Beyond The Textbook: Teaching Life Skills in Your Homeschool (Free Printable)

Teaching & Learning Life Skills

Teaching life skills in your homeschool can be fun, and it can be frustrating, can’t it? When will they learn to pick up after themselves? When will they understand that the art of hospitality is in the little things – the cooking, the cleaning, the conversations. And don’t forget the observing and critically thinking about how to graciously respond to others (and how others respond to you). It’s enough to make this homeschool mama want to pack her bags and go on vacation!

Now just hang on to that thought…just for a second…we want our kids to learn:

• Responsibility
• Independence
• Graciousness
• Flexibility
• Safety, and so much more.

What better way to learn these skills than to take your family just a few steps outside their comfort zone and routine. It’s time to mix things up a bit! It’s time to learn life skills during family vacations! Accomplishing anything along the likes of math, history, or literature at the same time would be a bonus! Wouldn’t it?

Don’t miss the Free Download of “This or That?” A Family Travel Planning Game at the end of this post. It will help you learn more about your family’s learning & travel style.

Let’s breakdown this idea of how family travel can teach life skills even further by asking a question. What family travel activities teach the above qualities we desire for our families?

Responsibility

Age appropriate responsibility can be taught by learning how to pack your own suitcase. Start small with over-night stays and weekends away, and work your way up to the epic trip with just a carry on and/or a backpack. It’s totally doable and so freeing for the parent and the child. The sense of achievement gained when your son or daughter realizes the success and ease of having just one suitcase to lug around will be cemented in their mind.

Independence

Independence can be a tough one for some homeschool families. Parents want their children to step into independence while maintaining a safety net of family and friends in the process. Family travel provides exactly that.

What better opportunity to let your teens go to one museum together while you take the littles to another museum across the street? Let them pay their own admission fees and work out if they are eligible for a discount. Doing it all in a foreign language is even better!

No matter how successful they feel in the moment, these are big steps toward confident independence.

Graciousness and Flexibility

Both graciousness and flexibility are excellent life skills to attain. We all need them, don’t we? Learning these skills whilst:

• staying in someone else’s home,
• sharing a dorm room at camp, or
• participating in humanitarian work in a foreign country.

These opportunities provide life-changing experiences that will most likely send your child home with a greater sense of:

• compassion,
• gratefulness, and
• awe of the world around them.

Doing these activities as a family creates such great memories and strengthens the bonds of togetherness and community.

Safety

Safety is the ribbon that holds it all together. Above all, we want our kids to be sensible, safe and secure. Wise choices, critical thinking and knowing when (and how) to ask for help are the hallmarks of this life skill.

Family travel teaches these life skills in a cohesive “we’re in this together” atmosphere. A place where parents can gently help kids learn by seizing teachable moments, as well as learning by observing others mistakes (graciously, of course!).

Families traveling together will also learn the strengths and weaknesses of each person in a new way.

• You’ll find the best map reader/navigation expert quickly after a few comments of, “I told you we needed to turn left at the…”
• Your best linguist may surface too when the need for a bathroom (or ice cream) is imminent. And, believe it or not,
• you might even find the best financial adviser/planner is hidden behind shades and a sun hat trying to figure out if there is enough room in the daily travel budget to afford to do their favorite activity rather than another museum.

Life Skills 101, Sorted!

It’s all there, folks! Life skills, academics, community, character, safety. So plan your next family travel adventure to include learning life skills and let your family’s unique gifts and character shine forth and empower your family with confidence.

Understanding your family’s learning and travel style is the perfect place to start if you are wanting to incorporate life skills and academics with family travel. The “This or That?” Family Travel Planning Game will help you find the perfect scenario for your family to learn on location using the world as your textbook.

Grab your free download of the printable game that will help you take every family member’s uniqueness into consideration as you plan your trip.

You might also enjoy this recent post titled, 3 Ways Family Trips Teach Powerful Life Skills.

Now, go have some fun together!

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Shannan Swindler

Read more from Shannan at Captivating Compass where she blogs about learning on location using the world as your textbook.