How to Use Project Based Learning to Build Your Child’s Real-World Skills

When I started homeschooling my 5 year old son, we did a lot of projects. We started with things he was interested in--mostly construction projects with cardboard, duct tape and packing tubes. He led the projects. He defined his goals.

And I realized we were not just 'doing projects,' we were learning how to do project based learning.

Maybe you’ve heard of project based learning but aren’t sure exactly what it is or how it works? Maybe it sounds like too much work or too high a learning curve? Or maybe it sounds great, too good to be true, but you’re just not sure how to get started?

If any of these sound like you, let me give you the easy version of what PBL is, why it’s different from just ‘doing a project’ and how you can get started.

What IS project based learning?

It’s a way of doing projects that uses a motivating question like, “How can we attract more bees to our garden?” as the north star for guiding the direction of the project.

The question should be non-Googleable, meaning it doesn’t have an immediate answer and it doesn’t have just one ‘right answer.’

The question should relate to your child’s interests and address a real-world problem or issue.

The scope of the question should present a challenge, but also be an achievable challenge, meaning it is motivating but within the realm of doable for your child.

How project based learning different from just doing a project?

It’s pretty similar on the surface… with some key differences.

Say your child loves to bake cookies. Baking is a project. It becomes project based learning when you add a driving question to frame the project. It is a question that your child works to answer, “What kind of cookie tray do I want to prepare for Gramma’s 65th birthday?”

Baking cookies is a project that involves following a recipe.

Planning Gramma’s cookie tray for her party becomes a PBL project.

Why?

Because the driving question motivates your child to think about how they will solve the question. And it puts your child in charge of the project. They are no longer just following directions, they are taking ownership of the project. They now have a lot of steps in front of them and ‘figuring it out’ to do.

Instead of following a preplanned path, like a set of directions in a regular project, now your child is developing their own pathway to answering their question. They will face challenges, have setbacks, need to reflect, and maybe try again in the process.

They will be learning through the process of doing the project.

The difference between a cookie-baking project and a PBL making Gramma’s cookie tray project are huge in terms of the layers of learning your child is doing.

The learning your child is doing in a PBL project:

Taking ownership of the project
Working toward answering a question
Finding their own unique solution to the question
Learning how to learn through the process of doing
Teaching themselves real-world skills, like critical thinking, decision-making, problem-solving, planning, and time management

In both a regular project and a PBL project, there is some type of final, tangible result—the cookies, or a demonstration, presentation, a model, infographic, or similar.

But in a PBL project, your child defines what type of final tangible product they will make as a demonstration of their answer to the driving question.

The Value of Real-World Skills Learning in PBL

Baking cookies has gone from an exercise in following directions to a process of learning a long list of real-world skills. The process will look messy, partly because baking is involved, but mainly because learning is involved.

Your child will need the space to figure things out, to build a path, meaning the steps they will take, to planning and executing the baking of cookies for the cookie tray.

They may struggle with focus, time management, and the many other executive function skills and problem solving skills they are gaining.

The value in this somewhat messy process, is that real world skills are applicable across a wide range of subjects and in daily life. Your child will use those skills in the next project, the next academic lesson, the next life problem. They will build confidence and become independent learners the more they build real-world skills.

This messy process allows your child to overcome fear of failure and recognize that learning is through doing.

Essential Real-World Skills

Here’s a list of key real-world skills to focus on.

Specific scope:

Time management
Financial Literacy
Digital Literacy

Broad scope:

Communication and Collaboration
Critical Thinking and Problem-Solving

With each PBL project your child does, they will be learning all of the broad scope real world skills and a combination of the specific scope ones as well,

What about teaching academics using PBL projects?

You may be thinking, “That sounds great if we want to do a lot of baking, but how is PBL useful as a teaching method for academics?”

PBL is a way of integrating academic lessons with real-world scenarios so that the material in the lesson is relatable and has real-world relevance to your child.

Let’s say your child is learning about volume, area and perimeter in math, but is bored and doesn’t see the point. But you add a PBL design project and integrate it with the math lesson.

Say it’s a design project that involves planning a city with lots of rectangular city blocks and buildings and includes 3D paper cutout buildings to the planned city. This projects becomes a great way to integrate academics with a real-world project and inspire your child to see the value in the academic aspect because they are putting it to use.

And back to the cookie project. Let’s say your child is learning fractions but finds it frustrating to understand how they add up. Doubling any recipe is a great way to teach the real world impact of adding and multiplying fractions.

The moment an academic lesson is relevant, it becomes more understandable and interesting. PBL projects integrate lessons with real-world application in an organic way.

Tips for designing authentic PBL Projects

Just as your child learns through the process of doing a PBL project, you will learn how to help them develop a project by doing it. You will get better by practicing alongside your child.

There are many more steps that your child will fill in to get them from the driving question to the final product—the pathway, feedback and reflection, rubric and assessment—they and you will learn how to define the steps as you do projects.

Start small with easy projects to allow you and your child to practice how to form the driving question, the tangible product they are aiming for, and how to help them think through the steps.
Keep the scope focused on short-term and achievable to allow your child to learn the process.
Start with topics your child is interested in and excited about.
Use open-ended questions to help guide your child.
Resist the urge to do the project for your child or to step in and plan it for them.
Learn to mentor your child. It is a balancing act between teaching small lessons (like how to calculate perimeter, area, and volume) and mentoring (like asking them questions to help them see how to apply the math to their 3D city).

Your child’s final project or presentation might be the cookie tray, the 3D paper city, or the bee-friendly garden filled with lavender and other bee-attracting plants. If you mentor them as they figure it out, you will be giving them the opportunity to learn by doing.

Takeaways

Project-Based Learning (PBL) is more than just a method—it's a powerful teaching strategy to equip your child with essential real-world skills that will serve them throughout their lives.

By guiding them to ask meaningful questions, take ownership of their learning, and find unique solutions, you're helping them become confident, independent thinkers. The process might be a bit messy, but it's in this mess that true learning happens.

So, start small, be patient, and give your child the space to learn and grow through each project. The skills they develop now will empower them in their academic journey and in life. Start with a simple project today, and you'll be amazed at the results!

If you found this article helpful, be sure to take my FREE 5 Day Project Based Learning email course and check out my ready-to-use, no-prep PBL Projects for learners in upper elementary. Sign up for my newsletter, Quest for Learning, to get more tips, ideas, and resources delivered straight to your inbox. Let's build a community of curious, independent learners together!