Measuring Scavenger Hunt

nothing nicer than doing a measuring scavenger hunt in comfy pajamas

Part of the joy of homeschooling is that you can create learning opportunities tailor made for your children, utilizing the things that they love and that appeal to their minds, without having to resort to worksheets or table work all the time.  First off, that can be ridiculously difficult and comes with a lot of pressure.  But, moving on.  Without trying to get too deep into learning styles and best practices for retention and meaningful application (blah blah blah blaaaaah), the trick can sometimes be as easy as thinking about what the kids like to do, then applying a visual morph of that activity and the material to learn.  Today, I will be morphing the amazingly awesome scavenger hunt with measuring and graphing. Voila.  Brilliant. Not as cool as morphing a hot air balloon and a zebra, but it'll do for today.

Checking to make sure they got everything

The secret is that, as is true with many of my brilliant ideas, it was more an accident than an intention.  Instead of measuring a bunch of lines on a paper, or even a bunch of drawn circus animals (which I did last week, and was more fun than boring lines), I decided to add a little movement and draw a bunch of objects in our house which they were to locate, measure and record.  After a brief discussion on how we measure things (this wasn't our first encounter with measuring), I gave them a ruler, a tape measure, and the clipboard with the drawings, and sent them off to measure the items.  Honestly, I didn't even think they would see it as a fun scavenger hunt.  I just wanted them to get out of their seats a bit.  But it didn't take long to realize how awesome this was for them.  They were quite sad when they found all nine items and had to stop.

And then, as they were going to graph their data, still basking in the glow of my brilliance, I realized how terrible terrible terrible my format was. Granted, when I started it, I did not realize (or plan) exactly what I was doing, so it ended up looking a bit messy and confusing.  It was rather horrid.  But, has potential.  Perhaps you can learn from my mistakes:

1. I did not provide proper space for recording the lengths.  (and then had to number the entry spaces in addition to the drawings which confused the kiddos)
2. I did not line up and organize my drawings/data entry spaces nicely.  This would have made it so much easier to use.  It was confusing for them to figure which data entry belonged with which picture.
3. Too many numbers all over the place!   
1. I numbered the images and data spaces, which were then filled in with numbers, which combined with the mistake below, made it quite confusing as well.
2. I didn't measure the things myself.  I just looked for small items and assumed they would work, which they did, except when the #4 drawing was 3" and the #3 drawing was 4" and then they were trying to transfer the data to a graph.  If I'd taken the time to look at approximate lengths, and perhaps label, instead of number, the drawings, the poor boys wouldn't have had such a hard time keeping track of where they were on the page.
3. The columns on the bar graph were numbered, to correspond with the numbered drawings, which also had numbered data spaces, with numbers written in the spaces.  Again, I should have labeled the drawings as "globe", "stapler", etc.  and written those labels on the graph instead of numbering. 
4. The graph I provided for them to fill out had labels at the top, which made them want to graph down; which would have been fine, except I had numbered up from the bottom on the left side.  Bad planning.  Actually, no planning. Just bad.  

This stuff is so obvious to everyone else in the world that it is embarrassing.  Its been a while since I prepared graphs.  I'm sure there were lots of other mistakes, but those are the major ones I will take to heart when doing this sort of activity again.  

Trying their best to transfer their data to a bar graph, despite my terrible and confusing format

Baz doesn't really like coloring.  Crazy, I know.

I know.  Its just awful.

Other ways to use the scavenger hunt activity:

• Long walks in the stroller or drives in the car - I've done special drawings for highway driving, inner city driving, 5 mile neighborhood walks through the neighborhood, walking route to the store.  I make them double-sided and stick them in clear paper sleeves.  With dry erase markers, they can do theirs on either side, wipe them clean and trade. 
• Phonics/Reading - finding things with particular phonetic sounds or endings, out of finding different letters or words on items in the pantry
• Math - looking for things in sets 2 - 10.  Draw pictures of certain items, which the kids have to count and record, or make equations with the drawings (for example, # of shoes + # of coffee cups = ), finding certain objects and guessing what is heavier, family data (height, weight, age, etc.)
• Science - measuring specific objects outside in nature; looking for the smallest stick/leaf/tree/rock you can;   Collect 10 rocks/sticks/leafs and guess longest, shortest, etc, then measure; Look for shadows and measure, recording source and time of day, etc.

Any great ideas you'd like to share?  I'd LOVE to hear them.  And you might include any helpful tips for people like me:)

Starting from here

Spoiler Alert! Life is not perfect.  Sorry if I ruined that little surprise for you.
This morning was a text book example of my life in all its "unperfectness".  I got out of bed later than I wanted, things didn't go well with the kids, conversation with my husband proved less than awesome, my breakfast got cold, and the dog threw up in the bathroom.  This is the kind of morning that inspires rigid neck tension and constant disgruntlement for the rest of the day.  It is the reason I am eating a bag of potato chips right now, hidden away in the office by myself.

But, I have to say, despite the potato chips,  I was proud of my ability to turn it around today.  It doesn't happen all the time.  Sometimes, as you probably know, enough little things going wrong in the morning can put a gloom and doom haze over the entire rest of the day.  Not today.

Now, to be clear, I was not able to turn it around because that is just the kind of person I am.  No no.  Lately, I have been much more the type to expect a bad afternoon given a bad morning.  But today I did well letting go and practicing self-acceptance.  Yeah me. I'm trying to realize, every day, that this, here, now, is my life. I am not just practicing, until I get all of my shit together.  This is it.  And as cliche and obvious as that is, accepting it whole-heartedly is quite difficult.  Accepting that today, right now, is my life, means also accepting that this, today, right now, is who I am.  I am not perfect. (Sorry, I should have given another spoiler alert there.)  I am a person who wants to be calm, simple, organized, happy, mindful, healthy, selfless and generous.  But instead I tell myself every freakin' day that tomorrow I will get up when the alarm goes off, and that tonight I will finally get the toys minimized and sorted.  When I get frustrated about not getting up on time, or not organizing the homeschool lessons last night, and that trickles down into every single interaction and event of the morning, causing discordance and unhappiness, the trick is to not throw in the towel for the day.  I can start from right now, from here, and turn it around.

Why is it that I feel, if I don't start a new routine on Monday, the whole week is shot and I need to try again next Monday.  How ridiculous is that?  But the damn calendar makes me feel like Monday is the only day to start something fresh and anew.  Can I start getting up when my alarm goes off tomorrow, even though its a Thursday?  I can!  And, just because I signed up for the awesome 28 days of free pilates on line for the month of February, and I have completed only approximately 10 of the last 19 days, doesn't mean that I can't jump in and do my best for the rest of the month.  I need to accept, like I did today, that this is who I am, and just because it isn't exactly who I always want to be, doesn't mean I can't start trying again right now, moving forward, without beating myself up over what happened ten minutes ago, this morning, yesterday, or last month.  Start from here.

So today, instead of carrying that tension and disgruntlement; instead of being bothered and set off by every whine or bump in the homeschool road, I took a breath and realized what a non-deal it was.  I managed to not snap at the boys for not listening to me and not focusing, and then I applied that smallest bit of humor and playfulness to the situation, and everyone was happy and back on track.  I let the morning go and accepted that those mornings happen in my life.  My days are not perfect.  They never will be.  But that doesn't have to dictate the rest of the morning, the day or tomorrow.  Reset.  Breathe.  And reset.  Start from here.

Right now, I am accepting that I love salt and am weak.   No biggie.