Inspiring Children to Learn

It’s no easy task. We have a lot working against us in our time and culture. Learning is usually slow, but we move fast. Learning is relational, but we spend less time together. Learning is full of creativities, but but we focus on activities. And then there’s the distraction and dominance of screens. I try not to hold  harsh opinions about things, but man, if you push me against a wall, I’ll claim that video games harden hearts and deplete minds of creativity. When you can control and experience a fantasy world free of pain and consequence, of course the flesh will choose that over engaging the real world, where you make mistakes, get left out, and feel judged or less than enough.

We try to show our children just how satisfying real life is. That video games really don’t offer them anything of value. Sure, their failures in fantasy are of no consequence, but neither are the victories! Nothing of eternal significance happens when you engage a fantasy world (however, I realize there are unique circumstances where video games aide in the development of particular children, and I am so thankful we have resources that make this possible). This is one reason we bought land and a place where a story can unfold. A story more engaging than Minecraft, more interesting than the latest Disney adventure. We want to inspire a life of learning within the hearts of our children.

Our decision to homeschool is part of this vision. I think there are many ways to inspire learning, and it doesn’t have to include home education. But it always includes knowing your children. Really knowing them. Being with them. And discerning what it is that interests them and develops their whole person. And sometimes the beginning of inspiration is the determining of what hinders it.

Every year I consider where my children are physically, emotionally and spiritually, and discern the best books, curriculum and rhythm to facilitate maturing, learning and character development. For me, it’s all about their hearts. Even the academic parts. In our home, we don’t encourage learning in order to take a test. We don’t encourage learning to prepare for college one day. We don’t encourage learning to ready ourselves for a job. We inspire because God created our minds to expand and experience great things. Because that’s how we grow and mature. We’re honing a thirst for learning in order to engage the created world around us. That we might minister and care for it, that we might participate in God’s redemptive activity on this earth.

Several have asked what curriculum we’re using so I thought I’d share the choices we made this year. It’s always encouraging to me when I read about how other homeschool moms organize their day and how they choose which resources they use. It’s a great way to learn from each other. {If you don’t homeschool feel free to skip through the resources and get to the punchline, cause it’s for everyone!}

We begin our mornings with a few outdoor chores, which get the children outside breathing fresh air, which opens their minds and gets them serving before “being served” around the breakfast table. Mark and I have been praying for God to establish the work of our children’s hands. To give them a love for creating and contributing and serving. For us, this is just as important as anything scholastic.

After chores is breakfast, and after breakfast is worship. It’s been such a great way to invite God into our day, our learning, our choices. We already see fruit in this sacrifice. We’ve made room for this moment every school day so far. That’s a big deal for this spontaneous mama who rarely plans and resents expectations…even ones I set for myself.

After worship, we begin our lessons. We don’t follow a schedule. Instead, we know what we need to accomplish each day and week, and we make adjustments along the way to fit it all in. We’re constantly interrupted by toddler requests, sibling arguments, messes, stubborn students and a moody teacher. But we’re experts at those realities by now and can usually recover pretty quickly. On any given day, learning at home can seem so spiritual, intentional and beautiful….and then the very next day I’m calling it a terrible horrible no good very bad idea. But we love it.

So here are the books we’re learning from this year:

Bible

 We’re studying the book of Proverbs through a study from Simply Charlotte Mason. It’s set up for children to read the Proverbs every month of the school year, focusing on a different topic each month. For example, the first month we’ve been finding the proverbs that relate to our relationship with God and his word. Next month, we’ll look for the scriptures that give wisdom about the parent/child relationship. The study is set up for the children to write down each scripture that falls under that theme. But that takes way too much time! So I printed out the book of Proverbs, bought a bunch of highlighters, and I’m having the children highlight the scriptures, using a different color highlighter for each theme they’ll focus on.

My main critique of the study is that it assumes you can finish the book of Proverbs in one month – since Proverbs has 31 chapters and a month has 30 or 31 days. But we don’t school that many days each month. So we are having to cover a few chapters a day, and we already feel behind! I think once we get into a good rhythm with it we’ll like it.

We’re about to start this devotional my sister shared with me. I think it will be a good thing to pair with our worship time and our seeking to be more like Jesus.

History

This is my first year to use the history from Simply Charlotte Mason. We are really enjoying it so far. It’s the most consistent we’ve been with history, and we like the stories the author tells. It’s set up for a 5 day plan, but we only school 4 days a week. So I’m opting out of the geography/bible day and only doing 2 lessons on America and 2 lessons on the surrounding nations each week. Geography gets covered by my handsome professor husband who spontaneously gives lessons at dinner and during farm chores.

I like using a history that doesn’t require preparation. I’m just not planned like that. So I appreciate that we can simply pick up the next story and read it aloud together. If anything perks our interest in the story we might take the time after to research it a little. For example, last week we read a story that mentioned the phonograph and telegraph so I had the kids look up the history of those inventions.

Reading

The books I have my children read correspond with our history period. This year we’re covering mid 1800’s- present day, so we’ve got books on the civil war, inventions, presidents, the influence of gold, and early American culture and living. It’s a fun year! My literary sister is a great resource for me in this area. But a great way to find books within a similar period or theme is by looking up one title on Amazon and considering the suggestions offered in the “customers who bought this item also bought” section.

Writing

We’re about to choose a theme-based writing lesson from Excellence in Writing. I’m going to have each child choose which one interests them. They struggle to enjoy writing so I’m trying to include them in the selection process. I wasn’t ready to choose something when we began school, so we’re simply starting this later into the year. My sister suggested these them-based lessons and I think it’s going to connect with us better than things we’ve tried in the past. You can explore the options at excellenceinwriting.com

Science

It’s happening all the time over here with the planting and feeding and developing of a small farm. But my children also take a science class at a local homeschool connection group.

Math

Math is something where you really need to know your child and discern which curriculum or approach is best for their learning style. You might start with one program and end up switching based on your child’s needs. We used Singapore Math in the early years for each of our children. We like their method of teaching how to visualize numbers and groupings. We have switched to Teaching Textbooks, mostly because I am not great at math and needed help with the teaching part. Teaching Textbooks is a set of CDs for the computer. Both the teaching and problem solving happens with an interactive screen and an audible “teacher.”

Spelling

We’re using a new spelling this year, also from Simply Charlotte Mason. It’s called Spelling Wisdom. Up until this year, we did spelling lists from Soaring with Spelling. We also used Growing with Grammar, and the two of those paired well together. My children did really well on their spelling tests, but didn’t seem to spell well when they were writing. So I switched to a more holistic approach. With Spelling Wisdom each lesson is an excerpt from a classic book or speech or scripture. The children read the excerpt and recognize the words they think they would struggle to spell. They take time to study those words and become familiar with the entire passage. Then when they’re ready (they may need a day or two), I dictate the passage and they write it with the goal of spelling every word correctly and including all the proper punctuation. This method is recommended for children ten years and up.

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But more than any resource, the way to inspire learning is through environments of grace. Creating spaces for your children to fail and succeed. Providing opportunities for boredom to birth creativity. Expanding territories to increase exploration. Giving fewer provisions to enhance inspiration.

For when they put their books and pencils down, that’s when the real learning begins. In the construction of new chicken coops. In the planting of trees. In the arguing over who gets what. In the sharing of bedrooms. In the trying something new and not succeeding. In the caring of animals. In the compromise of self for the sake of others. In the making of dinner. In the conversation around the table. In the saying no to something. In the saying yes to someone. In the watching mom and dad work through something. In the forgiving of a sibling.

The potential to learn is everywhere, in everyone. Let’s inspire each other.