Nat Geo Kids' Weird But True App

Do you have this app for your child?  I do.  I'm always on the look out for free ebooks and apps to download and this one was a WINNER.  I don't know if this app is free, currently, but I got it for free last year.  I have a love/hate relationship with this app.  B loves it more than Angry Birds and that's saying a lot.  Any chance he gets, he is on this app reading the one line "weird but true" facts.  And he can't just read them to himself; OH, NO, 8 out of 10, he has to share them with me.  And I want to trust that it's a NatGeo app, so they must be true, right?  But some of these facts are just so off the wall!  Such as:

• A vending machine in Singapore gave away a free soda to anyone who hugged the machine.
• Hot water can freeze faster that cold water.
• Sticking raw bacon in your nostrils can stop serious nosebleeds.

But here's the best part - B remembers ALL of them!  These facts are so crazy and off the wall and perfect for kids that he remembers them.  He brings them up in conversation when applicable.  Like when I commented that the hubs Asian hot wings were extra hot last time and he said he didn't they were hot at all.  B said, "Well, girls have more taste buds than boys, so maybe that's why it tastes hotter to mom."  That's when we teachers know that a child has absorbed, understood and retained something - when they "teach" it to others or use it appropriately.  It is a beautiful thing to behold!  That's the love.  Here's the hate - I wish B had that same verve for History!  History - I wish there was an app for that.  If I could get him to absorb, retain, love History like he does the NatGeo Weird But True facts I'd be so happy and grateful!

I think I need to take a lesson from this app.  We are using Story of the World, Vol. II as our History curriculum this year.  Hmmmm... Just now, when I looked up the link for SOTW on Amazon, the title was different that it was when I received it last Summer....there is an addition to the description.... "History for the Classical Child".  Oh, well, I have enough to concern myself with right now, so I won't dwell.  Anywho, I need to start pulling out the important/big/interesting/quirky one-line facts of our History chapters to focus on.  I don't need him to remember all the details, especially the 1st time around.  The beauty of History class is that you revisit it, in more detail, when you get older.  So I am going to focus in on the key points, reduce them to one-liners, and make a slide presentation on the computer for B, going forward.

I love this about homeschooling!  We pulled B out of public school for him, but the hubs and I have benefitted and learned so much more about our son, ourselves, the world, that we have become students again, too, and we embrace it.  There is no pressure for B, the hubs nor me to memorize.  We are to hear, to absorb, to find what resonates with us and retain.  I love and am grateful for the journey we are on.