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WonderWorks Pigeon Forge to Offer Educational Opportunities for Fall 2020

PIGEON FORGE, Tennessee – (August 19, 2020) – WonderWorks Pigeon Forge is offering a range of new educational opportunities for the fall of 2020. With both in-person and virtual options, WonderWorks is expanding upon current programs and adding new ones to be a part of the new education “normal” 2020 is bringing. These programs come at a time when many parents and teachers are searching for additional educational opportunities for their students, to help enhance the virtual and homeschool learning environment many families are opting into.

“We understand the educational experience this year will look different, but we want to be a place where education meets entertainment,” explains Ed Shaffer, general manager for WonderWorks Pigeon Forge. “We’re excited to offer our new virtual Learning Labs, as well as the Sm-ART Art Contest.”

Educational opportunities being offered by WonderWorks this fall include:

SM-ART Art Contest – WonderWorks Tennessee is launching an annual Smoky Mountain art contest for local student artists. All semester long, students can submit their artwork to be featured in the iconic upside-down house. This year’s contest theme is “Time to Think.” Submissions will open on September 8, 2020. Selected winners will receive four free tickets to WonderWorks to be able to see their artwork on display in the gallery. Additional information and submission forms can be found online: https://www.wonderworksonline.com/pigeon-forge/art-contest/.

Virtual Learning Labs – New this year, WonderWorks will offer Professor Wonder’s Virtual Learning Labs which cover in-depth explorations of topics such as the principles of pressure, the states of matter, severe weather topics, the water cycle, adaptation, and more. This program was developed as a way to meet the needs of teachers and students looking to enhance their distance learning experience during these unprecedented times. More information can be found on their website: https://www.wonderworksonline.com/pigeon-forge/virtual-labs/.

Homeschool Days – WonderWorks expanded their Homeschool Days for the fall. This event will run every weekday in September through November, excluding holidays. Homeschool Days include reduced ticket prices of $12 per person for homeschool families, or $10 for groups that book ahead of time. Additional classroom activities, lesson plans, and scavenger hunts are available upon request. More information on Homeschool Days is offered online: https://www.wonderworksonline.com/pigeon-forge/homeschool/.

“Engaging the community while meeting educational needs is something that we’ve always strived to do,” added Shaffer, “and we’re not going to let these unprecedented times change that.”

WonderWorks has adopted new COVID-19 safety protocols, including reduced hours, enhanced cleaning efforts, social distancing measures, employee health screenings, and employee personal protective equipment (PPE). Guests are encouraged to review all safety procedures prior to their visit: https://www.wonderworksonline.com/pigeon-forge/covid-19.

WonderWorks in Pigeon Forge offers 35,000 square feet of “edu-tainment” opportunities, billing itself as an amusement park for the mind. It offers over 100 hands-on exhibits covering natural disasters and space discovery, an imagination lab, a physical challenge zone, a far out art gallery, and a light and sound zone. WonderWorks is open daily 365 days a year. For more information, log on to their website: https://www.wonderworksonline.com/pigeon-forge/.

About WonderWorks

WonderWorks, a science-focused indoor amusement park, combines education and entertainment. With over 100 hands-on exhibits, there is something unique and challenging for all ages. Feel the power of 71 mph hurricane-force winds in the Hurricane Shack. Make huge, life-sized bubbles in the Bubble Lab. Get the NASA treatment in our Astronaut Training Gyro and experience zero gravity. Nail it by lying on the death-defying Bed of Nails. Conquer your fear of heights on our indoor Glow-In-The-Dark Ropes Course. For more information, visit their website: https://www.wonderworksonline.com/pigeon-forge.

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3rd Grade

Everyone says that 3rd grade is a leap. And I would definitely agree.

I would add though, that even though it’s a leap. Pushing my 3rd grader to achieve has not been extremely hard. She was definitely ready for 3rd grade.

Heading into 3rd grade? Here’s a few differences I’ve noticed between the first couple years of school and 3rd.

  1. You must be reading – everything for a 3rd grader assumes that the child is reading on or above grade level. A lot of books are for 3rd to 5th graders. It’s really important that your child be reading on at least grade level or you can have them there before the end of the year. Even her Sunday School teachers assume that all the 3rd graders are reading, capable of finding a specific page in their Bible, and can follow along while other kids in the group read.Just a quick plug for reading comprehension worksheets. If you want to know how your 3rd grader is doing reading, these are awesome! The ones I have give her 4.5 minutes to read a one page story and answer 5 questions on the back of the page. She’s usually done with about a minute to spare. It’s been great for increasing her reading confidence. And for increasing my confidence in her reading. We done one a week and it’s like a quick little test just to check that she’s where she should be at with her reading.
  2. More Independent learning – it’s assumed that a 3rd grader is capable of achieving some things on their own with minimal assistance. I can help her understand instructions as needed but unlike K-2nd her school work is not designed for me to be standing next to her assisting every second.I’m not saying I just hand stuff to her and tell her to figure it out. We definitely walk through new concepts and challenging concepts together. For example, multiplication with more than one digit in the multiplicand. Sometimes she gets it, sometimes she doesn’t. So, I walk her through problems as needed. But sections with concepts that she already knows well, I tell her to do them and grade them when she’s done.There’s even a couple of subjects, handwriting, spelling, Bible, and sometimes English, that she’ll tell me she wants to do on her own without any assistance. She does them well on her own and lets me know if she doesn’t understand something. So I’m happy to let her do it.
  3. More Independence – This kind of goes hand in hand with point #2. It’s perfectly acceptable for me to drop her off at dance lessons and return 2 hours later to pick her up when her class is over. She can handle her class change, shoe change, and between class water and snack on her own.  And I’m not alone in this. None of the moms of 3rd graders are sitting in the lobby for their child’s entire dance class.
  4. Critical Thinking Skills – You can teach a kindergartner critical thinking skills every day and most of them just don’t fully get it. In 3rd grade, you actually have a chance. A 3rd grader can handle thinking through things.In math, this would be your story problems. In science and history it’s your open-ended questions like what happens if we do something different? Or why do you think this person did this? No more blank looks of “what are you talking about mom?”. My 3rd grader has lots of opinions about how science experiments should turn out before I even finish telling her what we’re going to do.
  5. More Steps per problem – She’s expected to remember all 11 capitalization rules and find all the missing capitals in a sentence. In math she is doing more complex problems like long division. We still practice our addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division tables because she needs to get faster, but it’s assumed that she at least knows how to do this.
  6. Independent Thinking – 3rd grade is where I’m seeing a lot more independent thinking. More questions like why is this actually a rule? And why do we do this this way?I just love the questions! I want my children to ask questions. If I don’t know the answer, we look it up. Sometimes the answer isn’t what she’s expecting. (sometimes we just do something a certain way because that’s how I like it, there’s no other reason). Sometimes it’s fun (like is the cheetah or the ostrich faster?). But, overall, it’s an increased awareness and curiosity about the world around her. A greater awareness of how others around her are feeling and what they might think about something. Or the realization that just because we’ve always done something a certain way doesn’t mean it’s the only way to do it.

I really just love this age! We can finally have more interesting conversations and she likes to sit and talk with me about what’s going on in her life. It’s such a fun age of discovery, asking questions, and engaging more.

 

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Christopher Columbus Project

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This year, my 3rd grader’s history book is divided out into different historical figures. It’s all American history and since I love teaching history by studying significant people in history I’m super excited about her history this year!

I’m using ABeka Grade 3 history, and we’re loving it!

Our first Historical figure was Christopher Columbus. Sometimes we’ll do a special meal, or watch a fun movie (like Pocahontas when we were learning about Jamestown last year), or something else fun.

For starters, I checked the the Nina and Pinta sailing schedule to see if they’d be in town this year. Check out their info here. I got to see them a few years ago, and they’re awesome! They are in town this year (Horray!), but not until October. We’ll see those later, which will be fun, but I wanted something for right now, while we’re studying Columbus.

Also, I wasn’t doing a special meal, I mean, what was I going to serve the kids? Dried bread and old apples? There’s really nothing appetizing about the food on ships in those days.

So, I hunted on Amazon and found this model ship puzzle. It’s of the Santa Maria, which was Columbus flagship on his first trip across the ocean.

It says it’s for 6+ so I figured that it couldn’t be terribly difficult. Plus it had pretty good reviews from people who had done this with their children.

So, I purchased it. It turned out to be a really great Christopher Columbus craft. Every day, while I read about the book, and while we discussed what we’d learned, we would work on the model. And, we finished it the day before we finished reading about Columbus.

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The pieces are interlocking. Some people said they ended up using some glue, but we didn’t need any. Everything is well numbered, and the ship is pretty easy to put together. I could have done it myself in an hour. It took way longer than that because I was helping the kids do it, but it was easy enough that they had fun, and got to do most of it themselves.

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Plus, since we did one step a day, no one got frustrated or tired of working on the Ship. And, now that it’s done, it’s really a pretty impressive model. For $12 I would say this was a great deal. They have more models, like the Mayflower, when we study about the Pilgrims, I just have to decide how many ship models I want to end up with at the end of this school year. Because, based on my Amazon wish list, I could end up with a whole fleet!

They’re inexpensive, and a great project for the kids that keeps them excited about what we’re learning in history.

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This post does contain affiliate links.

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This Year’s Curriculum

I know you’re just dying to know what curriculum I’m using for my kids this year. Actually, if you’re still trying to decide on what you’re using, you probably are at least curious.

Reading / Phonics

I am just in love with Hooked on Phonics for early readers. My kids love it. It makes reading fun. And they seem to pick up quickly as well. Teaching reading can be so painful and Hooked on Phonics really isn’t. My Kindergartner is doing the Purple Books which is Kindergarten Level and my Preschooler who is pretty certain he wants to read (I mean, everyone else is, so why shouldn’t he) is participating with her and doing the Red (preschool) books. My Kindergartner likes to help him with his preschool books. They have fun, and she’s getting extra phonics in. It’s working so well for me.

My 3rd grader is loving these Lego DC Comics books. She’s reading well but is still afraid of chapter books. At this point, I just need to find something that she likes to read and we’ll make great progress. I got her a couple of these for her Birthday and she’s so excited. She read 4 of them in one evening. They’re writing more so I should be able to keep her supplied with these for a little while. And hopefully when she’s done with these she’ll be ready for another chapter book. I keep touting the Bobbsey Twins so maybe by the end of the school year I’ll get her reading them.

Also, I’m using Abeka 3rd Grade Reading and Comprehension sheets. It’s timed reading with questions that she does once a week. She’s needing to focus on reading all the details so these along with all her fun reading should hopefully have her reading really well by the end of the school year.

Math

Abeka Kindergarten for my Kindergartner and Abeka 3rd for my 3rd Grader. I like Abeka math and it’s working well for my girls. We’re also working on addition, subtraction, and multiplication tables with both girls. Using flash cards and number charts. My oldest needs to get faster and the younger one needs to learn them. Plus, this is more fun with two or more.

So far, multiplication is best explained as boxes of popsicles. I have 1 box of 8 popsicles and that equals 8 popsicles. 2 boxes of 8 popsicles equals 16. I’m not actually pulling boxes of popsicles out of the freezer, but it’s about the concept of groups of items.

I’ve also gotten play money and we’re playing store a lot this year because the girls can count money but they can’t figure change. So, we’re going to focus on some money skills and have fun at the same time!

English

Abeka English 3rd for my 3rd Grader. The kindergartner is doing hooked on phonics and english/grammar really isn’t useful until she has some basic reading down.

I also have a fun story starter book this year. Something the girls can work on together or separately. Just thinking creatively is an important skill that I want to work on before they reach higher grades and actually have to write stories.

History and Science

Abeka 3rd grade History, Science, and Health for these subjects. The Abeka text books are fun to read and she loves these subjects. We’re usually done with these books early.

We also enroll in local science classes at our Science Museum and Zoo. They have lots of great age appropriate classes and my kids love them! And the girls are in a lego robotics class this year as well. I love that the kids get to do lots of hands on science!

I’d love to hear. What curriculums are you using this year?

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Back to School

We’ve had a super busy summer. And covered many, many miles between my husband traveling for work and me & the kids traveling for family stuff. I had a sister get married, a brother come home on leave, my parents moved, two sisters graduated, and we threw in a few miscellaneous things just for fun.

I’m still finishing up my summer. It’s still HOT here in August – like in the 90’s, so we’ve got another good month of summer weather to go. I don’t even feel like starting school. But it’s that time of year, and since it’s important that we not fall behind, we’ve started school.

Part of the reason for starting when public school starts is because I’m required to do 180 days, and in order to get those all in plus all the fun things we like to do. I have to start on time. My books arrived Saturday, and we started Monday. Which means, we have plenty of days in our school year to still take breaks this month and take several trips to the local water park this year. Actually, the best thing about the water park this time of year, there’s fewer and fewer people there, by the end of the season we have the park to ourselves.

My kids all hate the cold, so come Christmas break, they don’t want to go outside. This means I have several extra weeks of school already planned in and we end early every year because of this. And snow days are school and then game days because there’s nothing else to do.

You ever had bored kids inside when it’s 10 degrees outside? It’s miserable! So, we do school instead. And play outside extra in the summer.

I think my kids are ready for school. They’re ready to see their friends at lessons and co-op and they’re super excited to be moved up to the next grade in Sunday School. I’m ready to see all my friends again too.

Summer was way too short, but we’re ready to move forward with things like learning to read, learning to multiply, and as many science experiments as I can stand. My 7yr old has requested that she be allowed to “blow things up” for science this year. I’m thinking the usual volcano, and a few other experiments like that. It’ll be a messy year for sure, but we’ll have fun and learn a lot!

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H is for Why Homeschool?

For me, the decision to homeschool was easy. I and my husband were both homeschooled and both greatly benefited from being educated this way. So the decision to homeschool our children was easy, or, assumed. There was no discussion, I just had to figure out which umbrella school, what curriculums, state requirements, etc.

A couple years in and I love homeschooling my children. So, why homeschool? Or, why continue homeschooling? Here’s some benefits I’m already seeing.

  1. Child lead learning – I love my curriculum and it’s important for my children to be at least at grade level, but, their learning is tailored to their needs. My 2nd grader loves science, so she does lots of science. Extra science classes at the local museum, etc. She also loves to grow things, so this spring I told her she can have her own garden, choose what goes in it, and be responsible (with some help from me) for taking care of it. And for reading this month, my 2nd grader has selected a Nancy Drew. As the kids get older, they’ll have more say about what curriculum we’re using and what subjects or direction we want to go with which subjects (like do they want to learn algebra or geometry first).
  2. I can “sneak” in extra learning – My 2nd grader just realized the other day that when she helps me in the kitchen I’m making her do math. She’s struggling with understanding fractions so I was walking her through combining 2 1/2 cups to equal 1 cup. She loves to cook and really wants to read and follow her own recipe without assistance, but getting all her measurements right is still a bit tricky. When she realized she was doing math she wasn’t all upset about it, it was more the realization that some math is super useful and that she needs it to be able to accomplish something fun (like making her own batch of banana muffins). Guess who’s suddenly more interested in fractions!
  3. I know what needs more work – With reading, she’s a good reader, but often drops connecting words or skips lines. And when reading out loud she tends to be very quiet and hard to hear. I’ve been teaching her to read recipes to me in the kitchen and she’s realizing the importance of every line on the page. She doesn’t realize it, but it’s definitely helping with focusing on every word. (I know, back to cooking, but she loves cooking, and there’s so many other skills I can slip in while we’re at it) Also, she’s able to read devotions to us in the evenings instead of me doing all the reading. She thinks it’s awesome and I think it’s great to hear her read aloud. She wanted me to record her reading the other day so I told her that she had to talk really loud so the camera could pick up her voice. I’ve been wanting to work on presentation when reading but finding a way to emphasize it has been a challenge. Telling her to “read louder” just doesn’t work. It was her best reading yet, because who doesn’t love to be on camera!
  4. More Free time – We have time to spend all day browsing a museum, do a crafting day, or not start school until 10. When we’re done for the day, we’re done. No homework in the evening. The weather has been beautiful this week (finally warming up a bit) so lots of time has been spent outside. Our neighbor friend doesn’t get home from school until 3 or so and my kids are usually well into their outside play by that time.
  5. More Flexible Schedule – We vacation in the off season, meaning we get the beach to ourselves! We do school through snow days and get out early in the spring when the weather is just gorgeous! Some holidays we take and some we don’t, but we’ll throw in a bonus free day whenever we want to do something fun. It lets us have our schedule the way that works best for our family.
  6. More Sleep – My kids usually get up around 8. On those rare mornings when we have to be somewhere before then, I see all the kids waiting on the corner for the school bus to pick them up. I really can’t imagine waking my kids up before the sun every morning to get them to school. You shouldn’t have to do that until you get your first job. As a result, my kids get up fully rested and we have the flexibility to stay up late a night or two a week and do something fun as a family. Very rarely are my kids short on sleep and I think that their attitudes and mental ability is better because they’re getting enough rest.

For my family, homeschooling is just awesome, and we love it. If you homeschool I’d love to hear about some things that benefit your family.

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F is for Friends

One thing I’ve never understood is why homeschooling gets a bad rap for socialization. I think for my generation (when I was a kid) this was a big concern for people. And I’m happy to see that as much less of a concern for my kids. I almost never get asked “do your kids have friends?”. And I remember my mom being asked that many, many times. Or maybe it’s just the “bubble” that I’m in. I know a LOT of homeschoolers these days!

Or maybe no one asks me about my kids socialization because my kids are doing all the talking. They like to talk. To everyone.

So, how do my kids make friends? Well, first of all I live in a city that I would describe as very homeschool friendly. You either homeschool, or many of your friends homeschool. Because there are so many homeschoolers, my kids have lots of friends (both homeschooled and non-homeschooled) and no one expected kids to act different based on where they’re going to school.

Church – We live in the Bible Belt and while religion is an integral part of our lives, Church is also a major socialization group in this area of the country. It’s totally normal and acceptable for people to attend one church and participate in activities (such as preschool, AWANA, women’s groups, sports, etc. in another church). And there are a lot of Churches that host a lot of different events. So, not only do my kids get to see their friends Sundays, they’re also meeting other kids during the week.

Homeschool Groups – And there are lots of these in my town. There are groups that meet just for parental support. Groups for kids classes. Educational groups. Facebook groups – used for forming your own sub-groups for activities and such. You name it, there’s probably a homeschool group for it. We’re in a Classical Conversations group so my kids see the same group of kids on a weekly basis.

My Friends – No surprises here, but my friends have kids around my kid’s ages. So, playdates, museum trips, etc. are a fun way to catch up and let the kids have fun.

Extras – And then there’s the extracurricular activities like dance and sports. It’s not uncommon to keep running into the same people at these activities. My kids have friends that they know from church, dance, and the museum class. We just keep running into them. It’s always fun to sit with someone that you already know.

My kids have lots of friends. And because I also know most of their friends parents, we get to hang out and have fun with friends way more than we would if my children were not homeschooled.

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E is for Extra-Curricular Activities

One of the things I love about homeschooling is the extra flexibility we have for Extra-Curricular Activities. And in my town, there’s plenty of homseschoolers, which means, that there are even special Homeschool classes or earlier lesson hours for Extra-Curricular activities!

For example, our local Zoo has a homeschool class (which we have not taken because my 2nd grader is not at all interested in it, but it’s available should she or any of the other kids ever express interest).

What I love about Extra-Curricular is it lets my kids pick something they’re interested in and learn more about it. And, because our school day is pretty relaxed, they aren’t tired by the time we get to our activities.

I have a 2nd grader and a Pre-K so we don’t have a ton of Extra-Curricular yet, but here’s what we’re up to.

Piano Lessons – I also play the piano but lessons for the kids help me keep them on track. Our teacher was homeschooled herself and usually has hours during school hours available for homeschoolers. My 2nd grader wants to play the guitar but I’m holding out on that until she’s big enough to handle a full size electric. We have a very pretty white electric guitar that I want her to learn on. I even have a teacher picked out! So, I’ve told her to work hard on piano for another couple of years and when her hands are big enough we can switch instruments.

Piano is a great first instrument and so much of what she learns will carry over to a second instrument when she’s ready.

Dance Lessons – There are actually no homeschool hours for the school that the girls go to, but I like how much they’re learning and all their lessons are back to back one night a week. I can deal with one night a week. They love dance. It’s a great art form and also good exercise. Really, an awesome activity for them.

Sports – My pre-K daughter hasn’t been old enough for any sport that she’s interested in yet. But, next year, there’s a few she can try. My 2nd grader is trying out basketball. She’s in a training league and hated it at first but she’s come around and thinks she might want to try again next year.

At this age, I’m not at all upset if they don’t like something, and I’ve made that clear to them. The goal right now is to try out different sports and see what they like. When they’re old enough to try out for sports (5th grade or so depend on the sport at our umbrella school) we should have a general idea of what we want to do.

Though, my pre-K daughter has informed me that she really wants to play Ice Hockey. I’m really not so sure about it, but I have another year before she’s even old enough to start hockey skate lessons at the local ice rink.

Local Education Classes – We have a once a week lego STEM class that both girls get to go to. And the teacher is actually quite impressed with my 2nd grader’s ability to follow a diagram and assemble her legos into the right item. The girls love legos, and their teacher is awesome, so this is a great fit.

We recently discovered that our local science museum has homeschool classes and since that is my 2nd grader’s favorite subject I’ve enrolled her and she’s loving it. Plus we get to explore the museum again after each class. This past week, we went to class, went out for lunch, and then returned to the museum and explored for another couple of hours. Talk about a fun day! Also, I’m loving that she’s retaining so much from the class. Weeks later something we’re doing in school will remind her of something she learned and she’ll tell me all about it. It’s awesome! – and as a side note, I am very much encouraging her interest in science. It’s a great field should she decide that’s the direction she wants to go come College time. And what I love about homeschooling is that I’m able to encourage this interest so much.

Local Museums – At the elementary age especially, it’s nice to take a field day and basically have a museum to ourselves. We’ve got the science musuem and zoo well covered. There’s a children’s musuem we have plans for and an Aquarium we’re going to go to this week. The best thing about a museum during the school week, we pretty much have it to ourselves and we can spend as much time as we like on each exhibit.

When they get older there’s some great local history museums and such. But I’m saving the “can’t touch anything” museums for when they’re actually old enough to enjoy reading and learning about the objects without having to touch them.

Homeschool or not, I’d love to hear about some of your favorite Extra-Curricular activities. Let me know in the comments below, what do your kids love to do?

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D is for Different

Recently, on a homeschool group I’m in, a Mom considering homeschooling asked a question that generated a lot of discussion.

“What’s a typical homeschool day look like?”

The responses all varied, but every experienced homeschool mom agreed that there’s truly no “typical” day.

You may homeschool with a strict schedule or you maybe be super flexible. It’s all about how your kids learn best and what works best for your family.

So, it made me ponder how homeschooling is different. Every day is different. Every child is different. And how you as the parent teach is different. One key part of successfully homeschooling is embracing the “different” and helping each child truly succeed.

For example. Here’s my schedule last week.

Monday: Homeschool co-op – leave house at 8. After co-op meet a potential renter over at our rental property. Home around 5:30.

Tuesday: Show house at 10. Run errands. Home at noon. Eat lunch. Do school.

Wednesday: Start school. Offer 2nd grader choice of staying home with Dad and doing her school or bringing it in the car. She opts for the car. Show house at 11. Run errands. Eat lunch out. Show house again at 1. Home around 2. Back out for piano lessons at 3. Finish school around 5.

Thursday: Morning meeting at 9. Home and start school at 11. Husband is hungry. Eat lunch, paint airplanes, take baths (to wash off paint). Finish school. Leave at 3 for ballet lessons.

Friday: Home all day, school done by noon.

Is my child learning? Yes! In fact, she learns more with all these interruptions. Sitting her down for 2 hrs straight and doing bookwork is tiring. But you do it in 30 minute sprints and she does better work and remembers more of what she’s learning.

Is any day typical? No, not really. But, that’s life. If she learned better by sitting down and doing it all at once, I would make more of an effort to do that. But since long sessions seems frustrating, I take the opportunities to break it up and keep her interested.

And I take advantage of something unique that homeschooling offers to my family. It lets my children live life with me. I’ve explained the concept of a rental property so many times this past few weeks – we have a rental that I’m finding new tenants for – and answered questions like, why would we let someone live in our house? If we own the house why don’t we live there? How do we own a house that we don’t live in? People pay us money to live in our house? I could just tell them about the concept of renting, but to see it in action, it’s more real to them.

So, if your homeschooling, embrace the different. Because every family is different. Every parent is different. Every child is different. And homeschooling lets you enjoy those differences.

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A is for Available

I had big plans last year to write about my homeschool journey. Those plans were derailed by job changes, busy school schedules, and just life in general. Transitioning to my husband working from home – which started in my schoolroom until we turned half the garage into his own office – was quite the transition. For everyone.

But, January is the month for new beginnings. So I’m starting again. I’m starting with the letter “A”. “A” is for “Available”.

One things I really love about homeschooling is how “Available” I am to my kids and my kids are to me.

1. Available to experience their first reading success – it’s just as good as their first steps when they were toddlers.

2. Available to talk about what they think of history – you’d be surprised with what my 7yr old can come up with

3. Available to watch as they discover something fascinating in science – and often make a mess in the process

4. Unfortunately, I’m also available to clean up the mess from science

5. Available to see them create their own art – the creation process is way more interesting to me than the final product at their age

6. Available to just sit down and talk, or let them play for a few minutes break if we’re having a bad day

7. Available to see them use the math they’ve been learning – it all started with counting out eggs from the fridge drawer

8. Available to teach them fun things like cooking – and why we do not set raw eggs on the edge of the counter so they can roll off and splat on the floor

9. Available to take them to a museum for a hands-on learning day

10. Available to watch an older child teach a younger child – there are so many things (like counting by 2’s) that I’m not going to have to teach my 2nd born because the first child taught her for me

If you homeschool. What’s something you love about teaching your kids?