Homeschooling

I have entitled this post encouraging creativity, but I could have just as easily called it encouraging choice making.   I have a creative lad so I’ve learned to spotlight the creativity of making choices. 🙂   

So far in this series we discussed acceptance and answering questions. Both are steps on the road to independent learns.  Encouraging the creativity of making choices is yet another step. 

How to Teach Choice-making

Children sometimes need to be guided in making choices.  It can be, afterall, a rather daunting prospect to figure out what you want to do in the course of day.  What if mom gets mad? Or Dad doesn’t like the decision you made?  What if the choice you made is completely wrong?  Or you end up not liking the choice you made?  The what-ifs’ can stop some children from making any decisions.   So then you start small. 

Small needs to be determined by your student.  It could be as simple as, jam or peanut butter?  Do you want to do math or reading first?  Do you want to use the blue pencil or the red one?   Something small and then slowly work your way up. 

The Value of Choice Making

What is the benefit of offering choices?

1. Confidence:  It does wonders to a child to know they can make their own decisions, and be able to live with them. 
2. Control:  Some youth just need that sense of control.  They want to figure out what works best for them. Some guidance may be need, but mostly, they just want to decide when and where they wish to do a task.
3. Responsibility: Live up to your obligations, complete the tasks that have been set out for you. 
4. Sense of Value: their opinions and decisions matter, that this particular child matters. 
5. Creativity gets fostered: Choosing how to do a project, deciding what colours matter in an art project, discovering the joy in doing history before math, etc. Encourage abstract thinking in your children.
6. Teach problem-solving: Not all decisions will be good ones, how will your child resolve the problem? What lessons will they learn when things go awry? 

The Creativity of Choices

One of our earliest uses in encouraging creativity was in art. I combined poetry with art.  I’d read a poem from a book called Imagine a Day.   There’s a number of them in the series, I’ve linked (aff) below the ones we’ve used. 

I’d read a section to him without showing him the page (as I covered up as much of the page as I could so I wouldn’t be influenced) and then we’d each draw what we thought the author was imagining.  We’d talk about the words being used as we drew.  Sometimes the work we did was incredibly similar (barring the age difference) and sometimes what we saw was very different.  What a grand time of exploration.   Words, drawing, conversation, and creative expression. 

We used a program for about a year called MathArt.   This program did it’s best to combine math with the larger world around us.  It was a great program to get my son thinking differently about math.  The creative approach to math was what my lad needed, and sometimes that is to your students’ benefit. It also naturally encouraged students to make choices. 

Last year my lad studied world war 1, he did a series of research projects.  I gave him a list and said: “each project needs to be different, here are your options.”.  He did video reports, brochures, essays, and more. Was he always delighted?  No, he prefers to write straight-up papers, but knowing different ways to present material will serve him well in the long run don’t you think?

Encouraging Creativity

That’s what choice-making is to me you know.  It’s the creative ways that people use their life experiences to make decisions.  They don’t always make sense to me, and mine won’t always make sense to you, and that’s okay.  The question is… will we learn from the choices we make?  Will the choices we make benefit us and give us the courage we need to make more decisions… for good or ill?

How do you encourage creativity of decision making in your household?

One of the earliest memories I have of my son saying he liked school was after we took a nature walk together.  I had my phone, a sunny but not hot day, and a curious lad. He was perhaps 8 or 9.   Still at an age where he was chock full of questions.   We meandered quietly through the forest, listening to birds, watching ducks, and then we spotted it.  A small stream emanating from spring.  In that stream were water striders, “MOM!  Look!  “What are those?  How come they don’t sink?  What do they eat?”  The questions came fast and furious as my lad hunkered down next to the stream.  My afternoon become one of answering questions and watching a boy’s delight.  We learned their lifecycle, eating habits, about water tension, and more.  Anything I didn’t know, my handy phone was able to provide.

This was just one of many steps on the path to independence. Helping to instill a love of learning by answering questions from a fascinated child.  Showing him the wonders of a world, the wonders of knowledge in helping him to understand the world around him. 

What Types of Questions are there?

Questions need to be answered, don’t they?  They come from all over the place.  Who, What, When, Where, Why, and How.   Questions always fall into one of 8 categories though. 

• Closed  (yes/no)
• Open (the answer is open-ended, could go anywhere)
• Probing (asking for clarification).
• Leading (questions that lead to a certain answer)
• Loaded (leading to revealing information you’d rather not)
• Funnel (a big question that eventually leads to specific questions)
• Recall and process (information questions, like on a test)
• Rhetorical (don’t really need an answer).

Many of the questions I hear every day, such as  “Mom?   Are you cooking supper tonight?” are simple yes/no questions, or questions with a definable answer (How do you spell Mississippi).    Very easy to answer aren’t they?

Using questions to encourage thinking

Going back to the water striders, imagine for a moment that I only answered the closed, process or open questions.  Would that have drawn my son into asking more questions?

One thing my son hadn’t considered was “what happens to water striders in the winter?”  It was springtime, water striders were everywhere.  Why was that?   Did you know that water striders hibernate?  I know …. fascinating isn’t it?   Why do you suppose that is?  That whole conversation got my lad off and running.  He’d never considered that an insect could be like a bear in any way.  Mouth-dropping astonishment!  🙂 

Our answers to questions can simply be answers, or we can let our answers lead to additional discoveries. So as answer questions, let us always consider the bigger question.  How can I help my student look deeper?

Our questioning learning helps theirs

We can also make discoveries of our own. 

“Lad, did you know that in WW2 there was a society called the White Rose Society?   They were a resistance group of young people that operated out of Munich.”   My son, since he is currently studying WW2, immediately attuned his ears. Learning about the White Rose society he then learned about the Polish Home Army (and has since written a short paper on them).   Our learning can spur on their own. 

Resources to Help You

If going out in nature you might find these hello Nature cards helpful. 

SchoolhouseTeachers.com has more than 400 courses, enough to help your children ask questions. Help them ask questions, and to get the answers. 

One of the first things you need to do when looking to develop independent learners is to accept your child/ren for who they are.  Understanding their interests and learning styles. Of course, you need to realize their interests and learning styles might change as they mature, so this is an on-going process.  🙂  Understand this though, acceptance is the the start of the journey toward independence. 

Types of Learning

Whether you have an audio, kinetic or visual learner makes a difference in the materials you purchase for them.  The right materials make it easy for students to do their work.  Despite that though, there will be days when they will need help. 

What kind of help?  Perhaps permission to sit back and stop when something is too hard.  Perhaps it’s just to answer a question or to show another way to get to the correct answer. Or perhaps it’s just how to organize their workload.  Don’t make assumptions about the help that’s needed, ask questions and work it out together.  Though do pay attention, sometimes the best help you can give is not helping at all. 

And sometimes the very best help you can give is the gift of organization.  Organizing your legos, art supplies, office materials and the like.  Helping your child organize their time and/or workload.  And offering grace for mistakes and hard days. 

Types of materials

There are so many different options to use for homeschooling as well. 

You can do math using an online program, textbooks, unit studies, living books, hands-on manipulatives, and more.   

History can be field trips, living books, textbooks, conversations with people, and can encompass food, music, geography, as well as art. 

Every subject you can take has multiple ways in which to approach it.  What works best for your child?

When my son was young we were watching the rain fall and he noticed it ran in streams.  He was so excited by this he ran and got some little boats and small toys and went out into the rain. Which way would his boat go?  Could it carry one of his toys?  He spent a glorious hour out in the rain learning about water flow, dams, currents, flow speed, buoyancy and all things watery.  It was a great afternoon of exploration.  I followed it up later in the week with books from the library about water, rain, dams and more.

Letting him run through all his explorations, offering suggestions and wonder during his time of play, and then later filling in some of the gaps for him… the best learning ever!  This has often proved the best way to learn with my lad.  Explore the idea, run with it, and then fill in the gaps later.  

Methods of Teaching

Unschooling, Charlotte Mason, unit study, classical, Robinson method, principle approach, Waldorf, and more.  What style suits you? 

There are so many different methods to homeschooling, and they don’t fit everyone (hence the variety).  Will you choose a particular method, or become more eclectic over time?  What method suits you and your children best?  Take your time to examine the options and know that what suits you at one point might change into something different over time. 

Resources to Help You

SchoolhouseTeachers.com has a wide range of activities to suit any household’s learning style.   See the current sale above. 

Learning styles Online gives a great overview into different methods people learn by.  Whether it’s by listening, doing, participating or more. 

Homeschool.com walks you through some of the different homeschooling methods complete with basic schedules to give you an idea. 

On my blog you’ll find posts to help you with developing independence and watching my lad develop independence.  

Blog Hop Participants

• Health Worksheets for Kids by Living Life and Learning
  Homeschooling and Parenting Encouragement by Simple at Home
  10 Days of DIY Summer Camp at Home by Forgetful Momma
  10 Days to Prepare Teenagers for Work by Living Ideas
  10 Days of Free Unit Studies for Summer Homeschooling by Faith & Good Works
  Teaching Independent Learning by A Net in Time
  10 Days of Preschool Science Social Study Themes by This Crafty Mom
  Dinosaur Printables by Preschool Powol Packets 
  10 Days of Hands-On Learning Activities for Kids by Mama Smiles
  10 Days of Time Saving Hacks for Busy Moms by Purposeful Motherhood10 Days of Nature Study by Heart and Soul Homeschooling
  10 Days of Free Homeschool Curriculum by Subject by Life in the Nerddom
  10 Days to a No Stress Home Management Binder by No Stress Homeschooling
  10 Ways You Can Nurture Artists in your Home by Beyond the Stick Figure
  10 Days of Printable Word Puzzles for Kids by Tree Valley Academy
  10 Days of Planning for High School by This Life of Ours
  10 Days of Learning with Nature by Wonder-filled Days
  10 Ways to Teach History by Beyond Mommying