Taking the “School” out of Homeschool

I don’t know why we use the term homeSCHOOL sometimes.  I have been finding more and more when we take the word “school” out of our day, we actually learn much more.

I spoke last year at  the Heart of the Matter Online conference about Education as an Atmosphere.  I want my home to be a continuous atmosphere of learning.  Not a 9am -3pm time of enforced drilling of facts.

A typical day in a homeschool looks like LIFE.  It can range from anything from:

• a day of research on a topic of the child’s choice
• an afternoon spent listening to Mozart while painting
• a day in the yard observing an ant hill, a robin’s next, or a bee hive
• a morning gardening, while learning all about compost, seeds, and zone planting
• writing creative stories, plays, or poetry
• a construction project in the home. complete with preiminary plans, blueprints, and the execution of the plan with the proper tools
• cooking up an authentic cultural feast after weeks spent reading about that country
• analyzing the nutritional content of your pantry
• grocery store math, while grocery shopping
• a day out to see a play or visit a local museum
• a visit to the local nursing home
• writing a letter to your sponsor child in Africa
• designing buildings on the computer
• helping with the finances by watching dad pay bills and budget (or do taxes!)
• chores, chores and more chores…all life skills!
• figuring out the how to build rockets, legos in 3D, and more
• raising chickens
• spending the day at work with dad as a mini-intern
• learning all about how day to day life works by being immersed in it and not a classroom!

Life is a classroom. Life is what we are preparing our children for. What better way to learn that with the hands-on lesson of life?

I have found lately when I loosen the structure {not throw it away}, the kids are free to pursue their interests and that is when they truly learn.

When I don’t see a separation between learning and life…they thrive…

This is a video I love of my boys learning in nature….

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