5 Ways to Use Running Errands in Your Homeschool

I will be honest and say that I never – ever – enjoy running errands. Most people “get” that it is a part of life, but I never was a fan. When I started homeschooling, it just got worse, until I learned to use running errands to my advantage. Check out these 5 ways to use running errands in your homeschool to help things run smoother.

Running errands was just never my happy place. I feel as if I always forget something, or I spend too much or don’t get the right things — no matter how hard I try. So when I started homeschooling, I must say that I dreaded it.

Having to stop lessons, sometimes even in the middle to get things or to pay bills, can be annoying. Doing it with the kids can get even more stressful.

When I let my stubborn ways subside in this area, I realized that I could do something t both keep my kids occupied and keep their minds working while I ran errands. You know, make lemonade out of lemons.

Instead of the errands bumming me out or stopping our whole day of learning, I squeezed those lemons and made a delicious drink!

Keeping our kids engaged while running errands can alleviate a lot of the headache that goes along with being on the go.

I learned that life is just way to busy for homeschooling families to stop the learning process. Use errands to benefit your kids and to make the very best out of your time.

5 ways to use running errands in your homeschool:

1. Stoplight challenges

If you live in a city, then running errands can take you through endless red lights. Instead of thinking of red lights as an interruption to your flow, play stoplight challenges. Here are a couple of things spotlight challenges can entail:

• Kids can call out the numbers on a license plate and add them all up.
• Call out letters so that your kids can try to find something that starts with that letter as they look out the windows.

2. Grocery Store Bingo

This FREE grocery store bingo game comes with three different sheets. Print out the sheets for the kids and have them cross out the item if you put it into the grocery cart. Whoever has crossed out the most things that you got that day WINS!

Practical and real-life examples for teaching math can also be done at the grocery store. Check out how to teach math at the grocery store. 

3. Doctor appointment recap

Have your child write notes down, from the moment you all leave the house to the time you get back from a doctor’s appointment. Your child will then have to write in chronological order the steps that took place throughout the visit to the doctor’s office. Or you can have your child write an intro, body, and conclusion to their time at the doctor’s office.

4. Stopwatch bling 

Bring stopwatches with you while you run errands for your kids. They can log in notebook paper and collect the data of how long the process took throughout the day. Here are a few things your child can practice with for data collection.

Your kids can collect the amount of time it takes for the gasoline in your car to fill up, how long it takes from when you submit your paperwork to the time you are called in to see the doctor, or how long it took standing in line to pay a bill.

Your learner can gather all the data, then come to conclusions or a hypothesis for why the process took as long or short as it did.

5. Errand counting madness

Keep your kids on their toes with gathering the numbers of different topics they witnessed. For instance, your student can grab a notebook better and tally up how many things they saw. For example, they can tally how many people with red shirts they saw or how many people walked in pairs. 

Some days you find yourself living out of your vehicle, headed here and there. You don’t have to let that stop teaching your kids. Remember, in homeschool, anywhere can be your classroom.

Stimulate your children’s minds with activities to get them thinking critically and learning more with every stop and every red light.