Adventures in Homeschooling / Web 2012 / Repurposing for fun!, by Kami

May 1, 201211:04 AMAdventures in Homeschooling

Repurposing for fun!, by Kami

We have had a lot of fun doing this school year doing experiments and projects—not just for school but for FUN!

The K12 curriculum for 5th & 6th grade came with lots of fun projects to do in science and history, but every once in a while an idea would come to us that had absolutely nothing to do with school work! Education is not just about book work or finishing the curriculum. Sometimes it is simply about fostering your children’s imagination and encouraging their creative side.

Remember when you were a kid? Did you spend hours in front of the TV, video games, or computers? I know I didn’t. I wasn’t homeschooled, but from the minute my chores and home work were finished, I was outside with my siblings until the sun went down or my parents called us in! We built forts, rode bikes, and played hide-and-seek with our friends.

A few months ago, our 4 year old received a stick pony. It came in a HUGE box. The minute we saw the box we knew we had to do something fun with it! It has taken us a while to decide, but with the help of the Chick-Fil-A in Moore (Thank you Ms. Ashleigh!) we made that box into something that has proven to be a lot of fun! It took a little time and patience, but our vision final came to life!

• First we painted the box sold red with spray paint. (I did that part.)
• Then we used white paint to make it look like a brick building. The kids had fun with that!
• Then I taped all the edges to make sure no one gets any paper cuts.
• Thanks to Google Images, we found some Chick-fil-a logos to print out.
• Thanks to Ms. Ashleigh, we have some actual Chick-fil-a bags, containers, and other things to use (we plan to laminate the paper stuff so it doesn’t rip so easily).
• Then we tried it out! As you can see, the kids had a blast taking turns working our “drive-thru” and being the customer!

As we were playing, we decided that if we have a drive-thru, then we needed a car! Good thing we have one big box, huh? I see lots more painting in our future!

The “school year” is coming to an end! I plan to share a re-cap of the year and some things we have learned, plus our plans for the summer in my upcoming posts. We have a few new adventures to look forward to, so I plan to share just how we manage to navigate the summer. Our mission this summer? Stay tuned to find out!!