Samut Saring Ceylon

Tue 25 Nov 2008

Leaving Sri Lanka

We have sketched a lot of mind maps and of late, I tried making one on leaving Sri Lanka - the title is not too cheerful. It includes all I must do before we finally fly off this December. Here it is. Not quite complete but it is still branching out. It seems as our final day approaches I get to add more items and more things i wish to do. Need I say more? Just have a look...

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Whew! Kids are sitting their Trinity Guildhall Piano Exams today. Best advice their Pa gave them this morning... Have Fun! And I totally agree.

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Tue 4 Nov 2008

Our Japan lap-note mindmap poster

Posted in Mind Map Mania

Just a brief post about our Japan project which I failed to insert yesterday because of so many going-ons in this household.

Anyway, we just want to show you how it turned out.

It is a pretty mix-match of our fave narration methods. It has lap-notes and a central mindmap if you notice. The map of Japan is the nucleus.

The timeline is not yet attached. We plan to glue it at the bottom length of the poster in a different color... it requires more time to complete, we realized. But then we are satisfied to say that this is almost it.

We had fun studying Japan and putting these together... I say we because I pretty much delved into collecting photos, printing and laying out the pictures for the minibooks. But the research, writing, drawing, cutting, pasting, coloring and other stuff are mainly Vibrant Bea's and Fuzzy's work.

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Fri 31 Oct 2008

Insect Mind Map - Done!

Posted in Mind Map Mania

Finally, Vibrant and Fuzzy completed their Insect Mind Map yesterday. The lesson on Order Lepidoptera isn't included as we hope to "lap-note" and have an indepth study on butterflies which are just the kid's favorites.. We will be continuing the study of butterflies as we start a new focus, Chemistry.

Here is the insect mind map.

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Mon 6 Oct 2008

How is the Insect Mind Map Going?

Posted in Mind Map Mania

Just a quick post today.

You might be wondering how our mind map on insects has turned out. Well, I have taken some photos today. I have mentioned earlier that Vibrant Bea has misplaced her mindmap so they joined efforts in making this one. The lost map, however, turned up just recently but since we have covered many lessons already, we preferred to complete this map for them both. The team set-up is helping them to learn how to cooperate and work together. Patience needs some practice and it seems to be working here.

I will make another post once it is completed.

Mind maps are great tools for learning and remembering!

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Mon 22 Sep 2008

More on mind maps on Day 22

Posted in Mind Map Mania

I mentioned in a previous post that we are using mind maps for our insect study. Some moms have asked me what mind mapping is and how it is done.

Today, I have taken some photos on how their insect mindmap is coming out. At first they started with separate mind maps but Vibrant Bea's mind map, which was a week's work, was misplaced and seems like has no intention of showing up. Anyway, it turned out well because Fuzzy welcomed the idea to make the map a team work. So now, both of them are making a colorful starburst of a mind map while I am reading aloud to them The Flying Creatures of the Fifth Day by Jeannie Fulbright.

So let me proceed by answering a couple of questions about this fun learning tool which has become one of favorite activities of my children.

What is a mind map?

Mind map is a diagram which makes use of paper and colored pens to make notes on a subject or theme. Instead of the usual taking of notes, a child may draw shapes, lines, sketches to represent the words, ideas, concepts linked and arranged together radially around a main or central subject. Read more about it at Wikipedia.

Fuzzy with his Insect mind map last week.

How is a mind map made?

1. Use a paper (maybe size A4 or letter) and a set of colored markers.
2. Set your paper to landscape orientation.
3. Write the central subject or topic on the middle of the page and encircle the word. In this map, my children wrote Insects and made a very big circle where they drew some insects inside.
4. Add lines outwards from the circle and draw smaller circles as subtopics or minor themes added to the subject. Always label every circle or radiating line. Branch out from major lines to new related smaller lines as minor ideas or details branch out from subtopics. ALWAYS LABEL each topic, subtopic and detail. Read more instructions from here.

Vibrant Bea with her mindmap before it got misplaced.

This technique has so many uses which include planning, problem solving, note taking, brainstorming, outlining and more which has helped on personal, family, educational and business situations. Instead of taking notes, children may be taught to make mind maps as you read to them. Mind maps may be used in aiding a child in narrating back what he has learned or understood from a lesson.

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