Wheeler Workshops 2016

If you head to the Texas Panhandle, the small "handle" squished between New Mexico and Oklahoma, you will find small towns.  Head east of Amarillo, Texas and you will find my favorite, small town...my hometown of Wheeler, Texas.  It's the small town with the BIGGEST heart.

Last year, a sweet, friend of mine invited Mommy's Little Learners to Wheeler to host a 3 day workshop.  And what a memorable time that was.

Jackson at the 2015 Wheeler Texas Workshops

This year, we went back.  We've grown up in our learning experiences and we were ready to share all that with the families of Wheeler.

 

So we pulled out our lab coats, brought electronic toys to hack in to, and packed our favorite recipe read-alouds.

Day 3 was PACKED full of cooking fun!  This workshop was all about enjoying a good book while eating a tasty snack.  Two of my very, favorite teachers came to help out!  Mrs. Hampton and Mrs. Woollard each read a book while the kiddos created a snack based off that book.  And the best part was all the books had simple recipes in the back of the books for this kiddos and their moms to use!

Cook A Doodle Do - Strawberry Shortcakes
Monsters Don't Eat Broccoli - Apple Monsters with broccoli
Chicks and Salsa - Homemade "Quack"amole

Day 2 was FULL of hands-on experiences with electronics.  We brought our favorite circuit kits
 (Thanks to our friends at Snap Circuits and Squishy Circuits).

Each kiddo got to make a Wobble Bot and a drawing Battery Bot!

 

And YES! We even brought along 40+ pounds of Legos for kids to explore with and use the 

Lego Movie Maker App to understand how cool stop-motion animation can really be!

Day 1 was all about Chemistry.  We showed kids and parents how you can pull out a few kitchen pantry items and perform some awesomely-cool experiments.  The local fire department came to explain safety when mixing chemicals!  BIG high-five to Mr. Robert Ford for doing that!

Last year, I gave back to the community by give a percentage that I made from my workshops to the
Public Swimming Pool fund.  I can't wait to go back next year to see their NEW pool!

This year, my donation, was much more meaningful and emotional. 

The picture above is me and my favorite teacher.  I was blessed to have her as my 2nd grade teacher.  But before she was my favorite teacher, she was my God-mother and my mom's best friend.  She has a heart of gold that loves Jesus!  Her smile makes everyone feel welcome and happy.  Mrs. Rives grew my heart in so many ways as a child.

A few months ago, Sammye was diagnosed with breast cancer.  She drives 90 miles from Wheeler to Amarillo every Wednesday for her chemo treatments.

I knew this woman, this mom, this grandmother of 7 would be the one that I would work for this year...and what an memorable honor it was handing Mrs. Rives the donation for our MML workshop.

Until next year, Wheeler!  Happy Learning with your little ones.