Adding Adventure to your Home school

Adventure is something that can be added to your homeschool routine to activate learning in a more dynamic and practical way. But it has the potential to add so much more than just a learning experience. It can boost confidence, independence and respect for the natural world.

Sometimes we just need to go and do something we have never done before. Go somewhere we have never been. Do something exciting. Go out all day long.

Go on an Adventure.

The Cambridge Dictionary definition of Adventure is:

“An unusual, exciting, and possibly dangerous activity, such as a trip or experience, or the excitement produced by such an activity.”

All my children love going on an adventure. Half of the adventure is the thrill of excitement leading up to ‘The Adventure’; the planning and the preparation beforehand; poring over maps, planning where to go or what to do, packing the snacks and bags with the’essential’ supplies and getting up extra early on the day of the adventure.

When you see someone putting on his Big Boots you can be pretty sure that an Adventure is going to happen.

Winnie the Pooh
A.A. Milne

How to add adventure into your home school routine

Full day adventures or even mini-adventures of just a couple of hours are a brilliant way to rejuvenate your homeschool week and breathe fresh air into your homeschool routine.

If you have time then once a week would be wonderful, but if you are like many homeschoolers who already have a crammed timetable it might be more realistic to add adventure either:

• for a full day once a month as something extra special to plan for and look forward to

• or as as weekly addition but on a smaller scale, perhaps as a treat at the end of the week for a few hours on a Friday afternoon

Choose whatever works best for the time you have availiable.

If you are new to adding adventure you could start with something not too far out of your comfort zone to begin with, say a walk twice as long as you might normally do or having a picnic in the rain. Just try to add in something that you wouldn’t normally do or that adds a bit of extra challenge.

Go on some mini-adventures

Recently my brother-in-law took my children out on a stand up paddle boarding adventure. It only lasted a few hours but I know it is an adventure that my children will treasure for a long time. My older children went right out of the bay and around the headland so I could no longer see them and my younger children sat and paddled about around the shallower waters.

Obviously there was a risk involved in this activity which added to the sense of adventure. As mothers this part of adventure can be the hardest part. Letting go. Trusting that our children will make safe choices. That they will be okay. But we can do the groundwork first to prepare them for the risks involved in adventure. We can teach them to swim, teach them about potential dangers (poisonous plants, cliff edges, rip tides and so on), how to keep safe in different weather conditions, how to read a map and what to do in an emergency. And to begin with we can accompany them on their adventures, gently guiding and supporting them as they make their decisions. And then as they become older and more independent, capable of making sensible, calculated decisions we can let them fly on their own adventures.

Head off on an all day adventure

We love to look at maps and find places or footpaths we have never been on before. Sometimes even a familiar place can still offer something new.

Back in the middle of Winter I decided to take my tribe of 5 out for the entire day. We went to a beach we have been to many times before, except this time we were going to walk the entire length of the beach and back again, something we have never done before as it is 3 miles long. The big day of the adventure dawned and it was cold and pouring with rain. We could have just decided to cancel it but I am so glad we didn’t as it turned out to be one of my favourite memories so far from this year.

I had originally decided to just walk along the beach and back again, but when we arrived I noticed a path in the sand dunes running along behind the beach so we decided to explore this and see where it ended up instead! We clambered over sand dunes, trudged through muddy fields, discovered tiny patches of woodland and hidden lanes. We walked through wind and rain and when we eventually found our way back to the beach we found that it was high tide and there was hardly any beach left (I hadn’t checked the tide times!) so if we had tried to walk along the beach to begin with we probably wouldn’t have made it very far. Whilst we decided what to do I noticed a small beach-side shop so we went inside to warm up a bit and discovered that it was also a cafe so I treated the children to a hot chocolate and a few portions of chips to share whilst we waited for the tide to go out enough for us to start walking back along the beach.

Once the tide had retreated we set off again and were rewarded with beautiful low winter sunshine, which reflected on the wet sand like a mirror. To add to our adventures we set up a simple campfire and toasted marshmallows, paddled in the sea as we walked along, scrambled up and ran down sand dunes and finished by finding a sand dune nook to nestle in where we set up the trangia and made another hot chocolate. The icing on the cake at the end of the day was a beautiful rainbow as we walked back up through the sand dunes.

Some of our day was planned but most of it just evolved as the day went on and was full of serendiptuous surprises. These are the best kind of days.

Add an element of risk

As we are a nature loving family I always feel more comfortable letting my children roam free in the natural world , as opposed to a town or city. The natural world is more familiar to them and they have spent many years testing and exploring their skills out in nature. If you don’t have access to anywhere wild then there are still plenty of adventures to be had in your back garden or in your local park. You just have to look for them and see the world from your child’s perspective . . . a thicket of bushes along the edge of the park could easily be the Amazon rainforest and that little stream is a pathway into the unknown.

There have been pivotal moments for me when my older children have chosen to go off and explore without me for the first time. Thankfully they had either a sibling or friend to go with. As a parent it can be quite nerve-wracking waiting for them to return and praying that no injury has occurred to them whilst they are out of sight. My three eldest children all chose to go off and explore for the first time independently of me, whilst we have been in unfamiliar places, such as on an outing or on holiday. And they have all chosen woodland – perhaps because this is the place where they feel most at home. And they didn’t just go off for a brief 10 minutes – they all went for about an hour to begin with. These have probably been the longest hours of my life, but when they eventually emerged from the trees they all had such wonderfully happy expressions on their faces and were bubbling over with joy from their adventures.

Outdoor adventure can boost self-esteem

The benefits of children engaging in adventurous outdoor play are well documented and are far ranging, and many books have been written about the subject such as The Last Child in the Woods by Richard Louv. There are obvious benefits such as raising self-esteem (aka creating happy children) and increased physical health, but there are also benefits which are not so widely known such as better eye vision (reduced risk of myopia). In addition to this, by letting our children play outdoors in nature and experience all it in all its many forms (sea, mountain, forest, moor, desert, flora and fauna), we are helping them to nurture a love of and respect for the natural world. And in doing so, we are helping to safeguard the future of our beautiful world as they will be its future custodians.

Ideas for adding adventure into your homeschool

There are so many ways you can incorporate adventure into your homeschool days. To get you started I have added a list of ideas for you try, but be warned adventure is addictive and the possibilities for adventure are endless and you will soon be coming up with plenty more of your own!

• Take a trip to your local park and explore it from an Explorer’s point of view – get down low and imagine it as an unfamiliar world where dinosaurs or mythical creatures roam, or where natives are hiding; Pretend it is a treasure island full of hidden perils; imagine it is a new undiscovered world.
• Deliberately go for a walk in wild weather – pouring rain or blowing gale. Splash in puddles. Have a picnic in the snow. Children are more likely to remember these experiences as they contain extra challenge.
• Look on a map and find a local footpath you have never been on before and follow it.
• Build a den.
• Pack breakfast and get everyone up before dawn and go somewhere wild or unusual to eat it.
• Head to a nearby beach or stream for tea and go for a paddle before bed
• Stay up late to watch the stars.
• Go out all day long – watch the sunrise and sunset. Unless you are on the Equator this has its own challenges: in winter it is easier as the day is shorter but can be more difficult due to the weather and in the summer the weather can often mean it easier to spend the whole day outside, but with the longer days it can be harder, especially for younger children, as the sun can rise at 4am and set at 10pm making it a very long day so do what works best for the ages of your children, perhaps attempting it in Spring or Autumn. You don’t need to be doing something adventurous all day for this one, unless you choose to, as you could set up a base from which to stay/ explore/play/ read from.
• Go on a long hike. I have found that once my youngest reach about 3 years old they are able to walk 6 miles. We found that breaking it up made it more achievable: we planned our first ‘long walk’ by walking for 3 miles to a local beach where we stopped for a picnic, play and then when everyone felt rested we walked back home again. If you are worried that a longer walk may be too much then you could plan your walk to a destination that is on a bus route, so that you could get the bus home should you feel you need to. From 6 my children have been able to walk 10 miles, but choose what you are comfortable with and never make it a chore. Break up the walk with a picnic, snacks, nature study, play or a story. Get the children involved in planning the route or keep it a surprise.
• Grab a pair of wellies or water shoes and follow a stream as far as you can.
• Go for a night hike either on a new moon when it is darker so you can see the stars better or on a full moon. My children think it is particularly exciting to do this in their pyjamas!
• Do an overnight camp at a local campsite, the more basic the facilities the better.
• Go for a day camp. . . walk to a remote spot and set up the tent and ‘camp’ the for the day. Use it as a base to explore and take along some books and games to play.
• Take along a cooking stove on your walk, on which to cook lunch or boil water for a hot chocolate
• Go letter boxing (if you live near Dartmoor in the UK) or geocaching and see where it will lead you and what treasure you will find.
• If you are confident in plant ID go foraging for your supper.
• Go wild swimming
• Go canoeing down a river. If you aren’t confident there are plenty of companies that offer organised day (or night) paddles and supply instruction and equipment.
• Go climbing. Again there are plenty of organisations that offer full training and equipment.