm sure she learned things in that year that most Americans wouldn't learn in a lifetime. But she didn't learn how to read and write English. So this fall, when we returned to the U.S. and stayed with a family of homeschoolers, I saw that is was not as mysterious and intimidating as I had previously believed.

So I gave it a try. This blog is a record of the journey. As of today, I fully intend to enroll Bonnie in public school as soon as I get a job and we decide where we're going to settle. But only the continuing journey will tell.