Mystic River Learning Center

One day I walked into one of Caryn Johnson's math through art classes and discovered a six year old intently experimenting with basic geometric shapes and my son, who was working on the same project, studying an algebraic formula related to those shapes! The six year old was learning the verbal description of the shapes and how they related to one another and my son was learning the mathematical description of the shapes. Every child, no matter what age, was learning at his or her level and, most importantly, all of the children were having fun.

MRLC has been an amazing adjunct to our homeschooling.  My daughter goes one full-day per week, and she loves the classes she takes, and that she gets to be with the other kids for such a long time. I love that I can spend quality time with my younger daughter, or, during the times that she also has activities, I can run errands, go for coffee, or visit the library alone (and bypass the children's section!).  What a treat to have some time to myself!  Thank you, MRLC.  We couldn't do it without you!

One of the first classes Julia offered at the Learning Center was a six week course about the American Revolution. I was helping out at the Center and got to watch and sometimes take part in the class. It was amazing the way she could make this piece of history relevant, engaging, and fascinating for these kids (varying ages, all boys in this case). She had them write out a timeline with all the historical facts they knew (when their mothers were born, when computers were invented, when trains were invented, when mandatory public schooling began, back to the Declaration of Independence); they looked at all the relevant places on a huge world map; they collaboratively made a board game themed on Paul Revere's ride (working as Julia read the famous Longfellow poem out loud). We went on field trips to Lexington (got to see muskets fired by costumed park rangers) and to Charlestown (toured the U.S.S. Constitution and the Bunker Hill memorial). The kids learned so much, and it was all put in context in a way they could understand and be really interested in. Such a wonderful way to learn History!