Homeschoolers: What are some creative, out-of-the-box educational and social things that you do?

Question

Tired of all the homeschool bashing?

Now for something completely different!

What are some cool, creative and out-of-the-box things that you do or have done for academics or extracurricular that one would not generally have the opportunity to do if not homeschooled?

Here is one (of many) of ours: We visited a large lumber mill and got a tour. Plus, we asked them for a slice of a large tree (they gave it to us although we were willing to pay). Then, we created an historical timeline on the tree rings going all the way back to the founding of our great country.

Non-homeschoolers: Please don't use this question as an opportunity to put us down!

Answer 1

Here are some of the things we have done:

We created new kinds of cards for role playing games, like for pokemon...they designed them, drew them out planned what kinds of attacks and defense ect...

Created an ecosystem in a tank.  They wanted to recreate the river ecosystem nearby.  They observed it, took the water from it, plants, some minnows, frogs, bugs ect...  They recreated it and studied it everyday with me observing them.  They took notes.  In a couple of days the minnows had died and they had to figure out why or what they missed in recreating it.  They learned alot about what it takes to have an ecosystem thrive

Create our own board games based on a subject

Use certain video games like the Sims to help teach about house designing, basic living needs, interior designing, responsibility  ect.....

Field trips are more enjoyable when they are hands on.  Some of the places we have been too;

We went to a quarry and excavated fish fossils.  

Ghost towns, where the children saw and got to walk around and get an idea of life back then.  

An old Fort that had some house and building that were reconstructed.  

A Zoo, the beach, dinosaur museum, and Planeterium

Answer 2

I started going to an old folks home to listen to their stories about when they were young, and basically give them some company that they needed desperately. That was definitely a rewarding experience.

And, I get to go to loads of museums, and I spend a lot of time doing science on the weekends with my step-father, conducting experiments and stuff.

One of the things I really enjoy is watching meteor showers, and other astronomical things happening in the night sky.

I've also joined a lot of clubs and made loads of friends.

On top of that, I do ballet classes, and go to regular distance ed excursions. :)

Answer 3

DS and I both participated in focus groups at our city's science museum.  They wanted a representative from the HS'ing community and asked us - what an honor...but we practically lived there :-).  That is also one great thing - spending time at museums when they are NOT busy.  Everytime DS sees a B&M school group on a field trip he gets really, really, sad for the kids.  They have very little time to really enjoy the place, and pretty much all they do is goof off (his view, not mine).

We also had a private Monarch Watch tagging session where DS was able to tag his own butterfly and discuss at length the process with the docent.  While we were there, a school group came and only had 30 minutes to view the butterfly garden and see a tagging demonstration where the docent tagged one butterfly.  The kids didn't get their own.  We stayed at the botanical garden for three hours - one full hour just with the docent!  :-)

At age five, my son was asked to give a speech to the YMCA board.  Yet again, he was hand-picked.  He gave a speech he'd written the week before for a Language Arts assignment.  The entire board of 30 people were knocked off their socks that one, he wrote it, two, he read it, and three, he used all the rules of effective public speaking.  :-)  I know I sure couldn't have done that well in 1st grade!  I didn't have speech until college!...and even then didn't do so hot!  

Just today DS asked me, "So, mom, when did you learn about Picasso, Matisse, and the other artists and styles (recently cubism) we've been studying?" (5th year of art history/methods/artists) I told him never.  I never heard of the artists (save Picasso...but didn't know anything about him) or the methods *ever* in school.  It's the same with a lot of the world history we've learned in 5 yrs.  I told him how art, history, and music (I learn w/ him there - solfege and Kodaly methods) were just not important in my public schools...nor are they today.  He chimed in that he gets to learn SO much more science, also.

I have so many more of these stories, but those are all I can think of off the top of my head.

Oh, one more great thing - we get to volunteer locally and globally - we are the stateside office of some missionary friends.  DS gets to help with all aspects of that.

Answer 4

Our local homeschool group gets together with a young man who has begun to produce movies for a living.

He teaches the kids to write a script, build the scenery, act, direct, do lights, etc. Then the kids edit it and put it all together.

Last year they entered it into a couple film festivals and won awards for the under 14 catagories!  

My kids have also been extras in a movie.

Answer 5

We travel whenever and wherever we want. That's our biggest joy, to just pack up and head 1000 miles away to the beach.

We visit lots of different types of factories, although I'm almost embarrassed to admit that everyone's favorite was the Budweiser factory in Colorado...but only because they had free sodas and snacks for the kids after the tour (and it was cool seeing how fast the cans whiz by on the tracks...and it was snowing....and we got to see the horses) They liked the celestial seasonings one as well...because of the big boxes of tea being shaken and free samples. lol!

Answer 6

We have had pyjama days and crazy hair days, inviting other homeschoolers over to participate. All I can think of at the moment.

Answer 7

im not a homeschooler but wish to be one. you guys sound like your are the most blessed students in the world. there is nothing like family and i would love to spend more time with my child. i would love to be the one to teach my child morals and the facts of life instead of some stranger. i wish u all the best and hope to join you soon.

Answer 8

I have been homeschooling my children for years ..go here to find out what I use and how it works for me

http://homeschoolanswers.blogspot.com

All homeschoolers are free to share information there as well. I support all home schooling.

I have a son that graduated from an on line charter school that now attends a private university with scholarships. It does work !

http://homeschoolanswers.blogspot.com

Answer 9

We've got an awesome, elderly friend who is a photography geek. Once a month or so we go and visit him and we develop our photos with him and do some fun stuff in his dark room.

We're crossing our fingers that our neighbours pond will freeze for skating this winter.

In our history club we're working on making Roman pottery which everyone loves.

Added:

I just read HS Mom's bit about artists and thought of another thing to write about.

Last spring my four year old was doing some Picasso related stuff in his art class. My other kids thought it sounded like fun so they painted/drew portraits Picasso style and sold a few at a roadside stall they have where they sell cheese, baking, place mats, fresh fruit and anything else they can think of.

I help run science and history clubs and am always looking for ideas so this is an awesome question.

Answer 10

The tree ring time line sounds so neat!

Our government co-op class paged in the State Senate and House for a full day. The older kids paged in the Senate because of age restrictions (15 and up) and the younger group (13 through 14 years of age) paged in the House. I know for sure that none of our local schools down here have done this. The kids were surprised by many of the things they saw that day. They were a bit shocked at how little the Sentors seemed to pay attention in the afternoon on the Senate floor. LOL. I guess they had all decided already what they were going to vote, so listening to floor debate didn't engage them much. However, the debating was very hot and heavy in the committees! They learned how prevalent special interests groups were in lobbying. Most of what they did was deliver messages from lobbyists to the specified lawmaker during the floor debate time. They enjoyed getting to know their own representatives a bit that day. Each of them got a picture of themselves with their representative. That was a neat momento. Some of the kids managed to find time to see the judges chambers. A member at our church is a judge on the state Supreme Court. Unfortunately my kids didn't get to fit that in their schedule that day.

One of our chemistry class fieldtrips was to a plastics manufacturer. The kids had an interview with the chemist. They really enjoyed learning more about ploymers and seeing how their labs looked scaled up to full manuafcturing scale. The chemist was really impressed with the kids. Mmmm, I didn't think about this when I was answering that lab assistant's question. I think I will add it as an edit over there. LOL.

Our biology co-op has tracked our stream conditions for long-term patterns. The kids have collected regular chemical and organism data. Most schools do not have streams or if they did the public location means that it is very likely to be spoiled due to abuse. Ours is a stretch of private stream, so the conditions reflect natural conditions.

Edit - I thought of some more!

Getting to e-notebook 4th through 6th grade, 3 years worth of learning. I really don't think that a public school teacher would have done e-notebooking with a class and it would be even more unlikely that two more years worth of teachers would have continued it if it had been begun. E-notebooking is taking all of the school studies and creating web-page-like records of the learning that occurs. The pages are linked with links like a webpage and the content can have any of the things that you find in webpages (video, audio, links to files, etc). These e-notebooks are full of writing, labs, concept maps, reflections on learning, etc. It was a lot of fun and these are treasured momentos.

Exploring concept mapping across the curriculum for a full year, 7th grade. My son really dug into the idea of concept mapping and often found that creating the concept maps were more helpful to his comprehension than any other method. In public school, he likely would have been stuck with whatever method the curriculum dictated to apply his learning. With the concept maps last year, he was in charge of selecting what he found worked for him.

Study of computer-related subjects that our local, rural school would never have gotten into such as Blender (3-D computer graphics and animation program), Game Modding (gives a creative side to the art of gaming), Forum Design and Management, Computer Building and Maintenance, HTML, Photomanipulation, and Digital Painting.

Being in live, online classes with kids from Canada, Hawaii, and all over the continental U.S.

Answer 11

My daughter planted a huge garden and started school early this year. She did research and predictions on how large and how high her sunflowers would grow. She had so much fun then had the fresh veggies to eat for dinner! It was a lot of fun for both of us.

Answer 12

Sorry don,t have a new idea, but thanks all for the great tips. My niece wil love doing most of these