MindSprout Montessori

Come join us for Survivor week camp here at MindSprout! We will learn rope tying, shelter building, learn how to make fire starters, raft building competitions and much more! Do you have what it takes to survive in the wild? Sign up here! www.mindsprout.me/summercamp

Our homeschool outdoor classroom students just can't get enough of the mud! Children gravitate to nature because they can fulfill all of their senses. The children also learn to take turns and to share in a cooperative project. www.mindsprout.me/enrichment

Happy St. Patrick's Day from MindSprout!

If you're looking for a fun way to celebrate Earth Day, check us out! Our festival is specifically for homeschoolers and is sure to be fun. Art projects, crafts, nature activities, science experiments and more. RSVP www.mindsprout.me/eventregistration

Children love to let us know when they are bored! Instead of listing several options for them to do, let the child sit with their boredom a moment. Children become more present, independent, and creative when they are bored! www.mindsprout.me/

Join us for art projects, crafts, science experiments, and more all related to Earth Day. There will also be a raffle, giveaways, robotics demos, and more! This event is for everyone in the homeschool community to enjoy. Don't miss out on the fun! RSVP www.mindsprout.me/eventregistration

Today is Holi Day, the festival of colors celebrated in India and Nepal. On this day people gather to celebrate friendships and love. People dance through the streets and throw colored dye at each other. Happy Holi Day! www.mindsprout.me

This week in our hybrid Children's House class we had a discovery that the brown stairs and pink tower had some similarities in size! The children enjoyed putting these two separate projects together. This led to many new ways to interchange the materials, while focusing on their visual perception and dimensional awareness. www.mindsprout.me/hybrid

Step inside our time machine and travel back in time through the decades! Come learn dances like the hand jive and the twist, learn about the history of bubble gum, and make ice cream sundaes! Explore arts through the decades as we make beaded peace necklaces and tie dye shirts! Register here: https://www.mindsprout.me/shop

This week our hybrid students celebrated our 100th day of school! The children enjoyed practicing counting to 100 by making a 100 day snack, creating an image out of 100 Legos, used 100 popsicle sticks to build a tower, and more! We had an amazing day celebrating all of our accomplishments the last 100 days! www.mindsprout.me/enrichment

We hope you can join us for our next Discovery Day! Come learn all about our hybrid school and a la carte classes (ages 3-12) ! RSVP here: www.mindsprout.me/eventregistration

All aboard the MindSprout Cruise Ship! Come meet us at the MindSprout departure port and travel the seas as we stop at different countries and learn about their customs and traditions! Join your Activity Director in crafts, games, performances, and more! Bon Voyage! Register here: www.mindsprout.me/summercamp

Why do children enjoy having collections so much? It's human instinct! Just as early humans hunted and gathered, children develop a need for survival in their subconscious! Our homeschool Sprout's outdoors students painted egg cartons and then went on a nature hunt to create a nature collection. Nature brings out our natural instincts and intuition. www.mindsprout.me/enrichment

Our homeschool Tween Fun Friday students created cats out of mixed media. In the tween years, it's important to build self confidence through creative outlets. Edwin Land said “An essential aspect of creativity is not being afraid to fail." When children feel safe and accepted their creativity will thrive and so will their confidence! www.mindsprout.me/enrichment

During the elementary years, children begin to develop a greater interest in fairness and justice. In our hybrid school, the children are introduced to global issues and discover ways they can help the world on a larger scale. We recently discussed how watersheds are created by building pretend mountains and hills out of containers and placing a plastic bag over them. The children took turns making it "rain" and watching where the water collected. We then used food coloring and pepper to represent pollution to place at the top of our mountains and hills. Once again we provided rain to our model to watch how pollution is spread through our watersheds. The children became quite concerned after this lesson, and we discussed ways to prevent pollution! www.mindsprout.me/hybrid

We already have sunshine on our minds here at MindSprout! This summer we will be creating our very own MindSprout Art Show! Join us for a creative week of artful antics as we learn and explore ceramics, woodworking, glass work, and more! Registration is now open! www.mindsprout.me/summercamp

Our homeschool program, Tween Fun Friday, is a great opportunity for our tweens to express themselves through the arts, science and STEM! Did you know you lose your creativity over time if you don't continue to practice it? Our students continue to challenge themselves to discover new solutions and opportunities, practice their social skills, and build character. Spaces available now! www.mindsprout.me/enrichment

"Children are the world’s most valuable resource and its best hope for the future." President Herbert Hoover

We hope you have a Happy President's Day!

Our hybrid lower elementary students learned all about erosion this week. We discussed four different agents of erosion: wind, water, ice and gravity. The students used dirt and pebbles to create mountains and hills, and used a rain cup to watch erosion take place. We hypothesized what would happen if we created a dam out of popsicle sticks and noticed that less erosion took place. We also discussed all the erosion that took place after our heavy rains! It's important to allow our students to make a connection from in class learning to real world events. www.mindsprout.me/hybrid

This week our hybrid children's house students continued the exploration of their senses, focusing on the sense of smell. The smelling jars develop the olfactory sense and allows the children the opportunity to become more familiar with scents in the environment. Our smelling bottles contain garlic salt, pepper, oregano, and cloves. The children have enjoyed describing the scents, matching the scents, and using the blindfold to find the correct match! www.mindsprout.me/hybrid

This week in our homeschool program, Sprout's Outdoors, our students created nature soups and salads, made pretend fishing rods, and definitely got a little muddy! The children truly enjoy getting their hands dirty and being allowed to express themselves through nature. While they are guided by a Montessori teacher, the children take responsibility in designing their outdoor classroom. Through this method, the students gain ownership in their outdoor space and take pride in it, tending to it every day. www.mindsprout.me/enrichment

We are so excited to announce our new summer camp sessions! This summer we will be traveling across the United States, taking a cruise ship to learn about different countries, create our own MindSprout Art Museum, and more! Registration is by the week and now open, Spaces are limited! www.mindsprout.me/summercamp

The biggest gift you can provide your homeschooled child is having a prepared environment. Take a look at these tips to make homeschooling easier for you and your child! Our Hybrid program allows your child to receive a homeschool experience while also receiving lessons in class by certified Montessori guides. We provide the curriculum and assistance you need homeschooling your child so it can be a more enjoyable experience for your family. www.mindsprout.me/hybrid

There is never bad weather, just bad clothing! The weather has been quite cold this week but our Outdoor Classroom students managed to get some outdoor play this week! The children noticed a hole they dug filled with water after the rain and discovered their reflections in the water! There's something so special about being in nature that allows us to practice mindfulness. We slow down and pause to appreciate natures gifts while reducing our stress levels. www.mindsprout.me/enrichment

Some of our hybrid school Lower Elementary students were ready to continue division practice through our material Test Tube Division. This lesson allows the child to complete more complicated division up to the millions. The material is concrete using "skittles" to assist with division. The children will move to abstraction by demonstrating how we solve this problem on paper in conjunction with the hands on materials, and later with just a paper and pencil! www.mindsprout.me/hybrid

Our hybrid school Children’s House students continued exploring leaves, moving from the different shapes of leaves to the parts of a leaf. The children worked with three part cards to identify the parts of a leaf while also paying attention to written symbols and matching them correctly. The children especially enjoyed a new vocabulary word, "petiole,” which is the stalk of a leaf! www.mindsprout.me/hybrid

Today is National Send a Friend a Card Day! Get your arts and crafts supplies out and try making a homemade card! Explain to your child that every letter should contain a greeting, message, and a closing. Show your child how to use an envelope and where they should place their address, the address of the receiver, and placement of a stamp. This is great way to engage your child in writing without it feeling like "work." www.mindsprout.me

Our Tween Fun Friday class learned all about Picasso. Picasso enjoyed creating paintings that appear fragmented and abstracted. The students used cardboard to draw and cut designs and put them all together creating an abstract face. Our students enjoy learning about famous artists throughout history and using their art style to try their own designs! www.mindsprout.me/enrichment

We are so excited to be adding a hybrid Upper Elementary (4th-6th) in the fall. Come to Discovery Day Thurs. Feb 9 4-6pm to learn more RSVP www.mindsprout.me/eventregistration Space is limited because we like to keep our classes small.

This week in our homeschool program, Sprout's Outdoors, the children gathered natural elements around the school yard to make their own pizza! Using a real pizza cutter, the children practiced cutting the pizza in half, quarters, sixths and eighths! The children counted how many people were present, and decide to cut the pizza in sixths so everyone could each have one slice. The children were able to make connections between science and math! www.mindsprout.me/enrichment

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Last week our lower elementary hybrid students learned how to use a compass. This week we continued our lesson by learning about different types of maps and that each map should have a compass, map key, and scale. The children then used their imaginations to create their own city, country or continent! By allowing the child to exercise their creativity within a lesson, they become much more engaged! www.mindsprout.me/hybrid

Our hybrid homeschool students were able to do some investigating this week! We spotted a Chafer Beetle Grub during lunch! We learned that in March, the grub will rise to the surface to feed on grass and roots. We discussed why the grub rose to the surface earlier than expected (maybe the big rain storm we had brought it to the surface?) We covered the grub with grass in hope that it would be hidden from birds! Nature tends to spark interest and creativity, and our children love eating lunch surrounded by trees and new discoveries! www.mindsprout.me/hybrid

We hope you can join us for our next Discovery Day! Come learn all about our hybrid school and a la carte classes! RSVP here: www.mindsprout.me/eventregistration

This week some of our hybrid lower elementary students began working on fractions. Our Montessori fraction material allows the children to have a concrete understanding of fractions before moving on to more abstract fractions. Once our students were able to identify each fraction and demonstrate their understanding, the students learned to compose fractions with a common denominator. www.mindsprout.me/hybrid

Wishing you a happy Lunar New Year!

At our homeschool program, Sprout's Outdoors, we're all about getting dirty! We explore all of our senses, breath the clean air, feel the wind in our face, lower stress levels and it gives us a chance to exercise! The children used their muscles as they dug for treasures! The children found a piece of an old glass bottle! Old Town Spring has been around since 1901 and was inhabited Orcoquisac Indians. I wonder what else we might find! www.mindsprout.me/enrichment

Our hybrid school lower elementary students have been experimenting with solids, liquids, and gases. We observed different properties of gas and learned that gas has mass! The volume of a gas is directly related to the temperature of that gas. This means when we add heat to gas, it expands! Try this experiment at home! Take an empty water bottle and place a balloon on top. Use a glass of ice water and another glass of hot water. Place the bottle in each glass and see what happens! www.mindsprout.me/hybrid

Our hybrid school Children's House students have been exploring the botany cabinet and all of the different shapes of leaves it contains. They collected leaves from the play yard and matched their shapes to the leaves in the botany cabinet. The children then used crayons to create their own leaf rubbings. Nature inspires learning in children through the exploration of sounds, colors, and smells! www.mindsprout.me/hybrid