 Hey everybody, welcome to the Waldoch Way. I'm Jessica. I'm Kevin. And today's video is going to be a homeschool show and tell. The homeschool show and tell is an open collaboration hosted by Abby for Rude and Arrest and myself. Each month we come together with a group of homeschoolers and we all share about a specific topic because we really wanted to show that there's not one right way to homeschool that you can homeschool in many different ways. This month's topic is homeschool enrichment. Now we have shared a lot about our different homeschool enrichments in the past. We've talked about poetry, tea time and nature study and game schooling, all of which I will either leave linked at the eye in the sky or in the description box down below for you to check out. So today, instead of talking about something we've already talked about, we asked Emily what her favorite part of homeschool was and she said steam. So I brought Kevin into this video because he actually does a steam lesson with her once or twice a week. So we thought we would talk to you guys about steam, what it is, why it's important in our homeschool, why we do it, how we do it and a few of our favorite steam resources. But make sure you check out that link in the description box for the playlist to see everybody else's amazing homeschool enrichment videos this month because you're not gonna wanna miss them. First things first, what is steam? Steam is an acronym that stands for science, technology, engineering, art and mathematics. And the reason that I like incorporating it into our homeschool is because I feel like it brings in a lot of different concepts and skills and it really allows for us to kind of go down those rabbit trails because there's so many different things that we can start off with, but what are some of the reasons that you think we incorporate it or why you like incorporating it? Well, there's quite a few. I mean, first and foremost, it's fun. Got to love the fun. But I find that it helps me get across to Emily some of the things that are more difficult to explain, but it gets her focused in a new way. She gets to do the experiments, hands on, whatever we're doing. She's playing with it. She's handling it. She's putting things together. She's asking questions because of it. So it just opens up a whole new world to her and it drives that want to know so that she will continue to push forward, ask more questions, more in depth questions and we get to have fun on the way. The fun doesn't hurt, right? No, I love the fun. Okay, so why, when you decided that you were going to teach a class or teach a lesson once or twice a week, why did you pick STEAM as the thing you were going to teach? I don't, I really don't know why I picked it per se. At first I was putting in my two cents. I wanted her to read a newspaper. I wanted her to know her measurements and understand that measurements are mathematical. They help in science and everything else. It helps in our art to mix our paints and stuff like that. But to explain it, to show her, I had to get her hands busy. I had to get her in there and understand that all these different things all tie together and that way she would understand the mathematics, measurements, temperatures. There's just, it goes on and on and on. And how it relates to all of them. And so I guess when I started, it was first, I was like talking to her. She was doing pretty much everything by herself and I was saying, can we do something with the scale in the kitchen? Can we do something with the tape measure? Can we do something with fractions and put it together in a package for Emily so that I was getting more involved? Yeah, more involved. And then she's like, well, we have these boxes that we can order and I'm like, what do you mean boxes? She says, there's boxes out there, subscriptions you can get. And it's whatever you're into, whether it's chemistry or physics or just about anything and even just hobbies. And she gave me the opportunity to look at them. We came up with a few different box ideas and ran with it. And Emily definitely picks out what she likes. And so we've made our decisions based on that. Some of them directions are poor, that one's out. Because if you can't read through it, it's not Ikea. It's some of them you need specific directions. Yeah, we don't like Ikea since it seems so bad. That's the Ikea is a stem for adults. It really is. So I think some of the ways that we incorporate steam into our homeschool other than you teaching her once or twice a week, which is obviously one of the most things she looks forward to the most, like she was that time with you, is I like to shrew things. I like to shrew steam things because like he said, it gets her thinking, it kind of, I like to, it's like logical and critical thinking and it's in-depth and thinking outside the box. And so I like to shrew tons of that kind of stuff whether it's art books and art materials or whether it's just building materials, it can just be like her straws and connector set and like a prompt of some kind. And if you were like, what in the heck is shrewing Jessica? I will leave a video up here and a link in the description box where you can get a free e-book because shrewing seriously saved our homeschool morning sanity by giving her something to do first thing in the morning and allowing us to become humans since we're night owls and we don't. I think her creativity and her imagination actually took off more so from your shrewing. It did because there's, it's very open-ended. So I would shrew like steam materials, like I said, like just a random art book and maybe today it was markers and paper or chalk pastels or multiple different kinds of mediums. And there's no rules or regulations and I don't step in, I just let her do whatever she wants. And so it really has, she's sword because the sky's the limit, right? There's nothing boxing her in or straws and connectors. I never even imagined that, I don't even think I have a picture of it anymore, but when we were doing space, I don't know when she was five, those straws and connectors, do you remember when she built a space rocket that she could actually get inside of? Out of straws and connectors and I was like, I never would have imagined that we even had enough to do that with. You see in my day, we had to use the sticks as the, and then cardboard boxes wherever you could find it. So another way that I think that we really pushed her in the STEM direction was we built a center and took everything that we could think of that appealed to us, things that she was already into and we put them in one spot with a table did everything we could think to to provide her all the drawers filled with all of the goodies and where to run with it. And you even attached Lego plates to the top of the table, which we actually have a video tour of her STEM center. So I will link that up here in the eye in the sky for you guys as well. But it really does give her a place when she's just kind of like, I'm not sure I'm bored. We're like, go do something near STEM center. And she has Legos and straws and connectors and I can't even think like the magnet tiles and like every STEM medium you can possibly think of. And so we just encourage her to do that. And I think the best thing that you did for her, it's one thing to buy Lego and Lego kits and they're amazing. The technology behind them is just mind blowing, but they build them than when you do it. So she has found a class Emily participates in and she actually destroys these kits that she's put together. And so mom are fabulous, but she'll tear them apart, rebuild them and repurpose them. So it's like even though you buy a Lego set and it might be the three in one, which is wonderful. She can get more out of it through this class because she's taking it and it's interactive. She's talking to other kids. She's talking to the teacher. Do you know what's even really, I don't even think you realize, do you know what's really cool about that class? What's that? Do you know that she's based as the class off of Passport to Adventures? Oh no, I didn't know that. Yeah, so they just finished, I think they're on Passport to more adventures now, but each class is, it's once a week and each class is based off of the topic of one of the books. So they just did the Cobra, the Cobra book last week, right? She built a Cobra? Yeah. Yeah, so they just did the Cobra. And she came to me and asked me, she goes, I really don't know too much about Cobra's opening and it's a snake. And so she's like, where are they found? So you break out the map, I showed her a pinpoint. This is where they're from, this is the region. And then she's like, well, what else? And I said, well, you can involve temples. And so I just basically gave her a handful of ideas and I left the room. And she built, it was pretty cool. And you know, that's one of those rabbit trails we were talking about, right? Where steam leads us down those rabbit trails all the time. So that's another one. Yeah, that's perfect. That's another way we incorporate it. And then I think really we just try to encourage as much as possible. Like we don't have a set specific, like on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, we do steam. We just constantly like you pick one or two days a week depending on our schedule and you sit down and do something with her. We make sure she has her Lego class every week because it's something she really loves. And it gives her tons of ideas because at the end of the class, the other kids share what they've built. And so it's really encouraging. And then I just strew a steam stuff all the time to make sure that she's involved in being creative and open-minded and critical thinking. So it's not like a set curriculum we use or a set anything. It's just all of the different ways that we incorporate it into our homeschool because it's important to us, right? Exactly. But I mean, it plays into everything. If it's nothing more than building a kite and taking it outside and flying, but then you start talking about the aerodynamics and you're talking about lift and you're going on about this and that. And then that opens up the door into something else. So it's, I think it's very important. And then I have a mechanical background. I love to tinker. I was the kid that always tore something apart to see how it worked. And she definitely gets that from you. Yeah, I think she does. And I think that's pretty cool. And that way we can communicate. And then we get to building. We get to drawing and creating and crafting. And you can't put it into words. No, it's definitely something that y'all have in common. So we said we were gonna share some resources with you guys. So do you wanna go first and share? I just happen to have a whole stack of them. Me too. Do you wanna share some of the things that you and Emily most enjoy doing during your STEAM lessons? I would love to. Been waiting for this. Okay, so Legos, we already talked about them. This happens to be a three-in-one, very inexpensive. And it leads her. And the three-in-ones are our favorite. It is. And then she repurposes all the time. So it's not like it's a waste of time or money. And I love them. I get to play with them too. So another one, the Kiwico boxes. And your favorite of the Kiwico line is? The tinker crates. The tinker crates, yeah. They love the tinker crates. I actually let, I made the mistake of letting the subscription expire and I didn't realize I had let it expire. Bad day in the house. And so we had gone like two months without one. I'm like, where are my crates? Whoa, what's going on? She's like, you like them? I'm like, yeah. So I immediately fixed that and we have re-established. They're really cool. I mean. They really are. Some of them will actually blow you away what they put in there and what you can do with them. And Emily is definitely jaw-dropping every time one comes in. She loves the tinker crates. And so we kind of rotate. Another one, and this is a whole lot more. And it just, I don't know, I'm so impressed. Mel physics, mel chemistry. Both of them. I can't say enough about them. And it's really nice too, because not only do you have the box and you have the experiments, they have on the website where you can go in, download stuff, just little things you can do around the house by yourself without a box, without a bunch of them. And don't most of the boxes even have a bonus? Oh yeah, some of them have bonuses in it, but they give you all the bells and whistles, but like simple stuff. And you know what else is really cool I think about the mel is while you and Emily do these together, and it's super fine. Because of the way that they're video-based, most older kids could actually probably do them by themselves. Emily has actually gotten to that point because we started out with the tinker crates and she got her hands busy and she understands the directions and she can read into the directions. And so then we got into the mel physics and the mel chemistry. The chemistry, we maintain a little more control on only because you're dealing with fire, you're dealing with chemicals, and you got your safety precautions to deal with. But overall, a lot of it, she can perform the task by herself and she has her tablet up there and she runs through the experiment. But like I said, they have other things, little things you can do on the side, which one is really amazing where you can take a bowl of water and you take a leaf from outside and you put just a dab of dishwashing liquid on the end of the leaf, put it in the water and it's like a little motor bug, it just takes off. You have to change the water each time you do it, but it's really cool. You really like the mel. I enjoy that. Yeah, those are probably one of your favorites around me. And then another one is National Geographics. But anything, we've bought everyone that they make. And you've been happy with all of them. Even if it is the typical volcano or elephant toothpaste or stuff, we always look for bigger and better because we want the ooey-gooey splatters, explosions, the mess. Oh, you mean the one that literally got on the ceiling? All over the wall, it was great, yeah, I really do. And so, yeah, if they have a box, we're getting it, we're gonna do it. I've been to the library, we've been online, I've been to all these, I've been everywhere. If, Sam, if I walk in and I'm looking around, I'm literally the one thing you look for everywhere we go. Everywhere we go. It's some sort of science, art. Anything that we can get. Tinker type box. Yes, we want, we, everything from art to the messy explosions of goo, whatever we can find. We've done the lanterns and you light them and send them to the sky. And then talked about everything from that. That was really cool. It just, if you get the spark going, then you just ride the wave. But you've got, if you get them to the point where they want to learn, they want to know, they want to dig in. They're having fun. They're having fun. They forget about how you're doing the math and you're doing the measurements and you're doing the paperwork. And doing the math is a big one for us. Yeah. It's gotten so much better. It has, it has. Because we've made it more fun. Okay, so I talked about shrewing before too. So I actually pulled some of my favorite steam type stuff to shrew to share with you guys. So the first simple thing that I have is just easy origami because that is like literally engineering and art. And I always wanted to do that when I was little. And this one's easy. What's really cool for this, this is an Usborne one. I'll leave the links to everything we show you in the description box. It even has a QR code on the front where you can watch the videos for how to fold everything. So it's more than just a book with instructions. If you have a visual or auditory learner, that's really helpful. Right. Another thing that I really like are these Neverboard books. Neverboard books. Which are from- They're board books. They're board. Which is from Usborne as well. There's the original and then the Neverboard cut fold and stick and the Neverboard outdoors. These were all things that I would shrew and just leave it out and let her surprise me because there's tons of things that can be done within them. They've got probably over 40 or 50 different activities. These steam ahead books, there's multiple in the series but these are really fun too. Because they're full of steam activities and there's like this is outdoor, this is in the kitchen. There's others where you can do things in other places and different things. But again, they have all these experiments. So sometimes I might leave it turned to a page and leave the materials out for it. Sometimes I'll just leave the book. Well it just makes it easier so she doesn't have to search and stuff and she sees that what she needs is right there. Exactly. So like for this, I would leave some of the materials out for it. Different options for materials like different colors and stuff. Or sometimes I'll just leave the book and just let her pick and surprise me and see what she comes up with. These are brand new and I haven't shrewed these yet but they're in my pile to shrew soon because they're stupid. I don't think I've seen those either. I know I'm up and hiding them. I believe it. These are the new kid engineering set from Usborne too. That's why I haven't seen them. They are amazing. They are, you're welcome. Working with transport, working with materials, working with machines, working with energy, working with computer and robotics and buildings and structures. And what's really cool is there's like information. You want to see them? There's like information. And then at the end of that information, there's a project. Like you're the engineer now, you try it after you've learned about it. So it's like one or two pages of reading to learn and then a page to test something that you just learned about. And the experiments are really fun. I mean, who doesn't want to do that? Don't you want to do that? Doesn't that look fun? I will do that. You will do that, I know. So those are things that I would leave out again, sometimes with the material, sometimes with nothing and just let her surprise me to see what she comes up with. And then probably the thing that I've shown the most that we all love and we end up taking turns with when they're out are all of these are the think fun single player logic games that are steam based. So this is laser maze. And then we have circuit maze. And her critical thinking is a ton of gravity maze. And what's even more is that then she'll come up like with her own two. This is really cool. And then my personal favorite is roller coaster. The roller coaster challenge. So what's really awesome about these think fun single player games is that they have 40 to 60 depending on which game you have, like 40 for the roller coaster and then 60 for most of the mazes. Challenge cards and those range from easy to expert or super difficult. So we can all literally try one at the level that we're at and you can work up. And I remember when Emily would get frustrated with the easy and now she's like challenging herself to do the hard, which is really cool watching that progression. And like I said, when one of these gets strewed, it's one of those things that's like, she does it and then it stays out and then I do it and Kevin does it and we like challenge each other to try to do a higher level. So that's really fun. And then sometimes you'll pull them out if they have to do with a lesson that you're learning about. Like you learned about circuits and pulled circuit maze out and challenged each other to do it. It does really well. We built a lemon clock. We built a battery. We use lemon juice and the cardboard and the metal plates and you actually put it together and it stores up to, I mean, it's not a lot of juice, but it stores up enough to be able to run a light. So she built a battery by hand. There's just, it's endless. It's endless. So nice. These are like a fraction of what we even have. And so we just tried to pick some of our favorites to share with you so that if you were looking to add some extra steam to your homeschool or just some fun, I mean, you could, you can involve dad like we did. I mean, we are lucky enough to have Kevin home with us so that he can do it during the week, but this could just be like a weekend thing. I have a homeschool mom friend who does what they call dadder days, which I think is the cutest thing ever. And their dad does something with them every Saturday. So this could just be something like you could get a subscription to one of these and have steam Saturdays with dad, or you could just have steam summer and spend the summer doing steam. And you would still be reading because you'd be reading the instructions and doing math and tinkering and engineering. And I mean, it would be so much fun just to add any of these things that we suggested to your homeschool. So there are just a few of our favorites and some of the ways that we try to incorporate one of what we find to be the most beneficial and important, I guess, subjects, if you will, and to our homeschool. Yeah, so never ignore them when you go to Ollie's and you go to Sam's. When they're, yeah, because they normally have them out of lower frames. They do. I like them. Yeah, you do. And I'll dig through the piles, tell them I find what I want. He really will. I always go, do we have that one? She goes, yep. He gets mad like he wants to buy a second one. Why not? Sometimes if they're cheap enough, we do buy a second one. So if it's one that we know that you liked. Okay, so now we would love it if you would tell us in the comments down below. Do you incorporate steam into your homeschool? And if so, how do you incorporate it? And if you have any really awesome steam suggestions, Kevin will take all of them. I need all the help I can get. Because he loves doing it with her. So if you have any awesome suggestions for him, please let us know. And again, don't forget to check out that playlist to see all of the other videos that are gonna be talking about how they do homeschool enrichment in their homeschool.