Fun learning

  We are homeschoolers and as such we want our children to learn all the basics plus some things that aren't so basic. We use a regular curriculum for some of their learning and other parts are done in whatever way we think is best.

 Some of my favorite ways to teach (and their favorite ways to learn) are fairly spontaneous or relaxed. I thought I would share a few of our fun learning moments today. Learning that is fun certianly works for me!

My latest bright idea was actually figuring out how to get the kids to work, learn and have fun all at the same time. Television or movies are very rare for the kids and I to watch so when I found some educational videos at the library they were quite excited. Folding clothes is one of their least favorite chores but it needed to be done so I told them to each sit down with some space around them for working and then I turned the video on and then I sorted through the clothes, giving each one (except not really Megan, she basically just folded napkins) their own clothes to fold plus other things that they were capable of doing.

   The kids weren't at first weren't so sure about folding clothes while watching but it went well and at the end their comment was "We don't have any more to fold?!" It went very smoothly and we all had fun.

  The video series that I have been enjoying getting from the Library (we have watched 3 so far) is called "The Trials of Life" hosted by David Attenborough. It is about the natural world. This last one was on how various animals find food, the one we watched before was about how some animals court. We have found them fascinating! It always leaves me completely in awe of our Wonderful God and Creator. I am always careful to watch the videos with the kids so that I can catch and then discuss anything that might be thrown in concerning Evolution or an old earth (neither of which I agree with) but I think so far in the 3 videos we have seen there has only been I believe one comment on "millions of years".

  Another of our recent educational experiences was attending a gubernatorial candidates forum. Ken had been majorly involved in organizing the event and also was one of the moderators (and he did a great job as usual!) and so we had talked of this event quite a bit before it happened and the kids decided they would really like to go. We hadn't been sure we would take them as it was to be talking for 2 hours.

   It would be fun to report that our kids listened, were very interested and never wiggled. That didn't quite happen but they did get stuff out of it anyway. :-) However the real learning happened that night after they were in bed , I was standing in between their two doorways (their rooms are right next to each other) and we had sang and prayed and then as commonly happens they like to visit a little. They started asking questions about how the whole process works, how you go to caucus, become a delegate to the county convention, and then are elected delegate to district and state where you finally endorse the candidates and then they run against the candidates of the opposing party. The kids had tons of questions and judging from conversations since I think they understood a lot too. (Though I guess I didn't explain about age limitations because last night Jonathan wanted to go to caucus so he could become a delegate.)

   It is always fun for me to see how learning situations can pop up at any time and when they do usually the lesson will sink in much better than if just learned in some workbook.

  Another fun bit of learning I got to witness this week was Mara teaching Aaron the beginnings of playing the piano. I love seeing the kids teach each other. It is neat not to always be the teacher.

Have you and your family been having fun learning at your house?