One
of the BEST reasons to homeschool is the ability to get out into the
community with your children during the daytime. Lines are shorter.
There are way less crowds to deal with. Plus, you and the kids will
have so much more energy to go off exploring in the daytime, instead of
waiting until they've already done 8 hours of school and trying to wedge
it in those oh-so-short after school hours.
But
maybe you're wondering just what community outings I'm talking about.
With three very different kids, we’ve had a lot of different
experiences. And, since the Air Force moved us several times, we had
the opportunity to discover more cool activities in new communities. Now
that my kids are grown, we can wander back down memory lane and see
some if any of these ideas might inspire you!
We
started homeschooling in Alaska. The kids played in a hockey league and
a Coaches Pitch baseball league. They tried Indian Princess and started
in Girl Scouts and Cub Scouts. Each of the scout troops took them out
into the community, especially for service. All three joined the
Sunshine Generation, a group that sang and performed in parades, malls,
nursing homes. We went to the start of the Iditarod, and followed our
neighbor who was mushing. We helped our friends with their 14 sled dogs
and went on the trails with them mushing. We ice skated at the mall,
took monthly classes at the Eagle River Nature Center, the Anchorage
Museum, and the Imaginarium (a hands-on Science museum). AND, we got to
stay as long as we wanted instead of being hustled back into the bus
after just dipping our toes in those different explorations. Our
veterinarian let us watch our cats be spayed and declawed. We learned
about how the cat's body works, including how quickly their pads pink up
when the oxygen level is increased. We went to the Earthquake Museum
and talked to people who lived through the Quake of '62. We saw baby
polar bears at the Zoo, bald eagles at Homer Spit, and penguins at
Seward. We swam at the indoor pool during the daytime, took ceramics
class, went to the Opera, and listened to a Symphony. We spotted belugas
and 20 foot tides in Turnagain Arm, salmon jumping in the air from the
Russian River, and Native Alaskan history in Ketchikan. We picked
berries in the mountains, talked to artisans in Girdwood, and pet a baby
octopus who was living in a tank the Cordova Visitor Center, We went on
a whale watching excursion and we survived a drunk ferry captain in
Valdez. We camped and hiked and ice fished and built snow-caves. We went
to Denali and saw grizzly bears. We saw black bears in our campground
there! We gasped for air when we dipped our feet in the icy Chena River
in Fairbanks and stopped off to hear elves working in Santa's workshop
in North Pole.
When
we moved to California from Alaska, we took the Ferry, a 3 day ride. We
went to the Fish Market in Seattle and hiked around Mt. St. Helen's
volcano. We drove through redwoods – yes, the forests, but also some of
the trees that were big enough that cars drove through their trunks!
We picked apples in Sebastapol, saw where The Birds was filmed in
Bodega Bay - and watched people's tents blow into the ocean when they
couldn't withstand the wind. We got carsick on Hwy 1, touched stingrays
at the aquarium and saw sea lions in Monterrey Bay. We went to park
days that lasted all day and astronomy outings that lasted all night. We
camped on the beach in Santa Barbara and drank Fig Shakes on Seal
Beach. We took Mad Science classes at the Library and more classes at
various science and art museums nearby. A "museum pass" could get us
into any museum in California – including the big ones down in San
Francisco, so we went there too! We saw Alcatraz and walked on the
Golden Gate Bridge. We took a 108 foot Square Rigger named the Gaslight
on the San Francisco Bay, and Michael and Ron spent the night with a
group at Angel Island, reliving history. We ran the spotlight and the
Tinkerbell light when Katie first started in community theatre, and
often drove to Sacramento to watch Improv. We hung out at Barnes and
Noble and Jamba Juice and we never missed the monthly farmer's market in
Davis. We watched sheep be sheared at the county fair and took hay
rides in pumpkin patches and apple orchards. We ate peaches that fell
off the tree after the "shakers" came by to harvest. We smelled the
almond and plum trees in bloom. We took horseback riding lessons and
helped at ManMar ranch, an A & M veterinary training ranch. The kids
learned about race horses, and in vitro insemination, and "crazy
mares." They watched foals be born and old horses die. We helped build a
barn and bought a horse. They rescued an injured Barn Owl, and saw the
Raptor Center in action. Weeks later, we went to a park and watched
them release our little owl, ready to go back to the wild. We held
unique birthday parties, including a “Bring Your Pet” party – even
Alyssa’s Dentist and Hygienist came with their turtle and kitten! We
watched Harry Potter premieres and hosted birthday parties that were
totally Hogwart themed. We went to Rennaissance Faires and held
Halloween parties with dry ice experiments. We hosted a Japanese
Exchange student and took him to San Francisco to eat at the Bay, to
ride roller coasters in Santa Cruz, and to a homeschool conference in
Sacramento. We camped and hiked and learned to sail on Folsom Lake. We
learned how the locks work in Lodi. We made the local news with our
support group's Civil War Reenactment and we starred in a homeschool
documentary.
Then
we moved to a ranch in north Texas where we had horses, cows, goats,
chickens, dogs, cats, birds, guinea pigs and a donkey. We had a lot of
veterinary excursions with those! We participated in Girl Scouts and Boy
Scouts. Alyssa even delivered Girl Scout Cookies by horseback! We saw
hydroponic farming with live fish, worked in pecan orchards, ate fresh
peach ice cream in the Peach Festival in Charlie. We had air soft wars
in neighboring fields, took cattle to auctions, and talked with the
people on a real covered wagon train that had pulled over at the edge of
our pasture. We participated in 4H which exposed us to SO many people
in the community. The kids participated in elections, held offices, and met so many different people. We bought a calf and started a cockatiel business. We
birthed a calf with our neighbors. We met local news people, were
interviewed a few times for the community service projects we did, and
participated in a film school offered by the public television service
out of Dallas . Michael got his first job at Target and Katie got her
first lead role at the community theatre. We spent a lot of time in
various community theatre projects. We visited with a woman who had no
running water, but collected rainwater in buckets. She was nearly 90 and
could tell us about what it was like when Burkburnett was really a Boom
Town and how rough the oil field workers were living in tents nearby.
We handed out toys every year with the Toys for Tots program through the
Salvation Army, and we organized huge blanket drives for the Linus
Project. We built houses with Habitat for Humanity and worked the soup
kitchens on New Year’s Eve. We went on camping trips, and rock climbed,
and zip lined. We walked through emu farms, prairie dog mounds and
participated in small town Christmas parties. The girls took tap and
jazz and ballet and hip hop. Michael took a girl to her prom and started
community college classes.
When we moved to the Austin area, we went to concerts, large and small. We continued with dance classes and theatre classes. We learned to use the
bus system. We watched high wire acts at Cirque du Soleil and watched
the Ringling Brothers unload elephants in the middle of town. We talked
to legislators and worked on political campaigns. We learned about bats
and watched them fly out from under the Congress Avenue bridge. We
traveled with Alyssa's competitive cheerleading team, got involved with
the SCA, and joined writing groups with NaNoWriMo. We saw WW2
re-enactments in Fredericksburg and we watched how fast the sun sets
from the top of Enchanted Rock. We spent a lot of time hanging out with
friends and their families.
Vacations
were always filled with learning, whether we meant it to or not! We
watched bison and geysers at Yellowstone, Revolutionary history in
Alexandria, and national monuments in D.C. We explored New York City
with its rich immigrant history and fascinating architecture. We messed
with the fish at a hatchery in Arkansas and danced with the jazz
culture in a rebuilding New Orleans.
Their
teen employment took them out in the community with jobs as cashiers
and instructors (dance, make-up, swimming lessons), baby-sitting and
pet-sitting, bookstores and movie theatres, life-guarding,
house-cleaning house-sitting, and even radio D.J.-ing.
Alyssa
took on an internship with an organic make-up company. She learned to
run the store, work with customers and teach Girl Scout troops. She
learned to do make-up on fashion shows, walked the runway herself
(once!), and assisted photographers. Her love of eyeliners and color
combinations led her to a Vidal Sassoon cosmetology program where she
will be paid to play with all that.
Opening
up our home to the exchange student when Michael was 12, led him on a
path of cultural and foreign travel. He started with his own exchange
student program – 3 months in Japan at 16. He took
Archaeology/Anthropology classes in Belize, and is now on an assignment
for the Peace Corps. Ironically, the boy who never stepped foot in an
American high school now teaches English in a Nicaraguan high school!
Katie’s
love of “putting on a show!” started with backyard theatre productions
with our support group kids in Davis and Dixon, Califronia. From there, she moved to community theatre, then to local
films and commercials and now she's enrolled in a conservatory in NYC.
The
point is simply that involving your kids in the community helps them
discover what THEY would like to do. What adventure interests them?
There’s no telling what it will grow into. While you may not have lived
in as many places as we did, you could. We chose the military so I could
be a stay-at-home mom. And that enabled me to get out and about and
become the best tour guide around!
Sure,
when someone says, “Do you do things in the community?” or “What do you
do all day with kids?”, I just smile. My days are only limited by my
stamina! If you will just look around and be willing to drive a bit,
involving your child in your community (and your neighboring
communities) will be the best homeschooling choice you make.
