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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