School is in Session {Though not in the Traditional Way}

Plenty of kids to change one tire.

   We have been doing a lot of learning around here. But not from textbooks.

There are so many other ways that kids can learn and often they learn even better by the hands-on, being there in first person, approach.

Here is some of the learning that has been going on around here:

 ~ One day last week when the kids and I were out at the land our tire went flat. The boys were quite excited. At last the would get to try jacking up the van and changing a tire. So they got the van jacked up by themselves (Megan helped too) and learned how to take the tire off and replace it (I did end up doing most of that work but they watched). That was a bit of practical learning that could definitely come in useful later in life.

 ~ The kids had a garage sale. As we have been preparing to move we have been going through things and we had a accumulated quite a few things (though nothing terribly exciting -most of our stuff is second hand so be the time it is sold it is 3rd hand) so I told the kids that if they wanted to run the garage sale (including set up, pricing, manning it and cleaning up) that they could have a large portion of the profits. The younger 3 took me up on the offer. Garage sales are a great learning tool. They can practice simple spelling and art in the making of signs. It is also a good time to practice good manners with greeting people as they come and working together.

 Being the cashier is a great time to practice adding skills (if we would have had more variety in our prices we could have upped the need to practice adding even more.  The kids also practiced using percentages as they figure out how much money they had taken in and then the percentage that would go to each party. Jonathan who says he doesn't like Math - had fun using it over and over again (he kept adding, dividing and announcing the current earnings of everybody).

 ~ Dominoes have been played which is a great method for practicing counting by fives and lots of adding.

   Mara helped me do flowers for a wedding which is great training should she ever want to be a florist in the future.

The kids have done a lot of work out at our property. They are now experienced roofers, can run power tools and swing a hammer when needed. These sort of skills they will likely find useful the rest of their lives.

  We will wait until after the move and Labor day before we actually pull out the school books but still I say- School is in Session.

   Do you try to really encourage your children learning throughout all of life?