* Exploring *

Our current Home-study block has us working on all things S.T.E.M related.  I have one child who loves science and I have another child who loves math and engineering.  This last week we decided to take advantage of "Kids Free October" and check out the Birch Aquarium.   

We snatched up our baby cousin and he did not seem to mind.  The kids really all have so much fun together.  One of their highlights was being able to look at and touch real shark eggs.  The toddler is obsessed with "Baby Shark" and needless to say all things shark!  

All the kids loved the water zone so much.  They worked together to make a path for boat races.  

It was such a fun day, the weather was nice and the Aquarium was not crowded.  I'm so glad we ventured out and checked off Science from our Home-Study to do list.  

* A mommy and a Teacher *

Hey mama! It's almost teacher appreciation week! I'd like to think that all of us mom's are in many ways our child's first teacher. We are the ones who spend time carefully and slowly sounding out "mama" so our sweet baby can repeat and say their first big important word. We teach our children manners, faith, compassion, to be respectful and to be advocates for themselves.

As a home-schooling mama, I can appreciate the phrase "Teaching Tiny Humans is Exhausting." I have to find humor in the sometimes chaos that proceeds home-schooling. On a good day, I have planned and prepped all that we are going to be working on and everyone stays on task. Some days I seriously just wing it and hope for the best. Whether you home school your little's or send them off to school, YOU mama are always their number one teacher. I'd say the most important teacher they have! YOU will teach them those life skills and how to be good humans.

Mom teachers and school teachers, our jobs are important. What we teach matters. It's exhausting and rewarding all at the same time. Let's take some time to appreciate all the teachers in the life of our children, including ourselves mama's. How cute are these teacher gifts and travel mugs from The Mom Culture?

To all the teachers teaching in a classroom, to the mama's who home-school and to all the mama's who teach the ultimate life skills, we are in this together!

* The Artist Bundle *

This week we got to be a part of one of our favorite annual school activities, the student Art Gallery. Every year the students showcase a project that they made based on an artist that they studied.  This year my kiddos chose to research and learn about Charles Schulz.  I know that there must be some correlation between us recently getting Knott's Berry Farm passes and their artist choice.  Check out some of the wonderful art work displayed! 

The Peanuts gang seemed like a fun and simple subject to learn how to draw.  Although trickier than it looks, the kids did a great job on their pencil and pen drawings.  Here is a picture of how Sam's turned out 

We popped it in a frame and he even signed his name on the bottom right.  We all love the sarcastic humor of the Peanuts gang, so it seemed fitting for Sam to make a small cartoon with his favorite character.   This was the last big project and gallery for the school year and can I tell you a little secret?  This mama is super excited and counting down the days for summer break!   Until then, we count down the days left of school.   That's 20 more to be exact.