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me,myself,I & U

Posted on September 9, 2015 by Mi Families — No Comments ↓

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Getting to know the room and our favorite things game

At a recent conference I overheard “If you show your child you love them too much they will become conceited.” Too many providers and parents believe this, even though research tells us different. Of course I don’t want my children to grow up thinking they “rule the roof,” but I do hope my children have positive self-esteem. I do want them to have confidence in who they are becoming, and that starts with me showing them how much I love who they are today.

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take them on adventures – where they can feel your love

When shown that others didn’t believe they could become more than their label defined – they regressed. Even if providers weren’t talking to them directly they heard the message that “he’ll never talk” or “he’ll never ride a two wheeler…” When others didn’t believe in them, they stopped believing in themselves. They lived up to the predictions of kids who didn’t talk and had sensory melt downs. I’m not saying they don’t own their labels anymore. We still are working on behaviors and at times need accommodations. Even in our own home one will take shelter in his room from company (even if it’s from grandparents). Sometimes on outings one might have to take a break and leave the activity (not because they don’t want to be there, but because it’s overwhelming). Still, compared to a couple years ago they have transformed.

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encourage them to be “all they can be”

I was hesitant to take them out of the classroom setting, but I’m glad we tried homeschooling, as they have passed provider predictions of where they would be today. We still need to work on certain skills, but even social skills have grown stronger outside of the classroom. As we work on skills we learn about our strengths and struggles. Learning about our talents and needs help us define who we are, and it helps us understand others. Kids “on the spectrum” have a difficult time understanding others, but they want to. They want to understand and build relationships, but too often misconceptions of their label stop parents and providers from continuing to work on such skills.

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friendship workbooks

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best friend survey

Sometimes to work on such skills you need to go all the way back to the basics. This month Mother Goose Time’s theme is “Friends and Feelings,” which helps you do just that and is perfect for multi age programs. The boys help me run a one-room school house style program for 1-12 year old students, called Adventure Academy. This week Adventure Academy is focusing on me and my friends. (Highlighted areas are links)

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interactive circle time board

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“saying hello” to friends around the world

We are going back to the basics of who I am, what is unique about me, how am I the same or different from my friends, how can I be a good friend, how can I tell what my friend is feeling … how am I feeling? These are great lessons for all ages to re visit. When you re visit who you are and how you are feeling it helps you understand others. It helps you be a better friend to others and to yourself. It helps you respect others and yourself.

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emotion games are great for kids on the spectrum

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“show me surprised!”

Respect has been the word of the week. We’ve reinforced the lessons of respect through activities such as creating people-puppets that represent ourselves and our friends near and across the globe.

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lots of fine motor skill builders in the MGT workbooks

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finding identity

We enjoyed activities showing us how to interact with others in our community and world-wide. We played games that led to discussion of befriending and respecting those different from us – even those in the animal kingdom! We talked about what the world would look like if we all worked together to solve problems, if we used our strengths to help others and asked for help when we were struggling.

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game inspired by Carter Oosterhouse’s children’s book

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puzzle pals

We talked about the puzzle pieces to being a good friend and decided the answer was to respect everyone, including oneself, because you can’t be a good friend and care for others if you don’t care for yourself. You can’t help others reach their goals and dreams, if you’re not going after your own. No matter their goals and dreams I hope my boys (and the children I work with) grow in ways that are respectful and responsible.

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beginning buddy builders

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“taller together” and blueprint plans

Teaching children to be respectful of others and responsible for themselves will help them become resilient people who are able to withstand peer pressure and recover from difficult situations. Helping children become resilient teaches them to believe in themselves and believe they are worth the effort. The effort from themselves to try hard to become whatever they dream of! They are worth the effort of parents and providers believing in their dreams and showing them they love them too much!

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Making plans on where we’ll make new friends and share our love with others

If you’re looking for a program where your child will feel loved and encouraged to follow their dreams email Christi@MiFamilies.com! (There’s more about me and my background on LinkedIN.) If your looking to network with other parents and providers so you feel encouraged and loved join our facebook group! We all need love and support, encouragement and inspiration – so find our community pages on Twitter, Pinterest, You Tube … Let us know where else you are and we’ll try and join you there. Even parents and providers need to make new friends! We wanna be friends … we wanna know what resources you need and how you are feeling ~ Enjoy our resourceful feelings video below:

Posted in adventure academy, Autism Spectrum, Back2School, Behaviors, Child Development, Curriculums, Education, Family, Homeschool, Learning through Play, Meet our Director, Mi Families, Mother Goose Time, Parents, Providers, Reviews, Social Skills, Special Needs, Tutoring, Video Tagged with: accommodations, Adventure Academy, all about me, autism spectrum disorder, Carter Oosterhouse, confidence, curriculum, Education, emotions, friends and feelings, homeschooling, label, Mother Goose Time, parents, providers, respect, responsible, self esteem, Social Skills

Sunrise or Sunset

Posted on September 2, 2015 by Mi Families — No Comments ↓

“I know our fun in the sun ends with back to school,” was the answer a child gave to “what is Labor Day”. Labor day is the holiday to honor the labor / union movements. It’s a day to celebrate the hard work and contributions made to the well-being of our country. It’s actually an important day to understand, but what most understand is that it marks the end of summer vacation. Instead of enjoying “fun in the sun” many are preparing for “back to school.” Back to school means back to labor for school staff and for the students – as learning is a student’s job. I wonder how we can get student’s excited about their job. How can we teach them that their hard work today will determine their success tomorrow? How can we teach them to not simply graduate and “go to work,” but to turn their passion into a career? As Confucius said “Choose a job you love and you will never have to work a day in your life.” Choose a job you love and you never have to end summer vacation or your fun in the sun!

I love my job. I’ve had positions making more money, but none making me as happy. Between Mi Families programs and Adventure Academy I am never bored, as my duties are forever changing. My double Bachelor degrees in Early Education and Family Services AND over two-decades of experiences as a caregiver, coach, teacher, counselor, ABA therapist, curriculum designer and program director have led me here. My education and jobs have taught me that my most important job is being a mom. Being able to work with children, their parents and providers is my dream job, but having my children work besides me is beyond rewarding. They have more goals watching my husband and I fulfill our dreams then they had when “back to school” was part of our schedule.

I’m not going to encourage every family to throw out their scheduled lives. Homeschooling, while living a freelance life is not very stable. It was definitely a more secure life sending our boys to school while myself and my husband worked, but that life didn’t work when the unpredictable changed our schedule. You can’t always plan on special needs or job loss or your house flooding or … anything … but you can always make the best of changes. You can always try and make those changes better your situation. You can teach your children they have the power to change situations. You can be a victim and use others power to keep you relying on aid and assistance to survive, or you can be the power to aid and assist others. You can consider your strengths vs struggles and fight for you and yours the way those union workers did (who brought us holidays, vacations, freedoms…). You decide if you want your work to limit you or free you.

In Michigan the homeschooling life is open to many freedoms, from curriculums to schedules. Sometimes our schedules mean we get to visit my husband on movie sets and see all sorts of places and meet all sorts of people and explore all sorts of movie making jobs (there are many). Homeschooling has meant many more opportunities to learn about occupations, people and places than if they were still in traditional school. It has meant opening up the doors to future careers that others once told us would be impossible for them, while labeling their needs and ignoring their abilities. Watching one child disappear into a wordless world and the other regress developmentally felt like doors were closing, but today they are past provider predications. Even if one has goals of becoming a ninja I’ll encourage his dreams and put him in martial arts. If the other is fascinated by space we’ll stay up late and go to astronomy programs, with a bunch of old scientists who I can’t understand! He’s ok if the sun sets and he can’t have “fun in the sun,” because he knows he can have fun under the stars and sleep in!

Sometimes he can’t sleep in as long as he’d like, because sometimes friends come early to play the next morning. We all love when friends come to visit though, and the boys love working with me and being a teacher and teaching others what they have learned about. They love encouraging even the smallest of friends to learn more about whatever they are interested in. The goal of our Adventure Academy (child development center) is to encourage a love for learning. We go on adventures of all kinds to discover new interests. When a child enjoys exploring the world around them they try their best during each activity… and “when they try their best, they pass life’s test.” When a child has time to work through each activity at their own speed they discover who they are and who they want to be.

Adventure Academy encourages children to go after their dream and set goals. Through our programs and philosophies Adventure Academy encourages “resiliency, responsibility and respect.” Our philosophies teach life and academic lessons through a variety of curriculums, including Mother Goose Time (click for link), Little Lincoln, Right Start Math, Math U See, Spelling U See, Handwriting without Tears, All About Reading, Explode the Code … and more! Adventure Academy has curriculums to build brains and bodies! One of our fun motor skill resources comes from Mother Goose Time’s – Dance ‘n Beats program. (Each month they have a new dvd that goes with the study unit * CLICK HERE TO ORDER * Click below to watch.)

We use all resources available to discover what a student enjoys and how they learn best. We have many resources available for our child care and tutoring students and encourage you to check out our center. Our boys have worked hard re-designing our one-room school-house and have made videos showing our environment and some curriculums in action. Visit our YouTube channel to check it out. Below is a lil’ video clip I made that’s not as fun, but informative (displaying our back 2 school start up).

If you’d like more information about Adventure Academy CLICK HERE or email Christi@MiFamilies.com. If you’d like more information about other programs facilitated through Mi Families CLICK HERE . If you’d like to connect with other parents / providers check out our FACEBOOK page. If you’d like ideas for your family or families you work with – we have many posted on PINTEREST. We’re on Twitter … LinkedIn … we’re growing and reaching out with resources! For updates on resources and other resourceful articles please subscribe by clicking the link up on the right. THANKS!

Posted in adventure academy, All About Reading, Back2School, Child Development, Curriculums, Education, Family, Holidays, Homeschool, Language/Literacy, Learning through Play, Little Lincoln, Math-U-See, Meet our Director, Mi Families, Michigan, Mother Goose Time, Motor Skills, Organization, Our World, Parents, Providers, Reviews, RightStart Math, Social Skills, Spelling You See, Tutoring, Video Tagged with: Adventure Academy, adventures, All About Reading, astronomy, back to school, career, child care, Child Development, children, Curriculums, dance n beats, dreams, Education, explode the code, family services, film making, freedoms, friends, fun in the sun, Goals, handwriting without tears, Holidays, Homeschool, job, Labor Day, Little Lincoln, love learning, martial arts, Math-U-See, Mi Families, mom, Mother Goose Time, occupations, parents, providers, resources, right start math, schedule, social media, spelling u see, teacher, Tutoring

Stories and Soup

Posted on August 25, 2015 by Mi Families — No Comments ↓

A curious student learns more than a student who only wants good grades. This is why I develop lesson plans for increasing curiosity, before worrying about increasing test scores. The key to curiosity is open exploration and adventure. Sometimes Adventure Academy can’t explore the world around us due to weather, like today’s pre-fall rain, but we can still explore through stories and often go beyond the world around us.

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cold rainy day outside = rainbow game inside

The importance of language and literacy reaches across all lands. This week Mother Goose Time shared such lessons (reading, writing, social studies…) through “International Folktales.” We read tales of long ago from our own lands and through Native American stories like “How the rainbow was made”(lots of color and shape fun), then we went across the ocean to read the African tale of “The black snake and the eggs. (lots of math and science fun).”

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who’s snake is the biggest? who’s is the smallest?

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big kids helping little kids

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How can you measure it if it’s bigger than you?

We enjoyed another African tale about “Anansi and the pot of wisdom” and discussed how folktales and fables teach us important life lessons. One lesson I always re-learn while teaching is to listen to my students. They often have great insight into meanings of stories and can tell of times they experienced similar situations. They also often have great ideas for making up games that relate to the lesson, and come up with crafts to share what they took away from the lesson. The pot of wisdom craft recommended painting the cut-outs, but the children decided they wanted to use chalk as “it looks cooler on black paper.”

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chalk on black pots

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stringing up both sides of our pots

We jumped across continents through other provided activities and found ourselves in China learning about the story of “The empty pot.” We kinda combined the “design a flower” and “stamping art” project. This folktale provided opportunity to teach a great lesson about telling the truth, about being someone of good character – someone honorable and kind and someone who would make a good king. It provided opportunity for lessons about being proud of who you are, which we will discuss more next month while learning about “me, my friends and family.”

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stamping art

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design a flower

As with past stories we incorporated meals that went with the themes. For example, with the stories from China we tried new Chinese dishes. I am blessed with kids who will try anything! Although there are some sensory issues, I wouldn’t say they are picky eaters as they will try all sorts of dishes. Many of the kids I care for are not as willing, but I find having them help prepare meals encourages them to try new things. One kid was apprehensive to try “Stone soup,” and watched very carefully making sure there were no stones tossed in. The story of stone soup also leads way for the “me, my friends and family” curriculum and my boys can’t wait for new friends to join us as we make meals, create crafts, sing songs and love learning at Adventure Academy. (Click video below to watch a re-telling of the soup story.)

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Reading “Stone Soup” and putting pieces in paper-bag pot

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making / mixing up soup

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enjoying our home made soup

As we end our summer studies and prepare for fall fun, Adventure Academy is extending program hours and inviting children to join us at our discovery daycare. We will now be open Monday-Thursday 7:30a-7:30p and Fridays 7:30a-5:30p. We also have some weekend availability and will be packing our days with adventures and hands on curriculum activities from companies such as Mother Goose Time. To learn more about Mother Goose time CLICK HERE. To learn more about ADVENTURE ACADEMY – CLICK HERE or email Christi@MiFamilies.com. Adventure Academy is a great option for toddlers, preschoolers, young 5s, kindergarten students, school age children, homeschool families… If you know families near Kingsley, Michigan looking for quality care please share this information. If you don’t need child care, but would like updates on family fun and resources please subscribe above, find us on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Pinterest, LinkedIn, etc… Mi Families is everywhere families and those who work with families are. Mi Families mission is “reaching out with resources” through our social media and through programs such as Adventure Academy. CLICK HERE to learn about other programs Mi Families offers for parents and providers and comment below if you have ideas on programs you’d like to see offered or topics you’d like these articles to address.

Posted in adventure academy, Back2School, Curriculums, Education, Family, Health, Homeschool, Language/Literacy, Learning through Play, Mi Families, Mother Goose Time, Motor Skills, Our World, Parents, Providers, Reviews, Science, Sensory, Video Tagged with: Adventure Academy, back to school, crafts, culture, Curriculums, fables, folktales, Meals, Mi Families, Mother Goose Time, story telling, video

Folktale Food & FUN

Posted on August 18, 2015 by Mi Families — No Comments ↓

I use to run a program called “Snack-time Stories,” which is just what it sounds like. The best part of the program wasn’t the concept though, it was that the kids choose the stories and created snacks that went with the theme, or they picked a snack and we found stories that created a theme. Either direction it was child driven, just as a program should be.

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practice reading to a non-judgmental audience

Today, most programs use pre-packaged curriculums. It’s much easier to plan out lessons and prepare materials for activities with a curriculum like Mother Goose Time where the materials are separated into day bags and enough materials are laid out for the number of students you are teaching. Many who believe in child driven programs question how pre-packaged curriculums can benefit diverse learning styles, but I’m finding ways to still utilize student interest – especially with my own boys. Although they are not preschoolers as the package is designed for, they love the program. They love the games and crafts … they love the stories and the recipes that come in each box. They love looking through the box when it arrives to see what’s planned for the month, then inspecting it closer before each weeks topic. This week was all about Paul Bunyan and they were most excited about the day planned for mid week ~ making pancakes. They were so excited that I decided to rearrange the week and make them wait for the last day of the session for that activity (another benefit to the flexibility of Mother Goose Time).

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growth-tree-charts

We started off with the birth of Paul Bunyan story, we build a raft for dramatic play, made our growth chart … and since they already know the letter B is for babies – we found other B items babies need: bibs, bottles, binkies, baby dolls, teddy-Bears… This day led to great discussions as we are starting to take care of some babies in our child care and they were able to discuss the babies needs and how they will help care for the babies. This day also led to discussion of fact vs fiction – for example – the babies will will care for are not big enough to need a raft to rock them to sleep! In fact these babies are tiny, so comparing how big we are to how little our friends are led ways to discussion of how we grow, how we are big enough to be helpers, how we are too big for some things now, how we are too big to rough-house with little ones…

(Click video for a look into the Folktale fun!)

The second day we enjoyed stories of Babe and Bessie, Paul’s pets. Our daycare is considering a pet / “mascot,” but we decided Babe and Bessie would not fit anywhere safely – even though we live on farm land. Babe and Bessie encouraged some great story telling, especially when combining the days story pieces to the last days pieces. Realizing each day this week came with more story pieces we decided we needed to put felt on the back of the pieces and collect them to further our stories each day. The Log Jam story, the Frozen Flames story, the Flapjacks… all the story pieces started to create a whole world outside of the stories we read, so the boys and their friends started to make up new tales about Paul Bunyan, his lumberjack pals and the pets. Oh the adventures they had! My boys decided Adventure Academy needed to bring back “Snack-time Stories,” which we re-named “Lunch-time Literacy.” We would read the daily story (or create one) and create a lunch to go with it. Since lumberjacks eat a lot they decided they needed big portions which led to great discussion of proportions, healthy meal planning and other healthy habits.

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writing out safety plans , safe at our meeting spot

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Sam showin’ off his MGT fireman hat

So how did all this pre-packaged curriculum lead to child driven education? Well each discussion led further into interest, such as the healthy meals and healthy habits. They decided lumberjacks had to be healthy and strong to do their jobs.We ended up having a lumberjack day playing with logs, which grew into an interest of what logs are used for (building homes, tables, shelves, boats … ), and apparently campfires are the most exciting use. Campfires led to a discussion about campfire safety, forest fires, home fires… which led to tornado safety, gun safety, swim safety, body safety, stranger danger … which led back to babies and then baby Paul Bunyan … and when I write “led” I mean child led – I’d ask open ended questions and listen. Listen to your kids and the kids you work with. They have great ideas which lead to many questions which lead to new discoveries. You don’t have to only teach what’s presented in a lesson plan, and you can teach that lesson out of order (if it makes sense), and you can add to topics of interest. If a child enjoys a story find a snack that goes with it! This unit on Fables and Folktales from Mother Goose Time can start you off with some fun ideas. The best ideas come from kids – just ask “what snack would go with this story?” Share ideas below:

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cooking = reading, math, science, sensory…

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Paul’s Pancakes

If you live near Kingsley, Michigan and are looking for a child care program that uses Mother Goose Time and other top rated curriculums, check out ADVENTURE ACADEMY!

Posted in adventure academy, Back2School, Child Development, Curriculums, Education, Homeschool, Language/Literacy, Learning through Play, Mi Families, Mother Goose Time, Providers, Reviews, Safety, Video Tagged with: Adventure Academy, child driven, Curriculums, dramatic play, felt boards, flannel boards, folktales, Homeschool, language and literacy, Mi Families, Mother Goose Time, pancakes, paul bunyan, photos, preschool, Safety, snack time, story time, storyboard, video

Teachable Moments

Posted on August 10, 2015 by Mi Families — No Comments ↓

“We can’t both be the teacher,” one of my boys said to the other. “Sure we can, we’ll just have the stuffed animals be the kids. They’ll listen good, because they can’t talk.”

Click arrow above to see our school room where the boys are practicing being teacher! As we finish up our summer school / tutoring sessions and prepare our place for an educational daycare program my boys are eager to help with setting up the area and coming up with ideas for activities. The video below shows our abundance of supplies for such activities and books in our resource library. (There are more videos on our YOUTUBE channel.) Both boys have expressed how excited they are to read to the little ones who join us.

We are now enrolling 2-12year olds in our “education through recreation” program, so if you know anyone looking for childcare around the Kingsley area, please share our information. It’ll be a great program for preschoolers, young 5s, kindergarteners, homeschool families… CLICK Adventure Academy for more information about our program. We will be utilizing top rated curriculums including Right Start Math, Math U See, Spelling U See, All about Reading (click highlighted words for links) … We’ve been enjoying Mother Goose Time with our summer students. Although it’s a preschool based curriculum the activities are easily adapted for different ages/stages, and parents have been loving the take home activities and resources. CLICK Mother Goose Time for more information about the program or schedule a visit and check it out yourself!

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Crow & Pitcher activities

We’ve been enjoying more Aesop’s Fables this week. “The Crow and the Pitcher” story led to a day of learning beyond the obvious language/literacy lessons. Math and science and even music was integrated as the boys measured and weighed rocks and water and changed amount of peas in the shaker for different sounds … then tried other materials inside (rice, noodles, bells…). Best lesson learned was how to consider using materials available to solve a problem – as the crow did.

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frog friends

“The Boys and the Frogs” day was filled with reading, math, science and music as well, although some of the created croaking noises I wouldn’t say were music to my ears ~ but the boys AND girls had a blast. From croaking to hopping to play games with the number pieces and frogs, this day ended up lasting a few days as the children kept wanting to come back to the activities and make up new games with the materials.

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some supplies (and frogs with counting gems)

“The Young Crab and his Mother” activities were again filled with valuable lessons and just as the frog story led to lotsa hopping, the crab tale led to crab walks, and races and obstacles… Since gross motor is a great brain break the next couple days were a mix of frog and crab movement moments between lessons.

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letter C craft and crab-walkers

“The Milkmaid and her Pail” lesson offered some more gross motor activities as well as teaching times and a teachable moment about “counting chickens before they are hatched” as my boys wanted to make eggs (technically eggs in a nest * or in middle of toast) for lunch and set out everything for 6 servings … and buttered toast and got it all ready to drop in an egg in middle when they opened up cartoon to find only 2 eggs… I actually knew there was only 2 left, but because we have been having an issue with 1 son running through activities and not paying attention to details – I let him set pace and discover the problem on his own. Teachable moment.

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teaching tools (Milkmaid & Pail)

The last teachable moments came after teaching the “Bell on the Cat” lessons. “Bell on the Cat” had again, 4 good activities, but one was a great reading game. For the littles we worked on the sound “at” and the letter before creating a word. The older kids, like my boys, created reading and matching games. Teaching kids to read is an invaluable tool and like my last article discussed it’s the most important activity to do over summer vacation to ensure your child retaining grade level. Teaching kids to read is important for many reasons, but for my boy who runs through activities we’re working on him reading all information, which is where the last teachable moment was priceless. During a recent zoo adventure he put his hand in an area that said “Don’t pet! All animals with teeth bite.” It was a close call. To his defense he was encouraged to interact with other animals nearby – but that’s why it’s important to read everything through!

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great hands on reading resources with MGT

Life is full of teachable moments and parents are a child’s first teacher. Adventure Academy respects that and encourages parent partnerships by sending home daily notes regarding the child’s day along with resources for how you can continue teaching such lessons at home. I encourage parents to utilize the daily binder to send notes back and forth or schedule times to meet with me and talk freely to keep communication open and therefore work together towards their child’s future success. Although their future success academically is important, the social / emotional success of each child is of upmost importance, which starts by observing how their parents and providers interact. If you are a provider who wants tips on such interactions or a parent who’d like to start interacting with our program please feel free to email Christi@MiFamilies.com. Also feel free to comment below, subscribe above and share our information. Thank you for reading! Now go read to your child 🙂 or let your child read to you …

born with books – never too early to read

Posted in adventure academy, All About Reading, Back2School, Child Development, Curriculums, Education, Family, Homeschool, Language/Literacy, Learning through Play, Math, Math-U-See, Mother Goose Time, Motor Skills, Organization, Parents, Providers, Reviews, RightStart Math, Science, Social Skills, Spelling You See, Tutoring, Video Tagged with: Adventure Academy, aesop's fables, All About Reading, childcare, curriculum, daycare, Homeschool, lesson plans, library, Math-U-See, Mother Goose Time, parents, providers, reading, right start math, spelling u see, teaching, Tutoring, video

It’s FACT not FICTION

Posted on August 5, 2015 by Mi Families — No Comments ↓

Here’s an interesting fact: When given the same test before summer break and after vacation, students typically score lower – even though it’s the same test they already took. The summer slide is a serious problem. Most students lose 2+ months of grade level equivalency in math and reading skills. Most students lose academic achievements AND healthy advances. Children actually gain weight more rapidly during summer break when you would think it’d be the opposite as they are outside playing all day, right? And they are eating healthy foods straight from berry bushes and the garden, right? Wrong. Learn the facts. Research tells us most kids are actually not having fun in the sun. Most kids are indoors watching tv and playing video games. Most kids are eating junk food – or sadly most of the kids who got free breakfast/lunch at school – aren’t eating adequate meals at home.

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You don’t need to pay for an amusement park or buy playground equipment. Build your brain – outside

Luckily there are some community programs and schools who offer meals during vacation. Look up your district for answers on where to find such resources. Also look up your district to find where your library is, because the number one way to prevent the summer slide is reading! Make sure your child doesn’t back-track before back-to-school. Many libraries even offer incentives for reading. My boys got free kids meals and ice cream cones and tickets for carousal rides and coupons for the movies and gift certificates for book stores… It actually paid to have them reading this summer!

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Adventure Academy style circle time = outdoor education

Besides those cool incentives, reading is a priceless bonding time. Life gets so busy that you sometimes forget about the unique interests your child has. Asking them to pick out a book for you to read to them not only offers cuddle time, but lets you into the world of what they are in to. I never knew my child was so curious about other places in the world until he kept borrowing library books about far off lands…and even though he’s starting to read on his own – I’ll take any opportunity to cuddle that he gives me. My boys are getting bigger and I know these moments will one day end so I won’t take for granted the cuddles offered today. I’ll make time for story time snuggles as long as they let me!

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Mouse & Lion learnin’

I was excited to see that this months theme for Mother Goose Time was Fables and Folktales because the daily stories would provide daily snuggles! Week ones adventure was all about Aesop’s Fables and there were great lessons within each story. The first story was my younger son’s favorite: The Lion and the Mouse. They loved all the activities, but especially using the theme poster to make up memory games and using the stick puppets to re-tell the tale. We did day 1 activities as a way to settle down one evening and they woke the next day eager to start day 2, wondering what story was featured. “The Bundle of Sticks” was a perfect lesson for our kids and the kids I work with, as team building is something my business of Mi Families works on with families, children’s providers, youth leaders, and random kids programming – including our Adventure Academy.

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Bundle of Sticks – fable fun

Each morning the boys would wake excited about the lessons and each evening ended with cuddles on the couch re-reading or listening to the story. Some stories like day 3’s “The Grasshopper and the Ants” were read repeatedly throughout the week. Although the cover says “preschool” the short tales can be enjoyed by all ages. AND the message can be shared with all ages, as even some adults need reminding when it’s time to work, and when it’s time to play…I’m so blessed my work is play! AND the Mother Goose Time curriculum makes it easy so I have time to actually PLAY with my children and students – and during the times I have to prepare for lessons and can’t play, there are many materials that are self guided for the children to interact with. The stories on CD were perfect for such times!

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brotherly bonding

I do have to prepare lessons ahead of time so I know what materials I need to set out and which activities I have to find substitutions for – such as in the Grasshopper/Ant story my son is allergic to corn so we couldn’t use that product, but most lessons are easily adaptable. Also most lessons are easily adaptable for diverse age groups. 2 year olds to 12 year olds I work with have enjoyed the activities. When it’s too hard for a toddler I simplify the lesson and when it’s too easy for an elementary age student I expand on it. For example the Finish Line game in “The Hare and the Tortoise” tale the younger students practice taking turns and following directions on the cube, while my older students made a number line game that involved adding, subtraction, multiplication and division! They also realized that how the cube was taped affected the outcome of the role!

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MGT gaming

My oldest son couldn’t choose if the Hare/Tortoise story or “The Dog and His Reflection” were his favorite, but he did like day 5 activities best. He especially loved helping the younger children play “Doggie Doggie Where’s your Bone” with the provided dog bone. My children and those I work with love using the provided materials to create new activities with and I have the feeling that dog bone will continue to get it’s use – especially since we don’t have a dog that’ll eat it! The children loved how the fables were about animals and often connected the stories with lessons we learned in last months Nature Detective kit. We talked about how to take care of animals and how to protect their habitats. Discussions also led to how each animal has a purpose, just as each person does and how we should embrace the uniqueness of others and encourage them to use their gifts and talents – and to be thankful for the diversity in this world. Even among a small family unit everyone is different – I challenge you to find ways to showcase the diversity in your own family. Who has what gifts and talents? Who is interested in what topics? How can you foster that interest and learn about new things together as a family? Remember that the summer slide is serious. Don’t stop learning because it’s summer. Read books together, explore your community together … talk with each other during meal times. If you need help coming up with what to talk about, where to go for community meals, what to explore in your area … let us know! Someone on our team will help you find resources! Or hop on line or call a local agency – or stop by your local library – the library is a great resource – for beyond books!

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Puppy party

You can find more resources by asking others on our Facebook page, checking out our Pinterest or YouTube channel. You can also find some great educational resources for young children through Mother Goose Time. Click highlighted areas for links and click the subscribe button above for future resourceful articles. THANKS

Posted in adventure academy, Back2School, Child Development, Curriculums, Education, Family, Health, Homeschool, Language/Literacy, Learning through Play, Math, Meet our Director, Mi Families, Mother Goose Time, Parents, Providers, Reviews, Tutoring Tagged with: aesop's fables, back to school, curriculum, diversity, fables and folktales, free summer lunch programs, Health, individualize, lesson planning, library reading clubs, Meals, Mother Goose Time, nature detective, resources, story time snuggles, summer slide

unplanned adventures

Posted on July 28, 2015 by Mi Families — No Comments ↓

You cannot plan for everything. I did not write in my planner for a deer to run into my husband’s car the other day. He’s ok, but car is not. Can’t afford a new car today and can’t share mine because he’s working outta town. Seems like we’re running outta options, but after the past few months of finding options despite obstacles I know we’ll find an answer to that one and the other issues that arise… The mechanic said “it’s totaled,” so answer isn’t to get our hands dirty to fix it ourselves, which is too bad because I love watching my husband fix cars, fix our house … I’m a lucky lady! I realized I’m a lucky mom as well watching my boys grow into the same work ethic of learning how to fix things themselves. These boys have loved working on rebuilding the house after our flood and constructing the center for “Adventure Academy.”

teaching kids to be responsible and resilient

I’ve been trying to plan for everything Adventure Academy will need and do, but you cannot plan for everything. So emergency plans are developed and first aid kits are ready and parent’s are reminded to pack extra clothes for kids “just in case.” Kids have accidents and get messy! As a teacher I try and teach parents the importance of letting kids learn to fix things and do things for themselves… let kids explore and get messy…and muddy! Mud is actually a great learning tool and the “mystery in the dirt” week was a great way to finish off the Nature Detective curriculum from Mother Goose Time.

From eating dirt (don’t worry it was chocolate pudding) to making hedgehog prints we had a lot of fun with our friends starting off this weeks unit. It was unknowingly planned perfectly as we got to meet a real hedgehog a few days before at the library. If your ever looking for a great animal presentation look up Animal Encounters!

The second day continued the animal adventure as we discussed animals that need the dirt/mud and how their bodies make prints and “draw” in the dirt. For kids like mine who are sensory based learners drawing in the dirt is a teaching tool. Although I use the curriculum for typically younger children I try to showcase the impacts of my first and second grade sons for other homeschoolers and those who work in multiage programs. A unique selling point for curriculums such as Mother Goose Time is the ability to simplify lessons for younger students and expand on them for older kids. For example: while tots draw randomly with the stick in the dirt, elementary ages can practice writing spelling words!

The crafts and games can all be modified for different age groups with some creative thinking – which often comes straight from the kids brains. After using the activities as suggested I often ask “what else can we do with this” and get some great ideas! My boys played with the pattern materials for a long time creating patterns and making up matching games which built into classification activities. Nature and animal lessons are endless in this Nature Detective kit as each activity seems to lead to another – often resulting in my boys assigning themselves homework! (One of their ideas: watch quick video below of big brother practicing reading the story to the little brother, while the little brother works on listening comprehension skills)

My boys love using their “homework” as a way to play teacher and teach each other and visiting children about whatever they learned. They love reading the monthly book, as well as their created books to others and are now trying to read them in Spanish. Since I never took a Spanish course we highlight the words we are working on and type in the words we don’t know how to pronounce online and keep practicing. We’ll haveta stop in and ask Liz (the amazing lady who does the translations at the MGT office) if we are pronouncing them correctly!

We hate to end the Nature Detective theme as we had so much fun with family and friends playing the nature moves game and making nature memories from lessons and materials in the package …and out in nature. This is a great kit to make friends, make believe and make a mess with = summer learning to its fullest potential. We’ll continue enjoying the great outdoors even as we start the next month’s package “Fables and Folktales.” We can read stories at the picnic table, under a tree, in our tent… This summer has been about connecting as a family and as much opportunity as nature gives us to do so – stories are another great family time activity. Adventure Academy and Mi Families challenge you to connect as a family every day! Play outside, read a book, read a cookbook and make a treat… Schedule in family time, but leave space open for unplanned adventures! Need tips and tools for dealing with those unplanned moments – ask us for help. Need help coming up with ideas for family time activities – ask us, we’ve got many! …or order a MGT box to explore together. Click here to get to their shop-site, click HERE to get to our PIN ideas, ask others for their thoughts on our FACEBOOK page, check out our YOUTUBE channel… We’re “reaching out with resources” for your family (or the families you work with) and would love to hear from you. Feel free to comment below and subscribe above for our article updates. THANKS FOR READING!!!!!

Posted in adventure academy, Back2School, Child Development, Curriculums, Education, Family, Homeschool, Language/Literacy, Learning through Play, Mi Families, Mother Goose Time, Parents, Providers, Reviews, Sensory, Video Tagged with: Adventure Academy, animal encounters, crafts, fix it, games, listening comprehension, messy, Mother Goose Time, muddy, nature detectives, reading, social media, spanish lessons, storytelling, unplanned, video

Dive right in

Posted on July 21, 2015 by Mi Families — No Comments ↓

Our last article ended with thoughts on how Michigan summers are perfect for adventures. I stand by that statement as I stand in Lake Michigan thinking about ways to encourage you to jump in and enjoy such adventures with your family.

My family continues our adventure through “Nature Detectives” a summer school / summer camp program from Mother Goose Time. We jumped right into this weeks theme of “Mystery in the Water” and pulled our friends into the deep blue with us. Like always we started with questioning what we knew and what we wondered about, and by weeks end we listed all the new things we learned about. I love how this curriculum can be adapted for all levels. While preschoolers note “we need water to drink,” older students researched “why we can’t drink salt water.” We enjoyed our “Freshwater soup” and explored many math and science concepts measuring water and “puddle jumping.”

We love jumping into bathtubs, pools and lakes, but we hate swimming in “yucky” waters, so discussions of “sorting in water” and water pollution brought us back to last weeks saving the earth issues. Even the weather determines clean water issues when rain-run off brings trash and oils into water-ways. Weather and seasonal explorations were taught through the water cycle and predictions of rain water freezing then thawing then evaporating … We decided we better keep umbrellas in the car as Michigan weather is very unpredictable!

As much as unpredictable weather and water pollution is a concern for us – we were more concerned for our animal friends. In discussion of how water animals and all of the earths animals need water, we had fun playing “would you rather games” and pretending to wash our zoo animals. My boys decided elephants are pretty cool since they can wash themselves, but this led to questions of if they have to… I mean who cares if an elephant is dirty? Since elephants don’t use their hands to eat do they haveta wash their trunks to prevent germs? Germ facts and discussion of what causes them and kills them took us sorta off topic for awhile. Then we got back on topic only for a short while before going back to hand-washing needs after lessons of animal care and of mixing and painting with water.

We could spend much more than one weeks time exploring water. We love the water and feel blessed to have the GREAT LAKES to learn and play in. We love camping on the shores of lake Superior best and usually do so for my son’s birthday. This year we can’t camp where planned since my husband will be busy directing a movie on that date, but we have found ways to camp this summer when requested. Sometimes we even camp randomly in the back yard! The other evening we decided to do just that. One son mentioned we weren’t near a lake – but we almost had one in the tent as a storm came in quickly and we had to clean up camp as we were eating our picnic breakfast. We’ll put it back up soon. We’ll enjoy lakes when we can get to them (it’s only 20mins away!) and the storms when they come here (not enough this summer!).

A nature unit wouldn’t be complete without lessons on how important water is. As one student said “it’s not just about us or even animals… there wouldn’t even be trees!” That’s right ~ there wouldn’t be trees, much less your family tree! Make sure your family tree passes down the importance of protecting nature, protecting our water sources. Make sure your family tree spends time together enjoying those resources. Need ideas for outdoor family adventures? Contact us! Want your children involved in such adventures? Check out Adventure Academy! Wondering how to have such great curriculums for your homeschool, daycare or tutoring center? Get in touch! Adventure Academy and Mi Families are ‘reaching out with resources’ for all families and those who work with families. Have thoughts on other topics you’d like us to cover besides outdoor adventures? Let us know in the comments below. We PIN, we also share ideas and resources on our FACEBOOK page, there’s video content on YOUTUBE, we do the TWEET thing, you can learn more about me (the Director) on LINKEDin… We’re around! And we’d love to keep you posted – if you haven’t already please subscribe up on the right. Thank you!!!!

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Your family can have wet and wild adventures – even in your backyard!

*For links click on highlighted words, for larger images click the picture.

Posted in adventure academy, Education, Family, Homeschool, Learning through Play, Mi Families, Michigan, Mother Goose Time, Parents, Providers, Sensory, Tutoring Tagged with: Adventure Academy, art, backyard adventure, camping, germs, Homeschool, lake michigan, lake superior, Mi Families, Michigan, Mother Goose Time, mystery of water, nature detective, preschool, Science, seasonal, social media, water animals, water pollution, weather

Sun Fun

Posted on July 14, 2015 by Mi Families — No Comments ↓

“How many days are left of summer vacation?” a child asked another. “As many as it is warm,” was the answer. “I mean how many days til’ school starts again?” the first continued. “It never ended,” was the reply. The first child was getting confused and felt the conversation was going nowhere, until they learned the other child is homeschooled year round. No that doesn’t mean he sits at a desk all day throughout the year, but it does mean he learns something almost every day. Don’t worry, that child enjoys plenty of time for fun in the sun. He doesn’t worry about how many days remain for summer, because once the sun cools down, fall adventures will begin, then winter, then spring… Each season brings new adventures. Summer adventures are his favorite though. Summer adventures are our whole family’s favorite. We’re a family that loves to visit family and friends, visit the beach, go camping, have BBQ’s, watch the stars… and Michigan’s summers are great for such adventures. But sometimes, even in the summer, we can’t go on adventures. Sometimes it’s raining and we’re stuck at home or for whatever reason we haveta find other indoor adventures.

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Heroes A2Z authors

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1st book signing event

During a recent event inside our local library we were reminded that we can go on any adventure – anytime – in a book. David Anthony and Charles Clasman are the authors of a few books series, including Heroes A2Z (click here for LINK), and they spoke about the kinds of adventures and people you can meet in books. They gave a great presentation, handed out books and signed the copies. They spent time answering kids questions and encouraged them to write their own stories, because “Every hero has a story!” Every hero has a story and every kid is a hero was their message. One way my boys decided to be real heroes is by adding on to summer school homework and writing about their adventures. They love the adventures and lessons in our summer nature program. Many of our supplies come from the Mother Goose Time curriculum. Last week we started “Nature Detectives” (click here for video) with a “Mystery in the Trees” focus. This week we’re investigating the “Mystery in the Air.” Both weeks we built onto the activities and they decided that Nature Detectives is a hero training program for protecting the earth… from pollution to planting these boys are determined to “save the world.”

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look closely for paper balloon craft

They are worried about how to save the world with this weeks mission. The air is clear here but they’ve seen city smog and wonder how to clean up that issue. They talked about the pollution and germs in the air and other things – good things – that float around. They made lil’ hot air balloons and timed dropping them with different items in the baskets. We played with real balloons, made cotton ball cloud pictures (after reading ‘Spilt Milk’), and went bird watching. We went to check on our bird feeders from last week, but they were all gone! Pinecones and all. Best guess – squirrels took em!

Did you know there are flying squirrels? We had to research those and flying spiders! We made paper airplanes and flying saucers and Frisbee’s fly. We filled balloons with air and let out the air and let those fly. We talked about weight and speed and distance … what things flew well and what didn’t fly at all. We talked about the pressure of air and what makes the air good flying quality. We used all our senses to investigate the air. We felt the air travel through fans and wind. We watched and listened to it rustle the leaves. We even smelled it and could taste flavors from different scents in the air. Some smells like cinnamon were great – other smells like the ones from the farm down the road weren’t so great!

We investigated nature from the farm back to our home and got close with a magnify glass to check out details. The book “Get Close to Nature” was a great next step to our investigation. Our friends loved joining us to make our own nature books. We spent time outside enjoying the colors of the air and in nature. We found all the colors of the rainbow from the sky to the trees to the flowers.

We spent time outside enjoying the sounds of the air and in nature, then we came back inside and played games about weather sounds – which was perfect because it started to rain! As we often do with games we used as intended first then I let the boys make up new rules which lead to matching games and charades. When’s the last time your family played charades? Guess which weather or animal your family members are. Have fun and play with your kids! Just as one was worried about summer vacation ending soon – your kids wanting to play with you ends soon too!

Enjoy nature this summer with your kids. Get outside and enjoy fresh air and the “Mystery of the Air.” Climb new heights together and discover “what’s up.” Yell “it’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s mommy doing a cannon ball!” Stay out late and enjoy the night air and yell “it’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s daddy shooting off fireworks!” Michigan summers are perfect for adventure, but they end quickly and you’ll have to settle for book adventures soon when it’s 30below zero outside again! If you need ideas on things to do outside try our Pinterest board for nurturing nature. If you want to check out the Nature Detective kit contact Mother Goose Time (click here for ordering page). These curriculums are not date sensitive meaning you can use them whenever (as long as they are still in stock). We will be using this curriculum (as well as other top rated programs) throughout the year in our educational childcare and homeschool tutoring services – check out ADVENTURE ACADEMY for more information! Please support Adventure Academy and Mi Families by subscribing above and find us on social media sites such as FACEBOOK. Our facebook site is a great place for parents and providers to ask questions and share ideas and we’ll share resources with you, like messages that make ya think:

Posted in adventure academy, Child Development, Curriculums, Education, Family, Health, Meet our Director, Mi Families, Michigan, Mother Goose Time, Parents, Providers, Reviews, Science, Sensory Tagged with: adventure, air, animals, art, authors, books, crafts, curriculum, family, games, Heroes A2Z, Homeschool, kid heros, library, Mother Goose Time, nature, nature detectives, real heroes read, save the world, seasons, senses, social media, Summer, summer school, summer vacation, trees

NATURE DETECTIVES

Posted on July 8, 2015 by Mi Families — No Comments ↓

Our last few articles touched on the important roles of moms and dads. Parenting influences a child’s outcome, but does nurture or nature have greater impact? What role does father-God’s creation or Mother nature’s evolution play in the development of your child? How often does your family interact with nature?

hiking with Mi Families & Adventure Academy friends

Defining nature vs nurture may not include the great outdoors, but it should. I grew up in metro-Detroit, yet my best family memories are outside of the city – camping in the U.P, apple pickin’ at Papa’s farm, climbing up the Rockies, riding horses in Texas and Alabama, swimming in the ocean – swimming in the Great Lakes… I do love the city (the museums, sporting events …), I miss the cultural diversity living in the Detroit and Los Angeles areas, but I can always visit a city. Acres between farms and forest is my home now and instead of nature being something my boys wait for as I did – it’s our life. Learning to respect nature is a part of sustaining life beyond us. I thought this lifestyle might make my boys crave the city, and they do love our travels, but they request camping when given the option.

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singin’ by the campfire with dad and uncle Paul

We just got back from a much needed campout. My husband travels a lot for work and he’s about to start directing a show outta town, then will be the director of photography on a movie this fall, so who knows when we’ll be able to escape to ‘da U.P’ again. The funny thing is that at home we still wake to the sounds of wildlife and even watched a family of deer and bunnies eating breakfast while we ate ours this morning! But it’s different with the distraction of TV and computers… In a world of technology escaping to nature is more important than ever for children.

discovering nature live

I was excited to see Mother Goose Time was making a “Nature Detective” theme for this months curriculum. I work with Mother Goose Time and can assure you the dedication from the staff developing the lessons and creating the supplies. Many ask why they make a theme last a whole month – but if you engage a student, a theme can last a lifetime! There’s always something to continue learning about and discovering in each theme, especially a theme like nature. Nature, like all units, has been divided into weekly sub themes. This month: Mystery in the trees, air, water and dirt. My boys are most excited about the dirt week!

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picking up curriculum at Mother Goose Time office

NATURE DETECTIVE CURRICULUM: Unboxing

Another asset to this curriculum is that it can be adapted for younger and older students. You can simplify the lessons for toddlers or build on them for older students, like my sons. This week we have been investigating trees. Each sub-theme has an area before the lessons begin to write down what “we know,” “wonder” about and what “we learned” – and we learned a lot by building onto each lesson and expanding where their interest led. We can’t wait for more kids to join our discoveries as we continue the sub-themes.

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day1 – koala bear’s climb trees…

Each sub-theme is divided into 5 days with 4 activities each day, plus circle time suggestions. Day 1 was “Climbing trees” which we did! We made “dough critters” but instead of doing the simple salt-dough recipe the boys wanted to make sugar cookies so they could eat their “critters.” Some critters were real animal cookie-cutter prints, some were made up creatures. Apparently the mini half-cow/half-anteater that climbed trees was the tastiest, but it kept trying to fly away!

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tree parts and shapes

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tree parts and shapes x2

Day 2 was “Building with Trees,” which we did – a tree was chopped down recently which gave us lots of real logs to build a fort with, which they decided was a great animal habitat but not quite big enough for themselves. We get A LOT of bunnies, deer, raccoons, opossums, porcupines, turkeys…bear…hoping no bear live in our fort! Best guess is snakes. We already made some bird houses earlier so we were excited to make the bird feeders outta pinecones to place near their homes.

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hanging one of the bird feeders on the post by the bird house & bath

The boys were having so much fun with day 2, we continued and did day 3&4 (Painting & Counting with Trees) ~it was a long day! We made a mess painting in many ways, but our fave was spinning the color wheel and figuring out how to make the secondary colors with the primary colors we had – and using nature as our paint brushes. They also LOVED the nature collection books and after the book was filled they made a box full of other treasures they found on our hikes. The “treasures” will be used for future activities…

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painting with nature

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adding tree

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Nature Collection

Day 5 (Writing with Trees) gave opportunity to reflect on our new tree knowledge and led to discussions of what we will discover in future lessons. The boys love that the lessons are so hands on. Other kids I work with love that they have materials to take home daily to show their parents what they accomplished. I’m excited to use Mother Goose Time again as I open up a new educational program for toddlers, preschoolers and homeschool families. ADVENTURE ACADEMY is offering tutoring sessions this summer and will provide a full day program starting this fall. Adventure Academy will live up to its name and offer adventures daily and utilize hands on curriculums such as Mother Goose Time to assure kids academic achievements. To learn more about Mother Goose Time click HERE. To learn more about Adventure Academy click HERE – to learn more about Mi Families click HERE – to learn more about who I am click HERE or simply read more of my blogs! Thanks for reading this one and please subscribe above and comment below. Also check out our FACEBOOK, Pinterest, Twitter & LinkedIN pages!!!!

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Finding Tree Letters – and going orange pickin

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building trees with the letter sticks and shape manipulatives

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letter stick writing

Posted in adventure academy, Child Development, Curriculums, Education, Family, Homeschool, Mi Families, Michigan, Mother Goose Time, Parents, Providers, Reviews, Tutoring, Video Tagged with: camping, crafts, creation, evolution, lesson plans, Michigan, Mother Goose Time, mystery in trees, nature, nature detective, nurture, parents, unboxing video

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