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Mom's Museum School
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"I'm sorry. Our summer classes are filled. For all sessions," the lady at the regional children's museum added definitively -- sounding anything but sorry.
We've been shut out of the museum school summer classes for the past two years. Their popularity, coupled with alumni first-chance registration policies, makes signing up harder than scoring Super Bowl tickets.
"Mama, were we too late again?" Grace, 7, asks, with a disappointment flattening her voice.
"I'm afraid so," I said, feeling quite dejected myself.
Later that afternoon I bemoaned our museum school blacklist status to my friend Jennifer, who just happens to be an elementary school librarian.
"Oh, we never get in either," she assured me, then added, "So I just do my own."
She explained her simple "museum school by Mom" premise. With her kids, ages 4 and 6, she picks a theme and plans daily activities and projects around it.
The best part of this do-it-yourself plan is that you get to choose topics that are tailor-made for your kids and their interests -- dinosaurs, space, insects, mountains, trains, horses, fairies, travel, music, flowers -- the sky's the limit. Even better, you can set your own schedule. You can do it as casually as going to the library and checking out a few topic-specific books to enjoy, or really get into it by planning daily itineraries replete with activities, crafts and field trips. Online projects and ideas help bring it all to life. Below is an example of five days planned around an "ocean" theme.
Mom's Ocean-Inspired Museum School
Monday, Shells
Book: Way Down Deep by Jan Peck
Activity: Shell Painting
Tuesday, Sharks
Book: Smiley Shark by Ruth Galloway
Activity: Bake S is for Shark Cupcakes.
Game: Sharks and Fish
Wednesday, Boats
Book: Toy Boat by Randall de Seve illustrated by Loren Long
Activity: Build your own little Jet Boat.
Thursday, Fish
Book: The Rainbow Fish by Marcus Pfister and J. Alison James
Activity: Sticker Stories. Have each child draw a background of the ocean then supply a variety of fish and other sea critter stickers with which to populate your sea. Then invite them to share a story about their drawing.
Craft: Make Good Luck Gold Fish.
Friday, Beach Party
"Beach" Picnic and Sunny Day Reading: Pack a picnic and blanket and head to the nearest body of water (lake, ocean, pool, or fountain) to enjoy an al fresco lunch and some more sea-worthy books in the fresh air:
- I'm the Biggest Thing in the Ocean by Kevin Sherry
- Out of the Ocean by Debra Frasier
- What Lives in a Shell? (Let's Read and Find Out Science 1) by Kathleen Weidner Zoehfeld and Helen K. Davis
Member Comments On…
Mom's Museum School
You are right lmom37, we are all too quick to judge. I find it difficult to read the comments sometimes because there are so many moms who come on to push their own ideas or judge other moms. I wonder if it's to convince other people or themselves? Every single day it seems there is someone on here preaching and I reacted strongly which doesn't make me any better. I stand by my beliefs -- many of the families I know who home school have TOLD me it's because the school had a "liberal agenda" that they wanted to "protect" their kids from -- but I should not assume that is why all families homeschool. We should focus on sharing ideas rather than criticizing.
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Why all the hatred in general? I thought this was a forum for sharing ideas-- not a platform for pushing your parenting philosophy (like homeschooling) on others. I'm so tired of the "my way is better than yours" attitudes on both sides of this issue (and sadly, so many other parenting issues). If we want our children to learn respect, we must set good examples. For starters, how about sharing positive ideas without constantly judging each other and the choices we make for our individual families.
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Why so much hatred for homeschooling? Is it because you don't know any homeschooling families, is it jealousy over the sacrifices that we have to make in order to homeschool, or is it just not knowing enough about the subject?
Your comments suggest that you don't know anything about homeschooling...especially the socialization part. There are co-ops, play dates, field trips, library trips, boy/girl scouts, community sports...and the list goes on. So you can see, that there is plenty of socializing. Only in the school system is socializing with your own age group living in the real world. In college and at work you have to get along with many different age groups, attitudes, and ethic groups.
Yes, there are probally some families that choose to shelter their kids, but that is not usually the case. Most families have a wide diversity of socialization and maybe even more socialization than those that go to public or private school because of the freedom of homeschooling.
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I don't usually make a second comment. I didn't notice the list of "related articles" on the right, this morning when I made my initial entry. I can say after reading the article "Why Homeschool?" I highly recommend it and encourage those who aren't fully educated on homeschooling to go out and read it.
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I'm with you CaliMomma! And by the way, my children who go to PUBLIC school have friends in every grade level. They learn from the older ones and mentor the younger ones. Plus every teacher they've had has something to more to offer (special talent, different perspective...) than I could alone. And BOOOOO to the museum school that offers first chance to alumni. First chance should go to those wait-listed the year before or strictly by lottery.
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I'll have to disagree that homeschooling takes kids out of society. My children have more opportunities to explore differences because of the freedom that homeschooling gives us. They have friends of all ages (which you don't get in a classroom) as well as friends of different races, religions, and backgrounds. People who think that homeschooling takes you out of society, either don't know or have only seen bad examples of it.
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There is a difference between this and homeschooling. Homeschooling takes your children out of society 12 months out of the year and prevents them from developing healthy social skills. It also prevents them from interacting with people of different races, religions, and backgrounds -- basically sheltering them from anyone whose view of the world is different than their parents. But I think that's the point, right?
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I agree wholeheartedly with Quiver, this is homeschooling. This is more along the lines of unit studies (Which I love, love, love...and so does my son).
I just recently did sharks and combined that with a trip to the beach and a trip to the local acquarium. For art we scooped up a little sand from the beach, collected shells, and filled a bottle for Father's day.
For a snack we used blue jello and inserted "gummy" sharks (a pack of Nemo gummys). We did math by counting Gold Fish...the list goes on and on...you are only limited by your imagination.
God's blessings..
Laurie
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There this column goes again homeschooling!!! Only difference is that we take July and August off, not only do the children need a time of rest and play, I need the break to get other jobs done around the house and to prepare for the next school year. I am going to challenge and empower you Moms -If you can homeschool this creatively during the summers you can do it all year long!! Be brave dive in all the way!!! It is the best personal sacrifice you can ever make for your children!!
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We have 8 kids on our 8 week summer learning schedule. They really enjoy it. We're doing math while playing water balloon battle. Learning about science with a garden. All sorts of things. There are so many great programs out there that you can adapt to your own family. We even added a spiritual section to our week.
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