Like most homeschoolers, we love field trips. Nothing beats experiential learning. My family has found the “field trips” we’ve gone on to volunteer in the community particularly impactful. I share ideas for volunteering in the Twin Cities and beyond in my “Weekday Volunteering as a Family or Homeschool Group” post.
While going out in the community to volunteer is invaluable, I encourage families to consider a more expansive view – building service across your curriculum and into your everyday homeschool life. In public schools, service-learning is the well-researched concept that students benefit from service being incorporated across subjects. Learn, then take action!
Let’s break this concept into some tangible ideas!
Many resources listed below are from Doing Good Together, a Minnesota-based organization that supports families in raising kids who care and contribute. I work for DGT and my kids have benefitted from the many free and affordable DGT kindness resources.
Language Arts
If you read books together as a family or if your child is reading books independently and inspired to take action, there’s often a way to help in your community or the world based on the themes in the book, such as:
- Advocacy, writing or drawing a picture for your local elected officials
- Learning about and changing your family’s purchasing habits
For example, when my family read Katherine Applegate’s novel Wilodeen together, we used the Doing Good Together advocacy page to draw a photo of our favorite green space in our community and thanked our state senator and representative for all they do to help protect natural spaces. My children were thrilled to get a letter back from each of them sharing their current conservation efforts. Middle school and high school students can of course look at samples of advocacy letters and draft their own. (DGT’s Family Guide to Active Citizenship has templates and a sample)
Math
For younger elementary math, counting, skip counting, and addition are key. DGT’s Hunger Calendar provides a fun way to save up money to donate to your local food shelf. The calendar provides prompts to count something every day, whether it is how many jumping jacks you can do in a minute or how many socks are in your sock drawer. You put that day’s count of coins or dollars into a jar and donate the amount you collect at the end of the month. Choose a different coin every day and skip count by that amount as you add them to the jar. Keep a running total of the money you’ve collected.
For older kids, exploring graphs, charts, and data analysis available through either national resources or Minnesota-based resources such as Minnesota Compass can spark important conversations about not only data analysis and presentation but social issues our state or nation are grappling with.
Writing
One of the important factors for writing instruction is an authentic audience. Setting up a Magic Mail Center in your home and encouraging kids to spend time their weekly or even daily can provide your child with a meaningful way to practice handwriting and original thought alongside kindness towards family, friends, and strangers.
To set up a Magic Mail Center, you’ll need this printout from DGT along with lots of fun card supplies including thicker paper or cardstock, washi tape, markers, stencils, stickers, a joke or quote book, envelopes, and postage stamps.
Allow your child to choose who they would like to write to on the Magic Mail printable (or a friend or family member who might need a smile). How might they show kindness through their writing? What drawing or words might bring a smile to the recipient’s face?
One great option in the Twin Cities that is not on the Magic Mail Center printout is writing letters four times a year for seniors served through Friends & Co. as part of their Card Connect volunteer opportunity.
Other writing ideas include Car Window Poetry, a DIY kindness journal, or a grandparent journal.
Science
When we were learning about the water cycle and watersheds, we not only visited our local water treatment plant, but adopted a storm drain through Adopt-a-Drain – Minnesota and checked out a kit from our city to glue no dumping plaques to all the storm drains in our neighborhood.
While exploring water, you can help monitor water for the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency.
For your nature study, consider finding opportunities to act as a citizen scientist for projects run by the Minnesota DNR.
If your family enjoys gardening, you can plant a row for your local food shelf, grow flowers to give away, or grow a pollinator garden.
Social Studies
As you learn about government, writing (or drawing!) letters to your local elected officials will teach the functioning of a democracy.
As you learn about the many cultures that make up Minnesota, the Greater Twin Cities United Way has a Flavors of Our Community pantry stocking opportunity. Appreciate and honor the diversity of foods that are enjoyed by families visiting our state’s food shelves. Visit your local grocery store or one that is new to you to pick up items for one of the United Way’s 11 cultural food packs. Reach out to the United Way if you would like a recommendation on which food bank to donate the packs to.
Book Resources
I have filled our library holds and read together basket with recommendations from Doing Good Together’s many themed kindness lists.
Doing Good Together big-hearted picture and chapter book recommendations
I’ve also found many kindness themed books from the wonderful booklists curated by Lauren over at Happily Ever Elephants.
Video/Movie Resources
Here are some video/movie resources I’ve used with my kids to explore kindness:
Kindness 101 with Steve Hartman
Doing Good Together’s Family Night Big-Hearted Movie Review
