Bits and Bobs

Those firefox windows and tabs are multiplying on me again! Here are some bits and bobs - some homeschool, some just life.

• Living with Bugs - a nice looking site that outlines common bugs and the least toxic methods of controlling. It even talks about the different methods of flea control. Sarah, I'm not sure that it will tell you anything you don't already know, but I thought it did a nice job of explaining the options and their effectiveness.
• Got a bug enthusiast or budding entomologist? Learn about insect orders and families.
• Usborne have brought out some great new reading sets - these are nice collections of hardback books (the size of your usual paperback) and perfect for every level from very early reading to age 10-12yrs. I'm not sure why they put the ugly red savings stars over the pictures of the books, but these are definately nice book sets.
• Even our very own US government is blogging these days. The government blog looks pretty nice and it might be a much more friendly way to find your way around the tons of information out there which I'm sure we're funding through our taxes!
• Just in case you're not done with the election: Time for Kids; America.gov on the candidates and potential first ladies; and Melissa over at Sweet Serendipity has a few more links, including one on Duck for President and old campaign ads. I want to take a look at the old ads - Artist Girl and Game Boy love ads!
• Various lesson plans related to Japan.

Good, I'm down to just 46 windows now, so I only have about 300 tabs open. I'm working on it...

Nintendo, Sushi, Japan and Homeschool Lessons

Look What Came From Japan at Amazon.com

Today Artist Girl, Game Boy and I took a day out to visit the Kansas City Japan Festival. We must have had a really fun time - Artist Girl voted it the most fun she'd had outside of Christmas! So what made it so great?

A few years ago we spent several homeschool weeks learning about Japan and exploring the food and culture. It was a really fun time for us - one of our most memorable homeschool projects. Nintendo systems and games have also been pretty big in our house at times. Between one thing and another Artist Girl developed enough fondness for Japan to choose Japanese for her foreign language study.

There are lots of aspects of Japan you can explore with your kids. Here are a few fun ideas:

• Check out your closest botanical gardens - Japanese gardens are restful places and give you a feel of being somewhere far away. Here's a list of top 25 Japanese gardens in the USA.
  
• Read some Japanese Folk Tales - ask at your local library, visit Kids Web Japan, or print off stories to read (no pictures). You might be tempted to start a world folk tales and fairytales tour.
  
• Many cities have Japanese martial arts studios. Look for Judo, Kendo, Aikido or Karate classes that you could go and observe or take a trial lesson.
• Japanese food is almost too good to eat! Take a look at food around Tokyo. One mom shows how kids can make tray sushi
• If you'd rather watch the professionals, take a look on Youtube.com for lots of chefs - here's one to get you started.
• I promised Nintendo - take a look at Nintendo science lesson plans.

There are so many more things you can do with your children to learn about Japan. I think I'll have to come back to this!