A Rainy Day
The lightning crackled and the thunder boomed. When the storm passed and left the pouring rain, my neighbor’s littles were out gathering eggs with their mom, playing in the rain. These were homeschooled children. They weren’t missing school or recess. I thought how different their lessons might be from the children I had taught sitting in a classroom under a prescribed curriculum. This mom and her children could seize the moment. They could embrace the rain and enjoy the day. My students and I would dread the no recess day.
What questions might children ask about storms, rain, and water? What learning opportunities might they have?
- What causes storms?
- How does changes in barometric pressure affect the weather?
- How fast does lightning travel?
- What is lightning?
- What is thunder?
- How fast does sound travel?
- How far away is a storm?
- How do we measure rainfall?
- Are there signs in nature to help us predict the weather?
When I taught, we had the children pretend to be lightning. They would quickly crouch down and jump us with a boom for thunder. Of course they were four and five year olds but it was a fun introduction to weather even if they couldn’t go out and splash.
As an older child, I was taught to count seconds between the lightning and the thunder to tell the distance of the storm. Truth or old wives’ tale?
Country folk taught their children several things to predict the weather.
- birds fly low when rain is coming
- daisies close up
- red sky at night sailor delight, red sky in the morning sailor take warning
We were even taught to count the cricket chirps in 14 seconds, then add 40 to get the approximate outside temperature.
Wouldn’t these be fun activities to record in a weather journal for a homeschooler? I found a few fun books to add to the lessons and perhaps give the student a start for more research. Remember how we were told Benjamin Franklin flew a kite with a key in a thunderstorm? Well, he really did! Click here to find books about this founding father and his other experiments. One of my favorites is How Ben Franklin Stole the Lightning. I might also check out The Ben Franklin Book of Easy Experiments.
– blog written by Gail Cartee
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What a delightful post and encouragement for parents to try homeschooling their children. The time is definitely right for this.
Thanks Janice. I love teaching outside year round.
Gail, your ideas snd creativity in making the most out of a rainy day is a true encouragement and inspiration for homeschoolers, traditional teachers, parents. & grandparents. Positivity is a God given gift!😊
Thanks Sharon. I always want to find something good in any situation.
We have so little rain here that both homeschool and traditional school students go out when it rains to celebrate! Love your ideas about Ben Franklin books.
Claire, that’s good news that all the children get outside in the rain. Here in the South we all lose our minds when it snows. There’s lots to learn from snow as well. The Ben Franklin books offered so much more than weather. I thought they were a good lead into other studies.
This is beautiful, Gail, thank you! Homeschooling truly is a wondrous opportunity, and many are considering it for the first time. Thank you for sharing!
Thank you, Bonnie. I always wanted to homeschool our children and sort of did it. They went to public schools and I later taught, but I always found ways to educate our children with fun learning experiences at home.
Thanks for sharing this!
Mindy, thanks for your comment. I hope the piece is helpful.
Oh I love these ideas, Gail! What wonderful inspiration to do with our kids. I grew up on a dairy farm and was always told that if we see the cows lying down in the field, it’s going to rain. I always wondered (and still do!) if that’s true!
Haha! Nancy, maybe you can find a dairy life child and have them keep a record for a month or two to see how true it is. A lot of times old sayings are as accurate as the weatherman.