Work it Wednesday 5 Days of Homeschool Encouragement from the Homeschool Review Crew
Today's theme for the Back to School 5 Days of Homeschool Encouragement is Work It In Wednesday! Today I want to share about how homeschooling isn't just form of education but a way of life. One of my big goals for home education was to instill a love of life long learning in my children. Just because it isn't a school day or we are on vacation doesn't mean that education doesn't happen.
We live in a state that requires instructional hours. Something equivalent to 5.5 "instructional" hours a day for 180 days. Thankfully my state recognizes that home education can be more efficient than classroom education in a public school.
We tended to do 'year round' schooling taking breaks as life thew its punches. During the summer we did more "fun" school like hands on science but my favorite thing about "homeschool as a lifestyle" is that going on vacation didn't mean a break from learning. It meant a break from formal lessons and math workbooks but education still happened.
So how did we manage to get the instructional hours in? We did it on vacation.
Recently we had the opportunity to vacation in Port Townshend, WA. This is the most northern point of WA on the Olympic Peninsula. When we stopped at rest areas we look at the map. We find where we are and we look for where we are going.
We also took time when at the Marine Life Center (more about that! I promise!) and a couple of restaurants to look at maps they had posted. Supergirl started grasping the layout of the area.
Supergirl also got to experience and grasp the idea that Washington is a big area. This was an expansion of geography that she started exploring when we drove from Washington to Minnesota and back again. She knew that we lived in Washington but hadn't grasped that we lived in a city in Washington. She has a better grasp of that now and going forward when we look at a map of Washington or a map of the US she can use her experience of traveling as frame.
We visited two different Marine Life Centers while on vacation. One in Port Angeles and one at Fort Worden State Park near Port Townshend. It was actually our college girl that asked if we could do so. She isn't even homeschooling anymore and yet she was just excited to learn more. I guess I was successful in instilling a life long love of learning!
We learned that some sea stars think humans are tasty. I wish I had taken a photo of the HUGE sea star. It was not the typical 5 point "starfish" it had like 40 "legs". It was very near the edge of the tank and the volunteer told us to make sure we did not get to close as it would try to latch on to us. Yikes!
I got all excited as there was a display showing how the land was changing as they remove the dam and the water flows. We talked about land forms. So we had a bit of biology and a bit of physical geography. We talked about rocks too which was perfect since we've been studying Rocks and Minerals.
Supegirl loved the rockfish and we learned about how they saved the fish by removing its diseased eye. I think the fish may have been her favorite part.
She loved the Marine Life Center so much that she asked if we could go back but instead of going back we went to the one near Port Townshend. Supergirl got some one on one time with a volunteer who answered questions, pointed things out and encouraged Supergirl to get hands on.
They had two exhibits and one was about Orca whales! I learned that there are two kinds of Orca Whales. Transitional and Residential. Supergirl and I did a lapbook a few years ago on Whales and Dolphins and I am thinking I may have to pull that study out and look through it again!
We visited historical sites like Fort Worden and the Jefferson County Museum which was the old Courthouse/Jail and is now a history museum. These were fun memory making things we did that also happen to have educational value and if I needed more instructional hours for Supergirl, I could easily add in hours for history, geography and science. We also worked on some language skills by talking about what we learned. The fancy word might be "oral narrations" but she certainly didn't think she was doing anything other than telling me all about what she explored.
How do you work in more learning opportunities for you and your family? Here are just a few of the participants from the Homeschool Review Crew. There are even more blogs to check out on the linky!
Amanda @ Hopkins Homeschool
Angie @ Run Ran Family Adventures & Learning
Annette @ A Net in Time
Ashley @ Gift of Chaos
Betty @ Let’s Get Real
Brenda @ Counting Pinecones
Carol @ Home Sweet Life
Chareen @ Every Bed of Roses
We live in a state that requires instructional hours. Something equivalent to 5.5 "instructional" hours a day for 180 days. Thankfully my state recognizes that home education can be more efficient than classroom education in a public school.
We tended to do 'year round' schooling taking breaks as life thew its punches. During the summer we did more "fun" school like hands on science but my favorite thing about "homeschool as a lifestyle" is that going on vacation didn't mean a break from learning. It meant a break from formal lessons and math workbooks but education still happened.
So how did we manage to get the instructional hours in? We did it on vacation.
Recently we had the opportunity to vacation in Port Townshend, WA. This is the most northern point of WA on the Olympic Peninsula. When we stopped at rest areas we look at the map. We find where we are and we look for where we are going.
We also took time when at the Marine Life Center (more about that! I promise!) and a couple of restaurants to look at maps they had posted. Supergirl started grasping the layout of the area.
Supergirl also got to experience and grasp the idea that Washington is a big area. This was an expansion of geography that she started exploring when we drove from Washington to Minnesota and back again. She knew that we lived in Washington but hadn't grasped that we lived in a city in Washington. She has a better grasp of that now and going forward when we look at a map of Washington or a map of the US she can use her experience of traveling as frame.
We visited two different Marine Life Centers while on vacation. One in Port Angeles and one at Fort Worden State Park near Port Townshend. It was actually our college girl that asked if we could do so. She isn't even homeschooling anymore and yet she was just excited to learn more. I guess I was successful in instilling a life long love of learning!
We learned that some sea stars think humans are tasty. I wish I had taken a photo of the HUGE sea star. It was not the typical 5 point "starfish" it had like 40 "legs". It was very near the edge of the tank and the volunteer told us to make sure we did not get to close as it would try to latch on to us. Yikes!
I got all excited as there was a display showing how the land was changing as they remove the dam and the water flows. We talked about land forms. So we had a bit of biology and a bit of physical geography. We talked about rocks too which was perfect since we've been studying Rocks and Minerals.
Supegirl loved the rockfish and we learned about how they saved the fish by removing its diseased eye. I think the fish may have been her favorite part.
She loved the Marine Life Center so much that she asked if we could go back but instead of going back we went to the one near Port Townshend. Supergirl got some one on one time with a volunteer who answered questions, pointed things out and encouraged Supergirl to get hands on.
They had two exhibits and one was about Orca whales! I learned that there are two kinds of Orca Whales. Transitional and Residential. Supergirl and I did a lapbook a few years ago on Whales and Dolphins and I am thinking I may have to pull that study out and look through it again!
We visited historical sites like Fort Worden and the Jefferson County Museum which was the old Courthouse/Jail and is now a history museum. These were fun memory making things we did that also happen to have educational value and if I needed more instructional hours for Supergirl, I could easily add in hours for history, geography and science. We also worked on some language skills by talking about what we learned. The fancy word might be "oral narrations" but she certainly didn't think she was doing anything other than telling me all about what she explored.
How do you work in more learning opportunities for you and your family? Here are just a few of the participants from the Homeschool Review Crew. There are even more blogs to check out on the linky!
Amanda @ Hopkins Homeschool
Angie @ Run Ran Family Adventures & Learning
Annette @ A Net in Time
Ashley @ Gift of Chaos
Betty @ Let’s Get Real
Brenda @ Counting Pinecones
Carol @ Home Sweet Life
Chareen @ Every Bed of Roses
Comments
Post a Comment