Creating a Love for Learning in Your Home School, Part III
By Donna Reish
Use non-book teaching tools whenever possible.
One thing that I do for my kids to help them love to learn is keep us well-stocked (often from the library) on non-book items. I have our children listen to presidents’ speeches while they clean, science tapes while they peel potatoes, fiction books on tape (especially historical fiction like Amos Fortune, Free Man, or Across Five Aprils) while they are doing “handy” school like sewing, crafting, etc. (Alright, your son might not like sewing or crafting. My little guys welcome a few hours to sort Legos for their next project or color in their educational coloring books while listening to talking books.) If you do not have access to a big library, you might want to go to another library's website to look up non-book items, and order them from your local library through inter-library loan. That is a free service at our library. Also, the local home school group here is big enough to have a good library of materials to check out.
When my three oldest children were little, they were read to by me or Ray four to six hours everyday, five days a week. Ray read the Bible and character-related materials to them in the mornings and after dinner. He read again to at least one of them before bed. Usually throughout the short evening he had at home with them, he ended up reading something else to them. In between, I read to them every chance I got. (At that time, Ray worked twelve hour days five days a week and most of Saturday. I had too many little kids to go anywhere (and no help anyway), so I did what I loved the most during all the time I had: school the children!). We had special names for all of our special reading times that my older children still remember fondly - morning Bible, content study reading, chapter book read aloud, afternoon Bible, Bible story time, story time, big kids’ reading time, matching-sweat-suit-read-aloud-time, (no kidding! I know it’s corny, but it makes me smile!) and more.
Nowadays, life isn’t quite so simple around the Reish home. Some days I am blessed if I get to read for thirty minutes to my little guys; and Ray usually only gets to read once a day with them. I use non-book teaching tools to take the place of Mom and Dad. (I know, instead of electronic babysitters, I am using electronic home school teachers—but it works for me at this stage in my life, which is what all of us home school mothers need to learn to do—what works for each one of us.)
On any given day, my three little guys, ages twelve, nine, and six, (not all of these for one little guy!) may be assigned the following:
- Do math drill on Mathsafari;
- Do geography on Geosafari;
- Do reading comprehension fun activities on Geosafari;
- Listen to George Sarris dramatize/read the Bible on cassette;
- Watch a Magic School Bus science video;
- Do Saxon Math DIVE cd;
- Do Math U See video;
- Watch a Reading Rainbow program from the library over a book we are reading for “Five in a Row”;
- Listen to a Diana Waring cassette about something historical we are studying in “Beautiful Feet”;
- Listen to a cassette of a famous composer from the period of time we are studying while coloring a coloring page that goes with the cassette;
- Watch a Ken Ham creation science video that goes with our Bible study;
- Do story book and tape sets from the library (while Mom works with older sister on her research paper and skips out on story time!);
- Listen to a Sugar Creek Gang chapter book tape (while Mom helps older brother with his speeches for the upcoming tournament and skips out on afternoon read aloud time - there’s only so much time in a day!); and more. The point to this lengthy discourse is to show that non-book teaching items can be valuable additions to your home school---and even substitute for Mom to ensure that learning takes place when Mom can’t be the “teacher”! Not to mention, they truly help my children have a love for learning - and utilize different learning styles.
School all the time
One of the downfalls of "traditional home schooling" is the idea that we have a school in our home. In that regard, we would learn only in the same way the schools do (mass education, workbooks, etc.) and during the same hours that schools do. The best thing we can do for our children in this area is to create a love for learning and not confine learning to "school."
I can still remember when my first born was eight years old and discovered that other children did not do school on Saturdays. To him, every day was a learning day; why would you skip learning on Saturdays? Even worse though, was when my children found out that other home schoolers do not have to do school in the summer! They thought everyone did everything just like we do, so when they discovered that, they started begging for more “free time”!
I overcame the summer dilemma by making summer school our “fun” school - letting them choose the things they wanted to study in the summer and modifying our schedule so that there wasn’t as much bookwork in the summer, but learning still took place. We called these “summer school goals,” and my older children still remember these “put a sticker in the blank for each chapter you read” or “put a sticker in the blank for each 15 minutes of math drill” charts with fondness. My little kids now actually beg to “do summer school goals” like the older kids did.
By “not confining learning only to school,” I do not mean that everyone has to school on Saturdays and all summer long. Nor do I mean that you have to “have school” beyond 3:00 in the afternoon. What I mean is to try to develop such a lifestyle that your Saturday, summer, and “after three” activities are viewed as school just as much as the math pages your child completes first thing in the morning on “school” mornings. Take “field trip” vacations—a weekend to museums, an overnight at the science museum (that was a great trip!), and more. Discuss “academic” subjects all of the time—not just during school. Talk about current events while gathered around the dinner table. Discuss things you see while on the road. Listen to things while driving that will enrich, bless, and/or educate the entire family.
Basically, try to make your lifestyle such a spiritually and academically-enriched lifestyle that you avoid non-learning times as much as possible. Of course, you’ll always just go to Grandma’s for dinner, watch a movie on a Friday night, or clean out the garage on a Saturday afternoon, but make life your school and school your life. This truly causes a love for learning as children are always learning and growing—and school becomes a way of life rather than a time of day.
Make learning a family affair
Prior to my friends encouraging me in my accomplishments of developing a love for learning in my children, I had never given “teaching my children to love learning” much thought. I love to learn. My husband loves to learn. Learning is such a major part of our lives; I never considered it something that we should “do” or teach our children “to do.” Loving learning is what we do twenty-four/seven. We have an ongoing library list like many families have grocery lists. Dinner conversation often goes like this: “When the next person goes to the library, I need a book about photography. All of my pictures from the park today have shadows.” “Oh, if you’re going, pick the boys up some more Magic School Bus videos.” “While you’re there, could you get me the latest issue of Today’s Christian Woman. I noticed it has Joni on the front of it.” “Add my two items to your list: How to Write Query Letters and Reading Difficulties Handbook.” “Oh, I need that book on creating believable characters in novel writing again.” “I need that book by the president’s speechwriter again for our debate class. You know which one…the one that I paid twice its worth in fines last fall.” And on and on. The next library patron in our family rarely gets to eat dinner. He or she is too busy making out “the library list.” Everyone in our family—from the six-year-old kindergartener to the forty-something-year-old father is constantly learning - and often all learning together.
With everyone’s busy schedules and various activities (not to mention age gaps of the children), learning together can be quite the challenge, but it is a challenge that is worth pursuing. We have found that what we learn together as a family stays with the children longer than almost any other learning. I think it is because of the process of this learning together. When you learn something alone, you might read it or hear it, and that might be it. Maybe you will encounter it again soon (a test) or maybe you will not encounter it until it comes up in a movie, book, or conversation some months down the road. When a family learns together, the topic is brought up again immediately - by someone (the larger the family, the more likely that it will be brought up sooner rather than later)—then discussed, dissected, evaluated, debated, and more over and over again.
For example, right now a few of our children are studying Shakespeare together. Joshua (our married son) is their teacher. They “go” to his class once a week for ninety minutes, yet the class seems to continue day and night throughout the week. They come in from class discussing it; a movie or book reminds them of it, they are picking up library picture books of Shakespeare; and the whole family has to hear about the plot, the characters, etc.; my nine year old and six year old are even quoting from Shakespeare now - long quotes without missing any of the words! It is like this with anything that two or more of the children are studying together (except for math!). Learning is contagious. Use some of the other techniques in this series to make learning together fun (non-book teaching tools, field trips, family discussions, etc.).
Discuss everything
Another good way to develop a love for learning in children - and to increase their comprehension skills - is to discuss everything. When giving reading, language arts, and comprehension advice to home school moms, I often hear a mom say that her child can read everything, but he does not seem to comprehend what he is reading. Some students can word-call anything put in front of them (much like reading "There's a Wocket in My Pocket"!). In these cases, to say a student can "read anything" simply isn't true. Yes, he can "word call" anything, but if he does not comprehend the words he is calling, the material really isn't "at his reading level" - it is just at his "word call level."
What does this have to do with developing a love for learning in children? When a child either 1) cannot read well (via word calling) or 2) cannot comprehend what he reads, the chances for him developing a love for learning are very slim. Do you love reading a book you cannot understand? I put those books back on the shelf! One of the ways we can create a love for learning in our children is to increase their comprehension through discussion. I can remember Gregg Harris explaining this at his home school conference fifteen years ago. It made so much sense to me, but we don’t hear a lot of advice on this today because families are often either 1) too busy or 2) not together often enough to have good, educational and spiritual discussions. If your family is one that is too busy or not together enough for discussions, work on changing that! Make a “three nights a week all at home rule,” drive one vehicle (and all get in it!) to church or gatherings, make two or three (or more!) no television nights, etc.
Once you have everyone all together (or at least part of your crew), talk. Talk about the importance of picking up after yourselves; how you can use dish soap and water in place of window cleaner when you run out; the number of hours different sized candles burn; how various camera angles make things look like they’re spinning or getting further away; why you shouldn’t point a toy gun at mother; what the word “acknowledged” means;; what to do in an emergency situation, such as a “hazardous waste” in someone’s eye (don’t forget a play demonstration by the twelve year old carting the kicking, screaming, dramatic six year old to the sink); why the Ethiopian eunuch came to Jerusalem; why child-centered parenting results in badly behaved children; who Mom’s favorite teacher was when she was little; what the fruits of the spirit are; how much Spanish someone needs to take in order to be ready to travel to a Spanish-speaking country for ministry; the difference between analogous colors, complimentary colors, and coordinating colors; why you have soup or stew every other night—and when can someone fix something good (i.e. pizza or French fries!); and more (all real conversations in our living room and dining room within the past couple of hours as I was working on this article with everyone eating, cleaning, studying, and talking around me).
Again, what does that have to do with love for learning? When children come to a new learning opportunity (or adults do too for that matter), they bring what they already know (the vocabulary, the background of knowledge they have about that subject, any topics they might know about related to that topic, etc.) to the opportunity. The larger the background of experience a child has when he encounters any learning experience, the greater his chances for success in learning the new material. He has more “hooks” from his past learning to hang the new material onto.
When the new learning opportunity takes place, the student will gain a little, a moderate, or a large amount of “learning” from it - based on his comprehension of the material. His comprehension of the material, of course, is related to many things - the level of the material presented (if he is unable to even decode the words, he will be unable to comprehend any of it), the student’s background of experience, and the method by which the material is presented (i.e. learning styles).
Take my sewing example I mentioned earlier in this series. If I were to enter an advanced sewing class in which the teacher began discussing how to smock a dress for a little girl—and I have virtually no learning hooks on which to hook that (can’t thread the sewing machine, can’t even turn on the machine, do not know cotton from polyester, etc.), very little learning will take place. However, if I had had many sewing experiences (sewing classes, sewing at home, reading of sewing books and magazines, attendance at a sewing circle, etc.), I would be immersed in that subject. I would toss sewing terms around much like I do grammatical terms. I would have a large background of experience to bring to that advanced sewing class, I would be much more successful in the class, and more real learning would take place for me.
Obviously, our children cannot have real experiences with everything they will ever learn—any more than we adults can. However, we can discuss things with them as they come up, explaining foreign concepts to them and giving them a large background of experience to bring to their learning opportunities. I have come to the conclusion that this is why my kids love having Kayla for a big sister (besides the fact that she is a great baker!). She increases their comprehension of everything. During her first day at Huntington College (she's commuting as a senior in high school), everyone here was having Kayla-withdrawal! In the first three hours she was gone, each of the children said independently of each other something like this: "I have all of my biology done except for one section; I need to wait and have Kayla help me on that," "I don't understand this US Government; when Kayla gets home, she can explain it to me," "Mom, this is serious. We can't function with her away all day. I need Kayla!" (Wait a minute, why don't they say that if I'm gone for the day!!! ????? tee hee)
Anyway, it's the discussions she has with them about everything that increase their comprehension. It takes a lot of time to explain everything all the time, but that is how they learn. Ray is a master at this (and probably why Kayla naturally does it too). Every time I'm trying to talk to him in the van, he holds up a hand to me to wait a second while he explains to the kids something along the road, in the ditch, on the highway, etc. - a building project, the meaning of this particular flashing light, how a nature scene reminds him of a Scripture, what material the pipes they are putting in the ground is made of, etc. That builds comprehension.
These types of activities will increase our children’s comprehension, which will carry over to all their school subjects and all of life. Comprehension of information is the groundwork for all learning - oral, written, or auditory - and the more our children comprehend, the more they will love learning.
Make home school memories
One of our favorite pastimes for the two weeks prior to my son’s wedding last summer was for the older four children (Joshua, the soon-to-be groom at that time, and our three teenage daughters) to gather in our bedroom until the wee hours of the night and talk about memories. One of them would get started on something….the most fun vacation, the best field trip, the day one of the little boys was born, when I used to threaten to send them to school (!), when we moved to Ossian, etc. etc. We laughed until we cried (then I cried for real when they all went to bed because I miss those times so much sometimes—and my first born was about to get married and move out!). I was amazed during those “memory sessions” how many field trips, “family vacation “field trips,” and other educational opportunities came up in the conversation. Experts tell us that it is important for family unity and children’s self-esteem that we build family memories; this non-expert says that it is important for love of learning - and family unity - that we build home school memories.
Do you remember the old saying “"Tell me and I'll forget. Show me and I may remember. Involve me and I'll understand"? I think building home school memories falls under the last part of that quote. Children understand (and remember!) what they do - whether it is digging for earthworms in the “bug room” at the zoo, getting the maple sugar from the maple tree at the sugar bush, taking their fingerprints at the science museum, or guarding the fort from invaders at the old fort. Building home school memories builds a love for learning.
It has been my experience through my twenty plus years of “field tripping,” that the more unusual the field trip or event (or activities at the field trip), the more my children remember it—and the more home school memories are made. It is not normal for Mom to get up in the morning and announce to the children that school today will only consist of eating finger foods and reading together on the sofa all day. It is unusual for Mom to tell the children they have to go to bed early tonight because tomorrow we spend the school day at the state park. It is rare for a child to get to have a “day away” with Mom to do whatever he wants. It is unusual to be able to tap a sugar maple tree, fill a bucket with maple syrup sugar, carry it to the sugar house, and watch maple syrup being made. It is unique to go on a field trip where you are in a slave’s role for the day. (I know, why do the things kids like the most have to require so much of parents?)
Even harder to accept for me and Ray as home school parents who have hit the forty-mark is the fact that our oldest children’s three favorite field trips hands-down involve major discomfort for those of us who are…well, seasoned home schoolers: sleeping at the top of the jungle gym at Science Central; sleeping on the straw cots at the old fort; and sleeping in the snake room at the zoo. (Did I say “sleeping”? Well, “staying overnight” in those locations might more accurately describe what we did there.) Yes, we paid the price of a night in a comfortable Holiday Inn to sleep in uncomfortable, and I mean, very uncomfortable, quarters at the museum, the fort, and the zoo. But we paid for much, much more than a room and a continental breakfast. We paid for home school memories that will last a lifetime. Home school memories that make me cry as I type this. Home school memories that cause my older children to tell my younger children, “You’ve got to have Mom and Dad take you there! It was the BEST!”
Watch this spot next issue for the final installment of building a love for learning in your home school, including delight-directed learning, reducing frivolities, teaching children how to learn, the effects of peer influence on love of learning, prioritizing learning in your home, and more.