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School on Wheels 3D!
School on Wheels 3D!
Nearly every person we meet asks us one question. So let’s get it out of the way straight off and avoid all those uncomfortable moments we both know are there and refuse to acknowledge. Yes, we Home school. Yes, All of them. Yes, it’s a lot of work, and yes my wife does most of it. But that’s just because she’s all excited about it whereas I’m more in the tolerating it category. Oh, don’t get me wrong, I enjoy reading to the kids and helping grade math homework or helping with some odd project here or there. But Home school means the children do their own work as soon as possible. I already passed the 6th grade and don’t have much left to prove. I’m glad to help my children pass it too, but I want them to do it on their own as much as possible. They need to use their noodle for themselves, learn their own way of doing whatever it takes to pass Algebra or who knows what. So long as they can read pretty good, write their names neat enough, and be able to apply fancy math to the real world, I think the rest will come pretty natural.
I went to college and was amazed how interesting everything was, even the stuff I found painfully dull way back when. For example: History was the most boring subject for me in school. I used to hate it because it simply meant memorizing lists of meaningless dates. That level of exactness just never set well with me. See, I’m more of what you would call a generalist. I generally understand when something happened and why. You can imagine how well I did on tests.
Anyway, what I figured out as an adult was that History is just stories about what used to happen, and the dates are only important in context. Like, Abraham Lincoln was shot around 1860. That’s only important if you know the civil war ended a short time before he died.
Now, here’s why I went on that short little rabbit trail about history. Did you know that history is alive? Not only can you learn about history in books, but if you’re really ambitious you can visit history too. You can look at Plymouth Rock (and see the date imprinted on it), or visit Monticello to get to know what inspired men like Thomas Jefferson. You can look at the North Church where there was 1 if by land, 2 if by sea. Instead of just reading about the Underground Railroad, or maybe the Civil War, you can visit the actual site and imagine what it was like way back when. There’s something amazing that happens when you do this. Instead of just a story that’s hard to relate to yourself, you are immersed in it, imagining yourself in the shoes that made hard choices still affecting us today.
That’s 3D homeschooling in a nutshell. History isn’t the only subject by the way, just an example. Math, Science, Language Arts, just about every subject benefits from this type of context. Finding that context goes a long way to making school not just another activity but a way of life.
Junior Ranger Jamboree
National Parks are pretty big places. Sometimes they are so massive you just can’t see it all in a single visit. Actually, I don’t know that you could ever see it all in some cases, such as the Grand Canyon, Yellowstone, and the Grand Tetons. That’s what’s cool about the Junior Ranger program. It breaks down this huge National Park into smaller more digestible bits that even children can get hold of.
My children love (and I mean LOVE) the Junior Ranger programs. I’m not certain why, but I believe they love the brain teasers, the real-world Where’s Waldo (except it’s more like Where’s the Plant or Animal). Most of all though it’s the sense of accomplishment when they are sworn in as Junior Rangers and given badges to celebrate that accomplishment. We have badges from so many parks, but they are still just as excited every time we visit a new National Park.
Maybe the big reason I love this program is the way it motivates my children to learn and explore, something I think is key to living a full life.
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