2020 has been a year for the record books, hasn’t it?! And now, in the throes of a global pandemic, many schools have opted for all-online learning for some or all of the 2020/2021 academic year.
Faced with the uncertain or limited options for the 2020 / 2021 school year, many families are now turning to homeschooling or finding hands-on supplements to piece together a meaningful and engaging year.
Kid Lab has always been about sparking a love of learning through hands-on, play-based methods. Read more about our mission here. In short, we believe every child can have FUN while learning, and we absolutely love coming alongside parents to help make that happen.
So starting in mid August, we’ll resume our play-based curriculum, we’ve lovingly called SPARK, for free to participating families. S-P-A-R-K is shorthand for our 5 ingredient learning recipe (see first answer below). One week out of every month August - May, we’ll post a full week’s worth of learning ideas around a central theme. We’ll be offering this in tandem with Tin Can Kids’ virtual co-op, so if you’re looking for a more rounded co-op style of learning this year, we recommend you head here to sign up to be involved (for free!)
+ What is SPARK?
When COVID-19 hit and we were forced to go all-virtual, we came up with the acronym S-P-A-R-K to outline the 5 ingredients of our play-based method. “S” stands for S.T.E.M. (science, technology, engineering and math) learning. “P” sums up the 2 things we harp on with our youngest learners: for preschool (ages 2-5) we emphasize PLAY, and for elementary-age learners (6-10) we emphasize PROJECTS. Engaging in play and diving into projects reinforce and cement new ideas.
“A” is for art! And if you’ve been around Kid Lab very long, you KNOW we love a good art project.
“R” stands for reading: the spine of nearly everything we do.
“K” stands for kindness and collaboration. We believe it’s important to value and display kindness to ourselves, to eachother and to the those around us.
+ How much time does it take?
The SPARK curriculum will include 5 things you can do during the week around one central subject. Some families may choose to split the activities to do one a day M-F, or choose to do all 5 in a day. Other families may select the ones that best fit into their schedule for that week. The most time-intensive activity each week (usually the art project) would, on average, take 30 minutes or less to complete.
+ Do I need supplies to participate?
We're big fans of making the most of whatever you might have on hand! Each SPARK week, there will be a supply list of suggested items to round up to complete projects, or books to check out from the library. But we want to keep this intentionally simple and easy to do. We'll include worksheets and project tutorials (available only through the forum) to work through at your pace. If you have a few dollars to spare, we recommend these supplies to go along with our SPARK lessons.