When home schooling kids there are so many things you can do that incorporate fun and learning. Then again, not having a structured curriculum often leaves you coming up blank with something new to do. This is where starting a collection comes in handy.
I always tried to get as much education out of even the smallest activity. Think about it, just baking a cake can incorporate math, nutrition, history, time management, safety, and even spelling. The educational value and fun factor involved with starting and maintaining a collection is unlimited.
Each of my three home schooled girls started a collection. One enjoyed rocks, another coins, and the other lip-gloss. In this post I’ll skip over the lip-gloss collection, although she did amass 87 different types over the course of one year. My other girls weren’t nearly as prolific.
My youngest who chose coins got into this because she found a wheat back penny one day. She noticed right away that there was something different about the penny and it didn’t take long before she was hooked. I had her do research on when wheat back pennies were made, what metals they were made of, the different mints, etc. For field trips we would go to pawn shops and the swap meet looking for cheap, old coins she could add to her collection. Her most prized was a Walking Liberty half-dollar.
When she was younger we used her money collection for math homework, and even looked up the history of what the certain coins could by in the year they were made. She was surprised to learn that a penny could actually buy something worthwhile 100-200 years ago. Most of the lessons she could complete on her own without my help.
My next oldest loved rocks. I attributed it to the fact that when she was three years old a neighbor boy threw one in her direction and hit her square on the forehead, requiring stitches. Instead of being fearful of rocks, she had a keen fascination for something so small that could make her bleed so much.
We’d often go on hikes (exercise and a field trip) and she’d find a nice stone to add to her collection. Sometimes we’d stop by New Age shops where she could pick out a couple of smooth, shiny, very colorful stones. We’d talk about the difference between a “raw” stone and a tumbled stone. I’d also have her look it up in a rock and mineral book to find out what type it was, the composition, and what parts of the world they’re usually found. We created spelling lists, learned about the rock’s history, and, of course, geology.
It’s very easy to take one small thing and create an entire curriculum around it, giving kids a very thorough education in the subject. Home schooling should never have dull moments, not when we have a whole world and so much in it to use as resources. Even your own backyard can offer a wealth of information.
As for those collections, two of my girls still have theirs, though the one that collected lip-glosses abandoned those long ago. Shiny, gooey lip ointments don’t seem to offer the same intrigue as they used to.