We started homeschooling when our son completed kindergarten. It was during his second year that he decided that we really needed to name our school. Sounds like a simple task right? It was anything but easy. We didn’t want the name to sound too “school” or too “fairytale”. It was a delicate balance. We needed to find a name that was fun and yet would not make people laugh if they read the name on a form. You might be wondering why my son wanted to name our school. Well that’s simple, he wanted t-shirts made with his school name. His friends who went to public school had them, so he wanted one for homeschooling, lol.
My kiddos have always been curious by nature. Even before they could talk they both were interested in seeing how things work. Yes, that means we have lots of toys taken apart just to see if they can be put back together. One of my son’s favorite lines of questioning starts with the words “I wonder…”.
You know what I mean ~~
I wonder what would happen if I mix these two things together? Said right before making two substances overflow and spilling all over the floor.
I wonder if I can make a bridge that will hold weight? Followed by a glass of juice being used as the weight to test the bridge that was not quite constructed properly. Model 2.0 worked much better.
I wonder what the inside of an eyeball looks like? Hey mom we need some dissection supplies.
I wonder what the surface of Mars looks like? This was followed by years of ongoing research. He still says he will make a rover that will go to Mars someday and he hopes to be the first man on Mars.
My daughter also developed this pattern of thinking ~~
I wonder how sweet butterflies like their food? Enter the experiment with butterflies where we created six different varieties of sugar water for them to feast on.
I wonder what the inside of the body looks like?
I wonder…..
Well you get the idea. My children wonder about a lot. The beauty of homeschooling is that I can allow each of them to explore their ideas. I love being able to do that.
So what did we name the school way back when my son was in second grade?
Wonder Academy
It is still a fitting name for our homeschool life. When the kiddos “wonder” they are free to explore.
Do you have a name for your homeschool? Leave a comment and let me know what it is and why you picked it.
Wonder-based education sounds pretty great. Our homeschool is McLernins Academy of Advanced Lernins, because it’s hard to get much classier than that.
Also, apropos of pretty much nothing, I nominated you for a Beautiful Blogger award here on my blog. It’s mostly a sense-of-community thing, but is a way to show you I appreciate and enjoy your blog.
Thank you for the award
I transitioned my twins from public school to homeschool at the end of 2nd grade, and I was trying to make sure they knew that this was school, but not THAT school.
I had them pick out a school name, mascot, and motto. My son named our homeschool “The Learning Elementary School”. When I put up the white board, I lettered it across the top. We were on a Spongebob kick at the time, so we became “The Sea Sponges” – “We soak up knowledge.” I had shirts made up for the first day of school, and tried to have a bumpersticker made, but they wouldn’t use the copyrighted image of Spongebob.
My current bumpersticker says, “My kids are cage free — I homeschool”