Learning through experience

  One of the best things about homeschooling is learning through experience. In history we have been learning about nomads and how they hunted. Traveling where the food was. We talked about what a difficult way this was to live. Coincidentally, about this same time my husband got a deer during archery season. C.J. was able to see just how time consuming and messy it is to dress out a deer, and how much meat you actually got. We talked about how the nomads would have done it without a refrigerator. It was very eye opening for him and I loved watching him draw his own conclusions.
  The next day, my husband was heading to the DOW office to get the head tested, a precautionary step to make sure the meat is healthy, we went along. Surprisingly the DOW office was set up like a small museum. We got to see a ton of native stuffed birds and animals up close. We read about what they ate, where they lived and other interesting facts. It was very hands on, they had awesome magnet boards where the kids put the animals in their proper environment. The other board had them match outdoor activities such as hiking,rafting, bird watching to their proper place mountains, river and so forth.They learned about different bird sounds, how to pack a hiking backpack with things you need, matched tracks to the animals, and why we don't feed the wild life. They got to touch different furs and antlers. While we were there a lady brought in wild ducks that needed to be relocated, the forest ranger talked about how they were going to help the ducks stay safe.
  One evening my husband also brought home a gold panning device that sinks the dirt but allows the gold to rise. The kids each took time panning through sand then running it through the machine. They learned how tedious this was, and dirty. We talked about how in the old days they didn't have machines to help and most of it was done by hand. They observed how cold and wrinkly the water made their fingers. Sadly, we didn't find any gold. C.J. concluded after he saw how hard we worked and didn't find any gold that the miners must have been poor. He also concluded they must be hungry, because if they spent all their time panning, when did they farm or go hunting?

  What a wonderful way to learn, by doing and having fun.