Purpose of Tots to Teens in STEM

October 8, 2017

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The idea of this blog and my youtube channel originated late summer. I'm a working mom. I have a 4 year old and a 2 year old. I'm married, work full time, have a long commute, and a hectic life. My oldest will be going to kindergarten next year. She's in pre-K now. I was trying to put together a plan for this coming school year, a curriculum of sorts.

Why?
-I want to prepare her for success when she enters public school next year.  I remember feeling lost when I entered kindergarten, and for most of my schooling K-12 for that matter! At the very least I do not want her to feel lost. 

-I want to engage and spend as much time with my children as much as possible. Working outside the home essentially equates to a time suck, so I need to organize our time carefully. 

-I want to get ahead of their education as best I can and take the lead where possible. I don't know what their academic careers have in store for them, but I don't want to be in the dark as they travel through it,

-Finally, as a parent, a woman, and a scientist I am cognizant of the fact that girls tend to have limited exposure, or at least less exposure, to activities that develop spatial aptitude, opportunity, and direction towards STEM. 

So, I thought what can I do? What can I bring into our routine that will allow me to continue to develop a positive, strong relationship with my children, expose them to sciency stuff and maths, and help build confidence? That's where the curriculum came in. Maybe we can cover one topic per month. September can be botany month, October astronomy month, December chemistry month (primarily because I happen to be a physical chemist and a cheese ball and would like to grow crystals for Christmas ornaments). Anyhow, I thought one evening during the week we could read a book, or something online, dedicated to the topic (outside our normal reading activities), another evening do an activity or an experiment, and on a third night review the data and put it all together to make some kind of sense. We could keep a notebook of our activities. 

 

Then I thought, well, maybe I can video all this; record it. Maybe other parents in the same boat trying to figure it all out before their kids are grown can use this information or have advice to offer me. How hard can that be? Ha! I have a sister-in-law who is a youtuber. I had no idea how difficult all this stuff was going to be. It has been a steep learning curve and that's not only trying to learn first what I want to teach my kids. Learning how to use a camera and put together videos that do not suck...well, I haven't gotten there yet. Mad props to all those who put together well lit, interesting, concise videos. Video editing software alone has thrown me for a loop.

 

I'm doing it anyway.  I have the youtube channel, this blog, and a facebook page. Basically, I'm a mom doing my best and figuring this all out as I go probably like most parents.  I hope you find some of this useful and if you have any advice, ideas, whatever you want to share please do!

 

Mom of Furiosa 1 & 2