Building an Ark - Our Seventh-day Adventist homeschool and family life
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Project-based Learning

Making Time to Explore God's 2nd Book

At the end of the day, we don't want our children to stop learning or exploring when we are done with teaching time. We want them to be curious and continue their learning on their own, so fostering independent learning is an important aspect to the 5-Minute Homeschool, in which there is a lot of free time in our homeschool for my children to explore and develop their own interests. ​Actually, between my two elementary children, we spend less than 1 hour of total book work and teaching time a day. That leaves the whole rest of the day to learn in other ways.

In our homeschool, I prefer long-term, on-going nature-based projects, so we dedicate lots of time to studying God's second book - Nature! Having long-term projects reduces my stress and prep time, too, because I am not constantly trying to figure out what we are going to do. Below are our 3 long-term projects/activities we do outside of book work time:
  • Nature Observation and Bird feeding
  • Gardening and composting
  • Raising/supporting certain insects - namely, Monarch butterflies and black soldier flies
So, for example, one year, my son's science experiment was to figure out which rooting method worked better for milkweed cuttings (the host plant for the Monarch caterpillars). This summer, our science experiment was to figure out which nitrogen source was a better compost activator. This coming fall, we will be experimenting with different set-ups to keep our black soldier fly population going into the winter months.

Then, we like to go on outings. Again, in our particular homeschool, I like to focus on continuity, so my children go deeper and deeper into God's creation. So, we like to regularly go to the botanical gardens and the zoo. My mom helps take my kids to the science museum as well.

When we go on other field trips, they will have one primary focus, so we can explore more deeply. This year our focus is on Virginia history, so we will be visiting Jamestown, Williamsburg, Mount Vernon, Monticello, Virginia History Museum, etc.
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