The WhaddaWeeks Story
WhaddaWeeks came about in a roundabout way!
As parents years ago, my husband, Roger, and I found one of our most joyous responsibilities was opening as many doors as possible for our young son, allowing him to choose which he wanted to walk through. There was so much for a child to experience and explore and learn in this huge world, some immediately of interest to him and some acquired interests. Connections made were registered with his delight and attention.
On top of that, we sought a balance for him between unstructured free time, educational activities, exploration of new pursuits, reading and playing together, and the usual daily busyness of family life. Most of all we wanted to have fun with him too.
“Theme weeks,” an early version of WhaddaWeeks, was our solution. We’d pick a topic with our son’s approval and dream up a week’s worth of activities and books (which we now call “Doables”) related to it. Over the first summer we planned on filling just an hour a day, Monday–Friday, but extended (or shortened) the time and the days depending on our son’s engagement level. Friends and their sons and daughters joined in and it was a blast.
Fast forward 30 years...
And we are now the grandparents of two inquisitive little boys. Screen time is strictly limited in their home with one notable exception: “Video Friday.” Each week we keep a list of questions they have raised about entirely random things, (for example, garbage trucks, skydiving, laughing hyenas, robots welding, how to build an electric guitar/cruise ship/fire boat, pelicans, cement pumpers, how to move a refrigerator, the first Transatlantic cable, and wombats). Fridays over dinner together we watch the YouTube short videos I’ve curated answering that week’s questions. Then we celebrate with clips from favorite music videos. Hugely fun and interesting for us too!
WhaddaWeeks combines theme weeks and Video Friday. It was created to engage both adults and children in exploring topics in a lighthearted yet semi-structured way, and to open doors to new ideas. Our four- and six-year-old grandsons now regularly suggest topics and Doables to include on the WhaddaWeeks site.
WhaddaWeeks is meant to be accessible for everyone.​
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It is not a formal teaching tool, although it is a platform for discovery-based learning as the child walks through the doors you open. You can think of the information delivered as “fun facts” – drops in the bucket of life-long learning.
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It is child-driven and child-empowering, without demands for production or performance. Adults are there to facilitate – and get to play along!
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It requires materials of little cost or that are likely already available in the home.
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It gives a framework to the day with infinite flexibility.
Consider the WhaddaWeeks topics and Doables suggested on this site as a starter kit. Please don’t be limited by them – part of that infinite flexibility, and the fun, is you and your WhaddaKid finding topics and dreaming up Doables that you can make your own.
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We hope you have a great time!
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Penny
