Accidental Homeschool
Sep 7th, 2008 by Alicia
Every homeschooler knows that learning happens all the time. It’s easy to fall off the structured wagon and think you’re not doing anything, though. I am the queen of spin when it comes to turning everything into homeschooling! Here’s some accidental homeschooling we’ve done while avoiding anything schooly the past couple of days. 
- Victoria helped make dinner last night (stuffed shells– yum!)… Home Ec!
- While doing our Unplug Your Kids project, Victoria had to figure out how to do a perfect square for her quilt, so she measured her paper, figured out both sides had to be 8 1/2 ” and then needed to cut that number in half for some measurements… Math!
- One of Jack’s bedtime books (”Alicia Has a Bad Day” — my sister in law thinks she’s clever!) taught him the word “lugubrious” (dark and dreary)… Vocabulary!
- Daddy took the kids outside and did poi with them to give me a break… Physical Education!
- Anna did a sketch for Sketch Tuesday and had to correct her spelling of eraser and addition… Spelling!
- Daryl took the kids to the petroglyphs yesterday and they had a butterfly emerging from its chrysalis… Science!
- We watched Summer Magic, an old Disney movie with Hayley Mills from the 1960’s and Victoria was disgusted with the lessons the girls gave about how to get a boy– act ladylike, practice walking, don’t appear too smart, laugh at his jokes, look pretty and (yep, they really said this) don’t be yourself! Egads. Then we talked about how glad the girls are that they are not growing up in those times! … Social Studies!
- The girls have been writing in their blogs and doing email… Writing!
- I’ve been reading books to Jack and he’s memorized some of the words and is sounding out others. The girls read all the time on their own, too, of course… Reading!
And a bit of intentional homeschooling has happened too…
- Math: We did “beat the clock” with math flash cards for popsicles (addition for Jack, multiplication for Anna, division for Victoria).
- Art: We did sketches for one challenge and the kids are working on an art project for Unplug Your Kids.
- Music: Daryl has been giving Anna guitar lessons and Victoria dulcimer lessons.
I’m sure I could come up with more but I’ve got to go help with an art project. What accidental homeschooling have you been up to?
