Welcome to The Homeschool Village’s first ever Tour of Home{schools}! We are so excited that you stopped in. We hope that you will find encouragement and ideas for all types of spaces, styles and personalities.
Have you ever taken learning outdoors? If you haven’t, you have missed the opportunity to have the perfect Charlotte Mason classroom, with creation as the teacher.
In my fourteen years of homeschooling, I have taken learning outdoors again and again, giving lasting memories to my children and myself that would have easily slipped away in the normal setting of homeschool.
I would love to share with you, how the outdoors is the perfect Charlotte Mason classroom and could even become a quick favorite to your family, as well.
There is always a time and place for book learning, especially for those who already struggle with paying attention or being diligent in their studies. There is also a time for outdoor learning, the kind that comes from observation, exploring and discovery. First hand accounts open up the world of wonder to children in a way that book learning just can’t do.
Here are some ways that you can turn the outdoors, into the perfect Charlotte Mason classroom (regardless of your curriculum choice):
Nature
The obvious way to turn the outdoors into a classroom is to study nature. This doesn’t mean that you have to stay within your own home boundaries, but taking advantage of the parks around your area. I would recommend using the terms: observe, explore and discover in your outdoor classroom and giving the children the opportunity to allow nature to be their teacher. Once the skill of observation is allowed to heighten, your children will begin to see things that they may have never noticed before, willingly trying to learn what they can about their new discovery and desiring to explore more of the world around them.
Once you have found some nature to explore and observe, you can dig deeper. We love to take our cameras on nature walks, so that we can capture what we discover and learn more when we return home. Our field guides are always being used to discover more of what we found on our walks and opening the world of learning to their eager minds. We also do a lot of journaling with our nature finds. This can easily be done in the outdoors or later at home.
Lastly, you can begin to build collections of rocks, flowers, feathers, leaves or odds and ends of nature.
History
With three boys in our home, the outdoors becomes the perfect place for them to re-enact their lessons in history. My oldest son was 15 years old, when he became inspired by a visit to Jamestown and returned home to build a fort in our woods, modeled after the fort at Jamestown. My boys love to re-enact battles, wars and famous men of American history.
Reading
Reading outdoors is a wonderful thing for children and adults. I love reading adventurous books in the open area, along with some poetry of nature. I have great memories of reading to my older children, while they were on a blanket, enjoying their picnic lunch. Giving them the opportunity to orally narrate will demonstrate that it is possible to keep the attention of a child, while outdoors, where you may not have been able to keep their attention indoors.
May you find inspiration to discover, explore and observe in a classroom that is often times overlooked, but forever a lasting lesson for all those who have allow creation to be their teacher.
A special thank you to our series sponsor, See The Light.
This post was written by:
Dollie Freeman, is a veteran homeschooler who has educated her children with the Charlotte Mason way from preschool through high school. She shares about finding joy in the everyday of home, family and homeschool on her blog, Teachers of Good Things.
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