Hands On Activities! So Much Fun!

About Us

I am a SAHM/WAHM of three boys ranging in age from 13 to 29. We are working on raising our youngest, helping our oldest two, and navigating starting our retirement all at the same time. I author a few blogs, including http://teched4kids.com. I have in the past taught computer information technology classes for the local university and taught workshops for kid’s in technology education besides being the Kentucky State FIRST LEGO League Championship Coordinator from 2005 to 2008. I now advocate for STEM education wherever I can.  Life here is always an adventure!

Advocacy (IEP)

Here in Illinois there are a few places you can turn to find advocates. When making an IEP for school generally the parents and teachers get together to discuss goals and set up supports and services for the year. Parents can also call meetings throughout the year if...

Newsela and the News

Last year when we took a break to go remote our local school decided that they didn't want to pressure the kids with learning anything new. The grade school, we were doing 5th grade, simply wanted to work on keeping up the students social emotional learning. My little...

CodaKid (More Coding) or you can learn and have fun too!

There are so many ways to make learning fun. One of the things we've tied in is CodaKid (besides Tynker). On a side note though, last night we were watching the new Netflix documentary on the Social Dilemma. A documentary-drama hybrid that explores the human impact of...

Tynker Coding (adding coding to homeschool)

Debating what to study for homeschooling, one of our thoughts was 'We need a language!'. We discussed every option of language we had some experience with and looked at what colleges are accepting. Interestingly enough some colleges now are taking programming...

Playing with Fractions using Cooking

We were needing a break a couple days ago during homeschooling and making cookies seemed to check all the boxes. I was reminded of the old skit by Bill Cosby where he discussed cake for breakfast.... eggs, milk.... yep it's breakfast! Making cookies is fractions! We...

Starting Home School

Yep, we decided to completely swap to homeschool, we got our curriculum (we got extra!) and we are ready. What we learned quickly was the same as the old adage about too many cooks in the kitchen spoil the soup or whatever that saying is... both my husband and I...
Math: Life of Fred?

Math: Life of Fred?

One of our choices for math this year was Life of Fred. Really we are using a few things, but we all love math! We have the Art of Problem solving (Prealgebra), the Go Math 6th grade book that the local school uses - (we have the 7th-grade book also), and we are using...

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Newsela and the News

Newsela and the News

Last year when we took a break to go remote our local school decided that they didn't want to pressure the kids with learning anything new. The grade school, we were doing 5th grade, simply wanted to work on keeping up the students social emotional learning. My little...

read more
CodaKid (More Coding) or you can learn and have fun too!

CodaKid (More Coding) or you can learn and have fun too!

There are so many ways to make learning fun. One of the things we've tied in is CodaKid (besides Tynker). On a side note though, last night we were watching the new Netflix documentary on the Social Dilemma. A documentary-drama hybrid that explores the human impact of...

read more
Tynker Coding (adding coding to homeschool)

Tynker Coding (adding coding to homeschool)

Debating what to study for homeschooling, one of our thoughts was 'We need a language!'. We discussed every option of language we had some experience with and looked at what colleges are accepting. Interestingly enough some colleges now are taking programming...

read more
Playing with Fractions using Cooking

Playing with Fractions using Cooking

We were needing a break a couple days ago during homeschooling and making cookies seemed to check all the boxes. I was reminded of the old skit by Bill Cosby where he discussed cake for breakfast.... eggs, milk.... yep it's breakfast! Making cookies is fractions! We...

read more