Wonder World Classroom

When I was new to the idea of home schooling (nearly 20 years ago), I didn't feel capable of flinging caution to the wind and launching headlong into a learning odyssey. Instead I kept a close tie to the public school, using their "approved" curriculum. Every morning I dutifully sat the children (all of them, regardless of age) at the table for "lesson time," and once a week ushered them to a meeting with the districts' chosen teacher to "supervise" our progress. In the end, I felt it was MY ability being tested, not my children's.

Well, that's the official version, anyway. Even in those early Nervous Nellie days, I found myself rebelling and veering off into the uncharted waters of learning for the sheer joy of it. In our backyard dirt, the dinner table, and the grocery store we found endless and fascinating curricula for science, math, history, and reading. In these "classrooms," the children's eyes never glazed over with confusion, their attention never wavered, and they never had to ask, "when are we going to be done with this WORK so we can play?" In these settings, play was serious work...and learning was play.

Fast forward twenty years, and I'm a much different home schooling animal. Brianna does not sit through rote instruction, nor boring-but-necessary "lessons" at the table. Oh sure, we sit there--to eat, talk, draw, sculpt, glue, cut, work with letters, and many other things. But this is not class "work." To be sure, Bri is learning with every blueberry she counts out to make smileys in her bowl of oatmeal, and with every saved popsicle stick added to a model dinosaur "skeleton." But before long we rise and leave that tiny space behind...and take learning with us everywhere we go.

Math and reading and science need not take place with my busy, kinesthetic learner planted in her seat, kicking a foot impatiently against the chair leg while wishing it was over already. When the world is your classroom "table," your child's eye never stops looking for things to absorb, and their questions never fail to keep a childlike wonder from your own eyes. There is never the problem or challenge of how to get the kids motivated or how to keep them interested.

In short, it jump starts a child's natural inclination to be a happy, willingly self-motivated learner.

Here's Bri learning about "snow" for the very first time (we live in a hot climate). Good science activity for early study in solids vs liquids, slippery vs not, cold vs hot, etc. Also a good art project--she sculpted all kinds of things in that snow. Considering this was a scorching 95-degree summer day, these were explored by Bri MOST gratefully. ("Snow" courtesy of the LA County Fair.)

A petting zoo is pretty much a "gimme" activity for animal science, but what a great place for math! Counting/grouping/sorting animals, counting out feed pellets for each, etc. Also reading (signs with important instructions--"exit," "don't feed donkeys," etc) and health ed (why are there hand washing/sanitizing stations just outside the exit?). This was also at the county fair.

And yes, I absolutely count Bri's trips down the giant slide and later turn on the whirling roller coaster ride as an object lesson in physics and centrifugal force. :)

What's this picture doing in a blog about home schooling, you ask? Believe it or not, this shot was taken during a lesson. Daddy got a nerf gun for his birthday (hey, you're never too old to play!) and Bri begged to try. Instead of merely letting her run hither and yon, we used this as an opportunity to do some backwards and forwards math calculations--how many foam darts did you shoot? How many are left before you run out? Did you find them all, or are some still missing? Not to mention some basic velocity tests.

Bottom line, when learning has captured the imagination of parent and child alike, everything is an opportunity to educate, and every educational task is an opportunity for fun. Sure, we have texts and worksheets and other such classroom gadgetry. But there's not a lesson out there that can't be learned in some joyous, exciting manner that is so personal to our daughter that she can't help but be moved by it. I can't wait to see what we are going to learn next.