Lillie Lavado offers STEM Club and KidzJam Youth Enrichment Programs

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Lillie Lavado has been developing youth enrichment programs and curriculum for years. Lillie offers these programs in collaboration with municipal and nonprofit organizations throughout Aroostook County, including Presque Isle Parks and Recreation. Lillie offered STEM Club and KidzJam in 2021.

STEM Club is an amalgamation of free play meets science/technology/engineering/mathematics! Kids are welcome to explore concepts through various theme-based activities during each session. By far, the most fun meeting during this session was in exploration of chemical reactions! The kids compared explosions using different chemical combinations: elephant’s toothpaste (hydrogen peroxide, yeast) versus volcanoes (vinegar, baking soda). They then created exploding putty and considered the polymer chains that made this substance behave the way it does… of course, throwing a rubbery mass and watching it explode into crumbled pieces was part of the process!

KidzJam is a program that Lillie developed at her small business, HardScrabble Solutions family-friendly coworking, to introduce children to different cultures through the lens of music. Children learn about musical traditions from all over the world in KidzJam. They make instruments and costumes, learn songs, explore geography and traditions from a different culture and musical tradition during each class.

During this session the children learned about Russian folk music and modern classical music, American blues and struggles imposed on Black Americans, and Indian Kathak dance and percussive rhythms, and more.