Relaxed Homeschooling: 9 Ways to Spark Learning

Based on the learning philosophy I talked about in the last Relaxed Homeschooling post, there are numerous ways parents can help facilitate a lifestyle of learning within their homes.  The following are only a few ideas to help spark educational opportunities for your children:

1. Subscribe to an educational magazine (or look for older copies in lots on Ebay); just be mindful of the publisher’s worldview.  I like to “bait” the house with these magazines that spark terrific conversation.
2. Collect resource guides and field guides about animals, plants, etc. and teach your children how to use them.
3. Get a telescope and microscope and let them explore.
4. Get into the habit of saying, “Let’s look it up”.  Show them how to look up information they are interested in finding.
5. Look for conversational opportunities and expand them.
   • For example, if a child says to you, “What kind of bear is this?” You could answer “a panda” and end the conversation. But if you demonstrate an excitement about learning, you can show your child that each subject opens up a world of learning possibilities. With a small child you can offer him different descriptive words about the panda. Couple synonyms together to transfer the meaning of harder words. “He is very big. He is gigantic. He is enormous.” (or colossal, etc.) With older children you may ask, “I wonder where pandas live?” Give them a feel for the way a country is also part of a continent and familiarize them with the name of the continent. These aren’t formal lessons, but rather, you are creating “learning hooks” on which more and more information can be hung as they discover more about the world.
6. Utilize time in the car. Use the sights to explain and describe activities. Listen for questions and answer them as thoroughly as possible.
7. Encourage them to play outside, collect interesting objects, draw them, and observe them for a length of time.  Caterpillars are especially fun to watch metamorphose.
8. Keep building and craft materials available to children.  Blocks, Lincoln Logs, Legos, etc.  Play-Doh, though messy is good too.  Paper, glue, scissors, stickers, felt, Popsicle sticks, cardboard, etc.
9. Severely limit computer games, movie-watching, etc.  Most children do not default to creativity when recreation is readily available.  Boredom, left untreated, can open up a whole new world to a child.

The simplicity of educating our children, as I see it, is having our eyes open for the opportunities that abound all around us and being available to use them.

Do you want to know more about how to do “relaxed homeschooling”? My ebook gives a simple, practical explanation: Think Outside the Classroom