Science Fair and Summer Camps

Ashton was determined to do the science fair this year at school. The school has a serious problem with informing parents about upcoming events, it seems, but Ashton asked around until he found out all the details and got himself and Isaac signed up to be part of the science fair. Jared did a lot of work helping the boys prepare their projects and they loved working with their dad. Isaac did some experiments to learn about what floats and why and Ashton used his beloved Snap Circuits set to create a device to test conductivity of different materials. I found myself reaching way back into the dusty area of my brain as I helped Isaac use the scientific process and make his display. The boys had to present their projects to judges without any parents present to prompt them and I hear they did a wonderful job. They both won 3^rd prize for their grade levels and were so excited about it. Long live science!

I love learning alongside my kids and teaching them about things I love. So this summer I've decided to do my own set of summer school classes for my kids and some of their friends. Last year it was crazy getting kids to the many different camps I signed the up and I was pretty disappointed in most of the classes they did. Because I've designed curriculum for after school and summer programs for years and have tons of experience running programs and improving programs in Boston and the Bay Area, I know what a good program should be and it drives me crazy to have my kids doing things that aren't that great (or in a couple cases last summer, they did programs that were really terrible – the City of St George does all these classes that seem great on paper but in practice they were shallowly disguised and somewhat unsafe day care programs with tons of kids per adult, poorly-planned activities, insufficient materials and kids of all ages put into the same group and crammed into a dark little room at Dixie College – my kids were so bored and I was so frustrated!). So this summer, with the kids help, I've put together some fun little workshops – Little Chefs, Mad Scientists, Great Artists and Fairy Tale Adventures. Each workshop will last a week and will be held on M, W, F mornings at my house. While it'll be stressful getting the curriculum and materials together and finding babysitters for the twins while I teach, I think it'll be so great not to have to drive the kids across town or worry about the quality of the programs they go to and I do love teaching – especially the age groups I'm gearing all my classes towards – 5-10 year olds. This should be fun! I've had quite a few kids sign up already.