Earlier this year, when the covid restrictions eased, and life felt like it was returning to normal after our lockdown – and before the next lockdown arrived – my girls and I enjoyed a big shopping day out together. After we returned home, I wrote the following post for our unschooling community.
Yesterday, I went shopping with three of my girls. We drove to a nearby city to the ‘big shops’ and enjoyed browsing for books, clothes and makeup. We had lunch at the shopping centre (Gemma-Rose’s treat) before returning home. Then last night, I was thinking about homeschool record keeping. If it were necessary, could I turn our day into homeschool records notes? (We no longer have any registered homeschoolers, but I thought this might be an interesting exercise.) So, here are a few things I came up with:
Maths
We did lots of additions and subtractions as we paid for our shopping. Also, we used percentages because we bought a few things in the sale. We did all the maths in our heads. We talked about how 40% is harder to work out then 50% mentally. We used loyalty cards and, a few times, we were asked if we wanted to sign up for new ones. We discussed the benefits of loyalty cards and compared different stores‘ loyalty programs. We’d all allotted ourselves a shopping budget, and we discussed how we were going to spend our money.
English
Vocabulary: we noticed which stores had QR codes at their entrances. We talked about whether QR codes are mandatory and decided they’re only mandatory for sit-down customers in cafes. I remarked that ‘mandatory’ has become an everyday word because of covid. We then listed other words such as quarantine that covid has pushed to the top of the popularity list.
We talked about how language is changing and not always for the better. I told my girls about a news video that I’d watched on YouTube about vocabulary. Apparently, in some places, breastfeeding has been replaced by chest feeding. A mother is now a birthing parent. A father is a co-parent. A maternity ward is now a perinatal ward. This conversation led to a discussion about characters in animated movies. Are there too many blue-eyed white skinned characters? Do we always have to be politically correct?
Creative Arts/English
We browsed the bookshops. I bought a couple of Neil Gaiman’s children’s books and shared a few things that I’d learnt from Neil Gaiman’s writing Masterclass. We talked about how some stories are told with only a few words or no words at all. Instead, pictures tell the story. I bought a Shaun Tan picture book that has fantastic illustrations.
Creative Arts
I bought a drawing book by Johanna Basford: How to Draw Inky Wonderlands. We talked about the possibility of using an iPad and the app, Procreate, to try out the techniques in this book. This led to a conversation about drawing in general.
Maths/Geography
We used the shopping centre information map to navigate our way to particular shops. This involved grid coordinates. If I were really recording our trip as homeschool record notes, I might have included a photo of the info map plus a Google map showing our journey from home to the shopping centre.
Geography
We discussed the weather. The shopping centre is in a place that’s always a few degrees warmer than where we live. It rained while we were travelling, and this led to a conversation about the changes in weather patterns over the last year or two. Not so long ago, we were in drought, and it was very hot. This summer has been cooler and wetter which is wonderful! We also talked about the seasons because in a few days it will be autumn.
Personal Development
After we’d enjoyed our lunch, we returned to the cafe counter to thank the staff for the excellent food and coffee. This delighted but also surprised them. Not many customers take the time to thank staff. Working in the hospitality industry, my girls are very aware of this. Customers prefer to complain. My girls and I talked about the joy that results from doing little things like thanking people. We discussed phone etiquette and how rude it is for a customer to answer a phone while being served.
Religion/Personal Development
While in the car, we talked about Lent which has just begun. We discussed our plans. We talked about sacrifices that look okay from the outside but are rooted in pride. Also, how there are times when we have to forgo a sacrifice because of a greater good.
Creative Arts/English/Personal Development
While driving home, we discussed the Disney movie Mulan and how the latest version is different from the animated one. What are the reasons for the changes? Is it better for a person to use her brain to win or her strength?
Maths
Close to home, we stopped to refill the car tank with petrol. We talked about the tank’s capacity and the price of petrol per litre. Did our bill come to more than I expected because the car tank is bigger than I thought, or has the price of petrol increased? I paid for the petrol, we travelled in Gemma-Rose’s car, and Imogen drove. Charlotte provided stimulating conversation. We worked as a team!
Technology
While we were at the shops, the postman delivered a parcel to our house. It was my new phone. When we arrived home, Imogen set up the phone for me. That involved a lot of conversation about technology: backups, iCloud, face recognition technology, updates…
Creative Arts
I took some photos with my phone using portrait mode. We talked about how I’m going to use my phone. Would it be good for vlogging? Imogen suggested I make a vlog to test out the quality of the camera.
My girls and I talked about lots of other things that I could tell you about, but this post is getting long.
Of course, you and your kids won’t have the same conversations as us while shopping or travelling, but maybe my post will give you some record keeping ideas. When we spend a day at the shopping centre, we’re not just enjoying ourselves, we’re learning about all kinds of things!
As you can see, my girls and I went shopping together earlier this year during Lent. Now Advent and Christmas are approaching. You and kids are probably doing your Christmas shopping. Are you ordering things online? Or maybe you’re allowed into ‘non-essential’ shops and can browse for gifts in person. Either way, I bet you’re chatting and learning while you’re shopping.
Perhaps you’re talking about Black Friday sales, Christmas budgets, postage costs, delivery times, Christmas traditions, religious beliefs, generosity, hopes and dreams, dates, seasons, vaccine passports, rights and restrictions…
At the end of your shopping day, why not jot down all your conversations, add a few photos, take some screenshots of the websites where you shop, scan your receipts, maybe find a map or two. You should have no trouble at all finding notes to fill up your homeschool record keeping notebook!
Photo
This is Charlotte. We like to stop for coffee, and maybe lunch too, while we’re out shopping. While we sip our drinks, we look at what we’ve bought, tick items off our lists, discuss things we’ve seen and whether they’re worth buying, check our budgets, talk about all sorts of things…
