If I’m truly honest, one of the biggest drawbacks of homeschooling is the potential for isolation. Being proactive with our activity choices and creative with meeting our academic goals in fun ways can help beat the schoolhouse fever. Here are some ideas for social activities for homeschoolers that I find work well for my family.
Go Local
As a member of a local homeschool co-op, we often share what we do with friends and community members. Homeschool social groups like co-ops often travel for field trips and other fun activities (singing at the nursing home, historical society classes, local library classes) together. Our co-op directors frequently seek outside resources, which both brings people to us and causes us to go to out. We all love a little change in scenery at times. Additionally, some co-op leaders frequently speak at local community groups for other moms, church goers and newspapers. Getting the word out helps us all to feel a little more connected to the outside world.
Get Creative
An upcoming addition to our homeschool is blogging. To gain more practice writing complete sentences, gathering thoughts in a clear way, paraphrase other texts and to learn typing, my daughter will start her own blog and share it with family members. She gets to connect to the outside world in a fun and educational way. We will invite her relatives to reply to her blogs, too. This should be a fun time capsule of her fifth grade year and we will see where it goes in the future.
Social Media
Under a parent’s guidance, social media sites can be a fun way of connecting to the outside world. Our math texts often have simply survey questions used to practice tally marks or statistics skills. Whenever we come across these, I post the necessary question on my social media timeline and wait for the data to come to us. My kids enjoy hearing from friends around the world and it causes our math lesson to take a fun turn for the day.
Snail Mail
Make the most of the lessons you are already teaching; topics like geography. We started a postcard scrapbook. I printed off a list of all of the US states as well as a simple map then taped both of those to the back of our scrapbook. Then, we have contacted our friends from around the nation and asked for a simple postcard. It might take some time to complete our collection, but it will get there and be a fun journey in the process. As we do this, we are learning a little geography and connecting with friends and family. Having relatives in Hawaii and Alaska help, too!
Be Literal
In our attempt at connecting to the outside world, literally getting outside is often overlooked! I find myself forgetting that there are countless undiscovered lesson plans in my own backyard and we should carry out little microscope to the back porch and see what’s there. Plus, our freedom to go outside is one of the greatest perks of homeschooling ever. Gardening – whether in your yard or in a community garden – is a productive (pun intended), fun and easy way to connect with the outside world, too.
Despite the rising numbers of homeschoolers nationwide, each year I see fewer and fewer local peers continue to homeschool, either they move away or simply choose other methods of schooling. When we make an effort to connect with the outside world, we are casting our nets out wider in search of more families to befriend.
Lindsay Banton is a caffeinated mother to three great kids. She never expected to homeschool, but has found that it is a wonderful addition to their lifestyle and wouldn’t change it for the world. In addition to homeschooling, Lindsay works alongside her husband in campus ministry at a large university in Connecticut. She grew up in Virginia but has settled into life in New England, learning to love the long winters, cool springs, green summers and gorgeous autumns- and has built a boot collection to meet all the demands. She is currently blogging at www.oaksreplanted.blogspot.com.