Some of the boys building with their Lego Robotics kit

We are mothers with different backgrounds and experiences, but we share a passion for teaching kids. Over the years we’ve searched for cool experiments, engaging projects, the best children’s books, and unforgettable field trips to help our kids learn and explore the world. Along the way, we’ve found some things we believe to be true:

1. Learning should be fun! Kids learn more by doing something than by just being told something. The more hands-on the learning is, the more it soaks in!

2. Learning should be repetitious. Learning about something and then never returning to it is a sure-fire method for the student to forget everything that was taught. Real learning occurs when the subject is meaningfully incorporated into a bigger picture and reviewed over and over.

3. Learning should be connected. Connecting tidbits of knowledge together not only makes them more meaningful, but also creates an avenue for greater critical thinking and analyzing skills.

The grandkids on Grandpa's homemade hovercraft

4. Learning should be a lifelong pursuit. It is never too late to learn something new. Everyone should be an active reader and thinker, no matter their age. The teacher should learn right alongside the student.

We created this site as a means to share with you what has worked for us. Our lesson plans fall under three categories:

1. EXPLORATIONS–These are any kind of project or learning activity in which kids will discover something new, typically through hands-on style learning. The key to making these work is the conversations that surround them. Watching how plants grow will teach very little without an adult to engage in a conversation about what they are witnessing and why.

Learning about the way the periodic table of elements is organized

2. EXPERIMENTS–Here we will pose a question that kids can discover an answer to through a simple procedure. Again, the conversation is important. A discussion and a chance to ask and answer questions is vital to an experiment.

3. EXPEDITIONS–These are field trips . . . opportunities to learn in the real world. Nothing sticks in kid’s mind more than a meaningful, real-life experience.

Explorations, Experiments, & Expeditions

$Math Helps$

Besides lesson plans, we also post many homeschooling helps and how-to’s that we call EXPLANATIONS. These will be discussions about our theories on why and how people learn. Besides our on-going thoughts about the world of education, we also try to post practical ideas about what works for us as we teach our own kids.