Imagine that the universe turned in on itself, and the government decided that everyone had to give up all their toys, games, books and anything mildly entertaining or educational – save 5 things.
If you had to pick 5 things to keep your homeschooling going even in the midst of this crazy government declaration, what would you pick? And why?
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Just Enough, and Nothing More 
January 23, 2008 at 6:39 am
1. Computer
2. Trampoline
3. Playstation and games
4. Our playset
5. My nine year ols favorite book” Earth & Space
January 23, 2008 at 7:21 am
1. A Dictionary – That would be a definite must have.
2. Paper and Marker Pens – Writing letters and stories, drawing pictures, making a deck of cards, tic tac toe, origami, paper airplanes…I could go on and on.
3. A Library Card
4. Our swimming pool – Even though we only use it for part of the year (the rest of the year we go to the rec center) summer would just not be the same without it.
5. My 11th Edition Fanny Farmer Cook Book (First Edition published in 1896) – My favourite cookbook with very detailed cooking instructions, conversion tables and substitution lists.
I can’t believe I didn’t put computer on the list…my daughter would insist it be a “must-have” but I grew up without one so I don’t see it as a necessity.
Where’s your list Tammy? 😛
January 23, 2008 at 9:59 am
This is hard because so many of the things I use aren’t really ‘educational’. Like my bucket of buttons; my measuring cups, food coloring, etc. But on my list of five:
My library card, which means that I don’t really need much else.
My state parks pass.
My children’s museum membership.
MY laptop which doubles as a DVD player, so we could get Mythbusters on disc.
I have to really think about the last one….
January 23, 2008 at 10:06 am
I’m keeping the cards — I grew up on pinochle, gin rummy, and poker. I firmly believe that they are one of the reasons I have any head at all for math, even if I AM lousy at poker.
The garden goes nowhere. I’m death on plants — I inherited my grandfather’s welding gene, not his farming gene — but I can’t resist putting a seed in soil and watching it grow up. We had a heckuva mortality rate on the citrus seeds, finishing up with just three seedlings — but O, what gorgeous little trees. This year we’re doing more research on tomatoes. The garden goes nowhere.
The Lord of the Rings
The computer and its internet connection. The Oxford English dictionary, complete, whole, and unabridged, is available online ;). Granted, I would have to sell a family member PLUS the rest of my belongings to be able to afford it….
Good Omens. It may be the funniest book about Armageddon ever written, but that’s beside the point. It is also about questioning and challenging those who claim authority and infallibility — for those who are 100 percent certain they know everything are also the most likely to be wrong about it all. It’s about doing the right thing because it’s right, even when there isn’t a hope that’s it’s going to make any difference. These were some of the lessons that I took away from it, at least. The authors may have (and probably did) have something else in mind. Getting paid, for instance ;). But if they are going to take everything else away, a book that encourages rebellion ain’t a bad thing :)).
January 23, 2008 at 12:59 pm
Cool idea! I am enjoying the responses. Even though I don’t home school. I would say my list would be:
Computer
Library Card
writing tools
Healthy Food
Pleanty of Space
January 23, 2008 at 3:15 pm
1) Computer (hopefully the internet is still opperational, or I know a guy who knows a guy…)
2) The car, so we can go places and still learn something
3) The garden, fresh healthy food to sustain us
4) Our encyclopedia set, gotta have some books
5) Each other.
January 24, 2008 at 2:36 pm
Awesome lists everyone! So telling of your family style 🙂 I want to be a kid in all of your families!
Joanne – I LOVE that video games is on your list.
Sheri – A swimming pool.. great answer! Those are some happy memories you’re creating w/your kids.
Anna – Interesting observation about the computer being an all-in-one device.
Stephanie – I’m going to get that book. I love Terry Pratchet, and I love “end of the world” books… Also, your review sold me, even if I didn’t like either of those 🙂
tobeme – Space. Great idea! Thanks for stopping by.
Summer – Each other – the answer that had met tearing up.
Ok, here are my answers:
1. LAPPY! If there was a fire in my house, I’d grab my kids, my purse, then Lappy. Pretty much anything we need to know is on the internet. If we don’t have anything else, but we have a working computer hooked up to the internet, we’ve got infinite possibilities.
2. Paper and writing instruments (can I count that as one item?). If we have paper and something to write with, the possibilities are endless.
3. Building supplies, like Knex or Legos. My son and husband are the engineers, and would shrivel up if they couldn’t build things. My daughters use building supplies as well.
4. netflix subscription – access to pretty much anything on video. In time, netflix might be replaced with appleTV or itunes. As it stands, netflix still wins hands-down on quantity.
5. Our piano (I would say “our musical instruments, including our guitars, but I don’t know if that counts as more than one thing). Music is a staple in our house. The piano would not go.
I almost put video games, board games and library card on my list, but decided that we could play video games on my computer, we can make board games with our paper/pens, and we can go to the library without checking anything out. The other things, we can’t really achieve with other resources.
April 11, 2010 at 10:24 am
An open mind is more of an abstraction than a concrete thing, but it is a good starting point for any kind of education