Thursday, April 12, 2012

K is for Kleusyklear! and Khan Academy

 K is for Kleusyklear

kleusyklear:  adj, describing a beautiful and happy day; It's a kleusyklear day today!

You won't find this word in the dictionary, but in our house it has real meaning.

The girls would wake up on certain bright sunny days and proclaim, "Mom it's a kleusyklear day today isn't it!"  "Of course it is!" I would say back.  The first couple times they used it I had no idea what they were talking about, but I played along.  They must have agreed on the meaning beforehand maybe just to see if I would pass the test of goofiness.  I guess I did.

Over the years, the two of them have conspired to make up many words, such as:    
Deeeeeeeee!: exclamation of uncontrolled happiness usually said with a slight Russian accent; usually used when they see Ryan doing something adorable; Deeeee he's sooo cute!
chub: verb, the action of squeezing a younger child's chubby cheeks; usually Ryan; Mom Alyssa chubbed me!


Do your kids make up goofy words?  I'd love to hear them!


Now on a more serious note

K is for Khan Academy


The brainchild of Sal Khan, the Khan Academy is a free website for anyone.  Sal's goal is for it to become the world's first totally free university where the world can learn anything.  He and his group want to change the way people learn.  The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation have taken notice and are helping to fund the program.   Schools are beginning to recognize the benefits of using it in the classroom.

The site has two different main parts.  One  has short video lessons, usually around 10 minutes on specific topics, ranging from beginning multiplication to Calculus integration by parts, to astronomy, biology, art history, and banking and finance.  More videos are being added all the time in a variety of subject areas.  Sal has a great way of describing even the most difficult subjects to make them understandable.

The other part is where you can practice an endless amount of problems on different topics.  It's set up kid friendly but not too childish for adults to use.  You earn points for each problem you do and you are awarded badges for completing challenges, doing problems quickly or becoming proficient in 100 exercises.

Our entire family, even Ryan who's 7, use it often.  We are challenging each other to see who can earn a million points during this year.  Last night I stayed up until 11:30 trying to earn points by watching a video on DNA variation and practicing my math skills.  So far I'm only at 370,000 points.  Ryan's not too far behind me at 320,000.

I love the site and recommend it to anyone and everyone! So far Khan Academy has delivered over 139,000,000 lessons.  Check out Khan Academy.org today and exercise your brain!


Have a kleusyklear day!

Kathy :) 

9 comments:

  1. What a lovely word and describes the day beautifully. It sounds as though you are quite a competitive family in the best sense of the word.

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  2. I love that word! How fun that you guys have your own vocabulary for things. We do at our house too..."nuggle" instead of "snuggle" and "zerbert" for blowing raspberries on people's bellies. Although that last one we stole from the Cosby show. ;)

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  3. The Khan Academy sounds like a great idea. I hadn't heard of it before, will check it out.

    thanks for follwoing my blog, I'm following yours.

    cheers,
    mood
    Moody Writing

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  4. Several weeks ago, "Sixty Minutes" did a segment on Khan Academy that blew me away. When time opens up after the Challenge, I'm going to drop by and see what delights await.

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  5. I put Khan Academy on my website, too, so that I will HAVE TO make the time to go through it - when our investment activities are under control.

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  6. Love your blog! I wrote about Khan academy recently for my ed tech column. Isn't it amazing? I live near an ice skating rink in Florida where one of the dance teams practices, and it's so fun to just sit and watch. Like being at an ice show! I can hardly stand up on ice skates, and prefer the beach!

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  7. Made-up words tend to stick within families. Yours are good ones!

    The Khan Academy sounds like a great way to learn. Thanks for bringing it to my attention.

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  8. Kleusyklear? This is my favorite new word that I've learned in quite some time. There's a definite use for it to fill in my vocabulary.

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