Update: Curious about homeschooling? You can follow along our own homeschool journey right this way!
I’ve been slowly wrapping my head around our education strategy for Bee, and as of right now, we’re leaning heavily toward homeschooling. We happen to live in a really vibrant homeschooling community with co-ops and clubs and newsletters that provide endless resources for parents and kids alike. And because our family places an emphasis on traveling and adventuring together, it seems like a really good natural extension of what we’re already doing. The way we see it, having two parents at home to teach two vastly different perspectives (Ken and I are a true yin/yang) might prove oddly beneficial for her. His spontaneity, my structure. His passion, my flexibility. His speaking, my listening. We’re thrilled to give it a go.
I don’t know what homeschooling looks like for us exactly, but I do know there’s already a strong external pressure to label it with a method or program. It’s so very human of all of us – this need to be defined, to categorize our lifestyles for easily filing, sorting. It’s a trap I don’t want to fall into, so we’re just calling it what it is: doing what we already do and learning as we go.
We’ll read on the sofa and color fridge art and sound out letters and paint in the bathtub and take photos together and throw dance parties and visit neighbors and grocery shop and build towers and mail letters and make chicken and glue cotton ball sheep. We’re keeping it simple. Uncomplicated. Common sense-ish.
We call it homeschooling, but I think it might just be called giving our kids the best we can. Giving our kids the best of our energy, our time, our resources. Giving them a wide, open space to grow and twirl and be. Giving them the opportunity to come alongside us and live a life of learning together – as a family unit.
One of my favorite resources for these kinds of opportunities is Koala Crate. A monthly subscription service including materials and inspiration for projects related to open-ended themes (color has been our favorite thus far!), each crate is designed to spark kids’ natural creativity and curiosity while saving time for busy parents. A kid-tested box of learning that arrives on your doorstep every 30 days? It’s no wonder we check the mail furiously around here.
This month was the biggest hit yet, filled to the brim with materials for a color scavenger hunt (the BEST), a watercolor banner craft and a color sheet experiment for mixing colors and learning hues. With an insert for parents that includes questions to discuss with your child, time investments and messiness factors, it’s a foolproof way to connect with your kids in an educational (crazy fun) way – homeschooling or not.
You can totally follow along for free with dozens of project ideas and inspirations online, but if you’d like the hassle-free delivery of materials and inserts, I’m thrilled to share a $5 off code for your first purchase, only for DFM readers. (Just enter DFM5OFF at checkout!)
So tell me, what are your favorite homeschooling resources that encourage family creativity and lifelong learning? Do you have an educational strategy for your kids? I’d love to hear!
This post/discount is brought to you by Koala Crate, one of my favorite brands for kids. Thank you for supporting their mission for creativity in learning!