Robots, odd ends and The Offbits.

My sons are obsessed with building robots, like insanely so. We have made an Artbot (built a motor and figured out how to make it move , then attached pens to it, to make drawings) Made a trash robot from junk and painted it. We also have a kit we will be working through that uses moving parts to turn basic household junk into Working robots. We where delighted to have been sent this cute kit to try from The offbits. You can find their website here http://www.theoffbits.com/story/?src=toolbar .
The kits use Left over parts, that are repainted using very hardwearing paint, and assembled with an instruction manual , In regards of how to build the basic model. It even comes with a screwdriver!

"The OFFBITS are miraculously malfunctioned robots who had been exiled
from their home planet of BigBotBall for stepping out of the assembly lines
and expressing their original, creative and playful personalities."

There are a few Different kits to collect, and we loved the fact it came with other parts ,besides the basic plan and you where encouraged to create other looks to the robot. You get to mount it on a the magantised box to display it afterwards! A lovely hour spent away from the tv, building something they love is always a winner in my eyes. 

The cute Little kit

Assembalise!! (Is that a word? It is now!)

One Happy little boy!

And of course As my son loves making them a wee quick video..we tried to robot bug like moving legs but didn't quite work!

Chinese New year Fun - Kung Hei Fat Choy!

One of my Favourite Celebrations I admit! The colours, The food. The passion! We simply must cover this subject as a learning opportunity! There is so much you can cover, Not only History, Food skills but Geography, Economics, Maths and Art are just a few things that can be covered easily.

We covered a little Chinese writing, word searches (spelling) And fun maths colouring sheets from this site.
http://www.activityvillage.co.uk/chinese-new-year

Made a Dragon and learned a little of the history.
http://www.greatauntadmin.co.uk/articles/games_and_activities_details.asp?id=220
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_dragon

Made paper fans..Did you also know fans are/where used for fighting, knives where inserted or steel rimmed and thrown!
http://traditions.cultural-china.com/en/14Traditions7855.html

And of course paper lanterns
http://www.wikihow.com/Make-a-Paper-Lantern
http://www.hanginglanterns.co.uk/news/history-paper-lanterns

I was also given a draft page by a friend of a curriculum page, which i will be Doing next year as sadly we got it after we had finished the project . The Page was articulate, well written and covered many aspects of learning, and this was just one page and a draft of it. She does write personal curriculums and is just starting out, but was a teacher for many years, before deciding to home ed. Please take a look at her blog and see if you fancy some work doing, she is very reasonable!
http://pleasemissmummy.com/