WonderHere Friends!
We’ve just about made it to the end of our first week of school at WonderHere! I cannot believe that all these months of planning and preparing have led to this, our reason for existing… to be this awesome place that makes kids obsessed with learning. We want to run you through what our first week was like!
Monday, we took care of last minute planning and prep, and focused on staff building! It’s important to us that WonderHere isn’t just a fun place to learn, but also to work! As adults, many of us spend the majority of our lives in the workplace, and for many of us it can be a stressful atmosphere. That’s not what WonderHere is about. We believe that we can only establish a positive learning culture for kids if our staff has a positive working culture. Our kids will emulate our attitude. Again, I cannot say enough how blessed I am to work with this team of extraordinary women:
Granted, we were excited… but nervous. We’ve never done education like this, and thorough planning can only take you so far until you just take the leap. Which brings us to Tuesday! Our first day of school 🙂 Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays are our Beyond the Books learning session days. Families who home school can drop their kids off for three-hour learning sessions that are super interactive, hands on, and promote fun learning! Our students who participate in our full-time Independent Studies program also attend these learning sessions, but in addition to that they get lots of small group tutor time. Tuesday morning we held our very first learning session which includes an hour of reading, an hour of math, and an hour of an elective (students can choose between art or Spanish). It was so fun! The kids were so enthusiastic! We didn’t waste any time… we jumped right into learning about comparing and contrasting stories, place value, Spanish greetings, and what it takes to be an artist (even when you may not feel like one)!
After those three hours, our part time Beyond the Books students went home, and our full-time kiddos went into an hour of lunch and free play. Yes… PLAY! Recess! It’s SO much fun to see these kids have fun. They make up games, organize relay races and obstacle courses, and work out disputes among themselves. The higher order thinking and social skills development that happens during free play is of such value. That’s why, regardless of the school setting your kids attend, fight for recess to be implemented in your schools. Our friend Mandy Lipham can tell you how to do just that 🙂
After lunch and free play, we did the same morning session all over again with a new set of part-time students! Meanwhile, our full-time students had tutor time with our awesome Mrs. Amanda! They worked at their pace, on their level, with lots of support and encouragement. Then, they dismissed at 2pm and our kiddos in learning sessions dismissed at 3pm! Then we were done! It was awesome 🙂 As part of our Artsy After the Bell program, we had a Lego STEM class at 5pm, which the kids LOVED!
Wednesday and Thursday followed the same format as Tuesday, except that our learning sessions on Wednesday include science, social studies, and an elective choice between music or home economics (cooking, meal planning, basic sewing, budgeting, and more!). We learned the scientific method through an experiment, the US Constitution, played musical games to learn rhythm and beat, and learned about the food pyramid and nutrition. Learning sessions on Thursday include writing, PE, and an elective choice between Genius Hour (interest-based research and projects) or World Travelers (the study of different countries and cultures). We played writing games and learned about personal narratives, played cooperative games in PE, learned all about Brazil and the Olympics, and began developing our Genius Hour projects (one student chose to do his all about how Pokemon has changed over the years and was SO excited when he realized he was actually allowed to do that!). Again, after the morning learning sessions our full-time kids got their tutor time to solidify what they had worked on in the morning. After school on Wednesday and Thursday we had Book Club and Chopped Jr. (cooking class)!
This brings us to Friday… today! We’re excited for every day at WonderHere, but Fridays are very unique days. On Fridays, we are only open for our eight full-time Independent Studies kiddos. This day is meant to be very intentional, being that the student-teacher ratio is 8:3. On Fridays, our kids will continue to get lots of instruction on their level, working at their pace, all the while being challenged to be the best versions of themselves. We started today with a focus on kindness and complimenting one another, then we worked on goal setting for the year. Being that it was our first Friday together, we did some strategic team building and problem solving by playing Ticket to Ride. Then we spent the rest of the afternoon working on academics in private tutor time groups of 2-3.
We also had a really fun Mommy & Me class from 9am-10am!
And here we are, ready to embark on the weekend. I feel so refreshed, but I know the quality of instruction we’ve provided for our kids this week, and it’s high! We’ve proven it’s true… we can provide a high quality education to children without unnecessary stress or mandates. Amazing! I can hardly believe this is my life now 🙂 I’m so excited for the rest of this year!
If you have any questions about any of our services, let us know! We’d love for more families to experience WonderHere 🙂
