| Author | |
SeaStar
Forum Moderator
Joined: Sept 16 2006
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 9068
|
| Posted: Oct 22 2012 at 6:05am | IP Logged
|
 |
|
How do you accomplish this with your children?
I try to watch for and encourage their interests, but if I phrase it this way:
What would you like to learn about in school? I don't get much in response.
Maybe if I took the word school out that would help 
__________________
Melinda, mom to ds ('02) and dd ('04)
SQUILT Music Appreciation
|
| Back to Top |
|
| |
Becky Parker
Forum All-Star
Joined: May 23 2005
Location: Michigan
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 2582
|
| Posted: Oct 22 2012 at 6:57am | IP Logged
|
|
|
I'm not exactly sure this is what you mean in your question, but I really try to encourage the desire to learn. Once children have that desire it seems they are more willing to run with it, imo.
My son is a good example. While he was homeschool I think he really developed that desire to learn. He was always reading about something, looking information up on line, watching NOVA... He then went to highschool where it was all about desiring the grade (with as little work as possible  ). But it took a while for his mind set to change and I remember his frustration with teachers who's classes were a waste of time or with kids who didn't care about the science concept they were exploring so caused disruptions in class.
Now he's at college and trying to revert back to the old way of thinking. He's at a small liberal arts college which is known for it's challenging classes. (Hillsdale) He knew he would love it but he approached it at first with the same attitude he had developed in highschool. "It's all for the 4.0". Well, that mindset has not done him any good! Now he is trying to recall that passion for learning. I keep telling him to just concentrate on learning to learn. I really think he's already getting back on track.
All that to say, I think if we can encourage that desire to learn with our words, actions, and enthusiasm for learning ourselves, it will be a great way to teach our kids to develop that ownership that will be so valuable later.
__________________
Becky
Wife to Wes, Mom to 6 wonderful kids on Earth and 4 in Heaven!
Academy Of The Good Shepherd
|
| Back to Top |
|
| |
CrunchyMom
Forum Moderator
Joined: Sept 03 2007
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 6385
|
| Posted: Oct 22 2012 at 8:03am | IP Logged
|
|
|
I think that, for me, I do what you said, watch for and encourage interests, but I just don't talk to them about it in a formal way. I make educated guesses, check out books, and suggest activities here and there (ds comes running to me excited about something, I might respond, "oh, neat, maybe you could start a collection" or "we have a book that tells you x about that.").
Also, I find that my boys LOVE catalogs. They love to peruse them and come to me to show what they "want."
If you put out some of the hybrid type catalogs that have more educational options, sometimes the marketing in them will in fact make my kids excited about something new. I might not get that thing, but it does sort of give me clues about what excites them. For instance, JM Cremps has their regular boy adventure catalog, but I also received a slimmer, specifically "educational" catalog.
__________________
Lindsay
Five Boys(6/04) (6/06) (9/08)(3/11),(7/13), and 1 girl (5/16)
My Symphony
[URL=http://mysymphonygarden.blogspot.com/]Lost in the Cosmos[/UR
|
| Back to Top |
|
| |
SallyT
Forum All-Star
Joined: Aug 08 2007
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 2489
|
| Posted: Oct 22 2012 at 8:31am | IP Logged
|
|
|
I find that that develops more as kids get older. I have definitely collaborated with my teenagers in their learning, because by then they do usually have some definite interests, and a lot of designing their course of study is a matter of finding resources/outlets for the pursuit of those interests. Also, they begin to have more definite goals in mind (even though those may change dramatically over the course of high school), which helps with self-motivation even when a subject doesn't necessarily line up with a personal interest.
I don't worry about this kind of thing so much with my 8- and 10-year-olds, because their interests and passions are still developing, and I see my role as one of introducing things in which to be interested. I keep in my mind who they are and what kinds of books/materials/approaches are likely to pique their interest, and I do pay attention to the kinds of passing obsessions that kids at that age tend to have -- we went through a pretty intense "Titanic" stage earlier this year, sparked by a Boy's Life magazine, for example. My 10-year-old son, especially, though to a lesser degree his younger sister, too, read everything he could get his hands on about the Titanic, and I helped him find books and magazines and online things.
But this was total serendipity. It just happened. And I didn't really think of it as part of school -- it was something they did for fun. I do think that the way these things happens, often -- at least in my house -- is that in our core of formal schoolwork I've given them tools (reading & writing, but also the idea that reading about history is interesting and fun), and they take them and run with them in their spare time. My job is to pay attention, think on my feet, make things available, and not suggest that reading obsessively about the Titanic is a "school" thing to do, because then they'd stop.
So at this stage I just really don't ask what they want to learn or involve them much in those decisions. Later, yes, but right now if I asked, the answer would be "nothing." I am watching them, and I am making decisions with them as individuals in mind, but where I really see their learning becoming "theirs" is outside the boundaries of our "official" school day.
And yes, catalogs are HUGE sources of inspiration. Our favorites include the Dover Books catalogs (which come about four times a week, it sometimes seems), Home Science Tools, and the weird, wacky, wonderful American Science and Surplus catalog. Random field trips also spark a lot of learning bursts. We went to a gem mine a few weeks back for a morning -- just randomly, not because we're officially studying geology -- and the kids have been talking and reading about gemstones and minerals in general ever since.
Sally
PS: If you haven't seen American Science and Surplus, this is it. Some things they have are just weird, but my boys have spent hours identifying things they want. Last year for Christmas we gave petri dishes, for example, as stocking stuffers . . . right now my youngers are dying for a rock polisher.
__________________
Castle in the Sea
Abandon Hopefully
|
| Back to Top |
|
| |
SeaStar
Forum Moderator
Joined: Sept 16 2006
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 9068
|
| Posted: Oct 22 2012 at 11:37am | IP Logged
|
|
|
My dh is addicted to that catalog, Sally
Catalogs are interesting, aren't they? They can give you a good glimpse of what appeals to your dc. My kids love to scour them as they come in.
Sometimes for copy work my ds makes lists of things that look interesting in various catalogs. He writes much more those days than usual 
It's good to hear that interests and passions will develop more as time goes by. I want my dc to have the tools for teaching themselves- does that make sense? There is that old saying that it is more useful to know how to find information then to know a lot already.
I also don't want my kids to be spoon fed- I see warning signs of this in my ds who love to narrate if read to but balks (still) about reading much on his own. Maybe that, too, will change over time.
__________________
Melinda, mom to ds ('02) and dd ('04)
SQUILT Music Appreciation
|
| Back to Top |
|
| |
JodieLyn
Forum Moderator
Joined: Sept 06 2006
Location: Oregon
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 12234
|
| Posted: Oct 22 2012 at 12:30pm | IP Logged
|
|
|
"What do you want to learn" can be a very intimidating question. Think about the other things they're doing.. I would find it hard to say I want to learn something if it meant learning it like say.. Math.. that's more formal and progresses at it's own pace (I mean you don't just start learning addition and say.. I want to learn fractions next..)
But if you start chatting with them more informally, you may find that they have an interest in a particular era of History or science or whatever.. And yes expose them to a lot or they might not know they have an interest. I mean, we started into WWI and WWII because of Snoopy and the Red Baron 
__________________
Jodie, wife to Dave
G-18, B-17, G-15, G-14, B-13, B-11, G-9, B-7, B-5, B-4
All men who have turned out worth anything have had the chief hand in their own education.
-Sir Walter Scott
|
| Back to Top |
|
| |
Becky Parker
Forum All-Star
Joined: May 23 2005
Location: Michigan
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 2582
|
| Posted: Oct 22 2012 at 1:18pm | IP Logged
|
|
|
Along with what Jodie said, maybe asking something like, "what do you think would be the best way to learn more about (insert interest here)?" I asked my ds that once and he wanted to do a notebook about the battles of the Revolutionary War. It ended up being his favorite project and he learned a bunch!
__________________
Becky
Wife to Wes, Mom to 6 wonderful kids on Earth and 4 in Heaven!
Academy Of The Good Shepherd
|
| Back to Top |
|
| |
SallyT
Forum All-Star
Joined: Aug 08 2007
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 2489
|
| Posted: Oct 22 2012 at 1:22pm | IP Logged
|
|
|
Melinda -- Yes, we're working on that transition from "read to me" to "on my own." At the same time, I don't feel badly about *presenting* a story to my kids at this stage, so that their thoughts can percolate. Spoon-feeding, I think, would mean telling them what to think about it, giving them answers, instead of -- as I often do -- just letting them go away and digest it to talk about later.
And Jodie is right that so much happens around the edges, and is sparked by the most unexpected things. Being open to these unscripted events -- reading Peanuts and then being into WWI, for example -- is huge, and letting kids follow those trails, affirming that that's valid and important and worth giving time to, is part of it. Part of the whole process of its being theirs is that the process happens in their heads, where the connections get made, and you only find out about it as they follow those connections.
Sally
__________________
Castle in the Sea
Abandon Hopefully
|
| Back to Top |
|
| |
|
|
4Real Forums : Living Learning
Topic: Encouraging "ownership" of learning
