Activities, Activities! -Melinda Harrington

Activities, Activities!

-Melinda Harrington

(There's a video made by Marnie down below after you've read this post, or you could just skip to it straight away!)

When I list out the so called ‘extra-curricular’ activities that we have been involved with over the years – I start to feel exhausted. I know that we are not unusual as a homeschooling family – getting out there and involved in activities outside of the home seems to play a really large
part of the daily lives of homeschoolers that I know.

Musical instruments are not an uncommon part of the weekly round of lessons and practice regimes in many homeschool homes. I’ve known homeschool kids who play piano, flute, violin, guitar, drums, trombone, cornet and more. There’s more than one musical band around Geelong Victoria that can attest to having a healthy homeschool membership amongst its ranks. Choir and singing is also popular. In fact I know there have been one or two homeschool choirs in existence in the past few years.

Ballet and sport are popular, as is cheerleading and gymnastics. We have a special homeschool circus skills group in town, as well as a homeschool tennis group and recently I was part of a homeschool Auslan group. Auslan is Australian sign language for the deaf. A group of families got together in a community centre and arranged an Auslan teacher – although I no longer attend I hear it is still going strong! Did I mention the homeschool sports group that meets informally every week? Oh and there was that homeschool basketball team too.

My own daughter enjoys a mix of activities that are ‘mainstream’ like her indoor tennis lessons and her trombone lessons. But we also stay connected to specific ‘homeschool’ activities too – like the homeschool art and puppetry classes we ran one time at our house.

There are so many opportunities these days to organize and tailer activities to suit your own family life. I have found that many sporting and leisure organizations are more than happy to try and accommodate a group of people who are willing to pay for a separate class. I know of several families that have enjoyed special homeschool family swimming lessons during the day when the public pool is a little quieter and less busy. When several families band together, the cost of teacher is substantially reduced – and that goes for any activity.

So what activities have you and your family enjoyed over the years? What has worked best for you? 

Check out Marnie's blog post about some of the activities she's done over the years (COMING SOON)!

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