Our Classroom - By Jessica Southfield
Whether you’re a stay at home mom, a working mom, or a homeschool mom the whole world is a classroom to your child. We’ve done it all when it comes to school-public school, charter school, homeschool, and dual enrollment for a blend of home and public school. There’s no one right answer for every family and I’m so thankful I’ve had the opportunity to choose what’s best for each of my children.
We’ve always tried to create an atmosphere of learning in our home, but it wasn’t until I was a homeschooling mom that I truly realized HOW much learning happens at home every day without even realizing it! You can turn anything into a lesson! Cooking? Let’s chat fractions! Shopping? Let’s identify coins and use math skills to find our total! Driving? Identify letters/words on the road signs! Eating out? Learn to order your own food, practice manners, and how to pay! One Christmas season we were watching the classic movie “Home Alone” and my kids started talking about what traps they’d do in our home for the robbers. Things quickly escalated and with a trip to the dollar store for poster board and rulers we were knee deep in drawing blueprints, plotting booby traps, and talking angles and logistics. Learning is FUN and if you start looking for the opportunities to dive into your children’s interests you will make some of the best, and most random, memories together!
Jumping in headfirst doesn’t just apply to things they enjoy. Last summer my youngest was suddenly terrified of mosquitos. That turned into a fear of ALL bugs that fly/buzz. It made being outside very challenging. I decided that we needed to learn all about mosquitos so they wouldn’t seem so scary. Teachers pay teachers is a fantastic website and I was able to find a unit on mosquitos that was super cute and fun! We learned to identify their body parts, learned about their life cycle, learned that only girl mosquitos actually bite/suck your blood, and a dozen other interesting facts about mosquitos that I didn’t know before either. Once my little one understood more about mosquitos, her fear was replaced with curiosity and excitement to share the knowledge she had gained. It was such a good reminder to me that even as adults I think it’s easy to fear what we don’t understand.
Some of our favorite places to take our classroom to are:
-The zoo! The kids love to bring their cameras and take lots of pictures while we are checking out the animals. They bring a little notebook and jot down notes about their favorite animals and when we get home we print off their pictures and they can write a report, create a diorama, sculpt an animal out of clay, paint a canvas of their favorite animal, whatever they can dream up! We’ve learned SO much about different animals this way! What they eat, where they live, and their rank on the food chain are always big hits.
-The grocery store! My kids love being involved in creating a menu plan, making a grocery list, and then keeping the groceries within the budget. They learn so many important life skills from these trips! Take it one step further and let them help with preparing the meal they chose. Learning to cook one meal at a time at Moms side is setting them up for so much success later in life. My adult kids have expressed so much appreciation for being taught to cook and clean while growing up! They were ready to live on their own when they moved out and many of their roommates haven’t been.
-State parks! We love exploring our local state parks and exploring in nature. What is your state known for? Battlefields? Native American tribes? Lewis and Clark exploration trails? Gold mining? Pinterest is also full of great ideas for nature scavenger hunts. You can print a list of birds and wildlife that are native to your area that you might encounter on your hike. Learning to identify plants/berries is fun and another important life skill.
-Botanical gardens! Our local botanical garden has fantastic field trips! They teach about plants, but also all about pollinators and the important roll they play in nature.
-Historical sites! We love visiting our state capital and seeing the beautiful interior/exterior of such a historical building. Find out the schedule so you can sit in and observe a legislative session or meet with a representative and ask them questions about their responsibility/duty or why they chose politics.
-War Museum! We love finding museums that are staffed by veterans. Their knowledge and stories are incredible and they make the history come alive! Often you can see original uniforms, weapons, machinery, and even aircraft’s! The stories of love, family, and dedication to our country help our children to understand the sacrifices made on our behalf.
-The library! We love utilizing our local library! They offer fun clubs and classes that are low cost or free. One of our favorite things to do is choose a book to read aloud as a family and then do a theme night when we finish. Sometimes that’s watching the movie version after we’ve read the book, sometimes it’s a themed meal together cooking something that was described in the book, sometimes it’s planning an event similar to one that happened in the book like a tea party.
-Your local police/fire station! Seeing a police car or fire truck up close is so exciting! Teaching your kids who the helpers/safe adults are is so important! Firefighters will help you create a fire safety plan for your home and discuss the importance of smoke detectors and fire alarms. See if your local department has a K-9 or police horse that the kids can meet!
The list is never ending! Museums, geological sites, the local courthouse, a radio/news station, a hardware store, there’s fun AND adventure to be found everywhere and learning together with my kids will forever be one of my favorite parts of motherhood ❤️
