Wondering Oaks Learning

Life at Wondering Oaks lately! Observing density in action outdoors, enjoying the mud, and reading all of the books! 😍

Wondering Oaks welcomes part time students here too - just want to send your homeschooler in for science once or twice a week? Need some one on one work in reading or math? We’re ready for you!

Brrr…It’s certainly been chilly lately! 🥶

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Students at Wondering Oaks spend plenty of time outside - whether it’s running freely through the 3 acres of land, inspecting the native plants garden, playing with friends, or measuring a part of nature!

Kids deserve fresh air and free play outdoors - they thrive with it! Not only are there plenty of health benefits from an active childhood, students with ADHD are shown to improve their levels of focus after a period of exercise and exposure to nature.

There are 2 periods per school day of outdoor recess when weather allows, as well as plenty of opportunity for outdoor learning and exploration 💚

Always happily accepting new students for both part time or full time enrollment!

📖 Does your homeschooler need some extra help with reading, spelling, or writing?

Families can choose to drop off on Mondays or Wednesdays (or both!) to receive one on one AND small group support, using curriculum approved for dyslexic, ADHD, and play-based learners!

Wondering Oaks Learning uses Logic of English to develop a strong foundation in reading and spelling 💚

In between learning periods, they’ll get plenty of time to socialize and play with friendly peers!

Message us here, or visit our website at www.wonderingoakslearning.com to learn more!

Students ended the week on a positive note - we love our affirmations!

In addition, teachers prepared the library for Black History Month 🤎💛💚💙🤍

So many things we love about this picture:

🦖 This student is working hard on his interest project, about his favorite topic!

🦕 He is using a personalized project planner created by his teachers to help him put it all together!

🪑 How and where he works is his choice - he has chosen to sit at a low table, working as he kneels on the ground.

📏 In the background, we can see the growth chart/ruler built by our own Ms. Laura, and decorated with love and fun by our students!

Although students at Wondering Oaks learn foundational content through curriculum, it’s this type of work in which we really see them grow! This project involves creating a neat/presentable poster, a detailed drawing of a habitat, a model of a footprint, a map, nonfiction information in complete sentences, and lots of research! Because he has chosen what to learn about, he’s able to cover reading, writing, geography/social studies, science, art, and general presentation skills with strong engagement and excitement 💚

We love project based learning here!

The wait is finally over - Wondering Oaks Learning has a website!

Head on over to have all of your Wondering Oaks questions answered.

We are still accepting students for the 2022-2023 school year - if you are a homeschooling family in need of some supplementation in reading, math, science, or just social time for you 5-9 year old, we are here! If you are a traditional schooling family but things aren't quite working out, we may be able to help!

Wondering Oaks values each individual child, and protects their right to a loving environment, gentle and caring teachers, a kind student community, and, of course, hands on learning!

Home | Wondering Oaks Learning Microschool Conroe, Tx

It’s Thursday, which means our students are starting a day filled with science, personal-interest projects, and making those wonderfully deep connections with peers and teachers 💚🥼💡

Currently, our friends are learning all about circuits with Ms. Laura - perfect for adding lights to a toy hotel, one of the ongoing projects!

Wednesdays are for reading! Every Monday and Wednesday, Ms. Lisa works to build a love of books 💖📚

Our spring term is up and running, which means more time to build close friendships, dig deep into self-interest projects, and spend plenty of time enjoying fresh air - all while learning!

Students were *thrilled* to get up close and personal with pumpkins last week!

Usually around the holidays, pumpkins involve adult-led agendas: carving them into picture worthy faces, baking them, or decorating with them.

At school, students were given one objective: explore!

Students used hammers, screwdrivers, and a wide variety of other tools to dig deeper into pumpkins. Big messes were absolutely invited in!

On day one, we witnessed skin being peeled, holes carved out, golf tees hammered in, and a bit of guts removed. So many wonderful questions and discoveries arose naturally, which led to deeper learning. Many vocabulary words were organically brought in to student conversations as they tinkered with their freedom.

Day two, however, was where the magic really happened. One student had been waiting patiently to “destroy” a pumpkin with the hammer. He was promised that he could, as long as he waited until everyone had been given sufficient time to explore the intact pumpkins. This came during our time for free art exploration.

How many times do we stop our children from being destructive, just for the sake of it? Of course it makes sense in most scenarios, but giving children the outlet to make messes, destroy, and take apart is a wonderful thing.

This student went absolutely nuts on his pumpkin - guts flew everywhere, large pieces of it were slammed onto the table, and so many holes came to this poor pumpkin. There was so much joy, but also intense focus, on this child’s face. He worked on his pumpkin, breathing heavily, for quite some time.

And then, when I thought he would walk away from what he had conquered, he switched to creativity. The pieces of the pumpkin began getting hammered together as he thought up a new purpose - the many layers of pumpkin became sandwiches and burgers! He used other pieces, nailed together, to plug up the holes in other pumpkins.

When given the opportunity and time to follow his own process, what could have been viewed as mindless destruction ended up being a purposeful agenda. He walked away from that station feeling proud, successful, and satisfied.

And, he happily helped clean up the insane amount of pumpkin bits at clean up time. 🧡

We of course fit some traditional pumpkin learning in with our year-long experiment on “Pumpkin Jack”, and covered other typical academic aspects of fun fall topics.

We learn to read, write, and do math every day.

But at our core, our goal here is to build confident, fulfilled little humans, who are ready to give back to their world as their best selves.

We still have a couple of spots open for the 2021-2022 school year - contact us to see how your child can be a part of our school family!

Students have been happily readjusting to school life after a fun filled weekend!

Everyone prepped and shared breakfast together Monday morning - gaining valuable knowledge in food prep, hygiene, kitchen safety, nutrition, collaboration, and consideration. Fresh smoothies were prepared, oatmeal was cooked, and farm-fresh eggs from a student were scrambled, along with other class favorites. Students were able to enjoy a calm, peaceful morning in their pajamas following a late night for many.

Jumping back into academics today, students worked hard during reading block, then pursued their own interests in the afternoon. Reading, board and card games, and finger knitting were some of the hobbies enjoyed by our amazing 5-8 year olds today.

Our literacy specialist was able to give so much personal attention to our budding readers, working only with students in partners or one on one! We are so excited to see how they grow throughout this year 📚💙

We love to learn AND play hard here!

It’s been a while, but students have been busy!

Something very important to us is the ability to connect school to home - allowing students the autonomy to care for their environment is one way we do that!

No jobs are assigned at Wondering Oaks. Instead, students are reminded daily that the school belongs to them, and are encouraged to find ways to help their school family and take care of their school. They can help in any way they choose throughout the day, and they absolutely love it!

Not only do our students look out for one another and find ways to lend a helping hand, they work exceptionally hard during our care windows. Students sweep, vacuum, do dishes, wipe down hard surfaces (including their own toys!), prep food for fun dishes, and even keep up with the yard!

It’s a special time of our day - one where we put on some fun music while everyone chooses the way they feel they can best contribute to the school! It’s empowering to them, and they respond beautifully to it. Cleaning, specifically, is NOT mandated. But when given a voice in their time, they take absolute pride in their school 💚

What does reading instruction look like?

Well, in short, very different!

Because we are a multi-age classroom, we have to meet students on various levels. We range between students who are just learning their letters to students reading beyond a fourth grade level.

As a foundation, we use Logic of English to teach students to read. It is phonics based, and an Orton-Gillingham curriculum. This means that it’s extremely tailored to the dyslexic or struggling reader. The program is simply wonderful, and breaks down the skills needed to read fluently.

How we present that information, though, highly varies! For most students, using all the senses is a main factor in retention. Using sensory bins, dough, shaving cream, and games are just some of the ways we reach our learners!

Advanced readers enjoy partnered reading, book club, and games in addition to their formal lessons.

Students also benefit from a literacy specialist visit once a week, and supplement their lessons with Explode the Code and Handwriting Without Tears.

Reach out to see how Wondering Oaks Learning can help your reader grow!

Happy science day!

On Wednesdays, students learn about a variety of topics.

Mornings, as pictured below, revolve around giving young learners the ability to freely explore scientific materials. An important part of learning for our younger crowd is to explore through play - which means that having no end goal is crucial to their process.

We can see just in this picture alone the progression of independent learning and the scientific process as they grow:

- Our newest students enjoy the process of pouring, practice their fine motor control, and observe the mixing of colors. Observing and tinkering are the most important parts.

- Students in the middle have begun to theorize about and explore the qualities of their experiments, while making connections to prior knowledge. Questions begin to form: Why does the water spin as it leaves the funnel? Oh! It looks like a tornado! How can I see through this magnet? What about this thing makes it magnetic?

- Students comfortable with the materials, and who have some base knowledge, begin to record data and take questions further. How much does this rock weigh? This one weighs more than this one - I wonder why?

In addition to their free science time, students this year will learn growth mindset through the work of various scientists and inventors, all about planet Earth, and the wide array of qualities that make up the animal kingdom.

We love our science days! 🔬🥼🧪🧫🧑‍🔬

Today, we welcomed our students to the 2021-2022 school year! 🥳

Having a small class has many benefits, but the ability to use a highly flexible approach when navigating a pandemic is certainly one of them.

We are so excited to watch these littles grow this year! 💗

Wondering Oaks is SO excited to welcome students for the 2021-2022 school year tomorrow!

The classroom evolves to accommodate the needs of its students constantly. This year, we have a larger group of kindergarten students, prompting the need for a variety of play and hands on stations!

We can’t wait to learn and play together this year 💗

Thursday is our day dedicated to art, but art takes place all throughout the week!

Students have been learning outdoor safety, including recognizing common Texas venomous snakes. They have been working hard over these last couple of weeks to create their snakes - shaping and baking the dough, choosing a snake, learning it’s patterns, and painting!

Can you tell the two snakes students are studying first?

Running into our first week of vacation!

Wondering Oaks runs on a full year schedule, with frequent breaks. Students are ready to enjoy their week off, before we begin our next session of class on August 23rd.

Finally, for everyone who has looked, and looked, and looked, for more school information, the wait is almost up! Be on the lookout for a website this week 🥳

It’s not too late to enroll for the year - 2 more spots remain for our full time learning program, and 3 spots are remaining for our day of art!

Let’s talk about the multi-age classroom for a second. Why do we mix?

☝️ A multi age classroom allows for our youngest students to learn from a variety of levels of maturity; not just their own. It allows for all of our older students to be leaders, not just the outspoken ones. Mixing ages builds empathy, self-awareness, and compassion while allowing students to interact in ways closer to the natural world.

✌️ SIBLINGS! It is SUCH a joy to see siblings learn together. Parents always warn us about their children’s sibling rivalries, but at Wondering Oaks, siblings learn to communicate respectfully, work together, and coexist in peace. These sibling pairs are wonderful examples of a successful multi-age classroom.

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Fire and kids? Absolutely!

Empowering kids to be responsible and capable is so important here.

It was not the teacher, but a class of 5-8 year olds, who:

🔥 Designed and built the fire pit

🔥 Carried and positioned the logs to sit

🔥 Set up the tinder, kindling, and sticks to start the fire

🔥 STARTED the fire using a flint/steel - no matches, lighters, or special fire starting logs!

Truly. No teacher did any of those things. We ended the day with happy and confident kids!

In the words of an enthusiastic friend today, “Come on guys! If we don’t work together, we won’t survive!”

Don’t worry - we all came out of today’s survival skills day alive. We also came out with some major practice in communication skills, teamwork, and critical thinking.

This is exactly why we are working so hard this week - not to learn a few neat tricks, but to learn to problem solve, work together, and persevere when things get tough! 💪

The official school year for Wondering Oaks kicks off August 23rd, and we have just a couple of spaces left. Message to learn more about our program!

Tuesdays are for the books!

On Mondays and Tuesdays, students focus on building their core academic skills - especially reading!

Students enjoy flexible seating and considerable freedom in their own time management of work, while building a strong foundation in phonemic awareness and phonics - skills to allow them to pursue any text they could ever want.

Wondering Oaks uses the curriculum “Logic of English”, along with alternative materials and styles provided by our own reading specialist! Our curriculum is specifically geared towards students with Dyslexia and/or ADHD - we understand the need for movement, and give dyslexic students the tools they need to read confidently.

This week, students are learning child-specific survival skills/emergency preparedness!

We are all about encouraging students to be responsible caretakers for themselves and others, and a huge part of that is safety!

Whether we are out hiking or going through bad weather, students should come out of this week having some awesome skills.

Today, we went through the contents of a good hiking backpack, learned safe locations to seek shelter, how to build (mini) lean-to’s, and how to distill pond and ocean water to safely drink using solar energy and items they can carry in their hiking bag!

Students also learned their first knot, which will doubly aid them, and us, as they enter the world of tying shoelaces 😉

This should be an exciting week for all!

Happy Friday!

Rest is valued here - students are out of school on Fridays to promote family time, personal studies, and above all, rest.

In addition to a shorter week, Wondering Oaks recognizes the need for students to take a break from constant stimulation at school - there is a daily quiet time in which lights are dimmed, soft music plays, and students are encouraged to read, draw/write quietly, use sensory items, or even just lay down. Although this is a short period in the day, everyone looks forward to this point in our afternoon!

Welcome back, students!

Wondering Oaks is on week 3 of our summer program, and students are having a blast.

Loving to learn, following our curiosity, and making lifelong friends are what we do best here!

The official school year begins August 23rd, but we play and learn year-round 💚

Check back to follow what we are doing this summer!