One of the many reasons I love HSing.

One of the many reasons that I truly love being a homeschool mom is that I have a great excuse to go to continuing education events.

I love information. I love to learn new ways to do things. I love to glean new ideas. I say it is about having the information in my back pocket to pull out when the time is right. I may not be great with specifics but I have so much information that I can pull out ideas on many different subjects.

Our local science center offers a plethora of educator events throughout the school year. In the past I attended their annual/bi-annual Educators Evening of Science. Each time I learned about new resources in our community. Last year I attended some of their TEAMS (Teachers Education Advancement in Math and Science) events. A wonderful program sponsored by different businesses. Basically theme units around a book. It provided excellent information and a community of educators to share ideas with and glean ideas from. As much as I loved the program I didn't want the wonderful freebies that were offered. They were great but even with offering programs to groups of homeschoolers I felt that the gifts were much better suited to a traditional classroom setting. I just wanted the information. With a recent change in my work schedule this school year I now have the pleasure of attending their monthly Educators Workshops. The first one was "Holiday Science and Math" and covered: the origin of Halloween, History of Trick or Treat, Trick or Treat Skittles Math (using the scientific method), History of the Jack-O-Lantern, Estimation with Pumpkins, jack-O-Lantern Shapes, What Causes Seasons; What Causes Autumn?, How the nervous System Works AKA "The Last Dinner Roll", Winter Snowflakes (Borax), Role-playing Water Molecules, Building Gingerbread House, and Playing Dreidel ~ Strengthening Your Math Skills.

Whew! It was exciting, informative, and I walked out excited about the new activities that I now have available at my finger tips to share my children, their friends, our friends and family.

Of all the things I learned the one thing that I did not know that I didn't know how much I wanted to know was the hint about using salt water to clean pumpkin seeds. I have never had any luck with cleaning pumpkin seeds prior to baking and had given up long ago. This year I am excited about carving and cleaning and baking those darn seeds that I loved so much when my mom cooked them when I was a child.