A light bulb went off in my head the day I realized making memories and teaching my homeschool went hand in hand. Suddenly I had a new direction and focus for all of us and it seemed to be a lot more fun.

I use our five senses sight, hearing, touch, smell, and taste to create an experience in their lessons. The key is to add as many senses as you can into your teaching in order to engage the child as much as possible.

In a typical teaching situation, sight and hearing are likely being used so I like to add in at least one other sense to the lesson to make it more memorable and engaging.

Let me give you some insight into my thoughts. I think, no, I know every homeschool parent feels a lot of pressure because we want to make sure we are doing enough, teaching the right things, teaching everything, etc. The list goes on and on and I could fill this entire post with these kinds of thoughts. But then it hit me, what if I created memories with my children in their learning? I want them to remember what we have studied, right? Creating memories, isn’t that what homeschool is all about?

Just the thought of this eased some of my pressure to perform.

What does making memories mean?

I think we all remember our school days filled with wonderful worksheets and lots of reading. (Ha!) Now, I understand that books and worksheets have a place within a child’s learning but what if we gave them something more? What if we added activities, experiments, movement, or games to engage the child and create a memory? What if we made it fun for them and for us all at the same time? I enjoy and learn just as much as my kiddos with these activities. By the end of this post, I want you to be inspired to take that worksheet and turn it into a memory with these tips.

Making Memories Using the Five Senses

The five senses are sight, hearing, touch, smell, and taste. They are very powerful avenues into our children’s brains. The senses offer opportunities for us to engage the child by awakening their love to learn and curiosity to explore whatever topic we are talking about. I want them to get in there and experience it as much as they possibly can.

When I was growing up, on summer mornings my mom used to get up before my sister and me and clean the bathroom with Pinesol. I would wake up to the smell of Pinesol, then get up and go play outside. The smell of Pinesol to me means playful summer mornings full of freedom because of these memories. My memory is associated with smell and to this day when I smell Pinesol, it triggers those feelings for me.

I want to do the same thing for my kiddos but with their school lessons. When they see, hear, or smell something I want it to take them back to that moment when they learned that lesson.

Here are some examples of how I have used each sense in my homeschool lessons.

Touch

• Sensory Bins
• Craft Projects
• Guessing Games

Sensory Bins

Sensory Bins are containers filled with anything from cooked pasta, dried rice or oatmeal. Really, the sky is the limit. I have written clues on pieces of paper and hid them in dry oatmeal for them to dig out and solve the mystery. I have hidden plastic numbers and letters for them to find and then say the letter name or sound.

One time, we filled some bins with ice and let them paint the ice. We then added salt and they got a kick out of watching the ice melt and the colors mix. It was science for the middles and color learning for the littles.

CrewTip: The Concept Behind My Crazy

When we had kiddos in speech therapy, I would hide their words in the bins and have them articulate it correctly when they found them. It brought some peace to a process that can be very stressful for parents and children.

Craft Projects

You can incorporate a craft project for whatever subject you are learning.

• Make maps out of play dough
• Butterflies out of toilet paper rolls
• Paint their spelling or vocabulary words
• Draw or illustrate the animal or scene they are learning about

The list goes on and on. I’ve even opened it up to them and let them come up with something to demonstrate what we are talking about. This is a popular one! It gives them the freedom to be creative and inventive all at the same time.

Guessing Games

This is one of my favorites. You take a bag or a bin they can’t see into and put an item in it. You can blindfold them to ensure there is no peaking as they stick their hand in to guess what’s in the bag or bin.

One time when we were studying the ocean, I filled a bin full of saltwater and placed several ocean-themed objects in it. I blindfolded the kiddos so they could guess what was in the bin by touch. They loved this because it was kind of mysterious too.

Smell

• Essential Oils
• Scented Paint
• Food

Essential Oils

Diffusing oils with a certain scent combination during the lesson can create a scent memory. I have found this practice to encourage learning and focus depending on what scents are combined. My favorite combination to encourage focus is peppermint and orange. If at all possible, I really enjoy putting scents together that relate to our topic.

Scented Paint

You remember those craft projects I told you about? I like to add scents to the paint so as they paint they smell whatever I put in it. Personally, I use essential oils but you can be creative with other things too. I have also used items like chocolate syrup, caramel syrup, and strawberry syrup and use various fruits for stamping.

Guess That Smell

Blindfold the kiddos and have them smell a variety of items. You can use food, essential oils, flowers or really anything that fits into your topic.

I really enjoy using this when I’m teaching during Christmas time and they get to smell Frankincense and Myrrh. Unfortunately, I don’t have any gold for them to smell. (Ha!)

Taste

• Baking
• Cooking
• Edible Craft Projects

Baking

There are a lot of different ways you can incorporate baking into your lessons. I teach fractions by baking cookies. What a great way to learn math! You can make cookie dough into just about anything by sculpting or molding it into objects that represent the topic you are learning about.

One year as a New Years’ activity, we sculpted items that represented our goals for the coming year. At the time, my niece, Emme, wanted to bench press over 100 pounds and so she sculpted herself lifting weights.

Bread is another one that is excellent for sculpting and creating with. Plus the recipes and science behind baking bread is a fun one to teach and learn. Oh and the smell! There’s another sense we have incorporated into our lesson.

When baking (or even cooking) the failures definitely make a memory and if properly handled can be something that is chuckled about in the future. Trust me, we definitely have a few of those!

In fact, I was just talking to my grandma and she started telling me about a time when she forgot to add baking soda to her molasses cookies. (These cookies are a big deal in our family!) She baked the first batch and knew immediately what she had done because they didn’t rise. She quickly added it into the rest of the dough and baked the rest of the cookies. They turned out alright but she has never made that mistake again. This happened over 25 years ago but she still remembers, laughs and shares it.

Cooking

Learning to cook is a skill that needs to be taught as soon as possible. We get our kiddos in the kitchen as young as two to do things like wash potatoes. When they cook they are learning to manage their time while combining ingredients to make something yummy. We have our kiddos in the kitchen all the time and they are learning what they like to taste. They are also learning things do not always taste good by themselves but together it tastes amazing.

Another concept I think cooking teaches is what spices and cuisines go together. For example, if I am making a spaghetti sauce I am combining spices like basil, oregano, and garlic. I am not going to add something like sage because it doesn’t really fit.

It’s always fun to present your creations and then eat them creating a food memory!

Edible Craft Projects

My kiddos love edible craft projects! From things like apple stamping with chocolate syrup to edible DNA using licorice. This is the stuff that makes memories. For my littles, I have them create their letters and numbers out of food things like marshmallows, chocolate chips, and cereal. After they have made their letter, they get to enjoy eating it!

When we were studying American History last year, we learned about Fort Necessity located in Pennsylvania. We built miniature replicas of the fort with graham crackers, frosting, and pretzel sticks. It was fun to see them recall this memory when we went and actually visited it.

When we studied Betsy Ross and the first American flag, we made the flag out of strawberries, blueberries, and marshmallows on skewers.

Sight

• Digital Media
• Pictures or Artwork
• Visual Scavenger Hunts

Digital Media

Nowadays, there is a video on YouTube about everything so adding some digital media to a topic is a lot easier. Researching online articles offer a different perspective on what you are learning.

Have the child make their own video or digital presentation to share with everyone about the topic. There is no one that kiddos would rather watch than themselves so this is an immediate attention grabber.

Another idea for this one is to create a photo scavenger hunt by using a list of items the child needs to find and then they take a picture of it. They can arrange this into a digital presentation and share it with everyone. You will find their perspective is very different but inspiring. It’s my favorite part, seeing how their minds work.

Pictures or Artwork

We like to look at pictures or artwork and discuss what we see and how it applies to what we are learning. You can encourage one child to pick something in the picture while the other children guess it. You can make lists of adjectives and nouns you see in the picture.

Visual Scavenger Hunts

I make a list of things they need to locate in the picture for a visual scavenger hunt. To do this they are intently looking at the picture, therefore, creating a memory. To make this even more fun, have the kiddos make the list for each other or you to complete.

Hearing

• Name that sound
• Music
• Audiobooks or Audio Dramas

Name That Sound

If you can create mystery or intrigue, it is an automatic sell for the kiddos. I have them close their eyes and listen to the sound so they can guess it. I have used actual physical items or pulled digital sounds off the internet. The digital sound route is a lot easier because you can avoid people peaking as you clunk around trying to make the appropriate noise on the physical item.

Music

For some kids, if you can put facts to a tune, they will remember it. When we studied the moon, I found a song about the Phases of the Moon on YouTube and played it. To this day, Andy can sing that song and tell me what the current phase is just because of this song.

This definitely helps them remember their math facts, parts of speech and geography facts too. The songs tend to stick and play over and over again in their heads. Just of a bit of warning, they will probably be singing it over and over again too.

Another enjoyable game, name that song. This is especially fun during the holidays. I like to play Christmas Carol Bingo where the kiddos have to guess the song and match it to the picture on their bingo card.

Playing music from different countries helps them get the feel of that culture which works great in your history or geography studies.

Audiobooks or Audio Dramas

What a great way to literally make the story come alive. As they listen, they are following the character’s ups and downs. I like to find an audiobook about wherever or whoever we are studying. For example, we just finished up studying the country of China. I found a book about a missionary named Gladys Alward. This was a great story and we had so many discussions about her life and her choices.

One of my favorite radio dramas is produced by Focus on the Family called Adventures in Odyssey. They have a variety of topics they share during their dramas from history to character. It’s based in a town called Odyssey with a variety of quirky characters. They learn all kinds of different lessons and are enjoyed by kids and adults alike. Check it out!

We live in the country so we generally have a lot of drive time to get to wherever we are going. I use audiobooks to give value to that time so it is not wasted and the car makes the perfect place for discussion. We each take turns asking a question or stating a fact we found interesting.

Start Making Memories!

I have been using this method for a couple of years now. As I was going through my own pictures for this post, I was so touched by the memories I saw. I often hear my kiddos say “Remember when…?” and it makes me so happy to hear them recall memories triggered by a taste, smell or whatever they felt. It’s about the experience and the connection we as a family feels through these experiences. It doesn’t matter the age of the person, everyone is included. That, my friends, is what homeschooling is all about!

What sense can you add to one lesson this week to make it come alive and engaging for both you and the child? Don’t hesitate to get in there and have fun too! Sometimes, the parents are hesitant to join their kiddos when that’s the very thing that will make the memory stick. Get in there! Have fun and make the memory with your child. You won’t regret it! I certainly don’t especially after my walk down memory lane today. I loved looking at my pictures, seeing all their happy faces and reliving those moments.

As always, thanks for reading this! We really appreciate you all! Please feel free to reach out and share what you have done. I’d love to see your ideas too!