Melbourne Museum

To finish a week long unit study about Helen Keller and Louis Braille, we made a a special trip to Melbourne Museum to have a look at Living in a Sensory World a temporary display.  We had lots of fun exploring this and other exhibits on display.

Here is a photo story of our day.

We started off in the Living in a Sensory World where we explored the world of the blind and the things that have been developed to help make their world an easier place to live in.

The lighthouse is a symbol for the blind in Australia.  This brass light house was awarded to Helen Keller.

From here we did a little bit of exploring in The Melbourne Story.  We ran out of time to fully explore this exhibit. You can take a virtual tour of this.

The children enjoyed a 'ride' on an old roller coaster
followed by a trip to a movie theater.

We had a look through an old part of Melbourne and how they used to live.

From here we went to find the Dinosaur Walk exhibit only to discover that they have opened a new Dynamic Earth exhibit which we took a very quick look at and found it very hard to pull the children away from.  We had to promise to please come back to explore! (Gold to a mothers ears!!)

It was a wonderful day out and I am so pleased we have a family Museum Membership to enjoy this resource in Melbourne.  If you haven't been here in a while I invite you to come and explore it more fully.

Blessings
Chareen

TT - Deaf/Blindness Unit Study

It's been a great week of discovery this last week.  Sir N and I have been on a journey to discover Braille and the lives of two amazing people born in the 1800's.

We read:

• Buddy, the first seeing eye dog.By (author) Eva Moore, Illustrated by Don Bolognese
• Scholastic biography - Louis Braille by Margaret Davidson
• History Maker: Louis Braille by Madeline Donaldson
• Famous People - Louis Braille by Tessa Potter.
• Follow my Leader by James B. Garfield
• Scholastic Biography - Helen Keller by Margaret Davidson
• Helen's Eyes - A Photo biography of Annie Sullivan Helen Keller's Teacher by Marfie Ferguson DeLano.

Video watched:

• 1962 version of The Miracle Worker (The story of Helen Keller) 
• Watch on YouTube 1:46:28

On YouTube we watched:

• Helen Keller & Anne Sullivan (1930 Newsreel Footage)
• The Miracle Worker 1962 ( FULL MOVIE)
• Helen Keller -Cartoon Movie- Part 01,Part 02,Part 03,Part 04,Part 05,Part 06
• Young Heroes: Louis Braille (with Captions and Description) 
• Seeing Eye Co-Founder, Morris Frank in his own Words

On the www:

• Pinterest
• Helen Kellers' birthplace over at Creating Treasures
• Helen Keller Biography.
• Helen Keller Kids Museum on Line.
• Helen Keller's Birthplace.
• Helen Keller on Wikipedia
• The History of Braille on Squidoo.
• Louis Braille biography.
• Learn about Braille and Louis Braille with Perkins the Braille Dog 
• Louis Braille at the New York special Institute.  
• Louis Braille and the Braille system.
• Louis Braille on Wikkipedia
• Through Buddy's Eyes
• Morris Frank and Buddy over at Tennessee History for Kids.
• Hall of Fame: Morris Frank.
• History of Guide Dogs.
• History of Guide Dogs in Australia.
• Historical Timeline of the Seeing Eye.

Notebook Pages:

• Helen Keller at Teacher Vision.
• Helen Keller portrait at Scholastic.
• Helen Keller at Homeschool Helper
• Helen Keller and Annie at the water pump coloring in page over at eBook Browse
• Huge Helen Keller pdf document at DSCL.
• Helen Keller over at Enchanted Learning.

• Louis Braille at Homeschool Helper
• Louis Braille at Crayola.
• Braille Games over at National Braille Week.
• Braille Alphabet and page to print.
• Louis Braille over at First School Years.
• Story of Louis Braille Worksheet at Education World.
• Louis Braille pdf from The Bible Society.
• Louis Braille from ABC Teach pdf

Craft Activity

• We took a piece of paper and wrote out the words we wanted in Braille.
• I made a template of the six dots used in the Braille system.
• Sir N used the book to tell me where the dots needed to be for each letter using the place value of 1-6 for each dot to tell me.
• We then turned the page over on the window and used a sharp needle to puncture the braille for us to feel.

We completed our studies with a trip to Melbourne Museum to see their Living in a Sensory World display.

Top

1. A Braille Doll to help children learn the system
2. Reading about the display and feeling braille
3. This lady developed a machine to print braille on both sides of the page making books that used less paper and fitted into libraries easier.

Middle

1. The entrance
2. In 1920 the metal plate to the right was what was used for maths.  The wooden square with the eight sided star denoted different numerals.  Pins were fitted into the star shape and depending on it's position it denoted a different value.

Bottom

1. Looking at items used by the blind.
2. This is a braille keyring used to learn braille.  It is the next step from the doll.  From here the wooden case with metal braille letters is used to learn to 'read' braille.
3. Braille type writter.

Sir N has been trying to form his own sign language this week when communicating with me.  It's been fun to watch and has inspired me to find somewhere the two of us can learn Auslan (Australia Sign Language)from.
I was visiting Betsy from the Notebooking Nook who shared this video of her daughter using ASL.  It was a blessing to watch and an inspiration.

Blessings
Chareen  

Linking with

 Favourite Resources over at Learning All the Time

Collage Friday over at Homegrown Learners.

HSMJ - The Intouchables

In my life this week…

 I had the most wonderful day today.  I joined five other homeschool mom's on an annual pilgrimage to Koorong Christian Bookshop.  We had a great day of fun, food, fellowship and book shopping.  I am looking forward to our trip next year.

Musem vist to: Living in a Sensory World.

In our homeschool this week…

• We spent the day exploring Healsville Sanctuary.
• Spent the afternoon at Melbourne Museum exploring Living in a Sensory World.
• Read Louis Braille.
• Read Helen Keller.  Explored online resources on her life.

Helpful homeschooling tips or advice to share…

•  Schoolhouse Review Crew applications for 2013 are now open.
• 100 Seriously Cool Classroom Blogs for Teaching Ideas & Inspiration listed by grade.
• Free lapbook and notebook resources on Homeschool for Free.

I am inspired by…

• The lives of Helen Keller and Louis Braille.  What amazing people.  I am even more inspired by the determination of Annie Sullavin who was so instrumental in Helen Keller's life.

Places we’re going and people we’re seeing…

• Three weeks till we leave on a trip to North Queensland to see the Solar Eclipse.
• This week we went to Healsville Sanctuary to explore the zoo and had the privilege of spending the night in the Coranderrk.  Beautiful.  WE are going there next week with a friend to enjoy three days of the zoo and surrounds.
• Today we are going to Melbourne Museum to see Living in a Sensory World.

My favorite thing this week was…

• Taking Sir N to the museum and him not wanting to come home and wanting to keep on exploring the museum.

What’s working/not working for us…

• I am really enjoying using our Museum Victoria membership for short trips.  It is so great to seeing Sir N return home enthused about our day rather than exhausted and frustrated with a looooong day out.  I am pleased I made this decision.

Questions/thoughts I have…

• What do you use to teach a second language to non reading students ??  I learned my second language as a five year old and it was so easy.  I really wish Rosetta had a pre-reading level available.

Things I’m working on…

• I have just applied to be a part of the School House Review Crew for 2013.

On My Bedside Table ...

• Instructor's Guide from Sonlight.
• A Child's History of the World.
• Mystery of History Volume 1
• Teaching the Trivium

In Bloggy world I’m reading…

• Why study History over at A Peaceful Day by Jeanne.
• Word Dive learn French.

I’m cooking…

•  Nothing new this week.

On Pinterest I found...

• So many interesting things this week.  I have been wanting to do current events and founds some excellent resources on Pinterest.
• Social Studies - Blindness
• Blog link up parties of interrest.
• Laura Orak.

I’m grateful for…

•  Living in a country where I am free to worship.  Free to homeschool. Free to blog.  Free to come and go as I please.

A photo, video, link, or quote to share…

This movie looks really interesting and I am looking forward to going to see it with Paul Monday week.

Blessings

This post is linking to: 

Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers - Weekly Wrap Up 

iHomeschool - Homeschool Mothers Journal 

Hammock Tracks - Its A Wrap 

Homegrown Learners - Collage Friday 

Ben and Me - Friday Fun Stuff