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When I was #homeschooling Charlie and even Suzzane, more times than not, we liked to do our teaching away from our desk. Instead of sitting at home with a workbook all day, we would get out and travel around our town looking for new and interesting things. When Suzzane was here that meant taking the T our local bus and when Charlie was homeschooling it was waiting until David was off to take us.

Now, that Charlie has graduated he is driving and even though were not homeschooling its still fun to drive through our Town to look at the buildings and homes. We might look at an unusual building. We might discover a mural. We might stop and look at a water box that someone had painted.

Sometimes we would simply drive around and notice something we had passed a hundred times without really seeing it. That is one of the reasons I wanted to share World Architecture Day with you. Because architecture doesn’t have to mean sitting at a desk reading about famous architects.

Sometimes architecture means getting out into your own community and looking around. And as I was composing today’s post, I realized that World Architecture Day works beautifully with National Consignment Day, too!

Even if your not a homeschooling family, here’s my challenge for you today: Get your children out of the house! Take a field trip to your local consignment store, thrift store or resale shop. Give your children a small budget and let them see what they can find.

Look for:

• LEGO bricks
• Tinker Toys
• Lincoln Logs
• Building blocks
• Wooden blocks
• Model-building pieces
• Toy construction sets
• Magnetic building pieces
• Other interesting pieces they might be able to repurpose

You don’t have to find a complete set. In fact, I think finding a collection of mismatched pieces could make this even more fun. Then bring your treasures home and let your children create their own architectural masterpiece. Maybe they want to build the tallest building in the world.

Or they want to build a castle. Maybe they want to create a school, a house, a bridge or an entire little city. Or maybe they want to build the quirkiest building anyone has ever seen. And that’s okay! Because when you’re homeschooling, you can think outside the box.

Give your child a small budget and a challenge: What can you build with what you can find? You might give them $5. You might give them $10. Or, if you have several children, give them one family budget and let them work together. Then see what happens.

Have them sketch their idea before they begin. Build it. Take it apart. Build it again. Try to make it taller. Try to make it stronger. Try to make it different. And when they’re finished, have them give their building a name and let them create the Street it’s on.

You could even have a family architecture contest: Who built the tallest building? Who built the strongest structure? Who used the fewest pieces? Who created the most unusual building? Who designed something that could actually be built in real life? There really aren’t any wrong answers.

And remember, while your children are doing this, they’re learning much more than architecture.

Math: How tall is your building? How many blocks did you use? How many floors does it have? How many windows? What shapes can you find? Can you make the building symmetrical? Can you measure it? Can you calculate how many pieces you would need if you made it twice as large?

Reading: Find a book about architecture and make it part of your 10-minute reading lesson. Or, if you’re building a construction set, let your child read the directions. Reading doesn’t have to happen in a workbook. Sometimes reading directions is real-world reading.

Writing: Have your child name their building and write a description. Who lives there? What is it used for? Why did they design it that way? What makes it different from other buildings?

Art: Have your child draw the building before they build it. Then compare the drawing with the finished creation. Did it turn out the way they imagined?

Science: Why does one building stand while another falls? What happens when you make the base wider? What happens when you put too much weight on the top? Why are triangles used in so many structures?

History: Choose a famous building and learn when it was built, who designed it and why it is important.

Suddenly, a trip to a consignment store has become a math lesson, reading lesson, writing lesson, art lesson, science lesson and history lesson. That’s the beauty of homeschooling.

You don’t have to travel across the country to find interesting architecture. Start in your own town. Drive around and look at buildings you normally pass without thinking about them. Look for unusual shapes. Look at the windows. Look at the roofs. Look at the materials. Look for murals. Look at water boxes and other things around town that have been transformed through art.

Ask your children: What do you like about this building? What don’t you like? What would you change? Why do you think the architect designed it this way? Could you build something similar with LEGO or blocks? And because we’re in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, I thought I would give you a few places to put on your own architecture adventure list.

Three DFW Architecture Stops to Explore

1. The Kimbell Art Museum — Fort Worth- If you haven’t taken your children to see the original Kimbell Art Museum building, I think it makes a wonderful architecture lesson.

The building was designed by architect Louis I. Kahn and opened in 1972. The museum describes it as one of the outstanding architectural achievements of the modern era. One of the most interesting things for children to notice is the way natural light is incorporated into the architecture. Narrow skylights and specially designed reflectors bring daylight into the vaulted galleries.

The building also gives you plenty to talk about when it comes to shapes, proportions, materials and structure. The main materials include concrete, travertine and white oak. And here’s an especially nice part for families watching their budget: admission to the Kimbell’s permanent collection is free. Parking is also free. So you could turn this into a very affordable homeschooling field trip.

Architecture lesson: Ask your children to look for the way light, shapes and repeated patterns are used throughout the building. Explore the Kimbell Art Museum’s architecture

2. North Richland Hills City Hall — North Richland Hills– You don’t always have to visit a famous museum to study architecture. Sometimes you can find your lesson right in your own community.

North Richland Hills City Hall is a great example of a modern public building. The current City Hall project was a new 180,000-square-foot construction completed in 2015, using a concrete structure with masonry and metal panel cladding.

That gives you an opportunity to talk about how today’s public buildings can look very different from historic courthouses, schools and homes.

And if you’re already in North Richland Hills, you can make this part of a larger community exploration rather than turning it into an expensive excursion.

Architecture lesson: Have your children compare the building’s shapes, materials and design with an older building they have seen. City of North Richland Hills

3. Kaufman County Courthouse — Kaufman– And here’s the one I would turn into a daytime road trip.

The Kaufman County Courthouse is especially interesting because it is a Mid-Century Modern courthouse, designed by architect Wyatt C. Hedrick. The Texas Historical Commission describes its symmetrical U-shaped plan and notes its use of black marble, aluminum and glass. But don’t just drive to Kaufman, look at the courthouse and immediately turn around.

Explore.

The city of Kaufman has a long history, and its town square has remained the center of activity since the community became the county seat in 1851. The courthouse has been the focal point of that square for generations.

Walk around. Look at the buildings. Read historical markers. Look at the architecture. Take pictures. Let your children ask questions. And you may discover something else along the way that becomes tomorrow’s homeschooling lesson.

Architecture lesson: Compare the Mid-Century Modern courthouse with an older historic courthouse or another public building your family has visited. City of Kaufman

And if you’re reading this thinking, “That sounds wonderful, but we’re on a budget,” I want to remind you of something I learned during our homeschooling years. A field trip doesn’t have to cost a lot of money. Pack your own lunch. Bring your own snacks. Fill up your water bottles. Put a little gas in the car. And go.

Sometimes the most valuable part of a field trip is simply getting out for the day. You don’t have to buy admission tickets everywhere you go. You don’t have to eat at a restaurant. You don’t have to spend a fortune to give your children a new experience.

And Kaufman could make a wonderful daytime road trip for a family that wants to get out and explore somewhere different. You might start the day with an architecture lesson and end up discovering something completely different. Maybe you’ll find a historic building. Maybe you’ll discover a mural. Maybe you’ll find an interesting little shop. Maybe you’ll see something that makes your child ask a question you’ve never thought about before. And that question could become your next homeschooling lesson.

One thing I loved about homeschooling is one lesson could lead to another lesson, which could lead to another adventure. You never know what your children will notice once you get them out of the house. You may leave home thinking you’re going to study architecture.

You may come home with questions about history, art, math, government, geography, transportation, construction or local businesses. And that’s okay. You don’t have to plan every minute. Sometimes you just need to get in the car, pack a lunch and go see what you can discover. Because education isn’t always found sitting at a desk. Sometimes education is found out in your community, looking at the world around you and asking, “I wonder why?”

After you’ve explored some real buildings, come home and let your children create their own. Take those LEGO bricks, Tinker Toys, Lincoln Logs, wooden blocks or whatever treasures you found at your local consignment or thrift store. Give them their budget. Give them their imagination. And give them permission to think outside the box.

They could build the tallest building. Build the strongest building or build the strangest building. Build something you’ve never seen before. Then give your creation a name and tell us about it. Because sometimes the best homeschooling lesson isn’t the one you planned at the kitchen table.

Sometimes it’s the one that begins when you say: “Let’s get out of the house and see what we can find.” Happy World Architecture Day and National Consignment Day! Now go explore your town, find something interesting, and build your own architecture adventure.

GreatfulMoments.com

Grateful. Thankful. Blessed.

Thank you,

Glenda, Charlie and David Cates