HOMESCHOOLING BEGINS WITH HOME
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| Our homeschooling often includes playacting. Here’s a little peek into how I introduced the topic of the Great Depression to my young children, ages 8, 4 and 2 at the time. I had planned to read the historical fiction book Nothing to Fear after engaging in some family playacting. Set up the playacting roles. First, I set up a little box (which I called the mailbox) on our bookshelf in the kitchen, just to pique my eight-year-old daughter’s curiosity. Since I was pregnant at the time with our fourth baby, I told my daughter that for the next week I was going to play the stay-at-home pregnant wife with two other kids—a perfect fit since I had two little boys then also, ages 4 and 2. My daughter was to play my husband who worked for Henry Ford. Weave real-life concepts throughout your play. | check out Amazon: |
Then the week began. Every morning I would get "my husband" breakfast and off "he" would go to work for Ford Motors. For a few days each morning while I was cleaning up after breakfast, my daughter “worked” for half an hour or so at the company, building cars from Legos. I told her that was her week's worth of work and that she could be expecting a paycheck soon.
Her brother, age 4, played the dual role of postman as well as my son. Since he liked to design things, he made the paycheck and wrote $50 on it. Then he delivered it to the mailbox on the shelf, said “ding” as he put it in the box, and put up the flag.
My daughter took that $50 paycheck with glee!
“I have $50!!!” she sang.
I showed her how to set up a checkbook.
Once she had everything in order, then the more in-depth learning began to occur.
As she came home from “work,” I exclaimed, "Oh, honey, I really need a new stove. This wood stove is just too hot for the kitchen during these summer months when I'm pregnant. I saw this stove in the Sears Catalog. Could we order it? It only costs $50."
She looked puzzled. "Well, that costs as much as this paycheck."
“We can put the stove on credit, dear.”
And so we engaged in a discussion about buying things on credit. As the week went on, I kept asking for more and more things, and she kept putting them on credit. We bought a Model-T car, the new stove, a gas fridge, and some other hefty items.
Then after four or five days of this kind of fun, she got a paycheck ("ding!") from the postman, but it was only for $40. She also got some bills her brother had designed for her in that mailbox for the items she had purchased on credit.
Of course, she asked me why the paycheck was less, and I told her that Mr. Ford just couldn't afford to pay his people that much money anymore (which eventually led us to a discussion of why unions arose and the present-day labor/management issues).
Then she asked me what these things marked "bills" were.
“I purchased the stove for $50,” she remarked. “Why is the bill for $55?”
We reviewed the concept of buying things on credit, and I introduced interest to her. She was looking rather upset about this idea of paying more for an item on credit than what it was worth.
Then we balanced the checkbook—or I should say we attempted to the balance the checkbook. Well, as you can imagine, she was quite distraught when all the money was used up and her wife (that would be me) needed food.
I told her I was going to switch roles now and become the "repo man." She asked, "What that?" I smiled, "Just watch."
So, I knocked on the door, asked her if she was (name of the husband that she picked for this play-acting), and then I walked to the new stove and picked it up and put it on my "repo truck." I asked my two boys to pretend-cry because the repo man was taking away the stove. Oh, they did a great job!
I walked over to the new car (made out of legos) and put that on my "repo truck." We had a great discussion about what it means to have something repossessed.
As soon as my daughter understood all this, she said, "Okay, Mom. I get it now. We're starting this game over tomorrow, and I'm doing things differently."
And so she did. This time when I, the wife, asked for a new stove, she said, "No way! Do you know how much those cost? I only make $40 a week, and if we put that on credit, we'll have to pay more for it than it's worth."
She wouldn't let me buy anything!
I did tell her I needed to buy some food, and she wouldn't even let me buy that!!! So we got into a discussion on budgeting.
Because we played this game for about two or three weeks, she learned so much so that when we read Nothing to Fear, she had a deeper understanding of what was going on during the time of the Great Depression.
Now that she is in college, she is so thrifty. She claims it has to do with that dreadful repo man that she foresees taking away her stove, her car….
We just laugh out loud at the fun we had playing and learning together through homeschooling.
Through this playacting during homeschooling, she learned
- that work is not a curse but a blessing
- how to set up a checkbook
- about labor/management issues
- that budgeting is essential to real life
- credit can be abused
- learning applies to real life situations and circumstances
- her mom loves to be with her
I learned that homeschooling that begins with home can create precious memories that provide valuable lessons for everyone.
have fun, and
learn right along with your children.
Thank You for this mom’s home
where the benefits of homeschooling naturally
can create life-long memories that draw hearts together in love.
Open her heart to the creativity that lies within her.
both you and your children.
~Psalm 115:14
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