Wild Willow Kidz

11/24/2025

This is a super cool page to follow with all sorts of interesting information about Massachusetts!
I stumbled across this page yesterday when it randomly showed up in my feed and I’ve been learning so much and will definitely be incorporating this page into our local history lessons!

For instance, did you know that the song Mary had a Little Lamb originated in Sterling Massachusetts is based on a true story?

Or that they found a mummified monkey in the rafters of the Boston Garden when they were renovating?

Lots of interesting information about Boston and other Massachusetts towns.

Check out their page!

https://www.facebook.com/share/17hWCPmwzW/?mibextid=wwXIfr

History with a wink!

11/23/2025

Our homeschool journey has had me doing some crazy funny things that I never thought I’d be doing. I learned so much right alongside the kids and we do some pretty fun projects.

Back in early 2025 we had done an Egyptian studies unit with our homeschool co-op. We learned a lot and did a lot of fun projects, including the mummifications of some apples. The apples came out pretty cool, but my favorite part of the project was the little chicken that we mummified. One of the girls in the group gave him the name “little Jimmy”… little Jimmy was left to sit in our mummifying concoction for a few months and when I took him out, I put him in a Ziploc bag and he’s just been sitting on a shelf until yesterday when I decided to check on him and make sure that his mummification process was complete and he was not squishy or moldy or anything disgusting.

I was pleased to find that he was in fantastic condition, so my daughter and I decided it was time to finish the project and wrap our friend a little Jimmy. Little Jimmy will be moving to our homeschool co-op space this week but for now he sits on my mantle and I just laugh😆

Yes, this is silly and some might think it was disgusting but these are the things that help the kids to learn and remember the lessons as an experience, not just a little blip of knowledge that they will easily forget. Our homeschool education is an experience to say the least.

*Even though that’s not where his eyes would normally be, we thought little Jimmy needed some googly eyes 🤣

11/21/2025

Have you been to Stage On Main in Orange? If not, I highly recommend you check it out! It’s a fabulous store right on the main street with some amazing products from local crafters.
(Shameless plug, you can get my magnesium cream at stage on main as well! Wild Willow Holistics😁)

My daughter and I stopped in today to check out out the new gallery space that just opened and we really enjoyed it!! it’s a quick walk-through a pretty large space connected to the store with art of all styles from a variety of local artist. We particularly enjoyed the large mermaids and the Native American/wigwam series of paintings.
We are in the process of reading the Birchbark House, book series, and these beautiful paintings brought the story to life for us! “Mom that looks like Omakayas!”

If you are looking for a nice local outing stop
By State On Main and check it out! While you are there don’t forget to stop in a few doors down for lunch at Corner Cafe and to check out Scrafty DIY Workshop!

11/14/2025

I love seeing organizations in the community like the YMCA offer homeschool family programs!

My family won’t be doing this program because we co-op on Thursdays, but I hope others find this post helpful! Looks like a fun program! 

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1DDxNXrCPb/?mibextid=wwXIfr

Homeschool Families!
Join us Thursdays, starting December 4th, from 12–2 PM for a fun-filled program designed just for homeschoolers! Kids will learn a variety of sports—basketball, soccer, baseball, archery, and more—followed by open swim during cool down time.

A perfect way to stay active, try new activities, and make friends!

11/14/2025

Funny thing happened last night… my husband and I brought my son and his friend to an open house at Franklin County technical high school. You know I’m not a huge fan of the public system, but my eighth grader really wants to go to the tech school and try out public school for high school. The only public school option I am even remotely comfortable with is this one. I graduated from there many moons ago and I still use my trade to this day. Trade schools are important and of real value in the community. 

We were seated on the bleachers in the gym and random staff members were asking people if they wanted to be in their group to go on a tour so we ended up in a group guided by a teacher that we did not know with a few other families, also strangers to us.  Come to find out, we were in a group of homeschoolers! There were at least three families in that group that currently homeschool, including the teacher leading the group who has six homeschool children at home! What are the odds?!

I feel like the homeschoolers are magnetically drawn together.

Even within the walls of a public school, the homeschoolers found each other 😆

11/11/2025

Super gross!

We did a lot of swabing and testing last school year with our homeschool co-op and the results were disturbing!

FYI, you can buy petri dishes on Amazon to do your own testing and it’s a pretty cool science experiment! 

https://www.facebook.com/share/r/1AEGxJThST/?mibextid=wwXIfr

11/08/2025

If you’re looking for a co-op for your littles check out Peaceful Roots! Carlee is great! Your littles will love her!

hhttps://www.facebook.com/share/p/1BHvX5YxFN/?mibextid=wwXIfrxh

11/05/2025

 When you’re so obsessed with your new language arts program that you asked to do it after dinner and before breakfast!

“Mom, this is my favorite part of schoolwork ! It’s so much fun!”

Homeschool Mom win!

We don’t do a lot of screen time for school, but I think that’s part of the novelty of this. It makes it fun, it’s super interactive, and she gets to use the computer.

We’ve been looking at this program for months and finally decided to purchase just a few days ago and she is absolutely loving it and I’m already seeing significant progress!

We’re currently using it for supplemental purposes, but I could see how it could easily become your whole ELA program. 

They offer a free seven day trial and multiple purchase options. It’s pretty affordable and just this week alone has definitely jazzed up our homeschool day and made things a little more fun!

Check it out and if you decide to test out the seven day, free trial and or purchase, please use my referral code below:

“The Night Zookeeper program is an online, story-driven language arts curriculum for children aged 6 to 12 that uses a magical "night zoo" theme to teach reading and writing skills. It combines interactive lessons, writing prompts, games, and competitions to build skills in grammar, spelling, punctuation, and vocabulary. A key feature is the feedback provided by qualified tutors and other users on submitted writing, and parents can track their child's progress. “

 https://www.nightzookeeper.com/en-us/parents?referralCode=SJsiIivJ-x


11/03/2025

One of my absolute favorite things about homeschooling is the opportunity for real world, learning and the abundance of family time.

Recently, my family and I went on a pretty epic road trip . My husband has kind of a cool job and he travels quite a bit , sometimes we get to go with him. This was one of those opportunities.

He had to be in Kentucky for a week to do some work so we added a few days on at the beginning for a pitstop in Washington DC , then headed over to Virginia for the Luray caverns, and then we explore in Kentucky. We’ve been to Kentucky multiple times so we’ve seen a lot of the sites already but this time we went back to Cumberland Falls because it was awesome, we puttered around eastern Kentucky, sightseeing, and hiking, and we also checked out the Ark encounter which was phenomenal!
On the way home, we took a detour through Ohio to visit serpent mound.

Don’t be fooled,  though we had a fantastic time there were definitely times on this trip when I thought we were all going to kill each other, but that’s part of life and that’s part of homeschool😆

I love having the freedom to do school on the road, learning and exploring as we go! 💕

I won’t put a caption on every picture, but if you have questions about what you see, feel free to ask!

Sidenote : is it just me or are mom’s never in the picture unless they take a selfie? I swear, if I didn’t take selfies with the family, there would be no proof that I was on the trip,  nobody would ever take a picture of me with my kids.😆

11/03/2025

Chilly but fun filled fall day! I didn’t get many pictures today, but we had a fantastic homeschool meet up at Tully Dam!

Seven families attended today ! Lots of new faces and it was fun to make new friends!

Stay tuned for next month date!