The Mechanics of Lifeschooling

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Written By Will Dodd

What is lifeschooling and why should you care?

What is it?

Lifeschooling(v,n): To teach students concepts by applying them to real life situations. Generally used as a homeschooling style.

Lifeschooling is about preparing children, not just to attend college, but to become self-sufficient adults. To accomplish this, parents and teachers integrate academic into everyday tasks. In homeschooling, this looks like child learning about multiplying fractions through baking bread, going to a park with a nature journal, joining an social group or a book club, calculating this weeks grocery bill, writing a story to read to a younger sibling, and/or filling out a tax form for a fake employment (to name a few ideas). To accomplish this, parents may take their children on errands, to the park, grocery shopping, anywhere it is reasonable to bring them along. Parents might involve their kids in age-appropriate tasks as well, like cooking, taxes, car repairs, chores, and bills. Most parents use lifeschooling to some degree with their children.

In public schools this can be a bit trickier. Teachers can create a “store” where students “buy” small items (pencils, erasers, stickers, etc.) with fake money earned with positive behavior, bring to school some local newspapers to discuss current events, visit the school library to check out books, or take student out to the school playground to observe the local flora. Even students themselves can practice lifeschooling. Whether cooking a meal, searching the internet for scientific/historical videos, calculating if an item can be purchased with your allowance, finding books at a public/school library, or recording a tally of the trees in a park. My hope is to give you the tools you need to implement lifeschooling with intention, no matter who you are.

Why lifeschooling? Many students live a dual-life. They go to school on the weekdays; then they come home. Apart from homework, they don’t apply the academic knowledge they learn in the classroom to other parts of their lives. Instead, these students compartmentalize the information, where it rots away into a unusable glob of trivia that takes up space inside children’s minds. Students who connect what they have learn to their lives, either currently or in their foreseeable future, are better able to retain the information. Solving real-life problems also allows students to engage with the material, helping them discover multiple solutions. This, in turn, develops a growth mindset in them and boost their self-esteem.

While lifeschooling is a homeschooling method which utilizes real-world experiences to teach academic concepts, teachers and even students themselves can incorporate it into their instruction along with parents. There are a plethora of ways parents, teachers, and students can teach with this method. Lifeschooling has many benefits as well, including memory retention, stronger connections between learning and its practical application, more developed critical thinking skills, and higher levels of confidence. Each person is different. For some, lifeschooling may not be their best option. I merely wish to present the option so you can make an informed decision for your pupil.

Will Dodd