Boxed curriculum and textbooks are very helpful, but nothing can beat real life experiences.  When you tap into a child’s interests, you touch their heart.

My kids still talk about the free frog that we found in our yard and had as a pet for a few weeks.  We did a homeschool unit on frogs and learned about metamorphosis.  It was also a great chance to use our Safari Life cycle set, and to play with some sensory bins.  The kids are constantly asking when we can have a frog again.  Maybe we’ll start with tadpoles this time?

Frog maintenance tip- put a piece of fruit in his aquarium and wait for the fruit flies to hatch.  We also fed him crickets.

Last summer, our VBS theme at church was about space.  To help my kids prepare, we did a homeschool unit about the universe.  We talked about how the sun is a star and the planets that orbit around it.  We measured the fabric sun with pony beads and talked about how the sun is 109 times bigger than the earth.  The kids practiced their spooning skills by transferring marbles out of rice.  By the time VBS started, the kids had a good base knowledge about space stuff.

A scheduled trip to the eye doctor (or any other specialist) can be another opportunity to study something relating to real life.  The week that Dragonfly went to the eye doctor, we studied the human eye.  We watched a lot of videos about the eye doctor exam, and looked at a model of the eye.  We also talked about the parts of the eye.  Dragonfly rocked her eye exam with very little anxiety because of all the “Science Girl” stuff we had done before the appointment.

No matter what life throws your way, find a way to make it a learning opportunity.  Please comment below about way that you have used real life to inspire your homeschool lessons.

To see what other wonderful ideas Missy has visit her blog In Our Pond