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Homeschool Enrichment
Now that we have covered The Basics of choosing your homeschool curriculum, Skills Subjects, and Content Subjects, it’s time to talk about the fun stuff. If homeschooling is an educational feast, then homeschool enrichment subjects are the dessert. Dessert subjects allow you the flexibility to really follow your child’s interests and incorporate your homeschool style into your day.
How to Choose Dessert Subjects
Like I mentioned above, dessert subjects are the most flexible out of all the curriculum areas. Whereas things like math and English are not always exciting and passion driven subjects, dessert subjects are. You get to take what interests your child (and you) and call it school. Is your child interested in cooking and baking? That can be part of your school day! Do they love computer programming? Yep, that’s school too! Get creative with these subjects.
To help you get started with dessert subjects, make a list of your priorities and goals for your child’s learning (outside of the required skills and content areas). Do you want them to learn art, music, sports, handicrafts, or technology? Add it to your list.
Next take your child’s interests into consideration. Ask them what they want to learn this year. I have one that is really into programming, so we’ve incorporated materials for him to learn new programming languages. The other is into art so we provide resources to feed that interest. Dessert subjects are the area where they can take some ownership of their learning experience, so make sure to make some space in your homeschool for these interest lead subjects.
Homeschool Enrichment Programs
If you are in an area that has homeschool enrichment programs, this can be a great way to give yourself a break while your kids can engage in some fun, interest lead learning. We have several publicly funded one day a week programs in our area. My oldest did an enrichment program the first two years that we homeschooled that was STEM focused. While he loves all things STEM, I don’t. This was a great way for him to get to do cool STEM stuff without me figuring out how to implement it. He even got to do a weather report in from of a green screen which is something he would not have been able to do at home.
CO-Ops
If you don’t live in an area with enrichment programs or you want to avoid publicly funded programs, then look for a homeschool co-op. Co-ops vary in structure and classes offered so you will have to look around to see what might be a good fit. Some of the classes my kids took through a co-op were ukulele, art, karate, Colorado history and several science classes. These can be great opportunities to explore enrichment subjects.
Adventure Schooling
Museums and field trips are an excellent way to add in some fun learning opportunities. We love to travel and have found adventure schooling to be a great way to incorporate some enrichment. On a trip to Florida last fall, my boys learned all about dolphins and how they can be trained. Even if you can’t take a big trip, you can always adventure school in your own area. Look into what is available locally. As a bonus, some places have discounted homeschool days that you can take advantage of. This can be a budget friendly way to experience some new places right where you live.
How We Incorporate Dessert Subjects
One of our favorite ways to implement dessert subjects is through our weekly Poetry Tea Time. The boys love this because they get cookies and hot chocolate, and I love that they are engaging in picture study, learning about composers, and dabbling in poetry. These are some of the subjects that were on my list of learning priorities and we found a fun way to implement them. We are using The History of Classical Music from Beautiful Feet Books for our composer study as well as some resources from Sonlight.
The boys also participate in 4H. They choose the project areas that they are interested in and work on their projects throughout the year. This year they did Cavy, Robotics, Cake Decorating, and Carter did Archery and .22 Rifle. This has added a lot of enrichment to their school year.
Dessert subjects are the most fun to choose and there are a lot to choose from. You really can’t choose wrong or mess up the dessert subjects, so have fun and enjoy!
Action Items
- Here are your action items for homeschool enrichment, or dessert subjects.
- Make a list of your enrichment priorities
- Get your child’s input on what they would like to learn
- Look into opportunities in your area for enrichment
- Have Fun!