Wednesday, February 27, 2013

Project-Based Learning - How It Looks In Our Home

I want to start this post with a quote from Project-Based Homeschooling that really struck me, "Project-based homeschooling isn't only about what children want to learn - it is about creating a situation where children need to learn." In a home setting the above might look like a lego enthusiast playing and creating with legos all the time. Most parents and casual observers might say, "he needs to stop playing and pick up some books to learn." What that casual observer is not seeing is what may have taken place to get to the creative stage - researching lego design, sketches, internet research, library visits, etc.

A blog that inspires me everyday holds another look into project-based learning, Teachable Moments. One daughter is pursuing a passion of baking and community service while the other daughter is an intern at an University in the Meteorology Department.

In our home project-based learning is taking place at a slow pace. Grace and her father are currently working toward participating in an art festival in May. This week Grace received pens, blank bookmarks, and blank note cards to start creating some items to sell. This will be an ongoing project with other art products to be created as well. We also purchased for her the new Sketchpad Pro software to help in these endeavors.
Book marks

Note Card


Grace has also started the process of creating a manga/anime magazine. She has been very frustrated with the fact that manga/anime has a lot of inappropriate items in the other magazines and most of the books. Her ambition is to change that. Creating manga/anime books and magazines that can be enjoyed by all ages. With our continuing Graphic Arts Communication study she is starting to grasp all the areas her artwork can take her.

If you are interested in finding out more about project-based learning (because I am still in the first steps of learning about it) you might be interested in the book below or visiting one of the blogs I mentioned above.




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5 comments:

Karen said...

This is so strange Diane. I too have been researching Project Based Learning for a few months and I just bought that e-book!!! I LOVE the idea of project based and Keilee does it now but I want her to get involved in it in a larger scale.

Karen said...

Also Grace's drawings are amazing and I can't wait to see where this takes her!

Deb said...

I just discovered that book and am about 1/2 way through it. It's so inspiring! I am totally trying to figure out how to implement here ideas into our homeschool. Thanks for writing about this, it encourages me to continue thinking about it.

Jennifer said...

That is great that you are turning what she likes into a little business so that she can do more of what she likes. I'll have to research project based learning now.

Lori said...

thank you so much for the mention. love to see more people using these ideas. :)

i love the quote that you chose to highlight. :) it ties in nicely with the quote i used at the beginning of the book — “There are two aspects of providing occasions for wonderful ideas. One is being prepared to accept children’s ideas. The other is providing a setting which suggests wonderful ideas to children.” — Eleanor Duckworth

hope you guys have checked out our forum, too! lots of like-minded people there to chat and brainstorm with. :)