organize

astronomy.md

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+## Astronomy
+
+- Look up at the sky together and learn about what's out there with a 'star guide' app. Example: [Star Walk](https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/star-walk-for-ipad-interactive/id363486802?mt=8)
+- Introduce and/or reinforce the concept of constellations with an introductory book like '[The Big Dipper](https://www.amazon.com/Big-Dipper-Publisher-Collins-Revised/dp/B004QDSJ8C)'.
+- Watch Bill Nye the Science Guy, [Season 3, episode 1 ('Planets & Moons')](https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x3jyutv) together (available on Netflix).
+- Continually reference the Earth as 'our planet', or 'the planet we live on'. Relate in terms of other planets, our Sun, and other Solar systems.
+- Reinforce the concept of gravity by talking about:
+  - How the Sun's gravity keeps all the other planets spinning around it–planets don't just fly around in space.
+  - Planets' gravity keep moons spinning around them.
+- Then introduce orbits (and their relation to gravity): planets orbit around the sun, moons orbit around planets.
+- Planets are always spinning! Reinforce this concept by talking about sunrises and sunsets:
+  - 'When the sun is going up the earth is spinning towards the sun.'
+  - 'When the sun is going down the earth is spinning away from the sun.'
+- Magnetism: consider together that the Earth's poles are magnetic, and that there is a north magnetic-pole, and south magnetic-pole. Discover how the direction of the north pole can be found together by using a compass!
+- Seasons and Temperatures: talk about the season you're currently in, and how the temperature is that way because the Earth's spins around its pole–which doesn't 'stand up straight'. So it's colder or hotter based on which way the earth is tilted during its year-long trip around the Sun!
+- If you have access to one, visit your local Planetarium! (Example: Periodically catch a show at [OMSI's Planetarium](https://omsi.edu/planetarium) together and learn about stuff like solar systems and dark matter!)

constructive-educational-shows.md

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+## Constructive Educational Shows
+
+Be 100% intentional about which shows your kiddos are allowed to engage with. Subjecting them to the 'everything and the kitchen sink' outlet that standard television facilitates (with it's unpredictable social content and mindless entertainment) will likely distract or stall a child's development. Even shows marketed as 'educational' can leave much to be desired. There are a handful of brilliant educational shows that engage with children in a [constructionist](<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constructionism_(learning_theory)>) way–such that the programming doesn't push the viewer off the precipice of foundational learning into the realm of pseudo-learning or distraction.
+
+**Here's a few awesome ones!**
+
+- Reading:
+  - [SuperWHY!](http://www.pbs.org/parents/superwhy/) – [Netflix](https://www.netflix.com/Kids/title/70222359)
+  - [Reading Rainbow](https://www.readingrainbow.org/) – [Amazon Video](https://www.amazon.com/gp/video/detail/B01M8F3AYV/?ref=DVM_US_JK_PS_READRAINBOWAMZNb1|c_164126775497_m_JmGr93du-dc_s__)
+- General learning (Core Values, Discovery, Family, Community Engagement, Social Values):
+
+  - [Mr. Roger's Neighborhood](https://www.misterrogers.org/) – [Amazon Video](https://www.amazon.com/Mister-Rogers-Neighborhood-Volume-1/dp/B004BZG1MG)
+  - [Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood](http://www.pbs.org/parents/daniel/) – [Amazon Video](https://www.amazon.com/Daniel-Tigers-Neighborhood-Season-1/dp/B009C496H8)
+
+- Problem Solving:
+
+  - [Dora the Explorer](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dora_the_Explorer) – [Amazon Video](https://www.amazon.com/Dora-the-Explorer-Season-1/dp/B000I9S58M)
+  - [SuperWHY!](http://www.pbs.org/parents/superwhy/) – [Netflix](https://www.netflix.com/Kids/title/70222359)
+
+- Science:
+
+  - [Bill Nye the Science Guy](https://www.billnye.com/the-science-guy) – [Netflix](https://www.netflix.com/Kids/title/80046944)
+  - [The Magic School Bus (original series)](<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Magic_School_Bus_(TV_series)>) – [Netflix](https://www.netflix.com/Kids/title/70264612)
+
+- Creativity, Imagination:
+  - [Sarah and Duck](https://www.sarahandduck.com/) – [Netflix](https://www.netflix.com/Kids/title/80017207)
+  - [Tumble Leaf](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tumble_Leaf) – [Amazon Video](https://www.amazon.com/Tumble-Leaf-Season-1/dp/B00CBZYPTY)

direction.md

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+## Direction
+
+- The 'Direct me!' Game:
+  - Left/Right: When outside in a large open space, put them on your back or shoulders and start walking at a slow pace without stopping. Ask them to direct you to go left or right as you go in order to avoid walking into walls, etc, while making your way towards a predetermined destination.
+  - Cardinal Directions (N/S/E/W): Level up with talking about the cardinal directions, getting them comfortable with opposite directions (N is opposite of South, East vs. West). Have them point at each direction with you while doing this. Then ask them to hop on your back and tell you where to go with the 'direct me' game!
+    - Can be reinforced by doing these activities with a compass, and talking about the North star (how sailors used it to know which direction they were travelling in). ['The Big Dipper'](https://www.amazon.com/Big-Dipper-Lets-Read-Find-Out-Science/dp/0064451003/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1529899999&sr=8-1&keywords=the+big+dipper+book) book explores this concept well in an accessible way.
+  - Have fun talking about and summarizing direction with the ['direction tractor'](https://www.amazon.com/Magic-Inductive-Follows-Children-Random/dp/B076XKXQK5/ref=pd_lpo_vtph_21_bs_tr_t_1?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=1RK8X9B2K0BCJDBPQFCV)!

geograpy.md

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+## Geography
+
+- Discover the properties of Earth with Google Earth 🌍 (super fun when displayed on the ceiling with a projector! 🎥):
+  - Go on a 'top-down' regional tour of the Earth!
+    - Identify each continent, and mention a little topographical info about each one: mountains, rivers, islands, etc.
+    - Choose a continent to dive into, and introduce the concept of countries while gliding over it's regions.
+    - Choose a country and zoom in to discover cities and towns! Introduce the concept of districts, blocks, neighborhoods, streets, etc.
+- Reinforce general understanding by taking a virtual tour of:
+  - Where you live!
+  - Where your friends live!
+  - Places you've been!

geometry.md

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+## Geometry
+
+- Introduction to shapes:
+  - [BabySmash](http://babysmash.com/) introduction to shapes, including polygons.
+    - While doing this, ask: "how many sides does this shape have? (reinforcing polygon identification)"
+  - [Pooh's Color's and Shapes Flash Cards](https://www.amazon.com/Disney-Winnie-Learning-Cards-Decks/dp/B008440UWC/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1527402525&sr=8-1&keywords=winnie+the+pooh+flash+cards)
+  - Draw shapes together in a sandbox.
+- Shape match game: [Fold a paper into 3rds](https://cdn.instructables.com/FKI/ENYK/HJKBSY7L/FKIENYKHJKBSY7L.LARGE.jpg), cut out various shapes along each crease, give them the cut-out shapes, and have them match them up on the paper while identifying which shape they are.
+- 'Shapes in the world' game: Anywhere, in any environment–ask them what shapes things around them are made out of. For example–a trampoline is a circle, and a house is a mix of squares, rectangles, triangles, circles, etc. "What shapes are in that cloud? What shape is the moon?"
+- Draw an outside scene together in the form of shapes.
+- 'Shapes in a picture' game: Take a picture, print it out. Discover the shapes within it, and cut them out together.
+- 'Fruit Shapes': Cut a citrus fruit (orange, lemon, grapefruit, etc) in half and ask what shapes they see (the half is a circle, the inner sections are now triangles). Then reinforce numbers with counting the number of sections, and how many of them make the whole fruit (fractions).
+- Angles: Make an animal (cat, dog, bird) together out of triangles.
+  - Can draw, or cut out a lot of paper triangles to paste together.
+  - Introduces the concept of angles with obtuse, acute, and right triangles.
+- Trapezoids: Create your own 4 sided shapes together by drawing or with paper cut outs.
+- Polygons:
+  - Reinforcing polygonal 'sides' by drawing each shape together. 1: line, 2: angle, 3: triangle, 4: square, 5: pentagon, etc. Each time you draw a new shape, circle and count each point to reinforce the polygon's identity. Once you get to 12 or more, ask 'what shape is this starting to look like?' (a circle).
+  - 'Polygon star game': starting with a pentagon, explore [the stars]() you can create together when connecting the points within polygons. Ask if they can see the shapes within the stars (squares, triangles, rectangles). If drawn, cut out and hang the stars in their play area for fun.

horticulture.md

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+## Horticulture
+
+Go on a ['tour of smells'](https://i.imgur.com/3rXeMf6.jpg)!
+
+- If you have access to any type of herb garden:
+  - Pick samples of various herbs
+  - Identify each
+  - Talk about the differences in their scent and taste!

math.md

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+## Math
+
+- An 'unhindered' approach:
+  - Describing our world through math is fun on it's own–there doesn't have to be strings attached!
+  - It can be easy to step in too fast and provide answers, but try to give them time and figure it out for themselves.
+  - Try to refrain from being reserved about covering seemingly 'difficult' or 'adult' concepts. Often, conceptually simple topics can be masked by complex sounding monikers–but learning the vocabulary of all this stuff can come later!
+- 'Fruit Math': Count, add, and subtract using a group of fruits.
+- 'Sandwich Fractions': Whenever you can, make a sandwich together and talk about each fraction made as you cut it into 4 quarters.
+  - 'This is a whole sandwich, now 2 halves, now 3 thirds, now 4 quarters!'
+- 'Piano Fractions': Play two notes an octave apart, and ask 'Can you hear that they sound the same? That's means these notes are a whole octave!' Then ask 'how many notes are in between?', count the 12 notes, and ask 'how many notes make up the whole octave?'
+  - 'How many white notes and black notes make up the octave?' (8 and 5)?
+  - '1/2 of 12 is what (6)? Great, can you hear how when we play the 1 and 6 note together it sounds agreeable (a 4th)? How about when we play the 1 and 8 note together? That sounds awesome too (a 5th)!'
+- [Abacus (IKEA)](https://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/10387614/)
+  - Reinforce numbers as a grouping of single objects.
+  - Grasp basic addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, and [modulo](https://www.khanacademy.org/computing/computer-science/cryptography/modarithmetic/a/what-is-modular-arithmetic) operations.
+    - First help them to understand the definition of these words: "A division is when you take a whole thing and break it up into parts."
+    - The following examples intend to be a starting point from which you can spring into using larger numbers and work towards deeper reinforcement.
+    - Addition: Start with the top row of beads and talk about addition–"Ok I have one bead, now how many do I have if I add 1 more, how about 3 more?"
+    - Subtraction: Start with the top row of beads and talk about subtraction–"Ok I have five beads, now how many do I have if I take away 1, what if I take away 3 more?"
+    - Multiplication: Count the first row of 10 beads, then help them understand they can count the proceeding rows by 10, reaching 100 much quicker than counting single beads.
+    - Division: Count the first row of 10 beads, break them into 2 sets of 5, and ask–how many 5's can go into 10 beads? 2? So 10 divided by 2 is 5? And that means half of 10 is 5 right? (reinforce fractions).
+    - Modulo: Count 5 beads and ask: "How many 2's go into this group of 5 beads? 2? Oh, then how many are left over? Awesome, our answer is 1!" Repeat with 6 modulo 2, "Ok, so none are left over this time! Our answer is 2!"
+- Count coins. Start with 'how many', counting them sequentially as objects. Then talk about the assigned values of the coins (pennies, nickels, dimes), and try to add and subtract them by value. Multiplication, division, and modulo operations can be reinforced as well.
+- 'Calculator Fun': reinforce arithmetic operations with symbols. "See! 5 times 2 is 10! The number machine says so!"
+
+- (Making this fun with no strings attached)
+- (Don't step in too fast, don't be afraid to cover seemingly difficult/adult concepts–learning the vocabulary of all this stuff comes later)
+- Light switch Binary (radix, similar to languages - numbers have different bases for our systems of numeration)
+- ['Math Wizardry for Kids'](https://www.amazon.com/Math-Wizardry-Kids-Margaret-Kenda/dp/B00A18KYP2)
+  - For Parents and Teachers section: [Page 1](https://i.imgur.com/RmzpyKV.jpg), [Page 2](https://i.imgur.com/zsOGEEG.jpg), [Page 3](https://i.imgur.com/pC8WcMU.jpg), [Page 4](https://i.imgur.com/mMz4n7Q.jpg).
+- Shapes/Patterns outside: clouds, houses, etc -> shapes
+- Draw Nature's Shapes: Draw all things as shapes together.
+- Draw shapes in a sandbox
+- Make a cat/bird/etc out of triangles - introduce the idea of angles θ!
+- 'Stars in shapes' game!
+  - Design your own four sided shapes and cut them out (trapezoids)
+  - Draw lines to connect the corners together. Do you see the triangles starting to emerge?
+  - 5 sided shape: Pentagon - Now stars are emerging when you connect the corners together! (5 sided star)
+  - 6 sided shape: Hexagon - 6 sided star
+  - 8 sided shape: Octagons - 8 sided star. When you connect all the points, what shapes do you see? (Squares, triangles, rectangles)
+  - Polygons (points and lines): Now lets try a 12 sided shape. What shape is this starting to look like? (A circle)
+  - Cut out all your starry shapes and hang them together!
+- 'Shapes in a picture'
+  - Discover shapes within it
+  - Cut out those shapes
+- 'Citrus Shapes'
+  - Cut an orange, lemon, or grapefruit in half and ask 'what shapes do you see in here?' (triangles)
+  - How many triangles are in here?
+  - Now, how many make the whole? (reinforce fractions)
+- 'Secret Code'
+- Count letters
+- Assign Numbers
+- Code a word
+- Decode a word
+- Letters to numbers
+- Shapes to numbers
+- Letters to shapes

music.md

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+## Music
+
+### Explore, Create, and Share
+
+- Casio Keyboard
+
+  - Keys
+  - 'Different Sounds'
+  - Sound types (introduction to timbre and instrument sections/categories)
+
+- Google SongMaker
+
+  - Organize Sound
+  - Compose Sound
+  - Deconstruct Sound
+
+- Synthesizers
+
+  - Build and Change an instrument/sound/voice
+
+- Guitar / Banjo / Etc
+  - Play the rhythm while I play the chords
+
+Rise Up Singing Songbook
+
+- Folk Music: Doing something with music for your community, neighbors, family, etc. Not just 'consuming and proliferating sounds'. You have a voice and you can bring people together around the story you believe in.
+
+### Appreciation
+
+Ballet, Symphony, Opera
+Deconstruct, dynamics, feeling/mood, expression, message (folk music)
+
+- music book w/instrument video introductions
+  - Nutcracker
+  - Peter & The Wolf
+  - Taraf De Haidouks
+  - Snarky Puppy
+  - Thomas Tallis
+  - Chopin (Richter)
+  - Computer Music (Chowning, Slork, EEG, etc)

numbers.md

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+## Numbers
+
+- Count **everything** together. One by one.
+- Frequently ask 'how many are there?' about **everything**.
+- [Pooh's Number Match Flash Cards](https://www.amazon.com/Disney-Winnie-Learning-Cards-Decks/dp/B008440UWC/), and [Eric Carle Number Flash Cards](https://www.barnesandnoble.com/p/toys-games-the-world-of-eric-carle/29225519/2679919942343).
+  - Make the association between a number as a symbol, and the number of items it represents.
+  - Understand that numbers can be represented by both a word and a symbol.
+- [BabySmash](http://babysmash.com/) for a fun 'pop up' number guessing activity.
+- Reinforce numbers everywhere:
+  - Point out that numbers are on the pages of their books when reading together.
+  - 'Calculator fun!': show that numbers (as symbols) are used in everyday things. Count up from one together, pressing each representative button while saying the number out loud.
+- Counting to 100:
+  - Counting to 10 is the first big step, but as they get more comfortable with continuing to count upward – introduce a fun activity book like [Count & Find 100 Frogs and 10 Flies](https://www.abebooks.com/servlet/SearchResults?cm_sp=SearchF-_-topnav-_-Results&kn=count%20and%20find%20100%20frogs&sts=t). This makes counting just a byproduct of the fun of finding all the frogs and flies in on each page.
+- Decimals:
+  - Talk about how numbers are grouped by 10s, and then ask 'Why? Is it because we have 10 toes and 10 fingers?' (then count to 20 on their toes and fingers).
+  - Reinforce with counting by 10s with the Abacus (see [Math](./README.md#math)).
+  - Reinforce with dimes: introduce the dollar as a whole unit made up of 10 dimes, and then break the dime down as a unit of 10 pennies. Then mention that the dollar is a collection of 100 pennies.
+- Radix: introduce them to the fact numbers don't just have to count up to 10 to be useful. They can count to less than 10–like 2 (binary) or 8 (octal), or more than 10–like 16 (hexadecimal). Mention that counting in 10s is useful to people, but counting in these other ways can be useful to computers, robots, and other machines that people use to do amazing things.

physics.md

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+## Physics
+
+- Introduction to gravity, force, mass, and inertia:
+  - Watch Bill Nye the Science Guy, [Season 1, episode 6 ('Gravity')](https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x3cpv1v) together (available on Netflix).
+    - Talk about how the earth spins around the Sun, while spinning at the same time, and pushes everything down towards it center.
+    - Ask them to jump, and then ask "why did you come back down when you jumped up?"
+    - Tie understanding gravity into talking about orbit, and how the planets all spin around the Sun because of its gravitational pull.
+  - 'Soccer Ball Physics': When kicking a soccer ball together, talk about how everything has mass. And how force affects things with mass like the soccer ball (the force from our legs kicking it).
+    - Gravity: Then throw the soccer ball in the air, and ask: "why does the ball come right back down to me after I throw it up in the air?"
+    - Inertia: Then talk about how the ball is doing nothing until I kick it. It's just going to keep doing nothing... and nothing... and nothing... until something does something to it! Then ask, "Why doesn't the ball just keep going after I kick it?" Ask if they can see that the grass slows it down until it stops. "Why? Inertia! It might just keep on going into space if it didn't have stuff affecting it like gravity and inertia!"
+  - 'Bouncy Ball Physics': Reinforce 'Soccer Ball Physics' with a bouncy ball when playing inside.
+  - 'Gear Train Physics': With a set of [Gear Magnets](http://tomy.com/toomies/gearation-refrigerator-magnets?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIsPjQvtvq2wIVRYF-Ch0m5QD4EAQYASABEgLfyvD_BwE), talk about how the force of the first gear transfers to each one you add on, affecting the speed of each one differently depending on their size and shape.

programming.md

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+## Programming
+
+- Turtle Programming Instructions (Geometry, Differential Equations, Units of measurement, Metrics, Algorithmic thinking)
+- 'Daddy Instructions' Game (outside activity) -> Daddy is the Turtle
+- 'Mindstorms' bu Seymour Papert
+- Constructionist Play (videos)
+- 'How to Code a Sandcastle' book (Algorithmic thinking, sequence, loops, if-then-else statements, modularity)