A Lesson Adventure Can Be Anywhere

"The Park"

"The Park"

These words I hear from my sweet, precious twin girls almost every morning.  All three of my children love to be outdoors.  They were born to be out and about and off to an adventure of some sort.  Homeschooling this year using the Leadership Education (TJED) philosophy has been the best blessing.  I love what it teaches and instills in not only my children, but for myself as well.  At one of our local parks today, the children played for awhile and then started to get bored and my son Caleb I could tell needed a shift.  He needed a shift in activity.  I had brought a few sight word books and animal flash cards which all three of them had gone over when we first had gotten to the park.  I thought to myself, what can I do?  The wind began to blow and the tree branches with their leaves were swaying.  I immediately thought a science lesson on trees.  We talked about what things trees provide us with.  Caleb immediately knew that trees provided shade, sources of food, paper and I went on to talk about more.  Lastly, I wanted him to know how trees provided us with oxygen.  Immediately he responded that oxygen is needed for us to breathe.  I was so happy that we were able to have this short, sweet lesson and yes, it was at the park. 

But wait, the lesson did not end here!

My son started to sneeze.  Last year his doctor had diagnosed him with seasonal allergies.  He does not have it often, but when he does I feel bad for him, my poor little thing.  He sneezes, eyes get puffy and watery, along with the scratching of his face around his eyes.  So, right after he had sneezed, he pointed at a tree and said, "mom, look right here."  I did and he began to explain to me that that tree was in its season and that it was causing his allergies to act up because it had pollen.  I totally thought wow, my son just gave me a lesson on how a tree had pollen and connected it to his allergies.  Yes, I was amazed as any mom is when their child shares with them the knowledge that they have inside of them.  I gave him a big hug and then off to walk back home we went.  I felt good about our park outing today and enjoyed seeing yet another example of TJED at work in my home, or in this case the park!