Spring Education Fair

Every year, about this time, spring fever starts to set in. We start getting a handful of warm, sunny days and nobody wants to even think about schoolwork.  Unfortunately, we have several weeks of school left in order to meet our state’s attendance requirements.  So, what’s an antsy mom and her restless kids to do?

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photo by Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers

Well, often, if we can convince a few families in our homeschool group — and we usually can — we’ll plan a spring fair.  Some of the fairs we’ve done or considered in the past include:

• Presidents – Each family chooses a president to study and showcase.
• States – Instead of a president, choose a state to learn more about.  (You could do countries, too, but our group does an annual Around the World Day in the fall which covers the countries, so this hasn’t come up as a spring event.)
• Biographies – Choose a famous person to share with others.  This one works out nicely for families who don’t want to take a break from their current studies since they can choose a person who ties in with what they’re already doing.
• People/Places – Can’t decide?  Don’t!  A people and places fair is a lot of fun and gives the kids a lot of room to creatively follow their own interests.
• Art – Let the kids showcase their creative side by putting on an art show.  All mediums are welcome!
• Highlights – Instead of coming up with an all-new something, let the kids choose some of their favorite projects, reports, artwork, or assignments from the school year to share with their friends.  For those of you who have to do portfolios, this could be a fun way to start compiling your portfolio for the year.
• Night at the Museum – We did a Night at the Museum fair one year, which was tons of fun.  All the kids picked a character from the movie to portray.  One family even did a display on New York City, since what was the setting for the movie.
• Math Day – Each family could come up with a fun, hands-on, math-related activity.  Your kids might be surprised to find that math really can be fun.
• Science – Of course, not to be left out, is the ever-popular science fair.  It could be the traditional share-your-findings type or a hands-on event with different stations set up for kids to explore.

Now, that you’ve decided what type of fair you want to have, you’ll want to make sure you’ve worked out a few details, such as:

• Location. Often one of the most difficult aspects of planning a homeschool group event is finding a place to hold it.  Some ideas might include: a church gym or fellowship hall, a library meeting hall, a city hall public access room, or a covered pavilion at a local park.
• Presentation. How will the students display their work?  We like to use those tri-fold presentation boards.  They’re portable and the size tends to give kids some direction for their work — it’s not as overwhelming when you know it only has to fit in those three sections.  Will students need to bring their own tables or will those be provided?
• Food. At most of our events, it goes without saying that food is a definite plus.  Some ideas include food representative of the state or country being presented, the president or biographical figures’ favorite foods, or a snack from the historical period being presented.
• Handouts. We like to encourage hand-outs at our group fairs — fact sheets that sum up what your students have learned so that their friends can follow-up when they go home.

Has your homeschool group ever done an event like this?  If so, what worked and what didn’t for your group?

Kris is the sweet-tea-drinking, classically eclectic, slightly Charlotte Mason mom to her three Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers.  To date, she’s lost 68 pounds and shares her weight-loss journey at Eclipsed.