All kids will be reluctant or resistent about academics at some point — some more than others.  What can we do to inspire a love for learning and promote independence?

Here are a three strategies that have worked for me with many different kinds of students:

1. Success: Start at the child’s level of success in that area.  Forget about grade levels and where you think your child should be — that’s not helpful if your child is not ready or interested in working at that level yet. We give time to things we feel successful at; we avoid areas where we feel doomed to fail.  Think about where you invest time and effort. Do you expect to be successful?  Would you invest the time and effort, if you expected to fail? That’s my point.   Until recently, I avoided cooking — I didn’t find it very rewarding because I have had too many disasters in the kitchen. All those cooking shows  mydaughter enjoys watching finally got me interested enough to put some time into meal preparation once again. With a lot of helpful sources online and reruns on Hulu, I learned enough of the basics to start turning out new dishes my family loves.  Now that I’m getting positive feedback, I keep putting more time into cooking. And I’m starting to think of cooking as something I enjoy — my intrinsic motivation is on the rise. 

Your kids are wired to learn just like you are. So figure out where you can start in math or science or reading that will prove successful.  Then make a big deal out of that success. I love that the word encouragement has the word courage in it.  That’s what it does — encouragement puts courage into your child. It fills them up with the boldness they need to persist.  And that’s what they need to combat their fear of failure.

2. Challenge: Once you have some success, then challenge your child to tackle a slightly more difficult book or task.  You challenge with encouragement and expressed confidence in your child’s ability to learn. Instead of thinking of yourself as a teacher, think of yourself as a personal coach or trainer. You are there to help your kid grow a brain and you aren’t going to let him or her fail or quit. But the trick is, the challenge has to be just right – not an over-challenging situation, but one in which they can use the new skills they are learning to achieve the very next level of success. Success will breed confidence and interest. And interest is especially keen when we think we have a knack for something that is difficult.  We get our greatest sense of accomplishment from tasks that require effort from us in order to be attained. Kids lose interest not just because they are over-challenged; but also, because they are under-challenged.

3. Novelty: Try a unique approach. We human beings get bored easily. We like novelty. There are endless ways to pique a child’s interest in math, science or reading — find an enthusiastic person who works in the field where your child is struggling. Figure out how your reluctant learner can spend some time around this person. Take a field trip or read a captivating book aloud that shows the benefits of working hard in this area. Just because your child thinks a subject is boring today, doesn’t mean interest can never be created. It certainly can — and novelty is one certain way to get that started.

What other ideas have you tried?

Build on their interests…

 I want to pick up where I left off last post — If you want to raise an independent learner, then build your program around your child’s interests. Independent learners are intrinsically motivated to learn. And interest is the fuel of that intrinsic motivation. You want to keep that fuel in abundant supply.  If you don’t build on your children’s interests, then they will lose interest; and you will be dragging your kids through the curriculum, instead of greasing the rails of independent learning. 

Here’s an idea for building on interest.  First, make a list of topics your child finds interesting.  Then brain storm ( with your child if he or she is old enough) about all the possible lines of investigation to pursue in each subject area.

Let’s use animals as a common area of interest in many young children. How many places in your daily studies can you leverage that innate curiosity about animals to get your kids engaged?

• Math – solve problems related to caring for animals, stablizing the animal population or predicting the developmental growth curve for your family dog.
• Science – bring veterinarian science into your science studies or center your science fair project around a favorite animal.
• Literature – plenty of quality fiction in each age group that features an animal as a central character.
• Language arts – let your kids write stories about pets or reports on issues related to animals.
• Music – listen to Saint-Saëns The Carnival of the Animals and Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf for a start.
• History – investigate the origins and domestication of horses, cats, dogs, etc. Or study the development of zoos or the military history of animals. 

In all these examples, what matters is kids are engaged in learning how to learn.  They are developing their skills in math, science, reading, writing, music and history. The content they are working with to develop those skills is what is very flexible ( in this example, animals).  In skill work, what is important is plenty of practice. And kids are only going to practice repeatedly skills they find meaningful and rewarding — that’s why skills need to be used to satisfy a child’s natural curiosity.  You want to be working with your child’s inner timetable for learning, not against it. ( Unless you like misery.) 

Once you’ve hooked them into the learning moment through their expressed interests, then use that momentum to make connections to other important concepts you need to emphasize.  Because you are drawing your kids into the learning experience through their interests, you will be able to build curiosity for those things they don’t yet know are intriguing. 

Next time I’ll talk about how to promote curiosity and interest where there isn’t any.

Give them a choice…

When are you most motivated?

I’ll bet you find yourself more motivated to complete tasks you’ve chosen, rather than those tasks someone else requires of you. ( Think: reading the book you brought home from the library vs. doing your income taxes, for instance.)

Why is that?  We have a will and we like to use it.  So do babies, toddlers, kids and teens.  It’s human nature. We want to be autonomous in our actions.  It explains the compelling attraction of democratic ideals. It also explains why most kids eventually disengage from school in a traditional setting. Years and years of being directed, managed and controlled by others takes its toll: It is demotivating.  Think about it. Is it even possible to be an independent learner in a traditional context?  I don’t think so — and I tried.  I taught gifted teens in a public school eons ago. That experience shaped my educational philosophy. Why did I have the students with the most academic potential facing me, and so many could care less about learning? I did everything I could think of to get those kids engaged. I chose books I thought they would enjoy, my lectures were entertaining and my assignments creative. You know when I got the greatest signs of life? When I let my students choose what to read, what to discuss, or what projects to complete.

I tried to give them choices whenever possible.  But there were standards to meet and requirements to fulfill. When I started homeschooling, I vowed to go another route. I wasn’t going to let my kids become those dependent, sullen teenagers in the first place. I wanted to preserve that independent quest for knowledge I saw in my toddlers if at all possible.  Giving them choices was always the secret key to unlock their motivation to learn.

Here are 5 ways:

1. Let them choose what book to read. Guide their selection by limiting the range.  One mom I know required her kids to read at least 5 books a month: one biography, one nonfiction, one historical fiction, one Newbery award winner and one free choice.

2. Let them decide the order in which they complete their schoolwork. Set a deadline ( end of day, for instance) but they get to manage their time.

3. Let them decide what time their day begins and ends. If kids want to get a late start, fine. Most teenagers will elect this option, but they still might be at it come midnight. Is that really a problem? Some days maybe but not always. We want to set parameters — those are important, but don’t make the parameters any tighter than necessary.

4. Let them choose the topics they wish to study.  Consider history as an example. Yes, it’s important that kids eventually understand the chronological progression of history, but that doesn’t mean you have to then study history in chronological order. They can figure out chronology with a few study aids. We had a homemade timeline-in-progress for years hanging up on the perimeter of our schoolroom walls.  As we studied a new historical person, event or era; we just added it to the timeline we all could see at a glance. Our brains do not build knowledge sequentially, our brains build a web of interconnected knowledge. You can approach any subject in this way as well.  They’ll be fine. Raising an independent learner is what is most important — having a few historical facts out of place is of secondary concern.

5. Let their interests direct the curriculum. When your child is interested in a subject, that’s an indication of readiness to learn that subject. Get behind their passions. Show them how to find out more about their interests. Join them in their pursuits. Give them some of your homeschool funds to invest in tools, books and field trips related to their passions. What we are learning is not as important as learning how to learn. Use your child’s interests to facilitate this.

The independent learner is your friend. That is how you will survive long-term in homeschooling. So where you can give choice, you will find motivation, and where you find motivation, you will find independence.  That’s the road you want to take.

Hey, there are a lot more ways you can give your kids opportunity to make decisions and choose what to do.  What has worked in your home?

a collaborative project…

I’d like to start a discussion about the ways in which we can encourage our kids to learn independently.  But before we jump into making a list, it seems to me a good place to start is to highlight the ways in which our kids are already primed for independent learning.

Your child was born hard-wired to learn. We come preloaded with the gift of curiosity.  This innate interest in the world around us motivates us to explore our environment. The hours babies invest in learning to control their arms, legs and hands is propelled by a desire to grab those delightful objects they see hanging just beyond their reach.  They want to bring those objects closer so they can examine the shape and feel, and figure out what else they can do with those shiny things.  This innate curiosity is why babies eventually crawl, then walk, then run.  It’s a gift from the Creator that causes us to grow.

Without a desire to learn, we would never fully develop.  Not only does curiosity cause us to do the hard work necessary to develop our gross and fine motor skills; but it also causes our brains to develop. Intellectual growth comes from learning. The more we invest in learning, the more our brains develop.

Staying  mentally active is also one way we can delay the effects of aging. God intends that learning be a lifelong endeavor as part of healthy living. (Homeschooling isn’t just beneficial for your children, it is good for us moms, too.)

Here’s another part of the equation: Not only are kids hard-wired to learn, we are also built to be social creatures. In order to reach our full intellectual maturity we  need others to help us. This is primarily facilitated by parents and siblings, but as we grow our social circle should grow and we learn from interacting with others, too. 

Learning is stimulated when we exercising our brains in groups.

How should these two truths —our gift of curiosity and our social nature — influence our homeschooling? What do you think?