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Little Acorns
We are a group of TJED Moms, homeschooling our kids, and we have created a class/field trip group, called Little Acorns, for our kids. This blog is a record of what we do together. Our class name is taken from a poem on the back of the book, Leadership Education by Rachel and Oliver DeMille. Our class began in October 2009. We hope our ideas will inspire other Moms and kids.
Our Mom School
Little Acorns is the brain child of 4 TJED Moms in the Seattle area who wanted to build a TJED community for our families. We began this endeavor in October 2009. Since that time, one of the Moms, who has a single 1-yr-old baby, has decided her daughter doesn't really need the class yet. They will join us again in a year or 2.
Andrea has 3 boys ages 3, 4, and 6. Jen has a 6yr old daughter and 1 yr old boy/girl twins. Rachel has 2 girls ages 3 and 6.
So here's how our Mom School Works. All our kids are in core phase so this class is geared for core phasers, hence the name, Little Acorns. We meet at a local library in the meeting room once a month for class. We start with a song, prayer, and the pledge. Then one mom reads a picture book to the group and initiates a discussion with the kids about the book. We try to focus these discussions on good/bad, right/wrong, true/false. Then one child gets to share something with the group - sort of show-and-tell style.
Next we do stations. Each Mom brings something interesting/fun to let the kids explore/play/learn/create. Moms usually choose something based on what her family is excited about at the time. We like having a month to think about and plan for our stations. Sometimes our kids come up with the ideas and help share it during class. There are no rules about going to the stations. The kids are encouraged to checkout whatever interests them. They can stay at one station the whole time or flit back and forth every few minutes. Sometimes all the kids are at one station, sometimes they are scattered around the room. We invite other families to join us often but we 3 moms are the only ones that bring and supervise stations. If we ever have another family join us regularly we will probably have them bring a station too. We will share our station ideas here each month.
Class lasts an hour and a half to two hours depending on the kids. When we can tell they are restless and done we pack up and leave. Often, we go to a park afterwards to let the kids run around and play.
In addition to our monthly class at the library we do a monthly field trip together. Andrea and Rachel plan these for us and does an amazing job.
On the weeks we don't have class or a field trip we often get together informally for play dates or park days. We also use these weeks to socialize with other friends and family.
Andrea has 3 boys ages 3, 4, and 6. Jen has a 6yr old daughter and 1 yr old boy/girl twins. Rachel has 2 girls ages 3 and 6.
So here's how our Mom School Works. All our kids are in core phase so this class is geared for core phasers, hence the name, Little Acorns. We meet at a local library in the meeting room once a month for class. We start with a song, prayer, and the pledge. Then one mom reads a picture book to the group and initiates a discussion with the kids about the book. We try to focus these discussions on good/bad, right/wrong, true/false. Then one child gets to share something with the group - sort of show-and-tell style.
Next we do stations. Each Mom brings something interesting/fun to let the kids explore/play/learn/create. Moms usually choose something based on what her family is excited about at the time. We like having a month to think about and plan for our stations. Sometimes our kids come up with the ideas and help share it during class. There are no rules about going to the stations. The kids are encouraged to checkout whatever interests them. They can stay at one station the whole time or flit back and forth every few minutes. Sometimes all the kids are at one station, sometimes they are scattered around the room. We invite other families to join us often but we 3 moms are the only ones that bring and supervise stations. If we ever have another family join us regularly we will probably have them bring a station too. We will share our station ideas here each month.
Class lasts an hour and a half to two hours depending on the kids. When we can tell they are restless and done we pack up and leave. Often, we go to a park afterwards to let the kids run around and play.
In addition to our monthly class at the library we do a monthly field trip together. Andrea and Rachel plan these for us and does an amazing job.
On the weeks we don't have class or a field trip we often get together informally for play dates or park days. We also use these weeks to socialize with other friends and family.
Update: In fall 2010 we had 3 families join us which has doubled our size. We love it! LaDonna has a daughter, 6 and a son, 3. Evelyn has a son, 3 and a daughter, 2. Vanessa has two daughters, 2 and in-utero. We're so happy they've joined us!
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Ideas
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12 years ago
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14 years ago
Stories We've Read Together
- The Hello, Goodbye Window
- A Mother For Choco
- Owl Babies
- Stone Soup
- Horton Hatches the Egg
- Miss Rumphius
- The Little Dipper
- Frog and Toad: The Surprise
- The Blind Men and the Elephant
- Listen to the Wind
Field Trips
- Tour of Bus Station
- Tour of Grocery Store
- Caroling at a Retirement Home
- The Zoo
- Pumpkin Patch
- Hunt's Farm on Whidbey Island
- Klesick Family Farm Fall Festival
- Chickens, Treehouse, and Skeletons in Em's backyard
- Took the City Bus to Downtown Library
- Greenlake Park
- Animal Shelter
- Caroling to homebound and widows
- Telephone Museum
- Pumpkin Patch
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