The importance of resources

One of the best aspects of homeschooling is that instead of teacher-focused classroom instruction, lessons can wrap around the individual student. In fact, the limiting classroom's walls burst open in homeschooled instruction when the parent embraces the plethora of resources available in real-life situations - some, close to home; others, allowing for a mingling of site-seeing and learning.

No matter where you live, you can find engaging opportunities for your child to learn. Do Internet searches, visit your local library, check advertisements in papers and magazines you find - use what means you have to locate fun and educational resources in your community. Similarly, make a list of the places that are farther away that you would like to visit. By calling those locales, you can find out what sort of children's activities they have; whether or not they have a homeschool day with discounted prices; and, if they know of other venues in the area that cater to families with children or homeschooling families. Be sure to send a thank you (and a picture of your smiling child enjoying their often free activities) to the director of the program, so that they know how valuable it is to the community. Doing so will ensure that programs you enjoyed will remain available for other families.

Occasionally, I'm going to provide some highlights of the resources and places our family frequents, so that it is beneficial to you, as well. If you have experience with a certain place or resource I list, please feel free to share your thoughts on the topic and maybe provide a picture of your family enjoying the children's activities at the place, too.

Without further ado, here's a look at Explore More Discovery Museum in Harrisonburg, VA. Our family purchased the Explorer Membership, which has allowed us to also get in free to many other children's museums in states, such as California, New York, Maryland, Ohio, etc, all across the country. Of course, you can also search for a children's museum near you via the Association of Children's Museums. In April 2013, the reciprocal membership will change to 1/2 off admission prices to other children' museums that participate in the program (sigh).

Not only does Explore More Discovery Museum have hands-on displays for kids, but they also have programs that are often free or discounted for members. For example, the children's museum in Harrisonburg has a list of Weekly Programs that span the week. These are a great way to enhance your children's learning experience. For those who are susceptible to the over-used argument that homeschooled children do not get enough socialization, here is an example of how your child can gain more exposure to peer interactions. [Side note: a large majority of the homeschooled children I know are better communicators and socializers than their public-schooled counterparts. So, I feel this is an extremely weak argument.]

So, what are the displays like? Here is a basic sampling of the resources at Explore More Discovery Museum as of the publication of this blog post. The exhibits are thematic.

• intact train sets (not interchangeable) with moveable trains
• books related to subject matter in each exhibit
• indoor tube slide
• Keva blocks and planks
• Fridgits magnetic and moveable marble maze pieces
• wooden marble maze blocks
• puppet theater with an assortment of puppets
• stage theater with an assortment of costumes, sound effects, and face paints
• ambulance with lights and safe medical equipment
• large Operation-like game with removable bones, etc
• art room with a plethora of supplies
• under 3 area with soft play mats and age-related toys - all closed off to older children
• full-scale, child-sized, and stocked kitchen with washing/drying machines, refrigerator, stove, etc
• market area with produce, shopping baskets, cash register, and a lemonade stand
• garage with a car that allows you to change tires, "add" fluids, and honk a horn
• television studio, where your child can be an anchor(wo)man or weather forecaster
• smart board with educational apps
• picnic area (for you to bring a packed lunch)
• animal displays: a tarantula and a tree frog
• chicken display that shows the development of a chick in an egg
• science lab with an assortment of related tools
• wheelbarrow and garden area, where kids can pretend to harvest food

This list is by no means complete and it is only for the Harrisonburg children's museum. Hopefully, though, it gives you an idea of what to expect here and in other places, too: an environment with kid-sized and kid-friendly activities to promote positive learning experiences.

By visiting the local children's museums, we've enjoyed a huge amount of resources that we could not possibly house or afford. And that's a big idea, because many families think they have to purchase every possible resource their child needs to learn. This just isn't the case. By making a list of the resources community locales have, you can know at a glance where to go to make good use of those resources when you need them. 

Gather. Stir. Knead. Play!

Joey makes a tadpole to show part of a frog's life cycle.

Children loves to manipulate dough. They squish it through tubes or cut it into shapes. Perhaps they're chefs creating an exquisite feast or ceramicists crafting perfect coils for a new hand built pot or a naturalist recreating a leaf of animal to study. Whatever they pretend, it is always fun to have some sort of dough with which to play.

Any Internet search will reveal a plethora of play dough options. Here's one that I use; it's so good that I only need to make it once a year, if that often.

Save containers to store the dough.
Family gave Ezra Play-doh, whose
containers I saved for my own dough.

Ingredients:
1 envelop of flavored drink mix
1 1/4 cups of all-purpose flour
1/4 cup of salt
1 cup of boiling water
1 tablespoon of oil

Directions:
1. Gather the ingredients
2. Stir together the ingredients. Let cool until you can handle the dough.
2. Knead the dough until it's smooth.
3. Play! Make sure to store in a tightly sealed container so that you can enjoy it for a while!

Take a moment to share some of your child's favorite shapes to make with this dough. Or, perhaps your little one made a geological landform, a model of an ancient Roman house, or some other accompaniment to your lessons - if so, share the idea!

Brotherly love

One of the things about homeschooling that appeals most to me is the knowledge that my boys will not only be brothers, but classmates. While I pray that Ezra and Joey will be life-long friends, I also know that homeschooling provides a better hope for that than standard grade divisions. In a world where the people you interact with are not always your age, do standard grade divisions really make sense? But, I digress; back to brotherly love...

Any parents with children can work toward fostering nurturing and caring relationships between their children. Modeling good relationships with your friends is a good place to start. Joey has started writing notes to his friends and making sure they know he loves them, because his parents do, too. Hand-writing notes is not the issue. Just taking time to send an e-mail, make a phone call, or share a loving word and hug with your spouse or friends is enough to encourage acts of kindness.

Creating a peaceful environment that promotes positive emotional and cognitive support and an absence of negative or overtly violent insignia is a another important aspect of enabling your children to be life-long friends. This may mean re-examining the movies or shows you watch when your toddlers are around, avoiding AO-rated video games when young children are around, and trumping cooperative play over competition. Of course, you could be extremely counter-cultural and end television subscriptions, period, or make family pacts (like no rated-R movies seen in the house until the kids are a certain age) that help nurture a positive environment in the house. Think outside the box and have fun with it - the point is not so much end exposure, but rather limit until children can cognitively differentiate between good and bad, as well as participate in healthy discussions about violent versus non-violent behavior.

The act of living together, no matter who you are, will lead to challenges and frustrations. By role playing and developing good communication skills in your youngsters, you can help foster positive relationships in them when they are older. During play, if your toddlers squabble, you've just been handed a positive teaching moment. Instead of getting frustrated about the situation, be thankful that you have a chance to stop, talk about the situation, and then work together to find a solution for turning a negative situation into a positive one. What a blessing!

Being a homeschooling parent is exhausting! It's a 24-7 job that is completely under-appreciated in our society. But, it presents a unique opportunity to enrich family life and the lives of your children in so many ways. Take a moment to share some of your challenges and solutions in the comments section - or perhaps you have an inspiration, testimony, or encouraging quote to share. Ultimately, keep things in perspective. Your children are individuals. They need a nurturing and supportive environment through the good and the bad, the ugly and beautiful. Smile, hug your children, and make sure you tell them you love them every day! Then, you'll see them pass it on.

Variety among sea stars

Sea stars come in more varieties than I realized. They are radially symmetrical, but not limited in terms of number of legs, coloration, or even patterning. Some have the anticipated 5-legs; others, myriad; and should a leg or two or more be in the process of rejuvenation, those legs could be various lengths or thicknesses. Such variety! And, such beauty. 

Joey and Ezra were enamored with sea creatures during a recent visit to Long Beach, California. On Leo Carrillo State Beach, the boys discovered a sea anemone and starfish in little tidal pools near where the waves splashed against large rocks. Aquarium of the Pacific proffered first-hand views of starfish suction-cupped to aquarium glass, as well as opportunities to touch the rough skin of these prismatic sea gems in touching stations.

So, when we returned home, the boys and I decided to further expand our knowledge of Pacific Ocean creatures, such as starfish, jellyfish, sea otters, etc. I pulled activities from children's magazines, puzzle books, and my own imagination to craft fun activities to enhance my sons' understanding of the amazing animals we find on Earth. Big Backyard, now known as Ranger Rick, Jr, a magazine with animal-related activities and information for children aged 4-7, contained "Mystery Animal?" starring the sea star in their June/July 2012 issue. Following the story, the magazine provided two activities: "Name Game," in which children could try to match a picture with a name, and "Sea Star Pretzels," which provided a recipe to create your sea star treats. Joey and Ezra experimented with pretzel designs and came up with some fabulous sea star shapes. The Dover Little Activity Books series gave inspiration for other activities in "Learning About Sea Animals" and "Sea Life Follow-the-Dots." The boys also traced star-shaped cookie cutters to create drawings of starfish, which they mailed as a thank-you to the Aquarium and as a notecard to a well-loved family member.

The ideas are endless, though, and can easily be tweaked and recreated for your own at-home lessons! Perhaps your children could design postcards, donning sea stars, to use throughout the year for family birthdays, anniversaries, or encouraging notes? Create an Under the Sea play, write a haiku, invent a new game incorporating sea creatures, incorporate habitat and research what it would be like for humans to live as starfish do (what would be the similarities and differences; how would mankind have to adapt?), etc. Take a moment and share what you might do with starfish as a learning unit.

What I like most about our sea creature lessons is that they remind me of what it is to be a teacher. Each child has a unique perspective to life. Just as the variety of starfish, so too is there great variety from child to child. But, it's more than skin deep. Looking at the dreams and interests harbored within each dear heart, a teacher cannot help but feel the weight of caringly orchestrating the education of the child. So, amid the chaos and energy, remember the delicate pearl that lies within each little one you teach.

"Mommy, may I help?"

Young children have a naturally inquisitive side. They want to explore the world around them. And, they love to help!

Joey and Ezra are quite quick to say, "Mommy, may I help?" While a part of me wants to accomplish a task as quickly as possible, another part of me wants to include my children in the activities I do. By doing so, the child fulfills a love of curiosity, learns life lessons and skills, and recognizes his own value in the family (and in the world). Me? I learn patience, rediscover the excitement of my tasks, and bond with my children by completing activities together.

When we allow children to help direct some of their learning by engaging in activities of interest, children learn at an accelerated rate. For example, both Joey and Ezra have learned a lot about harvesting food and seeds by helping to glean seeds from okra, scoop and separate seeds and roasted meat from pumpkins, cut up apple chunks for boiling into sauce, as well as gathering an assortment of food from the gardens: potatoes, green bell peppers, scallions (their favorite to harvest), basil and oregano, tomatoes, etc. Joey would sit for hours popping popcorn kernels from the cobs.

But, here's the catch. I did not ask or demand my children to do any of these things! Either Russell or I started working on a project and the boys merrily joined in. As Joey gets older, he's asking to do more and more: gather eggs from the coop, help carry firewood (especially when we're loading up the stoves), vacuum dust from the floor, even cleaning the bathroom. It surprises me every time Joey expresses such interest in exploring the world around him. However, I am certain that if I did not allow him to help, but denied his desire to help, he would stop asking.

Now there is a caveat. While allowing my children to perform the tasks they want, I also set boundaries to help them be safe while learning about the necessities of life activities. For example, they know to only handle blunt butter knives when helping with cutting fruits or vegetables, and only when they ask Mommy or Daddy first. Similarly, while Joey and Ezra can help carry wood to the fireplace, they know they are not allowed to put wood into a burning stove. Both boys know they have to wash their hands with soap and water before helping prepare food. There is a plentitude of opportunity to gently teach children what such boundaries are, as well as why they are important. Setting such boundaries takes time and consistent reminding, but over time beneficial boundaries will stay with the child.

So, the next time your young (or older) child asks to help, consider it an opportunity for learning. Learning is not restricted to "academic" subjects and even the academic subjects - reading, writing, mathematics, science, social studies, etc. - are evident in the simplicity of day-to-day life. Consider what your child will need to know and how the routines in everyday life are just as important to master as correctly pronouncing phonemes as a basis for reading. 

Let your child help! And, take a moment to post about it in the comments section below.

Paper, paper, everywhere

Paper infiltrates our lives. In our household, there are piles of newspaper and junk mail, a box for recycling paper-based containers that once held store-bought food, in addition to the construction paper and graph paper and lined paper bought new from a store. It can be overwhelming, this amount of paper that seems to slither from under baseboards in the dark of night; and yet, with a little creative effort, this commodity can not only provide an immense amount of educational tools, but also tons of fun in the process.

Previously, I mentioned the use of recycled containers for practice in pinpointing particular letters of the alphabet, perhaps by using stickers to plop on a letter or markers to circle them. Magazines and newspaper are useful for the same purpose. In order to practice cutting skills, preschoolers can cut out specified letters, pictures for a glue-stick created collage or decorated notecards, etc. Perhaps you could have your child hunt for pictures that start with particular letters; write out tangible nouns on slips of paper and have the child match those words to their corresponding pictures; or create your own word-picture game for plenty of fun learning.

Most children love the art of folding newspapers. Airplanes, kites, and hats are perhaps the most well-known creations from folded papers. But an Internet search on origami will also yield folded lilies, swans, and myriad shapes that can also be painted or decorated and given as gifts. Perhaps you could create unique ornaments to hang on trees, walls, and even as pendants or earrings or headbands or button-hole additives for people you love. Or, and especially if you are averse to cut flowers or know someone with allergies, you could fold flowers from paper that is painted and plopped into a vase for a lovely arranged bouquet.

The boys love to doodle and draw, write letters, and copy words and phrases. Papers with such colorful and unique patterning make excellent gift wrap, writing paper or cards, scraps for future crafts and projects. Some people use paper as starter for their wood stoves, others shred it for package stuffing; some, drench it for weed control in their gardens; others, sort if for recycling or composting. So, instead of pitching your pile of paper in the trash, consider creative ways to make that paper an educational tool for your children. And, share your creative tips with others!

With or without glycerin?

My boys love to bubble their milk. Whether that cup of creamy white drink was just used for dipping cookies or accompanies their favorite food, the meal usually ends with opaque bubbles rounding off the top of their cups. Joey and Ezra also love chasing soapy bubbles through the front garden or blowing them from the top of their play tower.

Recently - when the weather warranted short-sleeved shirts - we took soapy bubbles, repurposed styrofoam trays, and straws outside, so that they could create bubble mounds. Needless to stay, the boys loved this sticky mess (and I was glad we did this outside). We made observations about the bubble making process and the fluids we used, and even compared the result from soapy water to the results of trying to bubble milk, plain tap water, and honey. Although our "discussion" was low-key, as my oldest is only 4, this project could reveal some insightful scientific and mathematical conversations for older children. You could discuss the surface area of a sphere, for example, which is the shape a bubble takes for purposes of minimalization; the layering of a bubble's "skin" - including the hydrophilic and hydrophobic portions of a soap molecule; the hexagonal structure that bubbles make when they prolificate (this includes discussion of the 120 degree angle formed when bubble walls meet); etc. You can observe, journal, or draw the prism of color that forms across a bubble's sheen and discuss the physics of light. There are so many opportunities waiting for you in the common bubble!

I incorporated this love of blowing through straws with another of the boys' loves: paint (or in this case, food-coloring-tinged water). Joey and Ezra blew paint across paper, which we used for homemade thank-you and note cards once the paint had dried. They explored the saturation of color by dipping bright white cotton balls into the painted water and splotching the paint in trails across the paper, too. The boys quickly noticed the difference between blowing glycerin-infused water and colored tap water. And, this artistic endeavor can hold a wide-range of creative twists. Consider trying these projects and share how you incorporated it into your day.

And, have fun learning!