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And Great Things Will Follow

"Dr. Montessori was able to achieve so much with children who weren’t expected to succeed – ‘miracle children’, as they were called. Within a few years, adherents of the ‘Montessori Method’ had established schools on five continents. In 1911, the first Montessori School was opened in the United States, in Tarrytown, New York. Leading figures of the era, such as Thomas Edison and Alexander Graham Bell, were willing to lend their support. Dr. Montessori traveled extensively to promote her method, to teach others how to best apply it within a classroom, to demonstrate its effectiveness for observers, and to continue to develop her pedagogy and model for helping children to learn – at their own pace, in their own way." Steven Kerno

Free Online Drawing Lessons for Kids With Video Instructions

Written by Mike Acerra Now is a fantastic time to learn drawing. The Doodle Method was created to teach kids a natural and fun way to draw the world. Before my wife Heather and I created a construction toy to get kids building using nature’s design principles, we had an art school in our home. We created what we called the Doodle Method. It is based on using the lines that are already natural for our hands to form. Children old enough for handwriting lessons are of the appropriate skill level for these lessons. This method will help your child to: Build hand-eye coordination Learn about art history Build confidence through skill mastery Gain the skills that form the foundation for handwriting Connecting children to nature through drawing and other hands-on activities is a rewarding exercise with long-lasting benefits. It builds foundational skills and knowledge to enhance understanding of STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art, and math) subjects through awareness of the patterns found in nature and mathematical relationships. An Example From History Greek ceramicists painted decorative patterns on vessels such as the one shown on this 2700-year-old ceramic pot to make them more attractive and easier to sell in ancient marketplaces. This type of doodle art was used on ceramics in civilizations throughout the world. Start with Baby Steps Like learning to walk, it is best to take small steps at first when learning to draw. It is important to understand the true power of the doodle and the scribble. When people scribble and doodle they are usually very relaxed and their mind is often occupied with other things. They are merely making lines that are easy and pleasurable for their hands and images that are simple and pleasant to their eyes. This is a very natural state of “art play”. In this video series, you will learn fundamental drawing skills by doodling with letters. The Lux Blox Daily Doodle #1 The S-Rule In the first video, we learn the S-rule. The S-rule is a powerful technique for drawing and design because it creates the illusion of three dimensions- what I call “punching the form” with the S. The S traces the curviness of natural things, which tricks the eyes into believing that what it is looking at is three dimensional. The S is a very natural line to draw and the more comfortable you become making S’s the more fun drawing will be. The Lux Blox Daily Doodle #2 The S and C Rules: The Overlapping Perspective In the Daily Doodle #2, we continue exploring the S rule and the C rule as a way to learn the illusion of overlapping perspective. In this video, I show you how we can use the S and C rule to create plants, animals, and even the human face using the visual shorthand developed in the Italian Renaissance. The Lux Blox Daily Doodle #3 Mandalas using the Z-Rule! The Z-Rule is another powerful technique to help you make mandalas and the illusion of knots using simple natural lines. This Z or zigzag rule has been used by artisans for thousands of years. It's an effective means of creating the illusion of three dimensions from one simple line. In this video, I also explore other doodling techniques like creating rosettes and geometric spirals. The Lux Blox Daily Doodle #4 Spirals are a Gift from the Universe Your hand was built to make beautiful spiral lines! Nature gave us a wonderful gift - it builds itself with spirals! Learn how the S-rule and the C-rule, when combined with the speed and power of the spiral, works to bring three dimensions into view. Take your time. Remember, this is just doodling! Make your own designs with the S-rule. Make mistakes and have fun! And if you want to learn it faster, teach someone else what you just learned! Want to learn more? Continue on to lesson 2 by clicking here.

Five Ways to use Lux Blox in the Classroom

2nd grade teacher Bailey tells us how she uses Lux Blox in her classroom management techniques and enrich students lives in her classroom!

Why Teachers (and Parents) Love Lux Blox

By Emma Helferich “Lux is a wonderful classroom tool. I have used multiple of their classroom sets for so many projects…… It is my go to! I have saved so much time in lesson planning with these.” says Ms. Sophia Wood, Canadian math teacher and homeschool mom. Lux Blox is more than a great way to keep your child entertained for hours - these small building blox provide an inquiry-based learning experience to teach STEM topics at home and in the classroom. When looking for a great free time reward, Julie Hirschfield, Albuquerque public school teacher, recommends Lux Blox. “When I give my kids the option between Lux Blox and playground time, 9/10 times they choose the Lux!” Lux Blox are great for developing fine motor skills, enhancing spatial intelligence and keeping students minds and hands engaged. Because Lux Blox can build static or dynamic models, they lend themselves to projects to support learning objectives across the curriculum. “My kids visually see, pull, touch, and play with math.”, says Ms. Aly Eastman, a 1st grade teacher at Coast Catholic Academy. Ms. Hill, a Junior High Science teacher at the same school says “I’ve used Lux Blox many, many times in the classroom. We use them for making models of structural things like bridges, viruses, and water molecules...students are very engaged when using LuxBlox. They are fascinated by the endless opportunities and new things they can create.” Lux Blox is popular in design challenges and classrooms because it demonstrates engineering principles like tensile construction, corrugation, and the min/max principle. To learn more about what teachers have to say visit our Educators Homepage. https://www.luxblox.com/pages/education

Hands-On Learning Helps Brain Development - Here’s Why

By Emma Helferich We have always heard that hands-on learning will help with a child's brain development, but why is that? Children of all ages - preschool through teenage years - are continuously growing and developing. These are critical periods; the more a child can engage in different activities and create different projects, the more motivated they will be to continue pursuing new challenges and learning new skills. Hands-on learning allows someone to develop intelligence as they use their vision and other senses while touching, pulling, and playing. This type of learning can be applied to something as simple as basic math or as complex as the structural design. While there are many benefits to hands-on learning, one of the greatest is it engages both sides of the brain. According to Goodwin University, “Research done by Cindy Middendorf, an education consultant, has shown that between the ages of four and seven, a child’s right side of the brain is developing, and the learning derives clearly through visual and spatial activities. The right side of the brain, which involves more analytical and language skills, is said to develop later in childhood, around 10 years old.” Being able to touch something is much more engaging than simply reading about it. Hands-on learning requires children and teens to multitask by talking, listening, and moving, and manipulating, which stimulates and develops multiple areas of the brain. In another study done with animals, it was proven that experience increases the overall quality of the functioning of the brain. In this experiment, rats were placed with the presence of a changing set of objects for exploration to encourage play (Rosenzweig and Bennett, 1978). These animals performed better on a variety of problem-solving tasks than rats reared in standard laboratory cages. It was also observed that animals raised in these complex environments had a greater volume of capillaries per nerve cell (therefore a greater supply of blood to the brain) than those who did not experience the environments full of manipulatives with which to play. There are numerous studies that support the effectiveness of hands-on learning. We encourage you to create challenges and projects for your family to enjoy. https://www.goodwin.edu/enews/benefits-of-hands-on-learning/ https://www.nap.edu/read/9853/chapter/8#118

Making Models of Life with Lux Blox Trigons

The organic molecules that make living things are a bit less frightening when we understand a little about how they work. Here we show how Lux Blox trigons can be used to understand the building blocks of life. The video demonstrates how Lux Blox can model the basic structures that make things like viruses, cells, and microscopic organisms. The trigons can give kids the opportunity to model chains of amino acids, called polypeptides, and how these β-strands (beta-strands) can be folded into the β-sheets (beta-sheets) that build the β-proteins (beta-proteins) that build things like viruses and cells. Trigons come in black, white, and olive green and are available here Visit our store to see more. Did you miss our drawing lessons? Check out our video lessons on how to draw by clicking here!

Free Online Drawing Lessons for Kids with Video Instructions: Lesson 3

Lesson 3: Form Truncation By Mike Acerra If you missed our previous lessons, you can find them by clicking Lesson One and Lesson Two respectively. Daily Doodle #8 Doodling three-dimensional forms. In this video you will doodle simple forms such as prisms, pyramids, cylinders, cones, and spheres with the illusion of three dimensions. Then, you will learn to slice these forms into pieces, called truncations. Finally, you will learn to create a powerful form called the lune. The lune is the shape of a lemon wedge. It is called a ‘lune’ after the word luna, which means the moon. Nature loves this form and uses it everywhere. Even our eyelids are lune shaped! Daily Doodle #9 Doodling Compound Forms - Seeing with X-Ray Eyes It is exciting to be able to see and draw the shapes that form the building blocks of the complex structures in our world. Compound forms are combinations of parts of multiple forms. Almost everything in life - from man-made to nature-made - is a compound form. Doodling these forms will give you an ability to see the forms within things and have artistic X-RAY EYES!!

Free Online Drawing Lessons for Kids with Video Instructions: Lesson 2

Lesson 2: Doodling the Face By Mike Acerra #LuxQuarantineArtClub #luxcorner In this lesson, we will learn to doodle three views of the head. The side, or profile view, the front view, and the three-quarter view. We will rely on the S and C rules we learned in the last lesson. Profile View of the Head In this video, we learn how to draw the side view or profile view of the head. We will use the number nine to help us organize the head into different parts. Doodling the Front View of the Head In this video, we will cover doodling the front view head so that all parts are placed correctly. You will learn to utilize an egg shape to divide the face evenly in half horizontally and vertically to ensure symmetry and proper eye placement. Doodling the 3/4 view of the face The three-quarter view is the view between the front view and the profile (side view). When we draw the three-quarter view we will use another “rule of nine”. Remember that this is doodling, so it should be fun and even funny! There is a long tradition of drawing people out of proportion and incorrectly on purpose. Leonardo da Vinci’s comedians are a very famous drawing of caricatures, shown below: The French Impressionist painter, Claude Monet, made his classmates laugh when he would doodle funny pictures of their teachers. Shown below.

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