The World is Your Classroom

When someone hears the word "classroom", most people have a very similar picture in mind. There is a room full of neatly organized desks, a whiteboard, books on shelves, cubbies, closets of supplies, colorful rugs and walls, and a teacher at the front of the room. However, what most people don't realize or consider, is that anything and everything around them can be part of their classroom. God created this world full of interesting and wonderful things, and He also gave people the wisdom to know how to put it all together and use what we have to better our lives. Letting your mind think down that pathway will open doors of ease and accessibility to accompany any curriculum you already have, or aid in your ability to teach your children at home. Let me show you what I mean.

- Grocery store: lessons in adding and subtracting money, comparing weight, counting change - Department store: percents for sale items - Your neighborhood/park/backyard: gardening, planting, harvesting, plant parts and growth, life cycles (butterfly, frog, birds, etc.), weather - Beach/lake/river: marine life characteristics, rocks and shells to teach erosion, tides, classifications of amphibians and reptiles - Woods/camping: types of trees and growth, forest animals and habitats, starting your own fire, weather/air/humidity/dew, food chains, photosynthesis - Field trips: battle fields/war museums, reenactments, aquariums, railroad museums, historic towns with demonstrations

This is just a short an inconclusive list of ideas for learning outside the classroom or house. With all of these things, vocabulary words can be pulled out and used as part of a lesson for spelling words and used in a report about your world experience. Probably one of the most important thing that would come from these out-of-the-house trips would be getting to practice social manners.  Teaching our children how to treat other people and interact with them and world around us in a godly manner is an important part of their adolescent lives. A couple years ago, my almost 3 year old may not have been able to sing the alphabet song correctly like his peers, but he knows appropriate times to say, "please", "thank you", "excuse me", "may I have..." as well as share with others, care when someone is sad or hurt, and gives compliments freely. If my children grow up with good hearts, a love for Jesus, and a respect for people, I feel like I will have done my job as their parent.

Take your children outside the house to enjoy what the Lord has put around us, and let the world be your classroom.

*June 2016