39. Wild Learning with Rachel Tidd: Practical Ideas to Bring Teaching Outdoors

I love when two of my favorite things collide: nature and learning! Rachel has a beautiful treasure trove of resources to get kids learning in nature.  Now she has a book for teachers to help take what they are already doing in the classroom and easily adapt it to the outdoors. 

My kids are happiest after playing outside.  It's good for the soul and helps us raise healthy, balanced children.  Why not take learning outdoors?

Check out all that Rachel has to offer here: https://discoverwildlearning.com/

And follow everything she's doing @discoverwildlearning on Instagram!

Also, buy her book Wild Learning: Practical Ideas to Bring Teaching Outdoors for yourself or your favorite teacher! You can purchase it here.

Please remember to rate and review the podcast so more families can join this beautiful community!

Start your KindSchooling journey today! Head to www.teamkindhumans.com or follow me on Instagram @katie_doughty!

Transcript

Katie Doughty: 0:06

Hey everyone, welcome to the raising kind humans podcast. I'm your host Katie Doty, if you're here, because you want to raise empathetic kids with the tools to make positive changes in this world, you're in the right place. I'm glad you're here. Hey, everyone, welcome back to the podcast, I'm excited to share with you some fun things that have been going on in my world. Last week, I had the opportunity to go home and do several author visits around my hometown at different elementary schools with people that I grew up with. And the first one that I went to, the first school I was able to go to is actually the school that I grew up in. So it was a magical time to be able to go back and share my children's book with the kids who are going to school at the same school that I went to, although their school is definitely nicer. Now, they have a brand new school from when I was there. But being able to go back and present my story and some of the fun things about penguins, and do a community service project with them was so fun. And it was my very first one. So of course, I was absolutely nervous. But it turned out to be amazing, and definitely something that I will continue doing because it felt like my calling that was where I was supposed to be. And a couple of really fun things happened while I was there. One of my teachers, I was in an in a multi age class growing up. So first, second and third grade, I have the same teachers. And I was able to see one of my teachers, she's still teaching there, Hello, Mrs. Galvin, if you're listening. And so it was fun to be able to see her and a cool thing about her is, when I was, quote, graduating from third grade, the teachers wrote this very sweet letter. And then at the end of the letter, they made a prediction about what they thought we would become what we would be when we grew up. And mine was a poet or an author. And that has always stuck with me. And so being able to go back now, see the same teachers taught me and had this prediction that I would do, what I'm doing was just amazing. And thanks to Mrs. Galvin, she actually reached out to Mr. Griggs, which was another one of my teachers who have retired several years ago. And so he came as well. So to be able to see the two of them in the same room almost 30 years later, was just a really special time. And so I was able to do it at that school. And then I have several teacher friends around the district. And so I was able to go to several different classrooms, I did a whole grade level, and some kindergarten classes. And then I finished up at another school with a K to assembly, which was so fun. The kids are so receptive to making big positive changes in this world. And it just brings me so much hope. We spent time learning how to draw penguins. And those penguins, some of the kids donated their artwork. And I will be hosting a art an art auction on my website. So anyone can come on and purchase an adorably cute Penguin from a kindergarten first or second grader. And that money will be donated back to the global penguin society, as well as the Center for ecosystem sentinels. And that is my way of helping kids be able to give back where they don't necessarily have to raise money, but they can use their own skills and talents to help the penguins that they learned about. So keep an eye out for that that will be coming soon. I have, I believe over 100 penguins to add to my website that you can take a look at and purchase which will be donated to the penguins. So that will be coming soon. But for today, I have a really fun conversation to share with you. And Rachel tid is here from wild learning. And she sat down with me to chat about her new book. It's called Wild learning practical ideas to bring teaching outdoors. And she also has some really amazing curriculum that you can use to get kids outside, learning outside bringing the classroom outside and it's super easy to implement. She has wild reading and wild math. So it's something that I think you will really enjoy I am a big fan of getting kids outside. I feel like nature is such a good equalizer. And it helps kids self regulate, and be able to find ways to fall in love with nature, and take care and love this planet that we're on. So I am excited to share this conversation with you please go out and get her book wild learning, it would make an amazing gift for teachers. I know the end of the year is coming up or Teacher Appreciation Week. And it's just helping them get us what they're already doing in the classroom and doing it outside if they have access to any outdoor space. Lots of really cool, fun ways to do that. So without further ado, please welcome Rachel. Hey, Rachel, thanks for joining me today. I'm excited to chat with you.

Rachel Tidd: 5:52

Hi, I'm so happy to be here with you today.

Katie Doughty: 5:55

Yeah, this is going to be fun because you have something really cool to offer. So will you take a minute and introduce yourself? Tell us a little bit about who you are and how you started getting into this nature learning.

Rachel Tidd: 6:08

Yeah, so I'm Rachel tid. And I am a mom of two boys who are now 10 and 13, which is craziness. And this I am the author of wild math, wild reading curriculums, and a new book called Wild learning. And that's coming out April 18. Very exciting. But um, yeah, I originally got interested in outdoor learning and nature based learning. When my two kids were going to preschool. We homeschooled and we still homeschool. And we did a nature based preschool, we did a fort what's called the forest preschool, which is for people that don't know the kids are outside the entire time. And don't think I live in a mild climate. I live in upstate New York. I think that first year when my four year old was going, it was like negative five when I dropped off one day it was it was it's an intense experience they both thrived for they're very different kids. And they both completely, completely thrived for different reasons. And it really got my mind going. My youngest, in particular had a lot of sensory needs, and was getting evaluated. And when I brought that evaluation to the teachers like for them to fill out, there's like scales, they have to fill out. They looked at me like I was nuts, because they didn't see these problems. And that really got me thinking I'm also a special ed teacher. And so I was like, if I am going to be successful in meeting the needs of my child and teaching them things they need to know like math and reading. I need to learn how to leverage this outdoor environment. That's meaning, particularly my youngest needs and sensory based. So it just got me experimenting. And I started doing some things and a friend was like, You need to write this down. And I was like, No, that that's crazy. And eventually I did. And that's how this whole crazy ride started.

Katie Doughty: 8:34

Oh my gosh, there's so much I want to dig in there. But I want to make sure that the audience knows exactly what is wild reading and wild math. And then we'll go back to some of those really juicy things you're talking about.

Rachel Tidd: 8:45

That's good, because it was a big question. And it's hard to know you did amazing.

Katie Doughty: 8:48

Yeah. No, I'm excited to dive into those things you just talked about? Yeah. Do you want to kind of explain a little bit about what is wild reading and what is wild math?

Rachel Tidd: 8:58

Sure. So wild math is nature based outdoor curriculum. And it there is one for kindergarten through fifth grade. And it basically takes or sometimes I say translates all of those key math skills that are typical for every grade level, but how to teach them outside without a workbook without endless drills or everything's hands on using natural materials, etc. And it's not limited to like a forest environment. Like you can do it in your driveway, driveway or backyard or a local park like it can be it's very adaptable. That was what I wrote first. After I did K through five math. I said, Well, let's do reading because I love reading who doesn't love reading. And so I dove in to the world of reading, which is actually what I taught more of in schools as special ed Teacher, you know, that's often what you're teaching is the majority, but how to teach kids to read. And so I really took that same concept of outdoor learning. And I also pulled a lot of my favorite methods have just parts of things like, there's an ongoing story that kind of sets the theme about a mouse named Matilda, and wild reading one. And that kind of just connects all of the letters. It's not like a letter curriculum, but it's, that's just kind of the theme. And then it teaches the different word families, and that's kind of a Waldorf fee. And then they make like a word family page, which is kind of like a Waldorf the idea, we use a lot of the moveable alphabet, which is like a Montessori thing. And then we integrate nature in lots of enrichment activities. Throughout, I also worked really hard, especially with level two, which is like when you start like vowel consonant II type words, you know, long vowels to integrate the science of reading, and to make sure that we're teaching reading and the way that our brains learn to read. So all of that is kind of in there. But yeah, so that's why while mathema lives, incredible,

Katie Doughty: 11:24

I love that you have such a rich history in teaching to be able to put that into this outdoor learning environment, because it gives family something that they feel good about teaching their kid like, okay, so this, this person knows exactly what they're talking about. And now I get to do it outside, in a way that's more engaging to my child. So that's really cool. How long do you think it took you to really develop these two curriculums,

Rachel Tidd: 11:53

um, a while I math was a little faster, until I got to the higher grades. So I wrote and kind of did it alongside of where one of my kids usually was. So I was kind of in that level of math while I was doing it, and minor three years apart. So that was pretty, that covered most of them pretty quickly. But like fourth and fifth grade math took the majority of a year and wild reading and wild math, definitely. They're really big. And they have a lot of stuff with them, like readers and stories and printable resources to make things easier for parents or teachers. And they took a whole year and I had a little help from friends and people with wild reading, like, saw that. It was a big job. But yeah,

Katie Doughty: 12:47

well, yeah, pulling in other people for help in putting that all together. I can see that being a big daunting task, but then how cool that you were able to start putting it together as your children were going through these concepts. Yeah, firsthand. This worked. Oh, this didn't work. So well, I'm assuming.

Rachel Tidd: 13:06

Yes. And in some cases, it was my second time. I mean, obviously, I taught these ins as a teacher, but it was my second time. Like if it's my youngest, and I was doing kindergarten, that was my second time through kindergarten. At very, you know, one on one level. So interesting.

Katie Doughty: 13:27

Yeah. I'm curious what made you decide to go from teaching in the classroom to homeschooling your kiddos,

Rachel Tidd: 13:35

I get that a lot. I could go a lot worse from teachers. But it was really just my kids. For one. My oldest is super, academically advanced. And they told me at the time, the district we were in, told me not to send him because he would be bored. And as a public school teacher, I was like, wait a minute, what this was never in the plan. And we went kind of back and forth of what we were going to do. And so we decided, you know, to homeschool him. And then by the time my they're three years apart, I had a younger child. And then he had very different needs. Obviously, he thrived outside, which is 20 minutes of recess in in a classroom was not going to work for him at all. And it turns out, he also has dyslexia, which factored a lot into my designing of a reading curriculum. And so for a lot of reasons, he was lucky because we were already homeschooling but again, the same idea that it wasn't really going to work for him. Um, yeah,

Katie Doughty: 14:47

so yeah. Yeah. Oh, how interesting. I have a similar story. Just I was a teacher as well. And my daughter started a public school and that was the plan. I mean, I was a teacher so she was gonna go to school. Hold on, this is how it worked. And she was in first grade. And then when the pandemic hit and everything shut down, that's when we decided, well, let's try homeschooling home. Let's see how this goes. But then we fell in love with it. And it seems to be a really good fit for our family. But I can relate to you on on being a teacher having been a teacher. And now being a homeschool mom, it's very, there's a lot of battles in my mind about how to teach and what it should look like. Because homeschooling is very different than what the public school classroom looks like. And so it's been it's been an interesting journey, to say the least, to figuring this out. But it's work. Yeah. So

Rachel Tidd: 15:37

a lot of times people go, Oh, it must be so much easier for you because you were a teacher. And I honestly think it kind of makes it harder in a lot of ways. Because I have that barrier, where I'm thinking like, oh, you know, they're doing this in second grade, or, you know, I don't know, it's just, I, you know, and I'm a curriculum person. So I like think about it. But it doesn't need to be that linear as a homeschooler. You know, there's just so much more flexibility,

Katie Doughty: 16:12

there's so much more in so much you can let go of and things you can embrace and change your mind and do new things and follow the kid. And it's been that it's really, really hard for me to let go of those checkboxes.

Rachel Tidd: 16:27

That list of state standards. And there's way too, there's ways to do it. And I originally wrote wild math as I took every skill and I wrote it still like this, but I added something. So I wanted it to be flexible, and where you could like dive in and dive out kind of where your kids were or what you saw or what they were naturally doing. So I took like a skill like say, like, you know, counting to 100 and kindergarten right? And so then I gave a whole bunch of ideas of how you can do that skill outside. But new homeschoolers got really nervous. Oh, yeah. And, or people that, you know, do a more structured homeschool, and so they really wanted a plan. Because I am not, believe it or not, I'm a planner, but I don't plan my homeschool like that. And so I wanted it to be this really kind of like organic following the child natural, you'll cover most of it, you can just go through in your Oh, we did that we did that. You know, what skills do we have left? And you kind of read it over? And so I had to make I went back. And I made weekly plans for every grade so that people have that. Help them a little bit. It by no means has to be done that way. It's an example. But yeah, so I tried to meet people halfway.

Katie Doughty: 17:56

Yeah, it is sometimes easier to okay, just tell me what I need to do this week. I don't want to make a decision. And I think that in homeschooling, you have to make so many choices. So I can see how that would be beneficial for families to just okay, focus on this this week. You got this, you can do this.

Rachel Tidd: 18:12

And there's definitely times in my life where I have appreciated that for sure. So I totally understand. So I, I did my, I tried, and I hope that I've heard from people that it's helped a lot and so

Katie Doughty: 18:24

fantastic. Was that the new update, I know that you had just sent out a new update, or was this a while ago, this was

Rachel Tidd: 18:31

a while ago, I think last summer I finished all six levels of planners and add them to it. And if you're out there, and you already have wild math, and we're early on in my this is year five or something, you can buy the planners on the shop, but don't panic. Now the update was I was the first grade, I updated the format to match the new format, which is actually a lot of work.

Katie Doughty: 19:02

Oh my goodness, it must feel so good, though to check those out. I mean, we're going back to check boxes, but checking that off and knowing Okay, things are back to where I want them to be and everything is updated. I know it's a lot of work, but it probably feels so good to put that back out in the world. Yes, absolutely. Yeah. Well, it tells me Okay, say I'm a parent that really wants to get their kid outside and do all this wonderful learning, but it rains a lot and it's cold and my kid doesn't want to go outside. What's your biggest advice for families on helping with that situation?

Rachel Tidd: 19:37

Um, well, it's usually not the kids that don't want to go. It's hard like you have to make it kind of part of your family culture that you go outside. And you need to you know, to use language about outside and the weather. That is like positive and you know that Oh, It's raining again. It's like, oh, it's raining. I can't wait to see what how big the puddle is down the corner or something. And then the big one for me was gear. And I had the kids gear, right, I was forced preschool mom, like I had the rain pants and all that, but I did not. And so for me to spend longer outside, you know, longer than average, I did not have the gear. And so I really had to, like level up my own gear. And in some ways, I'm definitely wimpier than my kids. And so like I get cold pretty easily. So you know, I need a really warm mittens, and I need a really warm coat. And I need snow pants too. We get a lot of snow here. You know all of these things. And so if I had left myself out of the equation, then I was kind of miserable. So that's really important. And the best thing about investing in your own gear is you typically are not going to grow out of them. Yes. So you get more use out of them than your kids. So there's that.

Katie Doughty: 21:10

Yes. Oh, I know. I feel like my kids are always outgrowing their clothes and I just bought those boots for you so that we could make it through the season

Rachel Tidd: 21:19

are really rough on things really, really rough. You know, and we they do a lot with like fire and stuff. So like the rain pants can melt. Oh, yeah. Or get like little holes in the plastic, which is really fun.

Katie Doughty: 21:37

Then they don't work anymore. We did a an outdoor preschool to tiny treks here in Washington, and their philosophy is rain or sun, we always have fun. So yes, it's a good reminder. And then that there's no bad weather. There's only for clothing. Is that how it works?

Rachel Tidd: 21:57

Yeah, so the thing I think there's no such thing as bad weather only bad clothing.

Katie Doughty: 22:02

Yes. Because if you are prepared, you can enjoy any weather. If you are warm and dry,

Rachel Tidd: 22:08

it's okay to if you want to skip because of the weather. Not every weather is ideal for like a lengthy time it is certainly let's be realistic, it is certainly easier to be outside and may hear when it's 70 degrees, as opposed to when it's negative 10 in January, and so we still go outside, but we're not spending like hours out there. Yeah. And it's okay, depending on your phase of life. You might have a newborn, you know, like, it really varies. The West had all the fires, or you're out west, so I'm sure you know this, but I and we had people I had some people emailing me that they were doing wild math inside because they couldn't go outside. It's not always we'd like to think we can always go outside but it's not always safe. Yeah. Thunder and lightning to cold if they're too young to tell you how cold you know, it can be. It's okay to make exceptions. But the idea is that you go out more, more than,

Katie Doughty: 23:20

yeah, well, I like what you said too, about your family culture and how you talk about the weather and how you talk about being outside. And it really all comes down to the your modeling that you do for your kids. If you've got a bad attitude about going outside, they're gonna have a bad attitude. I'm gonna

Rachel Tidd: 23:36

say that you do it. Like often. It's not like a special thing. It's like, oh, now it's time to go outside. We go outside gray or you haven't been outside today. Let's go outside or let's eat outside. We eat outside a lot. It's a lot less to clean. Yeah, it's a good night. And I have older kids. So you're not there yet. It doesn't get better at least. Yeah. To get reminder. Yeah, yeah. So you know, and just those kind of routines of like, we're gonna have lunch outside, in the summer or whatever.

Katie Doughty: 24:08

Yeah, yeah. And making it fun. Yeah, sure.

Rachel Tidd: 24:12

Modeling curiosity when you're out there and Oh, isn't this cool? And, and, you know, just kind of like we talk about and point out things when we're reading like picture books, you can do the same thing. When you're outside. You're, what are you noticing? What are you thinking about? What are you wondering? And all of this is like feeding information into your children by modeling, but also giving them like, something to think about and ask questions about and yeah, focusing them a little bit.

Katie Doughty: 24:44

Yeah. What are some of your favorite activities then, from your curriculum that you just absolutely love doing with your own kids? Do you have a favorite?

Rachel Tidd: 24:53

Um, have some favorite tools like I I really love chalk, which isn't sound very nature in which it's not always about nature, it's just about getting outside, right? Because there's benefits of just being outside. And I love chalk because it's versatile, and you can use it literally anywhere. I have used it deep in the woods on rocks. I have used it on a sidewalk, I have used it in a school yard, I you know, in your driveway. And there's just so much you can do with it. You can do hundreds charts, you can do 10 frames, you can do skip counting, and games and hopscotch. In my book wild learning. I have word squares for phonics, I actually have them in the reading curriculum, too. And there's just a lot, there's just so much you can do. And it's like, a really simple material.

Katie Doughty: 25:53

That's such a good suggestion. I never thought about bringing chuck with me outside of my driveway. Yeah, it makes so much sense. Yes,

Rachel Tidd: 26:01

I often suggest in my math curriculum to bring like a little go bag, like a little bag of like some key things. And chalk is usually in them as is a permanent marker. And like measuring tape, not like a ruler, but like a measuring tape. Because we've often found ourselves in walking around the park or woods and there's like, it's usually a tree, because it's cool. And there's like a big tree, right? Like an old tree like we love visiting like old growth forests, or even parks often have really old trees because they've been there. And we're like, wow, that's a really big tree. And then immediately it goes to well, how big is it? But if you have a way to figure that out, you can capitalize on that map moment. Yes. Let's measure it, you know, like, I don't know, let's and then estimate how how big do you think it is? You know, and then let's figure it out. And you can go from there. And you can make it even harder for older kids like, well, what is that in inches? And what is that in meters? And

Katie Doughty: 27:09

yeah, oh, I love that on the spot learning of value curious. And then diving in and figuring it out. That's so cool, how easily you can connect it to whatever you're doing. And then I like your idea of having a go bag. So you said a tape measure a permanent marker chalk. Is there anything else that you really,

Rachel Tidd: 27:27

um, I often put some, like, note cards in there, because sometimes you in a pencil, you want to write something down or figure something out. You know, like,

Unknown: 27:37

scratch papers, like Yeah,

Rachel Tidd: 27:39

like, you know, write out a math problem, because they're trying to figure something out and you don't have paper. That's a missed opportunity again, yeah, yeah. So I like to have that. Or if I have to write something out to show them or we want to write something down or question we want to look up. It doesn't have to be math, it could be like, I wonder, you know, how, if this bird migrates, or I don't know, something, you know, it can be anything. So I like to have that with me as well. It's super light, like, you know, but we've done like sight words on rocks or math problems on rocks, and just, you know, let's practice a math problem. Let's, you know, I speaking of less like, Let's do, what are we gonna do for math today? You know, and like, let's, you know, we need some practice with this. So let's find a rock. I don't know. Yeah,

Katie Doughty: 28:31

I love that though. Just whatever you see in front of you, whatever is out in nature that you can use and turn it into a math problem or do something with reading. It's so nice for them to be able to connect it back to their life and what they're doing right in this moment. It's not on the page. It's in front of them in nature that they can relate to. That's really cool. So what tell me about then see, now you have wild reading and wild math, and those are the curriculums. But now you have a book coming out. Yeah, wild learning. Tell me about learning. What tell me about wild learning

Rachel Tidd: 29:03

was so wild learning practical ideas to bring teaching outside, came out of the success of the curriculums. And I really wanted to write a book that was geared at people working with groups and teachers. It's very applicable to homeschoolers, as well. And there's some overlap with my curriculum, although there's plenty of new things. And I just wanted to make it easier for teachers to teach outside and not an extra curriculum, so not something else they have to do. Most of our instructional time as teachers is devoted to math and reading. So adding anything else, even science, most people don't do a lot of science or social studies anymore, believe it or not, I know shocking. And so If you're adding in outdoor learning as another thing, like it's only gonna get, it's going to be a once in a while thing, not like a regular thing. And I wanted to take that idea of we can do math and reading outside that's been so successful, right? And show teachers how to do what they're already teaching outside. And I wanted to make it easy. That's the practical ideas, right? I don't, teachers don't have time, parents don't have time to think up a whole brand new lesson. And so we, I was very strongly an advocate, when we began talking about the book that this was going to be a practical book that teachers could use to teach their regular concepts in their curriculum. And so, I mean, I do that in wild math, but, you know,

Katie Doughty: 30:51

it's Yeah, well, and I love that you really spend the time thinking about that, because it's so true teachers have so much on their plate, right, handing them another curriculum will get set aside. Yeah, until they're done with the main curriculum that they have. Because there's just no time one to learn new stuff and to to implement it, the day goes by so quickly, there's so much they have to do. So what are some ideas then that you have? Can you give us an example of something that teachers already doing? And how to get them outside?

Rachel Tidd: 31:21

Sure. Um, so one is, I do a lot in structured by things you can do on the schoolyard because that's most accessible, accessible, things you can do in the neighborhood or the area around your school. And then things you can do farther afield, which would be like, the more usually more special going somewhere a field trip. Although if you are in a rural area, your neighborhood and farther afield might switch, right, where it's the area around your school is more like some people's farther afield, where if you want to see like town city, you would have to go that would be you're farther afield. So you know. But I love to teach malls multiplication in the neighborhood, because and I did a whole homeschool Co Op class this fall. And it was very fun. But we took some walks. And we were looking for things that come in groups, and they had clipboards. And we just like some of them had a range of ages. Some of them were writing down, some of them are drawing what they saw. So like a cat has four legs. So if you had three cats, how many legs do you have, you have 12 legs, right, so things that come in groups. So you're, you start looking and you start seeing them everywhere. And then we also did arrays, which is the other another way to think about multiplication, like columns and rows. And there are so many this is like, it's crazy, when you really start walking around, like we just kind of went around the block. And, you know, there's window panes and church windows and bridges. Along the bridge, there was a one by eight, and all kinds of things. So that's a really fun way. But those are all things that we're already doing, whether we're teaching math at home, or we're teaching math in school. But instead of plastic manipulatives, we're looking at real life examples in making those connections. And so when kids are thinking of the fours table, they can think of cats. Kids love to draw cats. So the great way to think about it,

Katie Doughty: 33:38

yes, and making those connections to real life math, I think sometimes there's a disconnect for kids on why do I need to know this? How is this even helpful for me? And then but seeing you're right, a cat has four legs. And look, there are three cats there. So how many legs are there that makes sense? I want to know, then they have those images in their mind. Well, now I'm gonna count by fours because I can count four legs on each cat. So that's really cool to make that connection for them. Yeah.

Rachel Tidd: 34:04

And to see it in real life. I mean in in and you can do it, you know, anywhere you can even do it in your neighborhood, you can do it often, sometimes even like in your your house is really easy to do groups because just go in your pantry and look at the food. You know, like things come in packages of this or groups of this and you know, like my banana came in a group of six or whatever it is the Canterbury but you know what I mean? Yeah. So it's it's so much easier for them to relate to if it's real life. Yeah, and I think that's important. The multisensory part of it is really important. Being able to move as soon as you go outside, you're relaxing the rules. You can be louder, you can move more. You're getting all that meant that input from temperature and wind and sun and you can move your body A, and you can jump up and down and no one's yelling at you. And you know, it's just a whole the whole package in one activity,

Katie Doughty: 35:10

those are such good points. And sometimes you, I think I know for me, I make it more complicated than it needs to be. And so it's a nice reminder that math is all around. And so turning your attention to some of those things and pointing it out as you go, that's going to bring more benefit than you really realize.

Rachel Tidd: 35:28

Yes, maybe you can do reading in this similar way, you know, if you wanted to go with the neighborhood example. We looked at assign the parking sign, like, like a no parking sign, or I think it was no parking. And we were looking for our controlled vowels. So a our is our control vowel, and you have the word, park, you know, your parking. And then on that same sign, you could roll in math, believe it or not, because it was a 15 minute parking, it's outside of our library. And there was a two hour parking assigned to it. So it's like how many cars could park here in two hours? So you have like a rate? It's in time. There's a lot you can do? Yeah.

Katie Doughty: 36:21

Oh, I love that. And I like what you said to you know, how it kind of changes the game. When you get outside? You're right, you can be a little bit louder, you can jump around a little bit more. I mean, I think that gives kids more permission to ask questions. You know, when you're in the classroom, sometimes it's very much raise your hand, wait your turn, you need to be quiet until it's your turn to speak. And then, but if they're out and talking to their buddy as they go, and it's a little bit more free, free flowing in their learning, I think,

Rachel Tidd: 36:48

even at home, I mean, what I is okay, inside is different than outside. For sure. I mean, the volume automatically goes up, right? I mean, kids scream in the house, for sure. It can only go on so long before you know, you say something or someone's like, I'm trying to work up here, whatever. Yeah. You know, and jumping and craziness. Eventually you're like, go outside. Burn up your energy. Yeah. I think we all say that. I don't know. I'm sure there's an exception. But we go outside. I don't say Stop jumping around. You know, I don't say lower your you know, you need to lower your voice a little. You're hurting my ears. I don't say any of those things. So if the rules are different,

Katie Doughty: 37:35

yeah, yeah. Oh, my gosh, this has been so fun to dive into all of this stuff with you. You've done amazing work and really cool resources for families and for teachers. So you said your book was coming out April 18. Is that correct? So probably the time this airs, it'll be out so you can buy it. So tell us where we can find you and your curriculum and your book.

Rachel Tidd: 37:58

Okay, so you can find me a discover while learning.com and I am on Instagram and Facebook at discover wild learning. And I post all kinds of things there, how to teach different things, our homeschool adventures, all kinds of things. And the book is available at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. It's available for pre order, you want to jump on a pre order and be have it in your hot little hands on the teeth. And yeah, that's, that's me.

Katie Doughty: 38:28

Oh my gosh, this is gonna make such a great gift for all my teacher friends, too. I'm excited to share this with them. Because you know, I have a lot of friends who are still in a classroom that I think would really love. Just some more practical ideas.

Rachel Tidd: 38:39

Yes. And some people use it for homework, instead of if their kids are in school, instead of doing that worksheet that comes home, you can do that same skill and then just take a picture. That's what I would do, and send it to the teacher like we practice our addition facts, but we did them out here with these acorns.

Katie Doughty: 39:01

What a cool idea. And then you're encouraging your families to get outside together to Yes, yes. Oh, that's really cool. Well, congratulations on all of this wonderful stuff that you have in your book coming out. And this has been really fun to dive in. So thank you for being here.

Rachel Tidd: 39:17

Thanks for having me. I had so much fun chatting