Field Trips

In most areas of the country the weather is either getting nice, or is still nice. Fall is a great time of year, and there are a wealth of field trips that can be done at this time of year that cannot be done at other times of the year.
Let me give you a few examples. Farms and orchards in many parts of the country open up their pumpkin patches, and apple orchards for do-it-yourself picking. Visiting one of these places, or both, will allow your family to create traditions.
I know that creating traditions is something I have to work on. When I was growing up, my family was not very traditional or sentimental and we did not do things that created the types of memories that traditions create. My best friend’s family had all sorts of traditions, ranging from canning apples and baking apple pies, to baking cookies and making gingerbread houses. I see the richness in her family, and try to incorporate some of that in my own family. They even had one day during the school year where her dad let them skip school for a day to go on the annual skip-school-to-go-fishing-with-dad-on-a-weekday outing. She has great memories of this.
Other outings with your homeschool child might be trips to the zoo or local wildlife park. Animals like the cool weather, and you will see many of them active in their exhibits. Consider field trips that would be miserably hot during the summer during this time of year as well, the example I can think of is visiting the local battle ship. Wow, a battleship is an extremely miserable place to visit in the heat of the summer!

Art and home education

We talked about including music in your homeschool curriculum last time. This time I would like to encourage you to use art in your homeschool program. Some of the same things apply, cost of a private teacher would be a good example. But, just like there were ways to get around that in music, there are ways to get around that in art.
As part of my child’s core curriculum, the company offers an art program, Time4Art. It is basically an art appreciation program. It introduces my daughter to color, texture, different art techniques, art history, and the art of the great masters.
The reality is that my daughter has taken this course two times already, and is taking it a third time. It is the same course, yet as she gets older, and gains more knowledge in other areas, she finds new things within the program to learn. Just as her own art work grows and changes over time as she learns new techniques, taking the course again lets her put new things into practice, and recognize various artist by their techniques.
Last year, in addition to the online course, my daughter took group art lessons. These were very reasonably priced through our local art council. The price for a month was about equal to the cost of one private lesson session. There are other online courses to consider as well. Do a little search on the internet for online lessons, or pictures of great works of art. Maybe do a study of a sculptor or painter, let your child try to mimic their techniques and use of materials.