For those who take school to the park

[ClassicalTwins]

Finally after a summer of 71 days in the 90's we are getting a break here in KY. I want out of the house, the twins want out as does dh who does most of school when I am at work so my question is...what are good things to take there.?

Edited September 4, 2010 by ClassicalTwins

[LaurainMD]

Well, fitting in nature study is obvious. :) I find worksheets and other written work to be tough to do out of the house, but we bring art and lots and lots of reading (as well as our nature journals!). I always bring a blanket to spread out under the trees and we read. Glorious (when the weather allows!). :)

[Miss Sherry]

I think it depends on what you feel you have to get done while at the park and how many distractions there are at that park in particular. When my oldest children were little I remember going outside and sitting on a blanket in the yard with some of our school work, but it was so loud outside - we lived near an airport and an air base - that we could not even hear each other speak so it was impossible to do any kind of book work outside in our yard. But we did do a lot of walks in the neighborhood, looking for bugs, and at plants, and looking at the birds, etc. I think it is important for the children to have time outside, but doing outside activities, like looking at the ducks, and bugs and plants. Just playing and having a good time is great too. They do not need to spend all day on school work.

[ClassicalTwins]

Actually they asked to do school outside because the weather has been so hot, that playing outside during the day is no fun at all. We've been in the mid to upper 90's for weeks...heat indexes over 100...YUCK!!! And staying in the 90's up until 10 or 11pm....

 

Now that it is pretty they will be outside once school is done...especially after ps kids get home.

 

So what types of work are successful at the park or even outside on our patio. We are in a quiet subdivison, where we are probably the only people home except the high schoooling home schoolers a couple of blocks over. We were thinking this could be a once a week thing..or more.

 

They love looking for bugs and animals, they do that in our yard much to the dismay of most of the moms on the street :lol:

[Miss Sherry]

Actually they asked to do school outside because the weather has been so hot, that playing outside during the day is no fun at all. We've been in the mid to upper 90's for weeks...heat indexes over 100...YUCK!!! And staying in the 90's up until 10 or 11pm....

 

Now that it is pretty they will be outside once school is done...especially after ps kids get home.

 

So what types of work are successful at the park or even outside on our patio. We are in a quiet subdivison, where we are probably the only people home except the high schoooling home schoolers a couple of blocks over. We were thinking this could be a once a week thing..or more.

 

They love looking for bugs and animals, they do that in our yard much to the dismay of most of the moms on the street :lol:

 

I think whether it works or not, will vary a lot from family to family because everyone's situation is different. Some children would be fine sitting on a patio reading or working on a math sheet but for others there would be too many distractions such as airplanes flying over, cars driving by, trains etc. I think you should try a few things and just see how it goes for you and your children.

If you have some science experiments lined up, it may be fun to do them outside instead of inside.

Reading aloud may work too. It all depends on how distractable your children are or not.

I think others will be coming up with more ideas for you soon. I'll be interested to see how this has worked out for others too.

[ClassicalTwins]

I think whether it works or not, will vary a lot from family to family because everyone's situation is different. Some children would be fine sitting on a patio reading or working on a math sheet but for others there would be too many distractions such as airplanes flying over, cars driving by, trains etc.

 

As you can see from my signature..distraction is their middle name. But, I am trying to let that go a little :001_smile: Starting to see it as more my problem than theirs. I may just give them a shot and see how it goes :auto:

[MomOfOneFunOne]

We take school out to the park and this is what we take:

 

The laptop

A lap desk

A backpack with all the books, notebooks, paper, pens, et c that we'll be needing.

A blanket sometimes

Big jug of water and fruit for snacks

Lunch if we'll be eating there.

 

We tell some friends we'll be schooling at the part and usually get someone to meet us there. Then we get there and play for a short time. Have a subject, play a while, subject, play, subject, play . . .

 

We take our regular work and go on homework days. I do not just come up with busy work to take so we can call it a school day. However, I don't go on days that we'll need the white board, et c.

 

Something I'd add is to the list of things you ought to take but we never seem to have is a damp cloth and towel or moist towelletts. We sometimes have smudges on the work from dirty hands or find ourselves unable to wash hands b/f lunch.

 

We really like have school out and the park isn't the only plae we do it. We also go to Panera, the library, the Y, et c.

[ElizabethB]

We have done our whole school outside next to lizards my daughter has caught. (To keep the lizards company, don't ya know!!)

 

It works fine for us as long as it is not too windy. We do all our work either on a white board, reading from a book, or workbooks for math. Single sheets of paper do not work well outside if there is any wind at all.

 

The lizard was on the math workbook once, I was not a big fan of that, but I didn't have to touch the workbook, so I dealt with it.

 

I have some great pictures of us doing school with our lizard friends.

[*Jen*]

We are also in an area we where we are finally seeing some relief from the heat. My DS likes to do his work at the picnic table in our backyard. He has a clipboard that opens up to hold pencils etc. We just keep a roll of scotch tape in there and if he is working on something that is a single sheet he clips it into his clipboard and then we tape down the bottom edge to keep it from blowing around.

 

We have not ventured to the park yet, but that is mainly due to having two little ones to have to watch as well. It's a lot easier to turn them lose in my backyard that I know is safe for them.

 

He does get a little distracted being out in the yard, but generally once that hits its about time for a break anyway. So he goes off and runs around the yard for a bit while I pull out the stuff needed to do the next thing on our list.

[workingmom]

we also take our regular scheduled work. i just take 2-3 subjects' workbooks and its portable in a backpack with some snacks. i'm hoping to do more of this in the fall as it gets cooler. blanket and reading time seems nice, but we usually get a park table under the shade and spread our stuff out on that.

 

we also do school at the bookstores (like borders and barnes) for breaks ds loves to browse and read the other books. i usually take some work or read magazines with coffee very relaxing. and remarkably we get all of our work done.

[imhim]

I took my 3 young children (7 and under) to the cul-de-sac in front of our house during "school hours" yesterday - from 11 to 12 - to play on their bikes - and a neighbor came and was wondering why I let them play when they should be doing school! I wonder if people think we homeschoolers should not get out of the house until 2:30pm...

[myfatherslily]

Of course! What a splendid idea! I'm glad this thread topic came up:) After preschool time, the little boys sometimes ask to go out, but I need to do school with DD and I can't watch them. They end up watching a movie instead just to keep them quiet:/ School outside seems SOOOO much better!!:D

[Joyofsixreboot]

We like history and read alouds at the park while they swing or hang on the monkey bars.! We do our seat work and art at the picnic table.

[Rivka]

Sometimes we do math games outside, writing on the sidewalk with chalk.

[ClassicalTwins]

I took my 3 young children (7 and under) to the cul-de-sac in front of our house during "school hours" yesterday - from 11 to 12 - to play on their bikes - and a neighbor came and was wondering why I let them play when they should be doing school! I wonder if people think we homeschoolers should not get out of the house until 2:30pm...

 

I would have answered "Because since there is only 3 we were able to do 6hrs worth of work on 1.5hours, because I don't have 30 children to wait on to get their pencils, line up, get their books out, socialize, institutionalize....blah blah blah blah!" Sorry I tend to be sarcastic.

[1GirlTwinBoys]

We LOVE taking school to the park. I always pack a picnic basket & blankets. The best school work for us to take is:

 

Read alouds

Storytime

Spelling with their little white boards & markers

Bible devotion

History

[Guest TheBugsMom]

During spring and pleasant fall days we school on our deck. My dd and I could never stay indoors if the weather is calling us like a siren.

 

If it's going to be a one time thing, then I would just do nature studies and read alouds. The newness of being outside and at a park would be too distracting for my dd to get things done. But if this is going to be a regular occurrence (like it is with us and our deck) then I would let the first time be as described above and the rest of the days have full work loads. Using a picnic bench for desks, they can get all their work done. Just make sure they get a break to run and play after each subject.