The last two weeks have been filled with Eeyore’s Daddy being off of work for a week and his Uncle Jake getting married. We’ve had family in from out of town, rehearsal dinners, a wedding, a reception, and just plain quality time at home, as a family, for the last two weeks. We have not, however, had school. I planned to take a week off, but we ended up taking both weeks off and it I’m really glad we did. I’ll probably end up doing a couple six day weeks to stay on schedule so that we finish up the school work by the end of May, but then again, I may not. I love that. I love the flexibility.
But, I am not here today to ramble on about the things I love about homeschooling. I’m here for advice from you. I hear some of the creative ways people school their children and it amazes me. Some of the games parents come up with, some of the ways they incorporate learning into every little thing…HOW? How do they do it?
When my son was two or three years old he started playing the Why? game. He would ask “why?” ALL THE TIME. If you’re a parent, I’m sure you’ve been through this. I hated that phase. I tried to answer his questions the best that I could, but that would just lead to more questions, which would lead to me getting frustrated, which would lead to me saying ENOUGH ASKING WHY.
Looking back, I kind of regret that. He isn’t as quick to question things or wonder how they work or what caused this to happen as he used to be. Did I teach him that he shouldn’t question everything? Because that isn’t what I wanted him to learn. I wanted him to grow up with a thirst for knowledge, but I just didn’t feel like providing all the answers in one day. Or in one year. Or in terms that a three year-old could understand.
So, my question to you, is how do you make learning fun again? How do you get their little minds wondering and questioning and wanting to know the answers to everything again?
[tags]kids, children, parents, rearing, learning, growing, why?, homeschooling, questions, questioning, experience, advice[/tags]
Photo graciously provided by R’eyes, through a Creative Commons license, some rights reserved
3 responses so far ↓
STL Mom // Oct 12, 2007 at 8:27 pm
I have friends who are teachers, and I know they do a lot of planning. Maybe there are some people who can turn every life situation into a learning opportunity spontaneously, but I think most people need to plan ahead. Visit websites, read books, and think, “next time we’re in the grocery store I’ll try that method of teaching math I read about.” If you are like me, you may have to write everything down and review it on a regular basis before you remember to use it at the appropriate time.
In regards to curiosity, I remember that my dad always asked a lot of questions. He would muse aloud, “I wonder how they did that…” and then speculate on the possibilities. He would read things from the paper or talk about interesting things he heard on the radio. I think showing your kids that YOU are curious and always learning something new is the best way to encourage them to be the same way.
Then when he starts in with the why, when, where, what questions you can say, “Good question! I wonder how we can figure out the answer to that?” Answering a question with another question is a classic trick of both parents and teachers.
AmyL // Oct 13, 2007 at 9:34 pm
After struggling for years with boys who hate learning, I’ve seen 2 changes this year. First, the younger boys are doing kindergarten and the older ones are having a ball watching their progress and cheering them on. And ’supervising.’
The second thing that seems to have created at least a small spark was me asking the why questions when we went on field trip/vacation recently. I wanted to get them thinking so I started randomly asking Why questions about things we saw. At first they didn’t take the bait, but eventually they started trying to come up with answers and we all had fun. Lol. One of the things that triggered participation by the older boys was the younger ones getting some of the answers.
Planning is good and important, but balance that with random moments when they occur. Ask “I wonder why” questions and model that curiosity for them.
Leslie // Oct 14, 2007 at 7:45 pm
I think STL Mom nailed it. I think if YOU lead the questions, Eeyore will follow. If you’re the one asking, “Why?” even if you’re just musing aloud, he’ll get interested. I think planning is great, but don’t be afraid to ask questions you don’t know have an answer for. I think it’s okay not to have every answer if you’re willing to work with them to find it. It can be an exercise in creativity to come up with “what if” scenarios. No one can know everything. And sometimes the answers children uncover on their own are the ones that really stick.
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