We homeschool. We live life. Often the two aren’t separate. I cook breakfast and the kids help (home economics). My daughter tells me her latest epiphany about Lord of the Rings (analyzing literature, and improving thinking skills).
We do have some curriculums to cover the main subjects like math and reading. But we also learn many subjects through everyday life. I thought I would give you a glimpse into recent happenings in our family to show you how learning often looks for us.
I was recently taking pictures (to try and learn more photography skills!) and I captured this picture of my daughter doing one of her favorite subjects: Art! I never have to ask her to draw because she does it all the time. My job is to praise her good work, and to bring home books and videos that teach her more about drawing and art.
We recently went on a road trip just for fun. We ended up going to a mall and went out to eat at Whole Foods (the perfect place to eat if you have food allergies or intolerances-they list every ingredient in their food). Here is my oldest daughter doing her favorite subject: literature (aka-reading). Van schooling is awesome. We get to spend time together as a family, and all that driving leaves time for getting some school done. Sometimes I practice times tables with my younger daughter while I am driving.
And here I am trying to learn how to take pictures of myself with my camera. I figure the kids are getting a blogging 101 lesson. 🙂
Recently we had some icy weather which is unusual for us. So, my daughter took some pictures. She is also interested in blogging and learning photography. That is one of the most wonderful things about homeschooling-I get to share my passions with my children. Who knows where that will lead them in the future!
I would love to hear about your homeschool. Please comment below. 🙂 Want more homeschooling inspiration? Subscribe to our email updates and never miss a post! 🙂
My homeschooling looks a lot like yours. We do life and we master reading, writing and math while we do it. We learn a little bit more on other stuff too, but the kids do chores and help with meals as well, and we have conversations, and we pursue interests. I think the main thing is that we don’t do “school” at home. We do “life” at home and we learn from it.
That is so true that we do “life” at home and learn from it! 🙂
We are a homeschooling family, lots of people don’t understand why I don’t send my children to public school or try to imitate that approach at home. I want my kids to learn lessons through real life. Literally everyday is a learning experience all while teaching them their main subjects.
That is hard when other people don’t understand. That has been hard for me at times. But, it sounds like what you have found what is working for your family! That is the most important thing. 🙂
Sounds like us! Learn the core subjects and pursue passions! I really enjoyed this blog post. Thanks for sharing! 😀
Thank you for your kind words Kristi! I am glad you enjoyed it!
We are always roadschooling in the car. Since we live in the boonies, we have to drive FOREVER to get anywhere. So, to me, that time in the car is the perfect time to get in some schooling. However, I take it one step further. Recently, I got my kids tablets, so now they can do their reg. school work while driving too (we use an online curriculum). I think a lot of us forget that there is education value in the time we are just trying to get from A to B. I am going to share your post on a roadschool group I am a part of for those who want to roadschool, but don’t relize how simple and easy it can be, even if it’s just driving to town 😉
http://tinyurl.com/Google-RoadschoolingFamilies
That is a good idea about the tablets! I will have to keep that in mind. 🙂 Thank you for sharing in your group!
I love this post! Many people who don’t homeschool don’t understand just how valuable those “real time” life lessons are, more so than any paragraph and five review questions could ever be.
I am glad you enjoyed the post Leanne. I love the way you put that-“real time” life lessons are invaluable!
We live 30 mins from “anywhere” as well. I’ve found the car rides are great time for Audio books… well, we have found we love the Classic Radio programs that were aired BEFORE TV. Jim Hodges sells some. We love the Presidents and Classic Literature and are now listening to D-Day. Yes, 24 hours of radio broadcasts AS D-Day was happening. So far, we’ve heard the Norwegian official message (in Norwegian and then translated to English) and a few other European countries. Way cool! We think of it as “history” but this was broadcast “as it was happening”. So yes, much can be done during a car ride. Find what works for your kids!
Wow-those are some great ideas! I am going to look into this. My kids love to listen to audio dramas already. I think they would like real life history as well.
I love this glimpse into your day! Real life homeschooling, so often we see the ideal and oftentimes the ideal seems unattainable. I think this IS the ideal we need to wrap our heads around, this is the beauty of HOME schooling, that education is a part of our life, we don’t need to always sit down and follow a guide to be learning. And because it is such a natural part of our day, it sticks, unlike meaningless rote education in the public system. From a homeschooled perspective, those are my two cents 😉
Thanks for linking up at the #favoritethingsfriday linkup! Come check in next Friday or subscribe to the reminder at the bottom of the post to see if you were featured!
I also love that homeschooling can be a natural part of our day-that is what can make homeschooling so wonderful. And we can cater to the personalities of each of us. 🙂
I love the day in our life kind of posts! It’s always so much fun to see how others make homeschooling work! I also love how you don’t separate life from learning. We are unschoolers and we use everyday life experiences, favorite books, and interests to learn. Thanks for sharing at the #FavoriteThingsFridayLinkUp 🙂
Hi Erin! We also lean toward unschooling. But we lean towards Charlotte Mason as well. 🙂 Thank you for dropping by!
My school is a lot like this. We just finished up end of the year testing (have to have it on file, but not submit unless asked by state) and my son knew most of the Social Studies questions for which we had no real curriculum this year. I know it is because he watches a lot of History/Geography shoes and because we are on the go and travel a lot. And my younger son who had no desire to do quote school last fall by January was demanding to do something and knew a lot of what his brother was doing from simply being around him…..I love that there is no one size fits all……and after doing that test (it’s our first year) I am glad that I do not quote teach to a test, but rather for the love of learning and growing….
We have had alot of the same experiences. My youngest daughter often tells me school type things that I didn’t teach her (like the meaning of evaporation etc). When I ask her where she learned it she will often say that she learned it from a PBS show. And she also learns alot by being around me and her sister. She just picks up what we are doing. It is a wonderfully natural way to learn! Thank you for sharing your experiences!
I love your daughters PBS answer! My school history was very jumbled, public, privet, public again, homeschool, one semester of high school and begging to come back to homeschooling. Needless to say I’m homeschool my 3 kiddos. Sometimes with a set curriculum and tons of “real time” lessons. I let my kiddos watch way too much PBS! But their vocabulary and science concepts understanding cant be beat! I remember being asked questions in 6th grade, word for word I would quote Bill Nye the Science Guys explanations and the public school teacher would be thrilled someone knew. I was confused because I remember all those episodes from 1st or 2nd grade!!! Yeesh! Again my jump into and out of public high school (back in the day when a transcript might make for easier College entry) the PBS show Wishbone helped me look smart in an English class, again almost word for word what the little dog taught me when I was eating my afternoon snacks in 3rd and 4th grade! (side note: that was the day I begged to homeschool and teach myself better then the high school could, my mom was so relieved, told me she was glad the her and I now knew without a doubt we could do better.)
This year looks to be a lot of Vanschool for us. I am getting a list of audio books ready, love the math drill idea, and love the D-day radio another commenter shared. We already do spelling drills. Tablets are a real blessing! We make our kids share 2 (3 kiddos) someone has to read a book or draw and we rotate every 15 minutes. Mostly it is to combat eye strain from too much glair.
Thanks for the wonderful encouragement and this beautiful blog!
Thank you so much for your kind comment, Janett! I loved your stories about how PBS taught you so much! 🙂 Yesterday, my daughter had an appointment that we had to drive over 30 minutes to get to. We ended up talking quite a bit on the way there, and I often think that my kids learn more that way than any other way.
Thank you for sharing your school ideas for the year. It sounds like you have some great ideas of how to help your kids learn while you drive!