Informal education and homeschooling: a perfect match

September 8, 9:12 AMInformal Education ExaminerLisa Jo Rudy

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Informal education includes live animal presentations and volunteering

The marvelous thing about homeschooling your child is -- you can tailor every lesson to meet your child's needs.  If your child is a hands-on learner, hands-on education is available.  If she's a visual learner, ditto.

The problem, of course, is that once your child is older than about six years old, even homeschoolers have a tough time finding hands-on, visual, or even mathematical curricula.  Sure, you can do an occasional "experiment" (aka building a circuit).  But what if your child is seriously fidgety, and needs to MOVE while he learns?

Enter the world of informal education.

Here on Cape Cod, we're not next door to a big city (Boston's more than an hour away).  But we're loaded with informal learning opportunities.

For two years, we've volunteered to feed and exercise the animals at a local nature center -- including several rabbits and Miss Prickles, the hedgehog.  We've learned (who knew?!) that hedgehogs' defensive behaviors include sneezing like crazy.

Last fall, we contacted the Massachusetts Audubon, and asked them to offer a 2-hour birding class for a group of homeschoolers.  Not only were there hands-on activities such as feather sorting and owl-pellet dissection, there was also hiking, bird spotting, and feather collecting.

Two years ago, we joined a group of Rhode Island homeschoolers (an hour away) at a beach, actching and tagging monarch butterflies.  We learned about their migration routes and how they change from caterpillar to butterfly.

Over the summer, we took a family trip to the Plimoth Plantation to discover American History through a living museum.  We walked through town, asked questions of reinactors, checked out Wampanoag homes and cooking pots, and even explored the Mayflower.

If you're homeschooling and feeling that books and computers are your only resources, think again!  The world is loaded with opportunities for informal -- but effective -- education!