Tag: Unschooling

Practical Ways to Stoke the Fire of Learning

Practical Ways to Stoke the Fire of Learning

And inspire your child to become a learner for life!

In her book “Teaching from Rest” Sarah Mackenzie references the quote, “Education is not the filling of a bucket, but the lighting of a fire.” She goes on to say “…but we must remember that a fire does indeed need to be lit, and then stoked, or else it will burn out.”

There indeed is a balance between pushing your child too much and not pushing enough, and keeping the fire stoked is part of that balancing act.

In this post, I lay out some practical ways you can stoke the fire.

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Practical Ways to Stoke the Fire

Recognize the spark.

Before you can stoke the fire in your child’s learning, you have to first recognize what sparks their interest. For some children, their interests are much more obvious. If it’s not so obvious, ask yourself: What motivates them? What types of things do they get excited about? If they had loads of free time, how would they spend it? Consider the ways they are “smart”, as that likely could shine a light on what their interests may be. 

Provide resources and opportunities.

The easiest (and cheapest!) way to provide resources is using your local library.  Find books on the topics of their choosing.  Show them youtube videos relating to their interest. Are there classes (online or in-person) they can sign up for that will help them grow and learn more? Are there simple things you can buy (or find for free) that can cultivate their learning? 

Ex: Some kids love taking things apart… You could find old appliances/computers for them to do so.

Provide time.

Allow time in your schedule to give them space to explore, wonder and create. What does your day look like? Is it scheduled to the hilt? If so, consider paring back a little to give margin so they have more breathing room to explore and dive into their interests. More time also allows for more conversations that can cultivate a culture of curiosity and wonder. 

Help them set goals.

Goals give us something to shoot for.  It can move us out of a place of laziness/complacency to action.  Are there goals you can set with your child to help them grow? A goal could be as simple as completing a project related to their interest or taking a class to grow their skills. 

Expose them to a variety of subjects and topics.

I think this point is especially important for those kiddos whose interests aren’t as obvious.  By giving a buffet of learning, we can see what interests stick. During Covid, we started to hike more as a family.  My son, whose previous interest (for YEARS!) was weather, became very interested in maps, hiking, geography, and state parks as a result. 

Tie it into the other subjects when possible.

Now, this is obviously not always possible. But when you can, tie their interests into other subjects.  Are they interested in cooking? Then find out what foods they ate in different periods of history and what they eat in different parts of the world. Minecraft (or any building activity)? Have them create builds related to what they’re learning.  Drawing/art? They can draw pictures related to what they’re learning about history/other topics (Chalkpastel.com is great for this!)

You get the idea.

Give them opportunities to teach others what they know.

In his book, Passion-Driven Education, Connor Boyack refers to this teaching of others as the protégé effect. The protégé effect is an idea introduced by Roman philosopher Seneca.  Seneca said, “While we teach, we learn.”

This could be teaching to younger siblings, or family members, or friends. It could be formal or informal. The point is when you teach something you learn it on a different level. It propels you to a place where you really know and own the information.

Ask what they would like to learn about.

This is simple, but you could just ask your child what they would like to learn about.  Chances are you already know, but you may be surprised! 

Books I recommend related to this topic:

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Motivation: A Necessary Tool for Learning

Motivation.  It’s key.  Necessary for learning AND life.

Have you ever known someone who barely made it through high school, or even college, but then went on to be very successful in their life? I would venture to guess it happens quite often. But why?

motivation tool for learning

This blog post contains affiliate links and any purchases made through such links will result in a small commission for me (at no extra cost to you).
Motivation: A Necessary Tool For Learning.

When one is forced to learn something that they have no interest or aptitude in, there is not going to be much desire to learn. There may be a desire to make the grade (I was this kid!) but the information will not be retained.

When there is freedom in the choice of what/how to study, there is more ownership and motivation. Here, true learning can occur.

I liken it to the motorized walkway at the airport.  Sure, we don’t NEED to take it (unless we’re in a real hurry!), but WOW, does it move us along faster!

I feel this way with my kids much of the time.  When I ride the wave of learning, I (or my kids) don’t have to exert extra energy. Their motivation serves as a tool, or a helper, in their learning.  There are still things I require of them of course, regardless of motivation, but it certainly is helpful to use whatever inspires them, when I can.

Do you ever feel like you’re playing tug of war with your kids?

Do you feel like you’re cattle prodding them to get their work done?  Oh boy, do I!  It does me well to read inspirational quotes or books to remind me of the advantages of homeschooling and having the freedom to let my kids follow their interests.

If you want a great book on this topic I urge you to check out “Passion Driven Education.”

“Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire.”

It’s not a science, it’s an art.  And what helps me most is taking the time to study and observe my kids.

What makes them tick?

What do they talk about?

Does anything get them excited?

How can I light that fire?

Hitting a Wall in Our Homeschool

Recently, I’ve felt like we’ve hit a bit of a wall with my oldest.  Her newest thing is Minecraft.  As a creative learner, she loves building things and is always thinking up new things to make.  She has expressed wanting to be a marketplace creator (the people who make things to sell in the Minecraft Marketplace).

Since Minecraft is what gets her excited these days, I’ve been looking up ideas to use Minecraft as a tool for learning.  After all, it’s her moving walkway (at least, currently).  Thankfully I’ve found some solutions where we can tie what we’re studying in with Minecraft.  Thank you, GamEd Academy!

Now that isn’t ALL she does, BUT she is very excited when playing Minecraft and I have no doubt when she is building historical landmarks in Minecraft, she is retaining more about those landmarks than me teaching it in other ways.

That’s not to say we won’t utilize other ways of learning too (if you’ve been here long enough, you know living books are one of my favorite ways of learning history), but allowing her some time to show her knowledge by doing a “build” in Minecraft is very gratifying for her.

And with my other kids too, when I tie in things they love and have interest in, there is so much more buy-in for their learning.  Because then the learning itself is motivating to them.  And I’ve played a part in “lighting their fire”.


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A Very Unschool-y Day

I really wanted to title this something like ‘Katie and the very good, super productive, still filled with learning, unschool-y day.’   A fun title, but way too long for a blog post title.

We Are Not Unschoolers

I am not an unschooler.  Let’s just get that out there.  I DO think unschoolers who execute it well give their children a huge gift.  There are elements of our homeschool that are unschool-esque such as many I mention in this post about how we became outside the box learners, and also the planning backwards method I use.  But at the end of the day, I do have somewhat of a plan.  I consider us more child-led homeschoolers.  If learning more about child-led homeschooling is something that interests you, I recommend the book, Educating the WholeHearted Child by Sally Clarkson.

House Organizing

Our house has fallen into a bit of disarray.  Ok, not really… but for this clutter-phobic mom, it has.  And eventually, the clutter really starts to get to me!  Winter is coming and all the winter gear is about to come out of the attic and there is no place to put it.  Well, there wasn’t… until our very unschool-y day.

My youngest is doing a year of pre-k this year and the days he has school are when we get the most done, naturally.  I’m sure any of you who have busy, mischievous 4-year olds who wake up at 5:30 a.m. ready to conquer the world destroy the house, understand.  I digress…

Since my youngest had off school yesterday I decided earlier in the week it would be an organizing day for me/unschool-y day for the kids.  Of course, I relied a bit on my lovely daughter to entertain her 4-year old little brother for parts of the day.  Which she is really good at!   I managed to get a TON done.  And I really think my less cluttered house will allow me to be a more productive mom, as outward clutter definitely exasperates my already cluttered, trying it’s best to multi-task, mind.

Where the Unschool-y Day Took Us

The great thing about organizing is discovering things you haven’t used in a while. Such as this Discovery Kids Activity World Map that we’ve had for 5 years (but haven’t used for 2 years).  It’s meant to hang on the wall, but we found it to be just as fun on the ground.  Joe spent a good chunk of time, putting all the labels in their place!

As usual, much of the day was spent with a nose in a book.

Unschooling

And another discovery, a wooden tangram tetris puzzle, found in our mudroom while I was organizing!

Unschooling

And it wouldn’t be an unschool-y (or a typical day for that matter), without a creation made by our in-house baker.

The creation of the day: Homemade Oatmeal Packets

Child-led learning

Joe and I had a chance to venture out in the marsh in our backyard. We both needed some fresh air and activity!  Because it’s so thick back there, we have to wait until the plants all die to hike there, which is now through the end of winter.  If you go far enough you run into the creek!

Unschooling

And here Joe is classifying volcanic rocks with his Rocks Activity Kit.

Unschooling

Also, we were able to finish The Tale of Despereaux, our book club book for November.  This was accomplished because I was able to get the audiobook from my library app.  We did not expect to finish it in one week, but the kids loved it and kept requesting more.  Also, it was a pretty quick read, or ‘listen’!  As a side note, I just discovered there is full motion picture for this story.  It will be fun to watch it and compare to the book.

All in all a pretty good day!

Disclaimer: In the name of full transparency, please be aware that this blog post contains affiliate links and any purchases made through such links will result in a small commission for me (at no extra cost to you).

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