Life Skills In Your Homeschool: Do They Really Count As Learning? (includes lesson plan recap)
Teaching life skills in a school setting looks very different than the way we teach them at home. This doesn’t mean they somehow matter less. Here is an overview of how I teach basic life skills as a part of our homeschool days.
A friend asked me last week why I don’t share the basic life skills learning we do in our homeschool. Did I feel that they didn’t “count” as much as the academic learning?
Life Skills In Your Homeschool: Do They Really Count As Learning?
It got me thinking. Why don’t I include some of the basic stuff we work on all the time, throughout our week?
It’s certainly not that I think they don’t have as much (if not more!) value than the regular topics. I think it’s because I very rarely plan to cover them on a weekly basis.
Here is my approach to basic life skills in our homeschool.
What Life Skills Does Your Child Need To Practice?
Throughout the course of the year, I keep a kind of master list of skills that I think my son needs to learn and practice.
When he was younger, this looked mostly like helping me around the house and managing moods and meltdowns.
Now that we are in high school. the list is very different. Here are some examples from my current list:
- Reading street signs when we are out and about
- Understanding how to use map apps on his phone
- Learning how to purchase something online, including check-out
- Memorizing the list of medications he takes
- Practice calling a business with a question that can’t be found online (i.e. What time does the rock climbing competition begin this Saturday? etc.)
Many children naturally figure these things out on their own. This list will likely not be the same for your child.
My point is, I keep a running list of things that I would like for him to naturally work on throughout the course of our days. I recommend you do the same, if you are concerned about teaching life skills in your homeschool.
In the past, I have also employed outside programs to help with teaching life skills. You’ll find more information about the programs themselves in these related posts:
- Making Life Skills In Your High School Homeschool A Priority
- Life Skills Matter (so why do I treat them like extras?)
- Homeschooling High School: What Matters Most May Surprise You
Is It OK To Add Life Skills To My Homeschool Lesson Plans?
Of course.
I probably should too, but I find that it works better if I just have the list in my head of what we want to work on, and then address them as they come up.
For the purposes of showing you what it looks like for us, I have included below a few of the practical life skills that were included in our learning last week.
Weekly Lesson Plan vs. Reality #36 (including life skills)
Monday
THE PLAN
- Physical Therapy – 2 hours
- YouTube Video or Google Search About A Preferred Topic
- Blood Plasma Infusion – 4 hours
WHAT ACTUALLY HAPPENED
- Physical Therapy – 2 hours
- YouTube: Mark Rober
- Banned Books Study
- Blood Plasma Infusion – 4 hours
Tuesday
THE PLAN
- Audiobook and Discussion
- Social Time with friends at school – 1 hour
- Art class – 1 hour
- Voice class – 1 hour
WHAT ACTUALLY HAPPENED
- Audiobook and Discussion – Banned Books
- Navigation practice in the car with a map app
- Social Time with friends at school – 1 hour
- Art class – 1 hour
- Voice class – 1 hour
Wednesday
THE PLAN
- Physical Therapy – 2 hours
- CTCMath
- Banned Books Study
- Mapwork
- Poetry Read Aloud
WHAT ACTUALLY HAPPENED
- Physical Therapy – 2 hours
- CTCMath
- YouTube Video: Data Storage
- Banned Books Study
- Online cart check-out practice
Thursday
THE PLAN
- Audiobook and Discussion
- Social Time with friends at school – 1 hour
- Guitar Class – 1 hour
- Rock Climbing Class – 2 hours
WHAT ACTUALLY HAPPENED
- Audiobook and Discussion
- Navigation practice in car with map app
- Social Time with friends at school – 1 hour
- Music Tech and Recording Studio Basics – 1 hour
- Rock Climbing Class – 2 hours
Friday
THE PLAN
- Chemistry
- Rock Climbing
- Current Events Discussion
- Banned Books Audiobook and Discussion
- CTCMath
WHAT ACTUALLY HAPPENED
- Rock Climbing
- Banned Books – audiobook and discussion
- Text message spelling practice
- Music Technology Study
- Creative Writing – song lyrics
Our Individualized Homeschool Lesson Plan For This Week
| Week 37 | Lesson Plan |
| Monday | 1. Physical Therapy – 2 hours 2. YouTube Video or Google Search About A Preferred Topic 3. Blood Plasma Infusion – 4 hours |
| Tuesday | 1. Audiobook and Discussion 2. Social Time with friends at school – 1 hour 3. Art class – 1 hour 4. Voice class – 1 hour |
| Wednesday | 1. Physical Therapy – 2 hours 2. CTCMath 3. Banned Books Study 4. Mapwork 5. Poetry Read Aloud |
| Thursday | 1. Audiobook and Discussion in car 2. Social Time with friends at school – 1 hour 3. Guitar Class and Music Tech – 1 hour 4. Rock Climbing Class – 2 hours |
| Friday | 1. Chemistry 2. Rock Climbing 3. Current Events Discussion 4. Banned Books Audiobook and Discussion 5. CTCMath |
Reference Note: My son attends classes on both Tuesday and Thursday at a specialized private school. This is for elective classes like art and music, as well as social skills.
