As a homeschooling family, we have learned to use everything as a teachable moment. There have been days we have done a full day of school without my boys even realizing it. When I would take them to the zoo, we would bring a chart with us that we had made at home. We would graph how many of the animals had four legs, how many had two, how many had wings, and how many had fur. We would compare their natural habitats. We would discuss which animals were our favorite and why. The next day we would draw pictures and write about our favorite part of our day at the zoo. One made the comment one day, “Mom, we didn’t do school yesterday.” Then I pointed out all of the things we had learned. I took them again and they were in the middle school years. Their first question to me was “Why didn’t we make a chart?” I always carry a notebook with me so we each made a chart of something we wanted to compare. I was surprised that as old as they were, they still wanted to do that. That was a fun memory for them that they wanted to recreate.
When we have gone on vacation, we try to hit some
educational places, not letting them know that they are actually doing school.
If they knew that, they probably would not enjoy it as much. We have gone to museums and toured coal
mines. He have gone to the ocean. Something always intrigues us enough to google
more information on it. The world is a
classroom!
I was pleased to find out that some of our activities can
count as speech or drama hours in high school if there are a certain number of
hours spent doing it. Every year my boys
have participated in speaking parts in the Last Days of Jesus pageant that our
little town performs. My boys have played various roles and have been in it
since they were able to walk. The last few years they have both been the
thieves on the cross. My youngest has his whole Last Days acting career planned
out stating that when he is done being the thief, he will play the role of
Peter and then will play the role of Jesus. My son helped one of the actors who
played Jesus in the past with his lines so already has an advantage.
Another activity we are involved in is civil war re-enacting.
Yes, we are nerds like that, but you know, my kids have learned so much history
doing that! Our specific unit has been a ministry geared towards youth. Last
year we had 35 people in our unit; only about 10 of them were adults. We join
400 to 600 other re-enactors to perform battles for the public and then stay in
character as people wander through our camps to hear about the history of that
war. The kids in our unit learn discipline as they are in charge of certain
tasks. They are each in charge of cleaning their own guns after a battle. They
chop wood, start the fire, do their own dishes. They learn manners and
etiquette such as standing when a lady walks into camp and learning how to properly
escort a young lady to the ball. We usually get up to the site on Friday night
and they are in charge of setting up all the tents and getting a fire pit dug
and hauling water. For the next two to three days, they are living in the
1860s. We usually come home on Mondays after they have torn all the tents down
and repacked the trailer. Going up, the van full of kids are usually pretty
noisy and rambunctious. Coming back is much more subdued…and stinky. 
Build memories with you children! Make school fun! Find out
what they want to learn about and then have a blast studying with them!
