Stress Free Homeschooling Ideas

In light of all the new homeschoolers out there, I thought I would put together a list of educational activities that don’t require you to purchase any curriculum, are fun, and most can be done without a parent’s help.

Fun, Free, Homeschool, Learning Activities

  1. Work on Life Skills. Learn how to:
    • Cook
    • Do Laundry
    • Check the oil in the car
    • Change a Tire
    • Paint a room
    • Budget
    • Grocery shopping online
    • Make a meal plan with a budget, then shop online
    • Banking online
    • Home repair
    • Mow the lawn
    • Start a garden
  2. PE Ideas
    • Online exercise video
    • Family Olympics
    • Obstacle course
    • Train for a 5K together
    • Bike rides
    • Roller skating/blading, skateboarding
    • Family game of basketball, soccer, football
    • Google different ways to play tag, and have a family game of tag
  3. Learn about Outer-space
    • Learn the constellations
    • Research the planets
    • Family stargazing party
    • Visit https://www.nasa.gov/
    • Learn about the phases of the moon
    • Go for a walk in the full moon.
    • Look at the moon with binoculars or a telescope
  4. Do some Family History
    • Write down favorite family stories
    • Write your personal history
    • Organize family photos
    • Make a slide show of favorite family pictures and/or videos
    • Interview Grandparents, Aunts, and Uncles
    • Type up their stories
    • Research where your parents/Grandparents/Great-grandparents were raised
    • Learn how to use Family Search. (It’s free) https://www.familysearch.org/register/custom/1
    • Make a book of one of your ancestors, include pictures, and stories
  5. Do something kind for your neighbors
    • Plant some flowers
    • Shovel/sweep their side walk
    • Cover their door with hearts and kind messages
    • Rake/mow their lawn
    • Wash their windows
    • Go caroling, sing fun songs
    • Walk their dog
  6. Nature Ideas
    • Go for a nature walk, everyone bring back something you found and research more about it.
    • Have a nature scavenger hunt.
    • Put up a bird feeder in your yard.
    • Research and record the birds that come to the feeder. What do they like to eat?  How can you attract other birds to your yard or feeder?
    • Go bird watching
    • On YouTube listen to bird songs of local birds so you can identify them.
    • Start a nature collection, i.e.: leaves, rocks, feathers, bugs, bark rubbings, wildflowers
    • Research the wildlife that live in your area. Look for evidence of them where you live, i.e.: scat, tracks, fur.
    • Keep a nature journal
    • Learn about native plants around you. See how many you can identify.
    • Document the weather and temperature each day.
    • Learn about weather prediction and patterns
    • Watch the clouds, find shapes, and research types of clouds
  7. All about books
    • Book club with family or online. Everyone reads the same book and then you discuss it.
    • Book Party with family or online. Everyone brings their favorite book and gives a brief synopsis of the book and tells why it is their favorite.
    • Write and illustrate your own book.
    • Illustrate your favorite story or book
    • Research your favorite book. Where did the author get the idea?
    • Join a fan club centered around your favorite book.
    • Write a story that offshoots your favorite book, or continue the story.
    • Make a mini movie of your favorite book
    • Research your favorite author/s.
    • Read other books by your favorite authors.
    • Create your own fantasy world. Write stories about it, create a language, customs, maps, style of dress, mythical creatures, magical powers etc.
    • Have a read-a-thon complete with snacks
    • Listen to an audio book in a homemade fort.
    • Be a book character and have others ask questions to figure out who you are.
    • Write your own graphic novel or turn your favorite book into a graphic novel.
    • Read a book then watch the movie. Compare the two and have a family discussion about the similarities and differences.
    • Write a letter to your favorite author.
  8. Watch How Things are Made on YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCELt4nocnWDEnYJmov4zqyA
  9. Watch science videos on YouTube
  10. Google Easy Science experiments and do your favorites.
  11. Make a family newspaper to send to friends and neighbors, ideas for articles could include: things you have learned for school, family news and activities with pictures, weather report, recipes.
  12. Learn more about your favorite animal.
  13. Math games, you can find a lot of ideas online
  14. Plan a family vacation you can take after this is over. Research the area, find fun things to do, plan a budget for your vacation, and plan travel time.
  15. Keep a journal
  16. Family game tournament. Chess, checkers, dominoes, Yahtzee
  17. Learn stop motion photography.
  18. Make a claymation movie.
  19. Memorize the continents.
  20. Memorize the countries on a continent.
  21. Memorize the 50 states.
  22. Make a map of your neighborhood.
  23. Make a map of an imaginary country.
  24. Learn about how movies are made.
  25. Research how your favorite movie was made.
  26. Learn how cartoons are made.
  27. Make your own cartoon.
  28. Learn about an event in history and make a movie about it.
  29. Read to a younger sibling or to your cousin or grandparents over Facetime.
  30. Write to a pen pal, with everyone homeschooling it should be easy to find someone willing to write back.
  31. Start a family Youtube channel. You could share recipes, book reviews, movie reviews etc.
  32. Start a podcast
  33. Design and draw your dream home.
  34. Study church history. Learn more about a specific person or time period.
  35. Learn Morse Code as a family and leave each other secret messages all over the house.
  36. Learn about other codes
  37. Create your own secret code and share it with a friend. Write secret messages to each other.
  38. Learn a new language. (There are many apps now to help you learn a new language)
  39. Memorize your favorite poem
  40. Have a tea party and everyone share their favorite poem or one they have memorized
  41. Look up what happened this day in history. What happened the year you were born, the year your parents or grandparents were a born?
  42. Make a soap or wood carving.
  43. Get a house plant and research how to take care of it. How much water, sun, and fertilizer does it need?
  44. Read stories from Greek, Roman, Native American, or Norse mythology.
    • Write your own mythology story.
  1. Host a family or online Geography Bee with your friends.
  2. Host a family or online Spelling Bee.
  3. Learn how to do origami.
  4. Play store. Give everyone monopoly money and have fun!
  5. Research your dream job. What would you do on a daily basis? How much would you make?
  6. Research your dream place to live. How much does a house or an apartment cost?  What is the cost of living in that area?
  7. Research the type of car you want to buy.
  8. Play school. Take turns being the teacher and teach something to your siblings, friends, or cousins online.
  9. Learn to do paper mâché. (There are a lot of great tutorials on Youtube about paper mâché.)
  10. Make a vision board.
  11. Make a collage
  12. Make a diorama
  13. Make sock puppets or paper puppets
  14. Make a puppet theater and put on a play
  15. Learn to make shadow puppets, and a shadow puppet theater.
  16. Make a life-size version of yourself. Lay down and have someone trace the outline of your body, and then color it.
  17. Learn the systems of the body.
  18. Learn how to take your pulse.
  19. Write a song.
  20. Study a famous artist, composer, sculpture, mathematician, zoologist, astronomer, author, botanist, actor, scientist, or world leader.
  21. ACT or SAT prep
  22. Learn how and write your own resume’.
  23. Practice and have a pretend job interview.
  24. Watch a movie based on actual events, then research more about that event. Was the movie accurate?
  25. Research a pet you would like to own.
  26. Study backyard homesteading.
  27. Learn outdoor survival skills.
  28. Build something with Legos or wooden blocks
  29. Have a family art exhibit.
  30. Have a photography scavenger hunt.
  31. Learn to knit or crochet.
  32. Make paper airplanes. Have a contest to see whose can fly the farthest.
  33. Make play-dough.
  34. Make slime.
  35. Research your favorite sport, sports team, or player.
  36. Measure things.
  37. Weigh things
  38. Play sink or float. In a large bowl of water put small objects in the water. Before putting the object in the water guess if it will sink or float.
  39. Using magnets go around the house and see what the magnet sticks to.
  40. Learn how to solve a Rubik’s Cube.
  41. Look up riddles to solve.
  42. Design your dream outfit.
  43. Design a whole clothing line.
  44. Learn to sew something.
  45. Lean more about photography.
  46. Tour a museum online.
  47. Read the news online.
  48. Explore the world with Google Earth
  49. Research a country. Learn their customs, dress, products, and food.
  50. Have a culture night, dress like and eat foods from the country you studied
  51. Research the biggest man-made structures in the world.
  52. Research the natural wonders of the world.
  53. Learn about your favorite sea animals.
  54. Read the Declaration of Independence
  55. Read the Constitution of the United States
  56. Learn more about your state.
  57. Learn more about the city you live in. When was it founded, and who were the first people that lived there?
  58. Write a ”Thank You” note to someone.
  59. Watch an online music tutorial for an instrument you own and can practice.
  60. Learn to make a PowerPoint presentation.
  61. Learn to write computer code.

 

Homeschool Interview

The very lovely and sweet Elizabeth Riley interviewed me about homeschool for her blog.  I was honored to be featured with so many other great women that she has interviewed about homeschooling.  You can read the other interviews by clicking here.  I thought I would share a portion of our interview and then you can click over to her blog to read the rest.  Thanks for reading!

64 Degrees North | Kim Lowry Photography

What are your long-term education goals for your family?  My long-term educational goals for my family are that everyone knows how to learn, that they love to learn, and that they continue to learn for the rest of their lives.  I think that if you know how to learn and you love to learn there isn’t anything in the world, especially now with technology the way it is, that you can’t teach yourself.  So many people have self-defeating ideas that learning can only take place in a classroom and that learning isn’t necessary after you graduate from school.  But, to me learning is fun, it’s exciting, it helps me become better, it helps me grow and do new things.  It helps me fulfill my dreams.  Learning has meaning and purpose, and it benefits you and all those around you.

What do you love most about homeschooling?  I love that I get to spend time with my children.  I love that I get to help them discover the joy of learning.   I also get to watch their passions and dreams materialize, and I get to help them work toward those dreams. I also love that I get to learn right along with my children.

Click over to Elizabeth’s blog to see why I homeschool, what our daily schedule looks like, how I teach different ages, and to read an interview I did with my 20 year old daughter about her homeschooling experience.  You can read the full interview here.

Leave me a comment.  I would love to hear your thoughts and/or questions!

Laddie, A True Blue Story

Laddie:  A True Blue Story

I’m so excited to finally be  participating in “A Year in Books” over at the lovely blog A Circle of Pine Trees.  Every month she writes a post about a book she is  planning to read that month and then she has a link up so everyone else can share the books they are reading as well.  I found her blog almost a year ago and have planned on joining every month, but this is the first time I’ve actually done it.  Also, I couldn’t be more thrilled with the book I am reading this month. Laddie: A True Blue Story, is one of my all time favorite books and picking it up again is like being reunited with a best friend.  Oh, how I have missed Little Sister and her big brother Laddie.

I am rereading Laddie this month for a book club I am hosting and I can’t wait for the discussion.    It’s going to be a great one.  There are so many lessons to learn from from this book, everything from statesmanship and education, to family unity and faith in God.  It’s wonderful to become reacquainted with all the characters; the parents because of  the great examples they were to all who knew them,  Laddie because of what an outstanding, hardworking, upright man he was, and  Little Sister and her love of the outdoors and faith in God.

I am also putting this at the top of our list for our next family read aloud.  I can’t believe I haven’t read this to my kids yet.

Last month, I read  another of my all time favorite books,  A Thomas Jefferson Education: Teaching a Generation of Leaders for the Twenty-First Century, by Oliver DeMille.  In this book, Oliver addresses the myth that one person can educate another person.  We can inspire others to learn through great teaching and mentoring, but ultimately the education we get is up to us.  Oliver also outlines the the phases of learning and the 7 keys to great teaching.  The principles outlined in this book are what I use in my home for homeschooling my children.  It was great to reread it again and to be reminded and inspired about why I do what I do every day in homeschooling my children.

Linked at:

Circle of Pine Trees

Homeschool Rules!

 

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“Schoolhouses are made wrong. If they must be, they should be built in a woods pasture beside a stream, where you could wade, swim, and be comfortable in summer, and slide and skate in winter. The windows should be cut to the floor, and stand wide open, so the birds and butterflies could pass through. You ought to learn your geography by climbing a hill, walking through a valley, wading creeks, making islands in them, and promontories, capes, and peninsulas along the bank. You should do your arithmetic sitting under trees adding hickory-nuts, subtracting walnuts, multiplying butternuts, and dividing hazelnuts. You could use apples for fractions, and tin cups for liquid measure. You could spell everything in sight and this would teach you the words that are really used in the world.”                                                                         –Gene Stratton-Porter, (Laddie p.260)

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Some Thoughts on Homeschool

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I’ve been homeschooling my children now for 8 years.  You’d think I would have this homeschooling thing all figured out by now, but I don’t.  Each of my children are different and each year brings new challenges as my children learn and grow and change, and although I don’t have everything figured out here are a few of the things that I do:

  1. Children learn much more and retain so much more if they are learning about something that they have chosen to learn about.
  2. Homeschool isn’t something you do for a few hours in the morning.  Homeschooling is a way of life.
  3. Education should be about becoming a better person, not just about getting a job. The kind of person they become is much more important to me than the profession that they choose.
  4. No two people are the same, so no two people should have the exact same education.
  5. Everyone is different and has their own timetable, so no one can/should be compared to anyone else.
  6. I’m learning to trust my children in their interests, and to let go of my preconceived notions of what I think they should be learning.
  7. I’ve leaned not to say no, when they come up with an idea that I think is impossible.  They learn best by experimenting and trying, even if their idea fails, it can be a very valuable learning experience.
  8. Sometimes the most valuable lessons learned in a day have nothing what-so-ever to do with academics.
  9. As the parent you are the expert in your home.  No one knows your children and what they need as well as you do.
  10. EVERYONE is a genius.
  11. Children are naturally curious and love to learn.  The parents’ job is to create the right atmosphere for learning to take place, including mentoring and modeling what they want their children to do.  When the right atmosphere is created, children naturally take off on their own.

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500 Books Read

I made this chart 5 years ago.  A chart to log 500 books read by the Lowry family.   I started it as a motivation to get everyone in our family to read.  I’ve never had a problem getting Tabetha to read, but my boys were a bit more reluctant.

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How it worked was, each time someone read a book they wrote the name of the book on the poster and then colored in one of the squares in their color. Everyone had a different color to represent them.  I am red, Shawn green, Jarom black, etc.

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Tabetha was pink.  Tabetha wasn’t very good at logging her books.  If she had been we would have been done years ago.  About once a year, she would write down a list of the books she could remember that she had read recently, and she would color her squares in.   I’m glad she  didn’t record everything she read, because it gave everyone else the chance to work for it.

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 I told the kids when we completed the chart and read 500 books we would go to Anchorage and go to H2Oasis.  (It’s an indoor water park.)

  I chose 500 books because I didn’t want it to be something we could just finish in a month or two, without any real effort.  I wanted it to be something that we all  had to work for and, when we were done we could say, “Wow, we really did something great,” and feel a real sense of accomplishment.

This poster has been on my back door now for 5 years, reminding everyone to read.

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Well, yesterday we finally completed our chart.

Yay, we did something awesome.! We read over 500 books as a family!  

H2Oasis here we come!

 I’ll post a list of the books I read soon.

Are all your children avid readers or do you have to find creative ways to motivate some of them to read?

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