Serendipity Continues

A great attitude does much more than turn on the lights in our worlds; it seems to magically connect us to all sorts of serendipitous opportunities that were somehow absent before the change. -  Earl Nightingale

I am finding that opportunities continue to present themselves to us. Opportunities that fit right into our lives and what we are doing. It's exciting each time we find experiences that strengthen what we have already studied and take our learning to a deeper level.

While on a trip to Southern California to meet our newest member of the family (baby niece of 5 weeks!) we found ourselves at the Upper Newport Bay Center. This center is a great resource that is free of charge. One exhibit concentrated on the migration of birds. Seriously? We JUST finished our unit on birds and migration. Cool that we were able to finish our unit with a free museum tour!


Then, a friend in our homeschooling community put together a "Brain" tour at the local university. The kids were able to learn about the brain and touch a few different brains! And yes, we did a brain unit just a few months ago!





And then, my daughter asked to study another animal this year. Turtles. She quickly decided to narrow her study to sea turtles. However, through her research, she did learn a lot about all kinds of turtles, tortoises and other reptiles.

In the meantime, I had been wanting to walk around the Delta Ponds near us, but never had. Not in the 6 years we've lived in this town. Someone just mentioned their latest walk around this area and said that they were able to see the turtles. I asked where to park and at the next sunny opportunity, we took off for the Delta Ponds and found no less than 28 turtles (the kids counted). During our walk, my daughter explained to my son and me all about turtles.  What a timely and wonderful experience for us all!

Coincidences and Their Infinite Possibilities

When you live your life with an appreciation of coincidences and their meanings, you connect with the underlying field of infinite possibilities.- Deepak Chopra

I am continually surprised by the coincidences we experience as we venture along our new educational path. Serendipity, kismet, luck, coincidence. Whatever you want to call it. Certain opportunities didn't present themselves to me before, or I wasn't able to see them. Now that my eyes are open and I am looking, I see opportunity everywhere.

My daughter loves chocolate, science and hands on creating. So a perfect gift, from her grandparents, was this Make Your Own Chocolate Kit. At the end of a unit, my daughter asked if we could do a unit on chocolate next and finish the unit by making the chocolate from the kit. I had loose plans for our next unit, so was able to think about it and say, "Yes!" The next day, we went to the library and gathered tons of books. We were ready to learn all about the history of chocolate, making of chocolate, farming of the cacao tree, fair trade laws and more.

The day we began our new new unit, I received an email from the homeschooling group we joined. The author of the email stated they were putting together a tour of a local chocolate factory and asked if anyone was interested in joining them. Serendipity, kismet, luck, coincidence! We replied at once before spaces filled up.

Thanks to the homeschooling group and the parent who organized the tour, we were able to see something so cool right here in our own town. What a fantastic addition to our unit on chocolate! From the library, we learned a lot about the bean, from plant to factory and the process the bean goes through until it is chocolate. I incorrectly assumed the tour would be more on this, reinforcing what we learned. I was pleasantly surprised to find that this factory melted chocolate and formed it into shapes, bars, pretzel clusters and more. Most of this work, they do by hand! So, we got to see, in person, what happens to chocolate after it's created, a great extension to what we had already learned.

I'm still amazed that this tour popped up right after we decided to study chocolate. But, as I said, I am finding more coincidences like this one. We saw cool skeletons at a local farm museum right after we completed a unit on the skeleton. The children's museum has an exhibit on the planets, and our first unit was the solar system. The list goes on. While these coincidences may have existed before, I didn't see them before. Maybe it helps knowing the kids' curriculums first hand, maybe it's that we have more free time to explore opportunities that present themselves, or maybe it's just my willingness to go out and "do it". Serendipity, kismet, luck, and coincidence are everywhere and I feel lucky to be able to take advantage of them!