How do you inspire your homeschool students? How do you encourage them to want to learn? Everyone seems to say that they want their kids to have a "love of learning," but how in the world do you get past "You have to learn math because everyone needs it to function" to enjoying your homeschool journey with your kids? While there is no golden formula, I think there are some best practices that help us get there.
Tip #1: Follow Student Interest
My top recommendation is to follow your students interest as much as possible. Not only does this inspire them to learn, but it makes the process much smoother. When they are excited about a subject that excitement will rub off on each other. When they are excited about a subject they will complete their work more quickly. When they are excited about a subject learning is fun. This one is a large part of successfully homeschooling whether you have one or many; however, with many it becomes a little more challenging.
As much as possible I give my kids a say so in their education. Each year they vote on and pick out their science courses. Last year one was really excited and passionate about botony. She convinced her brother that it sounded like fun. Another one of the kids thought it sounded like torture but wanted to do astronomy instead and convinced a different sister that it sounded like a lot of fun. Ultimately both groups worked really hard at their respective subjects and really enjoyed themselves. I look at their interests as a group when picking out read-alouds. We move through history chronologically, but focus more deeply on people and events that they are interested in. For example we spent a year and a half on the ancient Egyptians several years ago, while just covering some basics in other ancient cultures, because they found pyramids, mummies, and stories of the Egyptian gods to be fascinating at the time.
Katherine is always looking for coins and finding money. She is thoroughly engrossed in counting and adding up the money that she has, this is a great tie in to math. It has given us the chance to talk about different coins, introduce the idea of counting by 5s and practice her basic adding and subtracting facts.
Study after study has verified what was already evident, that students that are interested in the material retain more information that students that are not. If you want your students to love learning and to enjoy the homeschool process as much as possible follow their interests.
Tip #2: Make Subjects Relevant
My second recommendation is to make subjects relevant. Only one of my kids loves math for the sake of math, but when they are computing Daddy's age, the money they still need to save to get a new game, or time until Christmas math becomes relevant. Writing became valuable when they had a story to tell or someone to communicate with. Civil War History becomes interesting when I can show them parallels to today's politics. Last week I mentioned the value in combining subjects in homeschooling multiple children, it's also a great way to help kids see the relevance in learning subjects. My two oldest really enjoyed basic chemistry and want to learn more, but I pointed out to them that to go deeper they have to understand algebra. They still don't enjoy algebra, but they are working harder at it, understanding that it will open the door to something else that they do want to study.
No one wants to learn something that is obsolete or has no relevance to today's world. But when you can show someone the value in learning something, that will drive them. People learn how terrible the modern day food industry is for the body and so they learn to make homemade bread. People have a car break down, and see the need to understand a little about how their vehicle works. Children are no different, with the exception that they can't see value in the long term. They need a driving reason for why they need to know something now. This requires deep discussions, so you have to be a part of any subject they are learning.
History becomes more relevant and they appreciate modern inventions when trying out something like weaving. While they are fun crafts to try out, when they have to imagine how long it would take to make cloth or a full sized blanket, it really puts the work and pace of times past into perspective.
Tip #3: Bring Subjects to Life
My third recommendation is to do anything you can to bring a subject to life for your kids. We use textbooks for some subjects, and I constantly am reading material to the kids, but that type education will only get you so far, and only then with certain types of learners. There are lots of things that you can do that helps them feel more of a subject and thus interact more with it. To this day I better understand the Battle of Shiloh than any other battle I've ever studied, because I've been to the battle ground multiple times and walked it while reading and studying it. There are science concepts that the children haven't grasped until they had a model they could handle or a video they could watch. Going to the National Museum of Art had a greater impact on my daughters grasp of art movements than any discussion or pictures she had seen previously. Letting your child accompany an adult in a field they are interested in, or learn a hobby from someone experienced in that area is a great form of hands on learning. This is one way that field trips come into play. We have the world at our disposal, use it!
This is another way in which our Adventure Fridays have been a great learning tool this year. It inspires hands on learning. They drove in a spring, they felt the cold water, they looked around at plants beneath its surface. They examined different types of rocks and are really grasping subjects that we have read about. The kids actively look for various plants and animals, they compare different forested areas that we have explored, and see the usefulness in learning about science by being out in the world.
Tip #4: Movement
My final recommendation is to incorporate movement. Children are not wired to sit still for 8 hours a day at a desk. Movement comes natural to them. Additionally, movement helps to reinforce learning. If you can allow your child to shoot nerf guns at the proper verb tense on the wall, or hop onto the correct number to a math problem, you can activate more areas of their brain and increase retention of facts. It also gives them a chance to get out excess energy and improves focus. Too often children are expected to sit still and be quiet and so all of their mental energy is focused on that rather than the lesson being taught, for true learning to take place let them move!
We can easily see how this works with toddlers. They move their bodies into different positions as they look at things differently, approaching a puzzle from one side and then another. They will try to kick a ball standing still, running, and from a squat all to learn coordination and to see which way it travels further. They pick up and examine objects turning them in every conceivable way in order to fully understand them. This is the most basic form of science. Older kids need to be able to move in the same way as they learn and store information in their brains.
Not every day will be a magical day of learning, despite the fact that they are always learning. There will be some subjects that you feel they need to know, that no amount of explaining their relevance will matter to them. There will be some days where they don't care about a thing other than video games. There will be seasons that homeschooling is really hard. But these three tips will help keep the love of learning alive in your household for the long haul.
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