50 Easy Ways to Sneak in Learning

Homeschooling isn't just an educational choice. In our home, it is a family culture. Even when the books are stashed away and the hands on the clock read "school's out", learning is still happening. Over the years, I've peppered our home with strategically placed items designed to bring about curiosity, imagination, and learning around the clock.

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Call it sneaky if you must.

I call it genius!

Who says an education can only happen between the hours of 8 and 3?

Or when a teacher is teaching? 

Children are natural learners. It's how they are wired. 

By providing an empty, unhurried afternoon schedule and a little suggestive inspiration, I can create a home that cultivates learning ALL DAY LONG. 

Here are just a few ways that you, too, can sneak a learning culture into your home. 

Encourage your child to...

1. start a blog- Set the security to "lock" so that only invited guests may read it.
2. play Scratch and Solve Hangman
3. complete a Mad Lib
4. start a collection
5. begin a Q & A journal
6. make a stop motion video by using a free app
7. interview a grandparent with some simple questions
8. create a pet habitat
9. watch a kid-friendly nature documentary
10. listen to an audiobook
11. write to a penpal or deployed soldier
12. take a nature walk
13. hide/seek a geocache in your area
14. open and keep track of a savings account with allowance money
15. "adopt" one of your church's missionaries- send letters to, pray for, learn about the country/culture
16. create a Zentangle
17. sign up for the national Great Backyard Bird Count
18. participate in NaNoWriMo
19. make a balloon car
20. recreate the construction of a famous building using blocks, Legos, or other materials
21. create a comic book
22. learn to make a variety of paper airplanes
23. create a floor plan for an indoor fort and then build it
24. plan a scavenger hunt for a younger sibling
25. create a time capsule
26. make a flip book
27. try to replicate a famous painting
28. learn origami
29. plant a container garden
30. learn a new skill using youtube

Invite your child to...

1. become your sous chef for the day
2. play a board game
3. build a puzzle
4. help open a family-run Etsy or ebay shop
5. take a field trip
6. shadow dad at work for a day
7. participate in the free Home Depot workshops for kids
8. attend a free presentation/workshop at your local library
9. attend a free state park educational event in your area
10. the local farmer's market

Purchase or make a...

1. discovery basket
2. magazine subscription (God's World is our current fave!)
3. tinker box 
4. science kit
5. craft/art kit
6. squiggle book
7. journal jar
8. invention box- Fill it with empty containers, cardboard, egg cartons, etc. for inventing and creating.
9. Lego idea book
10. science exploration box- Fill it with a magnifying glass, clipboard, binoculars, specimen jars, etc.

Need more ideas for sneaky learning? Be sure to check out these thoughts from the lovely ladies of iHomeschool Network. Or join me on Pinterest for the best-of-the-best ideas from around the web.