E9's has undergone some changes. We've been discussing these boxes since probably March or April depending on the child. For a long time he had chosen Redwall, but then didn't like most of the fun ideas I came up with- can you believe this? In the end, Dan came up with a few ideas and E9 loves them.
E9's Summer Adventure Part 1: Beginning Guitar
With his allowance a while back, E9 purchased a guitar from Target of all places. It seems like it will do the job of letting him learn a bit to start. We also bought some resources from Rainbow Resource for the job. Hopefully he will stick to it and continue on into the fall and beyond. He has his eye on some Jars of Clay sheet music which he desperately wants to learn to play!Great little guitar but I would have thought it would come with more than a few cards with chords on them.
Notice how the strings are labeled. I don't know if that will be helpful or not, but we'll see.
We decided on this instructional book which comes with a CD and a DVD from Rainbow Resource. Also on its way is the supplemental song book for the same level. This series has room to grow if he wants to continue.
I wanted to be sure and include some music theory so he'll be doing this notespeller along the way. This will teach him the names of the notes as well as what each kind means.
Summer Adventure Part 2: Computer Programming
Dan also thought computer programming would be fun for E9 to learn this summer. Right now he is using a program called Scratch. It is more of a modular programming system developed at MIT. You click and drag different commands and make the object do certain things. It does a good job of teaching programming structure and some other basic things. All the kids are in love with it and ask to play around, but E9 has daily assignments left by Dan and they email each other back and forth during the day regarding said assignments. E9 learned how to send his finished product to Dan and then gets a reply with more directions or conversation. Pretty cool.
Below is a screen view of Scratch
Along the way, he has been learning new geometry skills and we had to break out the protractor! I will probably add to this post to update everyone on E9's progress.
There is another programming download for kids that has a fee, but allows them to program games to play. This has definitely peaked Dan's interest. I think it takes him back to his early programming days on the Commodore- is that right Dan? I'll have to get back to you on the name of it with a link... Ok I remembered it! It's called Phrogram. Word on the street is that if E9 shows stamina for learning programming, Dan will pay for Phrogram.
Along the way, he has been learning new geometry skills and we had to break out the protractor! I will probably add to this post to update everyone on E9's progress.
There is another programming download for kids that has a fee, but allows them to program games to play. This has definitely peaked Dan's interest. I think it takes him back to his early programming days on the Commodore- is that right Dan? I'll have to get back to you on the name of it with a link... Ok I remembered it! It's called Phrogram. Word on the street is that if E9 shows stamina for learning programming, Dan will pay for Phrogram.
3 comments:
The C64 rocked!
It sounds really cool what your dh is doing with your ds. What a blessing to hear!
Oh, yeah! We had a Commodore 64--complete with the tape player. You can't beat Pacacuda, you know.
This looks like a cool idea, though the computer part is WAY over my head. You've got some smart kiddos!
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