Today I read an article at the site of The Imperfect Homeschooler today that I really enjoyed. She makes a lot of good points and gives everyday occurrences a new twist as to how they are real life schooling.

Some of my own examples. We have an uphill driveway. Everyday the Game Master and Jungle Princess walk up it to fetch the mail and we walk up it and across the street to do laundry in my husband's office. Our well has run a little low and we are blessed to have another resource nearby that allows us to not only get our laundry done, but gives a chance to climb our hilly driveway!

Writing thank you cards for gifts received and for acts of kindenss received. This counts as handwriting, grammar, spelling, manners and civics.

Making birthday cards for the 94 year old great grandma counts as art, all the items mentioned under thank you cards, and lessons in expressing love and appreciation.

Cooking takes care of math, reading, following directions, Home economics, and taking a role of sharing responsibility in the house.

Grocery shopping is all about learning how to choose best price items, good fruits and vegetables and reading labels...dang there is that reading thing again and math...it's everywhere!

Trips to the library...reading, use of the card catalog, math and alphabetizing (looking for the books on the shelf), learning to be quiet inside, learning to sign out and properly use the library computers and then there is the joy of just staring at all of that knowledge!

Playdates: we learn social skills, to learn from those older than us, to teach those younger than us, to look out for others, and there is always P.E. involved!

Playing Civilization on the computer teaches history, the natural progression of science/technology, budgeting, diplomacy, exploration and its rewards and that you need to save your work in case the computer crashes!

Playing Zoo Tycoon or Zoo Tycoon II on the computer teaches budgeting, how to attract business, how to care for animals, information about a variety of animals, how to make your customers happy so that they want to stay and spend their money, and how to save your work in case the computer crashes!

Playing Nintendo games can teach memory skills, eye-hand coordination, map skills, problem solving, math and reading.

Researching a paper on the internet encourages computer skills (very necessary), teaches how to use Google, how to do editing with Word, how to give credit, how to be discriminating about which sites are 'trustworthy' information wise, and can extend to use of Power Point, Publisher and more. Computer skills are so important in our society today and we definitely need to spend time teaching these skills to our children.

The list goes on, I would like to hear some of your homeschooling lessons.