the road to inspired learning
Last spring I took my son on an extended weekend trip to some of our state parks. Before our adventure began, a friend inquired, “Will you be able to tie this trip to your homeschool lessons?” This friend doesn’t homeschool. She wasn’t trying to be mean or nosy, but she was genuinely curious. However, I […]
Maple Syrup Festival? Yes, please! We visited LM Sugarbush, and we loved it! Maple Syrup . . . the old-fashioned way. Making maple sugar the old-old-fashioned way (putting hot rocks into a hollowed log with sap)! Lots of stringed instruments making fun music together! Sawing a log together. We had a great sun-shiny day at […]
A few weeks ago our homeschooling cooperative had the opportunity to visit The Bone Zone at Minnetrista. We started with the Hokey Pokey. We learned all the ingredients for healthy bones– sunshine (Vitamin D), calcium, exercise, hormones, and healthy weight. We had fun exploring the exhibit! We built a skeleton. And we learned what's inside […]
I heart field trips. Not all of you heart field trips (and that's okay), but I hope you take at least a few each year. If you do, here are ten tips for making your field trip frenzied mornings go a bit smoother–leaving you less frazzled for the day ahead. Of course, none of you have mornings […]
I like to take days off. Sometimes Mondays. Sometimes Tuesdays. Sometimes Wednesdays. You get the idea. So I sneak in extra days {field trips} whenever I can (sometimes in summer, sometimes on Saturdays), and I always count them {yes, as school days}. Here are some of our sneak-in days from July, August, and September. […]
. . . and get the stink off! I once asked a veteran homeschool mom what she'd do differently if she had it to do over again. She didn't hesitate in her reply, "More field trips." My favorite. For real. Just call me Miss Frizzle because I love field trips. If I had a Magic […]
Listening to the story. To the kitchen to learn how gingerbread was made long ago; she even showed them how the spices (nutmeg, ginger, cinnamon, and cloves) were grated and ground. Let’s check the oven and see if the Gingerbread Man is ready to eat. He’s missing! Run, run as fast as you can and […]
When Elijah was four years old, he asked us if he could meet Jan Brett. He had fallen in love with the book Hedgie’s Surprise. She wasn’t in our area for her next tour, so I told him he would have to wait awhile. He then became attached to many other Brett books such as […]
Well, we hit Tammy’s farm for this one (for obvious reasons!). I had one group inside learning about the American Flag (pledge, symbolism, and a flag snack). The other lucky group was outside in horse heaven. Then we swapped groups. The kids even got to pose in a carriage!
Our group (well, most of our group!) Future Firefighter in the making? Elijah had a lot of questions for the firefighters including how do firefighters stay safe when there is a fire. He also asked where they keep their food and how many guys can fit in one truck. The highlight […]
We were blessed to spend the day with our dear friends last week while they were camping. Simon had fun running…running…running in the open wild. It was nice to have so many hands to help push the stroller and so many feet to help chase him down! I was really refreshed…just to be outside and […]
We did and learned so much! We arrived at the farm to eat lunch at noon, and we were making our purchases in the gift shop at 3:30 p.m. It was a wonderful experience, and we are sure we will go back someday! It was great to be able to buy a honeycomb to […]
We had a rootin’ tootin’ time at the rodeo Saturday night. Our little cowpoke participated in the stick horse race!
Wednesday night we got to see "the greatest show on earth!"