Our days have been co-co-cold and we have been spending more time inside. While we do love snowball fights and fort building, G has a hard time breathing in the frigid temps with the asthma. There is plenty to do inside, even if it is below zero out.
A few weeks back we saw a fun idea at Child's Play (yet another one of my favorite blogging families going to live in an RV!)...gumdrop geometry. The boys have built 2D and 3D shapes - as well as all kinds of structures - lots of fun!
It is interesting - G wants to create the shapes from a list we found for ideas, and check them off one by one as he builds them. He also enjoys combining colors and patterns.
A, on the other hand, wants to connect all of the shapes into ships, robots, buildings, and bridges...
...and he loves repeatedly saying words like dodecahedron (try saying that one 5 times) and tetrahedron.
As they like to say, "two boys, two worlds." ;)
I don't know how you feel about "video games" (I read too many great homeschool-ish blogs to keep everyone and their children straight) but there's a great game called World of Goo that your boys would probably love. You build structures out of goo balls to solve puzzles. My seven year old started playing it when he was five or six and *loved* it.
ReplyDeleteooh! I forgot that I bought a bag of those icky spicy gumdrops a few weeks ago for this project!
ReplyDeleteI wonder where they are.....
Thanks for the reminder!
Super cool!
ReplyDelete:)
PS-Thanks for the link to Child's Play....read a bunch and going back soon. They are headed right to our neck of the woods, you should come too! ;)
ReplyDeleteSince you're working in three dimensions, I have a word for you: tesseract.
ReplyDeleteHa, Frank beat me to it. I was going to suggest tesseracts as well.
ReplyDeleteLooks like lots of fun :)
ReplyDeleteAnd my kids would enjoy eating the gumdrops the most!
ReplyDeleteFor a whole other brain bend check out: http://www.wholemovement.com/
ReplyDeleteHe will be at the HOME unschooling conference in Feb: http://www.unschoolingconference.com/
Jen - Oh, yes! We met that guy before - had a Bucky Fuller talk with him. His paper work is amazing.
ReplyDeleteeidolons - Thanks for the rec on that. We found a wii version of it. It is indeed a fun puzzle solving kind of game!
Dawn - Wouldn't that be nice?
Frank & Jodi - Thanks! We've found a few things on that before, but it would be a great time to re-visit as A is *really* into math & dimensions right now. :)
I came here from Flickr. That looks like fun.
ReplyDeleteWhat a fun activity! How interesting to see your boy's different ways of building these.
ReplyDeletethat is a fun idea :)
ReplyDeletei have twin boys, and oh, yes, they are the living proof, that as a parent you can nurture, guide and teach, but you cannot define.
Nice geometric gumdrops!!
ReplyDeleteOwen and A are similar in that the end result needs to be something - bridge, car, etc.
Have fun with your new Wii!!
we studied less complicated shapes and their layouts few weeks back with drinking straws http://homemoma.blogspot.com/2009/12/where-has-time-passed.html
ReplyDeleteI on the other hand, would just enjoy eating the gumdrops!
ReplyDeleteok..these are super awesome fun, happy boys you have there!
ReplyDelete