Creative Homeschooling Ideas: The Power of Invention
If necessity is the mother of invention, then creativity is its father. Using creative homeschooling ideas to provide children with the time, opportunity, and means to explore and play creatively will help them develop essential problem-solving skills, observational study skills, and the desire to learn.
February 11 is National Inventors Day–explore these resources for teaching and learning about famous inventors and inventions to inspire and encourage your own little inventors. Whether you’re exploring “unschooling,” looks for ways to inspire and encourage creativity, or simply trying to reduce your family’s dependence on electronics and structured activities, these creative homeschooling ideas will provide you with some inspiration of your own.
Creative Homeschooling Ideas
Check out Homeschooling Ideas for an incredible variety of creative homeschooling ideas, including creative ways to teach writing, geography studies through geocaching, science experiments, themed play corners, the art of “strewing,” and much more!
This blog post from Simple Homeschool offers tips for fostering creativity in your homeschool.
If the idea of “unschooling” is an intimidating concept for you, check out these ideas from Everything Homeschooling for tips on teaching brainstorming, exploring your children’s interests, and a plethora of unschooling activity ideas.
The Power of Invention
This inventors and inventions unit study from There’s No Place Like Home is an excellent base for an inventions study for students of all ages.
This inventions timeline can provide a great entry point into a unit study on inventions. How do inventions build on one another? When was the wheel invented and what inventions utilize the benefits of the wheel?
Thought Co. has a handy database of inventions that includes clickable links to short descriptions of each invention, the need that inspired each invention, and the inventor responsible for its creation.
The National Inventors Hall of Fame and Museum in Alexandria, Virginia would make a great family field trip. Currently, exhibits at the museum include the Gallery of Icons, an exhibit on Intellectual Property Power, “The History of Patent Examination,” and more.
Your elementary students can read about 40 inventors in this database from Biography Online. In these short bios, you will find the name of the inventor and a description of the invention. You can click on the name of some of the inventors to be directed to more detailed information.
This collection of ancient inventions from the Smith College Museum of Ancient Inventions, will help you tie your study of inventions to your study of history.
Inventions are everywhere. If you use something that is not naturally occurring, someone probably invented it. This list includes the top ten inventions that were created by teens prior to entering college.
Coming up with the invention idea is only the first step on a long road to turning that idea into a reality. This article from Entrepreneur features five steps for turning your invention ideas into a product.
Smithsonian magazine has a plethora of articles on inventing and inventions. Your teen could use this information to research and report on new inventions and their potential for use in society.
The Freedom to Create
Dominic Wilcox, a U.K. designer and inventor, challenged 450 young students to come up with their own invention ideas. Wilcox took the drawings to manufacturers and had the inventions constructed. This website, featuring 15 of those invention ideas, is an excellent example of the intriguing ideas children can come up with if given the opportunity to develop their observational and creative skills.
Be inspired by these seven ways to encourage creativity in your children from HomeschoolYourBoys.com.
Free play offers children much more than the opportunity develop creative skills. Organic free play, undirected by adults and not dominated by electronics, also helps children learn social skills, develop problem-solving skills, and fosters independence.
You can encourage your preschoolers–and older students!–to tinker with woodworking by creating a woodworking area. Who knows what they will invent? Check out this cool examples of dedicated woodworking and tinkering stations from Let the Children Play.
One way to encourage creativity and inventing is to provide the necessary supplies. You can use the suggestions here to create an inventor’s box.
