Ways to Teach at Home Without Tears

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In a time where learning at-home is becoming increasingly popular, it is best to include some learning that offers alternative ways to teach at home apart from good old fashioned textbooks, paper, and pencil. Our family has always utilized ways to teach at home with a more “unschooling” approach. This means that we try to do learning through life. We use everything from arts, movies, music, theater, and projects. You might enjoy my post on grocery stores when it comes to teaching!

Teaching Through the Arts

We use theater for educating all the time! Some theaters even use curriculum resources that go right along with shows that have. Theater as a way to teach proves to engage learning on so many levels. The music opens up a high level of imagination in the brain. When combined with the visual aspects of the set and the stories coming alive by actors, the components that performance brings about are unlike any other form of teaching. A lot of theaters that use field trips also make a curriculum to go along with their shows.

Music

Have you ever wanted your child to learn music? Musicians tend to be very intelligent. This can be attributed to things like music theory. Listening to music engage areas of the brain which are involved with attention span, making predictions, cognitive development, and memory.

There are online programs like Piano For All that teach an online series of lessons with popular rhythm style piano of like Lennon & McCartney, Elton John, Billy Joel, Barry Manilow, Lionel Richie, Coldplay, Norah Jones and more which means you get to sound like a pro right from the start. Learn to play the piano with easy piano lessons. Music as a way to teach at home brings a dynamic value to your home education.

Art

This last year, my kids did some supplemental art with Schoolhouse Teachers. They have options for all programs of all subjects k-12. There are all kinds of art programs.

You can use artist biographies to study some history and then watch YouTube videos to paint like them. In this particular video, I just searched “How to paint like Van Gogh.”

Project-Based Learning

Another way to demonstrate proficiency on a topic or subject is to use notebooking or lapbooking. We have used HomschoolShare for unit studies and Lapbooks. This gives them the opportunity to use books for studying. My kids have always loved using books because they can study what interests them and present them in a fun way. I have done project-based learning like this even through high school.

My PBL Works is another really great plan for project-based learning. This site has project planner with a wide range of subjects and grade levels enabling choices for topics that actually interest your students.

Outside Learning

There is no better learning than the kids you do outside. Now, I will say, here in Florida, this can often be limited by weather and mosquitos. For instance, we live near lakes and the mosquitos can pick you up and carry you away. But beaches have the most amazing learning opportunities as do playgrounds. Photography, writing, drawing, science, social studies, pretty much any subject area can be taught by playing outside! We also have done geocaching as a way to teach navigation, map reading, and geography. You must learn about geocaching if you have never heard about it. Add some books in with that and you’ve made fun and interesting unit studies. Abe Books offers a wide range of used books at super cheap prices.

The Love of Learning

I made a vow to myself to make sure my kids always loved learning. It gets so much more difficult as they get older, but if you foster a love of reading, there are always ways for them to love what they’re learning. Getting creative can be challenging at first but with a little practice and research, I guarantee you will find that their love of learning grows.