Welcome On Board STEAM Training! Our destination is Inspired Kids! Please fasten your seat belts and enjoy the ride!
My name is Lesley and I'm a Home School Mama. I have 3 precious boys, Nathan (8), Matthew (6) and Joshua (7 months), Joshua is our surprise caboose! Heading up our tribe is my wonderful husband Ken. So that's the passengers on our train!
We have always homeschooled, so I don't know when we technically began because really raising them begins the day the doctor hands them to you.
Our journey hasn't been completely smooth sailing. For starters we had no idea what we were doing but had some grand plans! God's sense of humor shone through there and we officially apologize for every time we thought "my kids will never do that!". I nicknamed the boys Domesticated Terrorists after a few years because they have a talent.
My favorite story to share is from Matthew when he was 4 and we were trying to teach him how to draw a rainbow and it wasn't going well at all. So I stopped to end the frustration. To my surprise a few days later he drew a perfect rainbow arch, 3 different colors, red, black and blue. It was perfect and it happened without a struggle. Oh but don't be fooled the struggle came afterwards. You see this beautiful perfectly arched rainbow was on the carpet on the upstairs landing! Now red, black and blue are specific colors to a type of marker. The word that sends shockwaves through every parent popped in my mind, SHARPIE! Thankfully I also had washable dry erase markers in the same color and that is what he had used. So the struggle came when I scrubbed the carpet with every cleaning product I possessed. The terror alert was raised on him that day, and I don't think we've ever lowered it.
My boys have been an adventure for me. Before having them I saw Sonlight and thought this was an amazing curriculum, and it is, but... not for us! I was so excited to get the big shiny box of kindergarten curriculum for Nathan, but after 6 extremely stressful weeks I learnt that strict schedules don't work for us and book work wasn't hitting the mark for us. So finally I had my first Aah Hah moment! And we put it all back in the box where it still is.
From an early age Nathan has been very engineering minded. At 2 years old I have video of him using a cordless drill to unscrew the hinges of my bedroom door. Any time we had a construction style project he would grab a tool and join us. He studies construction equipment then remakes them in lego form.
I started to explore alternative learning. I found he's a kinesthetic learner and when I put him on an exercise ball, instead of a chair, his handwriting improved. Finally, after struggling with a 3rd reading curriculum, we realized that we have some signs of dyslexia in both boys. Which most parents see as a disability but not on our train! It's just a difference of brain wiring. Traditional education doesn't work for these kids. So it was time to think outside the educational box. After all, we homeschool for a reason.
After some research, I discovered the STEM philosophy and we started moving to more hands on learning. Then, because I'm more creative, I had to add the A in for art and we have found STEAM. Then one day, while working on stuff for our homeschool support group co-op, God started a new journey a STEAM co-op, Full STEAM. We are in the final countdown to the start of it. It is a co-op that is focused on hands on learning within the STEAM forum, all project based.
With all of this, I have found the courage to walk away from the traditional model and give my boys the skills they need. No more endless worksheets, well apart from Math, that's one area we will be traditional.
So grab your safety glasses and tool belt and board the train with us. I figure I'll share this journey so maybe we can inspire each other.
Before I go, I just have to show them off, meet my little men!
