At a time when home-based learning is becoming more and more widespread of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, it is important to think about other ways of learning at home. Generally, we think of homeschooling as textbooks and pens and paper, but it can be a lot more than that.
Some parents disregard the normal route and go for a particular method of homeschooling, called unschooling, which allows children to pursue their own interests and talents at their own pace. Other parents are looking at things like forest schools or online schools, or find a way to teach students in hybrid learning settings. There are so many ways to do this these days-there are options available for everyone.
Here, we are looking at how you can use your everyday life to teach your kids at home and make it fun and a great learning experience for everyone.
Use the outside environment
In recent years, forest schools have risen in importance because more educators and parents are realizing the advantages that outdoor learning has for children. In it’s most fundamental form, it can be as simple as doing ordinary work outside perhaps on the beach or in the woods, but to get the best out of it, use the natural environment as inspiration for learning. Taking photos, building dens, looking at animal habitats, exploring leaves and geocaching are all great and educational activities.
Let them decide their own path
This brings us back to the argument we made about unschooling, but this is one of the best ways to really involve kids and give them control of their learning. If they demonstrate a particular interest in something, go with it – space, dinosaurs, cars, even toys. Look at how you can integrate it and what they can get from it into learning. They may be learning how to do deep algebraic formulations, of course, but if they have their heart set on being a curator of a dinosaur museum, they may not need it.
Make use of the art
Many homeschoolers enjoy using the theatre as their inspiration and imaginative starting point for a subject of homeschooling, and that is because it covers so many things-drama, art, music, language, history-there are countless possibilities.
Some theatres also use curriculum devices that go right with the shows they have. Theatre helps to engage in learning in so many dimensions. A high degree of cognitive imagination opens up with music. When combined with the visual elements of the set and the storytelling produced by the performers to come to life, the elements of the production are different from any other teaching process.
As a starting point, you can also use music pieces, inspiring art pieces or even your favorite movie. Sit down with your kids and make a mindmap of all the stuff they might do related to that particular piece of art. A great resource for this is Pinterest.
