Week 79: More than Just the Here and Now (Norms & Nobility - 11d)
July 1, 2025
In this edition:
🎉🥳 Off-Center Celebrations! 🥳🎉
🎤Podcast - The Grammar of Classical Education 🎤
📚☀️ Quick Classroom Reviews ☀️📚
💖💖 Amazing Blessings 💖💖
☕️ 🫖 Enjoying the Reali-tea ☕️ 🫖
🎉 🥳 Let’s Celebrate! 🥳 🎉
Off-Center Celebrations - 2025
July - Week 1 and Week 2
Enjoy this free packet that can be used TODAY!!
The Fourth of July pages include an introduction to the War for Independence, an examination of the second sentence of the Declaration of Independence, and a way cool look at the science and math behind fireworks - including a diagram of how fireworks are put together, an article about how fireworks actually work, and comprehension questions to review the information given.
We are also celebrating Anti-Boredom Month with a collection of over 50 activities divided into categories like:
Go Play
Get Active
Stretch your Brain
Get Cookin’
Calling on Creativity
and Focus on Others.
To help curb the BLAHs of Boredom, there are two calendar options to help your child select activities, or you can just allow them to pick and choose the ones that look most interesting. This packet will hopefully spark some creative Boredom Busters for students of all ages.
☺️ Please jump over to Classroom Collective, where you can use the “password” you received with your subscription (on EVERY level) to access many freebies like the Off-Center Celebrations (daily in 2024 and weekly in 2025).
🎤 Podcast - The Grammar of Classical Education 🎤
We are closing up the portion of Chapter 11 in Norms & Nobility that focuses on the Humane Letters, and while Hicks is focused on upper school, this section is incredibly applicable to those of you who teach grammar school on all levels in all teaching situations.
Hicks brings to the forefront the questions of culture and paideia. What actually is our goal? What is the purpose of including the fine arts in the classical model of education? How can we even on the lowest levels bring learning to life for our students? How can we develop students who aren’t just vessels filled with facts, but are fires that will continue to burn long after they leave our classroom or our home?
📚REMEMBER our Podcast Summer Reading Challenge 📚
A drawing will be done at the end of the day on July 1st! Right now it looks like I will be the winner as there weren’t any other postings. . . 😟
In light of the importance placed on “the classics,” this week we are beginning a delightful challenge! I’m so excited about this! 📚 Think of it as a good old-fashioned summer reading club! 📚 It is exclusively for our “club” members (subscribers) only and provides a way for us all to explore some classics. ☺️
Here are the requirements tbe be part of our Summer Reading Challenge:
Pick a classic book - on any level!
If there isn’t a book that comes to mind, check out the following resource:
GoodReads - Listopedia - Christian Classical School Book Lists
[While these books as listed as “Christian Classical School Book Lists they are taken from a variety of sources, not all of which are fully endorsed by The Grammar of Classical Education or Leading to Wonder.]
Start reading!
Post on our private Summer Reading Challenge chat.
Let us know what you are reading.
Check in once in a while.
What are you enjoying?
What are you finding challenging?
What are you learning?
Know that you are expanding your horizons AND stoking your literary fire, which will better help you feed the little flames that sit before you for a good part of the year!
AND remember that each month (June-July-August), there will be a random drawing for a little digital gift-y! I mean, really, what is a Summer Reading Challenge without prizes?! 😎
🔬 🧪☀️ Summertime Science ☀️🧪🔬
For the summer, we will take a break from the review games and switch to some fun Summertime Science activities. These activities can be one-and-done science experiments that include an explanation of scientific principles, BUT they also offer wonderful opportunities to encourage wonder through thought-provoking Extension Questions that invite further investigation. ☺️
💥 Raincloud in a Jar 💥
Preparation:
a jar with a wide mouth opening
food coloring - you can use it full strength or you can thin it out with water
shaving cream (foam not gel)
water
Process:
Fill the jar with water, leaving enough room at the top for the shaving cream to form a “cloud.”
Cover the top of the water with shaving cream, creating a cloud layer.
Slowly - one drop at a time - add food coloring to the top of the cloud.
Watch what happens as the water droplets (food coloring) get too heavy for the cloud.
Scientific Principle:
Rain is one part of the water cycle. Water that has evaporated collects in the clouds in the form of condensation. When the water vapor that has formed becomes too heavy, the raindrops will fall out of the cloud, landing on the ground or in waterways, and the water cycle will begin again.
Extension Questions:
What if you make the water warmer?
What if you make the water colder?
What happens if you add salt to the water? Does it change how the “rain” moves?
What if you use something besides shaving cream? (whipped topping, oil, lotion, etc.)
Zechariah 10:1 "Ask the LORD for rain in the springtime; it is the LORD who sends the thunderstorms. He gives showers of rain to all people, and plants of the field to everyone."
🙏💖 Amazing Blessings 💖🙏
QUESTION: If we actually have the food that we need for the day, do we just skip the “Give us this day our daily bread” part of The Lord’s Prayer?
ANSWER: ABSOLUTELY NOT!
While it does appear that the phrase “Give us this day our daily bread” is simply a plea for daily sustinance, there is much more to it than that. When we ask the Lord to meet our daily needs, we are recognizing our complete dependence on Him. We express the fact that we cannot handle everything. We cannot solve all the problems we face, whether physical, emotional, or even medical. Without an understanding of that complete dependence on Him, we risk the prideful arrogance of self-sufficiency, and that is why those seven little words, can make all the difference in the world.
☕️ 🫖 Enjoying the Real-i-TEA 🫖☕️
As you may know, my goal with Leading to Wonder is to strengthen and encourage teachers, whether in the classroom, at home, in person, or on Zoom. I want to meet you where you are and help you move toward becoming the best teacher you can be. To do this, I trust you will feel free to reach out via our Substack chats or by sending an email to Newsletter@LeadingtoWonder.com.
Let us seek to “bear one another’s burdens” and “encourage one another. . just as you are doing.” (Galatians 6:2 / I Thessalonians 5:11)1
Thank you so much for joining me at Leading to Wonder! I am honored that you have spent the time reading and possibly listening to my passion project. I do want to be as helpful as possible, so if you have any comments, suggestions, or questions, please use the button below, and I will try to address them in a timely fashion! Thank you again, and remember - “always be on the lookout for the presence of wonder!”2
English Standard Version Bible. (2001). ESV Online. https://www.esv.org
E.B. White