Homeschooling Inside Out
Part of what makes a bouquet of flowers so special is that it’s temporary. It’s a kind of extravagance, a luxury. And when it’s delivered in a setting where other people see, it’s like a loudspeaker blaring out that the recipient is special to someone. Yes, potted plants are nice too, but not the same.
Some of your homeschool projects can be temporary, too.
Years ago, my sister-in-law went away for a couple days and my brother was in charge of the boys. She left directions on what home school work should be covered.
Whatever the historical event was that they were studying, it got their substitute teacher thinking about the events that led up to it and how it changed things that came after. Being an action-oriented guy more so than a words man, he had an idea for a lesson plan of his own.
“Grab the chalk, I’ll get the measuring tape, and meet me in the driveway.”
As you can see from this old photo, they made a historical timeline. Increments were measured out evenly, and certain benchmark dates were inserted. BTW, the smiling brother still loves to design and build big things around his home in Alaska and the less excited looking bro uses his creative talents as more of an urban frontiersman in Florida.
It was a complete project – planning, calculating, doing. It was physical and active – a break from seat work and from the teacher explaining things.
It had a little bit of that special quality bouquets have - the “wow for now.” And friends of the boys envied that they got to do something so out of the ordinary with their dad.
Yes, they could have done it on paper and then they might still have it, like a potted plant.
There’s something in the back of the mind of all homeschoolers that nudges them to be sure that they’re doing it “right” or doing “enough.” Getting it down on paper helps satisfy that.
Having something to show for time and effort spent is important, but not everything has to be a report with resources cited, good topic sentences, and best penmanship.
One time when we were studying United States geography, we spray painted an outline of the border in our yard. I remember laying it out with the hose and a long rope we have, making adjustments, then pushing the hose/rope down so that when we took it up, the grass would be flattened where we needed to paint.
It’s not perfect – part of the Mississippi River runs through a patch of bad lawn, but we got it in, along with the Great Lakes and the Rockies and the Appalachian mountains.
Three cans of spray paint, a sunny day, and a great memory of having done something kind of crazy and fun in school that day – nice.
Full disclosure: I had the idea that a wooden fence would make a great timeline - one century every fourth plank, or something like that. And for addition, having the ones, tens and hundreds on their own planks would make place value a cinch. So I tried it on a neighbor’s (with permission) but the grain on their rustic fence kind of dented from the chalk so I had to sort of scrub at it and it was not the easy rinse that I expected. And, the parts I washed were cleaner than the rest so I had to lightly wash those planks from top to bottom. Whew.
All that to say that if you like the fence idea, do a test spot first. Me, I went with plan B and did a math problem on the sidewalk for the post pic.
Rain washed away the timeline and the lawn mower took our map, but the kids remember. Pictures were enough record-keeping for those projects.
And I hope you’ve got a few rose blooms pressed flat in the pages of some old heavy book somewhere.
