It’s Labor Day weekend, so Gina and Christyn have work-related stuff on tap, specifically as it relates to teaching life skills in their homeschools. There are so many opportunities in a homeschool environment to practice the life skills that will be necessary long after formal education ends.
1:37 — There are so many ways to naturally incorporate life skills, also known as practical arts, into homeschool
2:06 — Life skills include many things you don’t necessarily learn in school, but that are so necessary to navigating life
2:30 — Three types of life skills discussed
1) Life skills at home: chores, home repair, cleaning, etc.
2) Life skills outside the home: ordering in restaurants, navigating with maps, shopping
3) Life skills as they relate to gainful employment
4:00 — Gina and Christyn don’t use chore charts — kind of irrelevant for their only children! — but the kids still help around the house because life skills are necessary
6:00 — Homeschool parents often get caught up in the academic side and forget that life skills are hugely important, as well
6:31 — Gina talks life skills for Wyatt
8:13 — Christyn discusses incorporating them in September’s day
10:24 — As the kids get older, the life skills get more complex
10:49 — In many ways, life skills are just the practical application of a lot of academic skills
12:05 — Discussion of how to count life skills in the homeschool: until mastered, or every time?
14:12 — Life skills outside the home might relate to a primary academic subject such as communication, math, geography, social studies
16:44 — Real life examples of life skills required outside the home
19:32 — Life skills relating to employment and adulting — Gina and Christyn assure you that all the bits and pieces of a long expanse of homeschooling time start to pay off, which is gratifying to see
25:34 — Incorporate some low-key, low stakes situations to help your child develop the necessary skills. Lay the groundwork so the kids are ready when the stakes get higher
26:40 — Homeschooling has such successful outcomes because school takes place not only in a classroom, but in the real world