Family Life
Brings an Education

Recognising the learning value in regular family life is the mark of lifestyle homeschool. As we make the most of these already existing activities we simplify our role as a homeschool parent.

Find your way around this page:

Play Time / Free Time
Talk, Talk, Talk,
Time in Nature
Driving in the Car

At one point in my homeschool journey I stopped and thought about what I would be doing if I wasn’t homeschooling, I even asked the children what they thought. We came up with quite a list

We would still

• Read
• Play games
• Do Church stuff
• Work on the farm, and around the house
• Have time with friends
• Create things
• Talk about everything
• Read the Bible, by ourselves and together as a family

What would your list look like?

It became obvious that these everyday activities hold learning value and if I was going to last the distance as a homeschool mum I needed to first recognize this and secondly consider these activities as I plan the discipleship of our children.

Play Time / Free Time

In our society where we are told to value academic achievements it is easy to forget the value of play, to forget that as we relax our minds are reprocessing thoughts, experiences, knowledge and understandings. It is as our minds turn these things over that we come into a new level of creativity. We cannot underestimate the value of play and/or free time.

Benefits of Play
Too old to Play?

Talk, Talk, Talk

Our family talks, talks and talks. We talk about the serious things in life, we talk about things that we learn, we ask questions, we debate and we also joke around a fair bit. Verbalising thoughts is a key to clarifying your thoughts and consolidating your beliefs.

Narration - without Books
Meal Time Conversations (includes free download reminder chart)

Time in Nature

Charlotte Mason advocates daily time outdoors, where the children can play and discover unencumbered by expectations. She also encourages a weekly nature walk where mum can gently encourage the children to observe and learn from their surroundings.

But what if Nature is not your thing? - know why and how you are going to enjoy God's creation.

What to do when you find Nature Journals just not happening! question and answers from the Mum Support Corner, including Our Nature Bag

Nature in Family Life
As I look at our whole life I find that we enjoy God's World in a variety of ways. These ways look more like regular family life than a nature lesson but each and every activity gives our children an opportunity to learn more about creation.

Gardening	Growing Pot plants
Creation Science – magazines, dvds	Documentaries (careful of evolutionary content)
Living BooksStar Gazing
Camping	Photography
Looking out the window	Visiting Zoos
Rock Collections	Insect Collections
Feather Collections	Flower Arranging

Add to this list by sharing your Nature Study stories

Driving in the car

We live slightly out of town and have plenty of opportunity to learn as we drive. Discussions, observations, enjoying music, listening to audio stories to name a few. Making Room for Life: Trading Chaotic Lifestyles for Connected Relationships By Randy Frazee quotes that for every 10 minutes you spend in a car you loose 10% of your relationship time. I try to redeem our travel time by being intentional and using that time wisely.

Lessons learnt from the Clouds


More Family activities will be added as the year progresses, for example:

• Visiting with Friends
• Swimming, cricket and other sport activities
• Family Vacations
• Business Skills
• Read Alouds
• Community Involvement

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