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If you have been in the homeschool world for very long you have probably heard about morning baskets, but in addition to a morning basket we use our ‘Evening Education’, not to be confused with night school, to fit it all in. ‘Evening Education’ is the term I coined for the parts of our school day that we do in the evenings with my husband. With children at varying ages, homestead chores, household duties, 4H and American Heritage Girls/Trail Life our days can get pretty busy and it is easy for certain subjects to get pushed to the side. Our ‘Evening Education’ time allows for us to utilize that time together in the evening for subjects that are fun and enjoyable as a family.
What Do You Use For ‘Evening Education’?
This can certainly vary from family to family based on what you enjoy and what you want to cover. For us we want to keep it fun and engaging so that they enjoy the family time while still covering areas that we need to cover. We love using Drive Thru History Adventures during this time. The children feel like they are being rewarded with a movie and I know that I’m covering Bible or history. We can sit back and watch the movie with popcorn and then discuss what we saw. We also use other movies and documentaries that correlate with our studies.
We also use simple family discussions. My husband will ask them about what we are covering in a subject like science or history and then share more information and discussion. He’s really great at extemporaneously coming up with content and guiding a discussion.
This year we are going to use our ‘Evening Education’ time to cover our music appreciation studies. We will be choosing a different genre of music each month. A couple times a week we will use Prime Music or YouTube to share various songs and artists from that genre. I prefer Prime Music because of avoiding commercials. The children love to sit and listen to music with us, so this should be a fun experience. We also hope to attend some free or inexpensive local concerts to represent as many of the genres as we can.
We also enjoy using board games for our ‘Evening Education’. Sometimes that is a common board game like Yahtzee that teaches math skills and sometimes those are the history games from Home School in the Woods that go along with whatever we are learning (or something we have already covered.)
How Often Do You Do ‘Evening Education’?
We do not have a set schedule for our Evening Education time. We generally do something three or four nights a week depending on our schedule for that week. It may be as simple as a discussion at the dinner table or as elaborate as pizza and a movie or game night.
What Are The Benefits of ‘Evening Education’?
We have seen several benefits of ‘Evening Education’. One big benefit is that it allows my husband to be involved in the children’s education. Many dads are interested in what the children are learning but work schedules can make it difficult for them to be active participants but this allows them to stay connected and included.
It also frees up time during our regular days and allows us to cover those ‘extra’ things that we may not otherwise have time to complete. Instead of feeling pushed and not doing music or watch that documentary we simply switch it to a different time of day.
Finally, we find that it creates lots of fun family memories. They truly enjoy our game nights, family discussions, and movie times. I love that it connects learning with fun and family. They do not feel like they are being made to do ‘school’ at night but simply that they are learning through our family time.
I encourage you to consider if ‘Evening Education’ could benefit your family. Is there a subject or activity that you could move from your regular school day and enjoy as a family whether that is in the evenings or even on the weekends. I’d love for you to share ideas for ‘Evening Education’ in the comments.
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Deals and Freebies
Back to School Bundle Sale going on now!! Back to Homeschool Online Course Bundle
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Free Makeover Your Morning 5 Day Challenge! This is a great way to help re-focus and get your day off on the right foot.
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Illustrated Would You Rather Book (Free on Kindle)
Enrichment Studies has a great free fine arts memory match game this month!
Free Help Your Child’s Memory Book from All About Learning Press!
Check Out These Other Posts!!
Christine @ Christine Howard
Christy @ The Simple Homemaker
Debra @ Footprints in the Butter
Diana @ Homeschool Review
Felicia @ Homeschool 4 Life
Jacquelin @ A Stable Beginning
Jeniffer @ Thou Shall Not Whine
Jennifer @ A Glimpse of Our Life
The Schoolin' Swag Blog 
We often have evening education as our younger children like to show Dad what they are learning (or have learned) and I like to have my husband join in on discussions with our teen (and get his input for math).
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Yes, they love sharing with Dad and math help is always appreciated (at least with me)!
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