A Spring in Your School Step!
Learning with Spring Fever
We just had a beautiful spring week here with shirtsleeve temps and lots of sunshine! Days like that bring on spring fever in children and adults alike! School work can drag when bright spring days beckon us outside! While you may just want to push through the final days of school and check off each lesson in the books, when spring fever hits hard, it may be time to take a breather and learn at a new pace, in a new environment, or in a new way.
Take school outside. Spread a blanket in the yard or a park and take your books outside. Soak in some sunshine while solving math problems and reading about history. If this works about as well as herding cats, then try substituting a nature walk for a “book” science lesson. Try to identify plants, birds, rocks. For geography, your children could use a compass and measuring tape to try to create a map of your yard or neighborhood. Or they could create directions for finding a “treasure” (so many feet West, then so many feet south, etc.).
Do more hands-on projects. Learning without application is of little use. Take math into the kitchen, workshop, or sewing room. Start seeds indoors to prepare plants for a later garden. Build a diorama of a historical scene you have studied, or sew a period costume. Cut out shapes of continents with cookie dough, then use frosting to decorate them with rivers (and/or country borders). Use colored sprinkles to delineate deserts, grasslands, and forested areas. Mini chocolate chips can represent mountains. Create skits of literary or historical events. Do some science experiments!
Change the schedule. If your current schedule is working, by all means, keep it! But if spring fever is derailing your schedule anyway (or threatening to), try starting school earlier or later, or intersperse more outside times or chores between subjects. Go for a brisk walk before starting school! Save a subject for the evening when Dad is home and can help (with Dad’s permission, of course)!
Bless others. Some people are not able to get out of doors much at any time of year. Go visit a shut in or the residents of a nursing home. Play musical instruments or sing for them. Recite a poem or Scripture passage. Listen to their stories (that’s history, too)! Some older folks might be thrilled to be interviewed about a certain period of history they experienced or to teach a “forgotten” skill, such as beautiful handwriting, a hand craft, or a strategy for mental math.
If spring fever is prematurely putting too many lessons in “sick bay,” STEP OUT of “conventional” schooling and enjoy learning in life! It may not be “school,” but it is certainly education!