Jumping Out of the Homeschooling Box

Why are you homeschooling?

Oh, that is a loaded question, but one of the reasons we chose to homeschool, was we wanted to give our children more than a classroom full of textbooks and workbooks. We want them to learn something with their hands, minds, eyes and ears. We want them to learn to think, to appreciate what they are learning.

So many parents who are “home” schooling, don’t even know that they can jump out of that box that was delivered at their door. Yes, all that wonderful curriculum…

Do you remember what you learned in that history class 25 years ago? What day did what happen and how does that pertain to today? Yeah…umm, those dates are fairly useless without the true lessons behind the historical event.

Teaching a page of math problems and never actually doing any real life math is pretty much useless too. Especially when it comes to algebra. I have a much better understanding of algebra now as a mom, from having to figure out medication dosages.

The same applies to science. Really what do you remember from elementary science classes? Not much? Really?

So, are you seeing something here? Are you thinking that you might have wasted many years in school, filling out workbooks, answering questions to get a grade? Oh and grades…umm are they really worth much? Have you ever noticed that those people you thought were so very smart, really maybe aren’t so smart now that they have to deal with real life?

Oh, back to grades…umm, an A is a letter, I teach for mastery…I also figure out what the child is capable of.

For instance..my special needs child has a “looser” mastery level than my more gifted child.

Special Needs, must get a 80% or more on every math lesson or they do it again…the ENTIRE lesson.

My gifted student must get a 90%. Same deal. We always correct all wrong problems for both older children, for each subject. I am teaching for mastery, not to just brush over a topic and move on.

I also tend to make sure science and some other topics are interest related. This helps keep school from being a drudgery.

As you can see, I tend to jump out of the homeschool box. I want to keep my children interested in learning to help them have a life long love of learning new things.

Some of the ways we add some creative and unusual items to our school days are:

• Lapbooks
• Unit Studies
• Going with Dad (replacing floors in a trailer, welding, working on engines, rear ends and more)
• Sewing
• Cooking
• Baking
• Other crafts
• Gardening
• Caring for animals (pets) and Livestock
• Helping with church activities
• Playing chess
• Playing other games
• field trips
• and so many more

Educating you children needs to be more than filling in blanks, writing reports and doing a few math problems. We need to begin with their hearts, and move out to the other areas, making sure we use lots of real life experiences. Because the whole idea of educating our children is so they can handle real life, right? I don’t know about you, but what I needed to know in real life to get me through the basics…cooking, shopping, balancing a check book, getting a loan, keeping a good credit score and many others, I didn’t learn inside of a textbook.

We need to be giving our children a head start in the real life, by letting them live it with us, through example.

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