My friends over at Den School wrote this awesome review of Logo Adventures as well as a Giveaway that I am joining up with! Check out their great review and then head on down to the Rafflecopter form below and Enter to WIN!
After our first year of homeschooling, we decided to move towards a more interest led approach for our children’s homeschooling. This was a “dream come true” for our oldest child who is very interested in electronics and computers.
To begin his quest, he got ready to go to the library to stock up on great computer materials. With his recyclable grocery bag in hand, he headed to the card catalog in the children’s department prepared to toss in a ton of books, he instead found…nothing.
My husband took him over to the main section of the library where he was able to locate two computer books. He brought them home but was unsatisfied with what he found. They were very mature for him and he was lost. Our confident “computer whizz” felt incapable. This is not what we wanted to accomplish at all.
His disappointment sent me on a quest to find an appropriate computer curriculum for kids. I knew it had to be out there, but where? I asked around, and none of my friends we able to offer suggestions. I asked the library, and they were unfamiliar. I finally hit the internet and found Logo Adventures fromMotherboard Books.
Logo Adventures, by Phyllis Wheeler, is used to teach simple computer programming along with MicroWorlds 2.0 or MicroWorlds EX. (My set came with MicroWorlds EX.)
The first day, I told my little tech kid to go ahead and play around with the program to get a feel for it without the book. (This is how he is anyway, he likes to skip directions and figure things out. Typical man). During his first hour of “playing” he had created a city with airplanes flying, cars moving, and music playing. He thought this was wonderful. He didn’t understand why he needed the book, the program allowed him to do everything he wanted and if he had a question, he could follow the on screen tutorial…
Well, the next day I completed the first lesson on my own. Afterwards I asked him a few questions to see what he learned by “playing”. I asked: “What is the command box? What does fd 50 lt 90 mean? What does pu and pd mean? What will cg and cc do?”… needless to say, he was learning the difference between playing and knowing. He was also ready to learn the answers to those questions… after all, no one in our house is allowed to know more about computers than him!
I use my laptop to complete the lesson with the children while I conduct the “class”. After the first three lessons my oldest two decided they were ready to complete each lesson on their own without me “hovering” over them. I think it is fantastic because I can rarely get them to do anything on their own… actually, they don’t do anything else on their own… I could get used to this (smile).
Logo Adventures was designed to be used as weekly lessons. However, my children enjoy this so much that they are already on Lesson 8… we have only had this program for 2 weeks! They are learning so much more than I could have imagined (hello Geometry!) The best part is: they are ASKING to do this, ON THEIR OWN!
This is the main goal of any interest-led learning foundation. To find something your children WANT to learn. To my greatest surprise, all of my little ones are enjoying this curriculum. I searched this out with my oldest in mind, not realizing that all of my little ones would become captivated by it. Recommend doesn’t begin to describe how I feel about this curriculum… I strongly encourage it!
Do you want to know more? My little ones will start Animations very soon… I can’t wait to tell you how they are doing! Keep an eye on Denschool for more of my little one’s “Logo Adventures”!
Visit Motherboard Books for more information on computer programming curriculums for children AND don’t forget to enter the giveaway by using the Rafflecopter form below!
a Rafflecopter giveaway
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