Learning Styles

There are different ways that people learn best. I learn best by reading. I would be classified as a visual learner. Others learn best by listening. They are auditory learners and would do well with audiobooks or being read aloud to or even reading aloud to themselves. Others learn best by moving, touching and manipulating. They are considered kinesthetic learners or hands-on learners.

Study and learn your own kids.

Further reading on this subject:
The Way They Learn

Every Child Can Succeed: Making the Most of Your Child’s Learning Style

By Cynthia Ulrich Tobias

There are other ways to categorize cognitive styles or different ways of thinking and learning. We need to find the ways that work best for ourselves. And we also would do our children a great favor by helping them discover the style that helps them to learn more quickly, efficiently and thoroughly.

We also should observe and study the way in which we organize our learning in our brains and what is the most comfortable and conducive atmosphere for us to learn in.

Multiple Intelligences

Linguistic, Logical, Spatial, Musical, Kinesthetic, Interpersonal, Intrapersonal

These are 7 categories that have been identified by Dr. Howard Gardner, a professor of education at Harvard.

Dr. Kathy Koch writes and speaks about 8 great smarts. She writes about the multiple intelligences and tweaks them a little bit. She calls them: Word Smart, Logic Smart, Picture Smart, Music Smart, Body Smart, Nature Smart, People Smart and Self Smart.

She wrote a book called “8 Great Smarts” in which she explores the different ways that children can be smart. A summary of the topics covered in this book is here:

“Your child is smart, but does he or she believe it?

“Smart” is a power word. Children who believe they’re smart excel more in school and approach life with greater confidence. But children who don’t can struggle to apply themselves. Do you wish your child could see how smart he or she is?

Find hope in 8 Great Smarts. You’ll be empowered and equipped with new language and creative ideas for how to:

Accept and affirm your child’s unique smarts
Motivate your child to learn and study with all 8 smarts
Reawaken any “paralyzed” smarts
Redirect misbehavior in new, constructive ways
Guide your child spiritually, relationally, and to a good career fit
Dr. Kathy Koch loves seeing children flourish and helping parents make it happen–and it’s never too late to start. Now is the time to help your child be all that God designed him or her to be.”

Dr. Kathy has written other helpful books that offer parents tools to lead their children to become the best version of themselves and discover who God made them to be.

There’s another model that goes even further than the multiple intelligences in exploring what qualities several people who are considered geniuses had in common. This is a fascinating topic to think about as we are examining our children and learning how to keep the love of learning alive in our children. You can read about the 12 Genius Qualities HERE. I’ll give you a hint: They’re probably not what you think they are. Okay, I’ll tell you what the genius qualities are: curiosity, playfulness, imagination, creativity, wonder, wisdom, inventiveness, vitality, sensitivity, flexibility, humor, and joy.

____________________

New brain studies have revealed information about how our brains work that have fascinating implications for teaching and learning.

For more information about brain-based learning read books by Dr. Caroline Leaf:

Switch On Your Brain

and

Think and Eat Yourself Smart

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It can also be helpful to determine your personality type and the personality of each of your children.

If you understand yourself, you can modify the way you do things in a way that lowers stress and helps you to feel successful and avoids stressing yourself out.

And if you understand your child’s personality, you may learn how to say things in such a way or explain concepts in a way that makes sense to him/her. You may figure out how to avoid conflict and attain a better understanding of why your child says and does the things they say and do. At least, you may become more patient and gain some clues that will help you to have more peaceful interactions within your family if you understand what makes them tick. You may be very surprised to find out what some of them are thinking. Lots of times, they hear something completely different from what you were trying to say to them!

There are several different ways to find out what your personality type is.

One is the Myers-Briggs personality test. You can take the test for free at https://www.16personalities.com/free-personality-test

And some are specifically made for homeschool moms so that we can identify our strengths and weaknesses and we can become more comfortable in our own skin and not compare ourselves to other homeschool moms or try to imitate them when their ways will not work for us.

Myers Briggs for homeschool: https://www.simplyconvivial.com/2016/homeschool-personality

I personally found this helpful in understanding and accepting the differences in the way different people conduct their homeschools and feeling affirmed that what I was doing was okay and acceptable, because it lined up with the way God made me.

You may pinpoint your mothering personality here:

Mothering Personality Inventory

This is a good thing to know so that you can refrain from judging others because of lack of understanding. In Jill’s words:

“We desperately need to be true to ourselves, allow others to be different, and knock off the judgement that so easily creeps into our head and our heart!”

Another way of measuring personality types is the Personality Colors quiz from Full Spectrum Communication: https://jacobadamo.com/personality-colors-quiz/

To go a little deeper you may want to read the book “Strengths Finder 2.0” by Tom Rath. This could help you discover what you were made to do and help you fulfill your calling. This concept emphasizes finding out your strengths and capitalizing on them instead of working hard on areas that you are weak in, because you are not gifted and called to do these things. Chasing your weaknesses does not make sense.

Of course, you can look at it from the perspective that God may call you to do something that is difficult for you to do so that you have to lean on Him and go in His strength instead of your own. But in many cases, the Lord gifts you to do the thing that He has called you to do.

And you may discover hidden gifts as you grow and mature. It makes life very interesting, to say the least.

This may seem like it’s a tangent, but I really like tangents myself so here goes! I think it’s also good to find out what your love language is and the love languages of the rest of your family. If you would like to find out more about what that’s all about, read “The Five Love Languages” by Dr. Gary Chapman. And then you may also want to read “The Five Love Languages of Children” and “The Five Love Languages of Teens“. You can find these and many other helpful resources HERE.

As you delve deeper into purpose, calling, destiny, and helping your children become all that God made them to be, you may want to check out Dr. Lance Wallnau’s teachings and resources at https://lancewallnau.com/category/motivational/

Mary Hood started homeschooling before there was homeschooling. When she decided to teach her son at home, there were only 6 other families in the state of Alabama that identified as homeschool families.

She only started homeschooling because she didn’t know what else to do with her oldest son. She knew he would not fit into a school. He was advanced in reading ability but could not sit still for long periods of time. The school she was considering putting him in would have tested him to see if he was gifted, and if he was, they would have given him even more hours of instruction. She knew he would hate that, and it would not be good for him. She was already an educational expert herself, so she felt confident she could teach him herself.

She still wasn’t a full-blown homeschooler yet. She sent her second child, a daughter, to preschool, but then felt that it wasn’t fair for her son to have so much fun with his mom on field trips and adventures, while her daughter had to go away all day and miss out on all the fun.

So then she settled on homeschooling as the method of education for her family as she had three more children and learned that teaching them at home was the best thing for them.

Mary was known for being “The Relaxed Homeschooler”. She wrote several books. The Relaxed Homeschool: A Family Production; The Joyful Homeschooler; Onto the Yellow School Bus and Through the Gates of Hell; and The Relaxed Homeschooler Rides Again.

Unfortunately, Mary passed away last year. She was still actively teaching Zoom classes and making plans for other ways to continue helping homeschoolers. It was a shock to the homeschool community to hear that she was gone. It was a terrible loss.

But we can still learn from her through her books. And here’s her YouTube Channel    You’ll get to know her through this video.

And this is a good video to watch to find out what she taught.

Here are some of the important things that I gleaned from her book: The Relaxed Homeschooler Rides Again.

Mary believed that:

You are a family, not a school;

You are a father, not a principal;

You are a mother, not a teacher;

You have relationships with your individual children, not a classroom.

We can’t come up with a one-size-fits-all kind of educational philosophy, because all of our children are very different.

Our families are unique, our children are each individuals, created by God for specific purposes which we will gradually identify over the course of many years.

As homeschool moms we need to include ourselves in the process of homeschooling, recognizing that our own balance and emotional health are critical to the success of the entire family. If Mama ain’t happy, ain’t nobody happy!

She realized that public schools have become dangerous places for children. She encouraged us to remember why we were homeschooling, and why we were not sending them to public school. She talked about how taking God out of schools caused a massive slide in test scores, discipline and parents were shoved to the side.

She vehemently objected to common core and the way it attempts to force abstract thinking on young children before they are developmentally ready.

She was disgusted by what she saw in early education and advocated for removing children from schools and figuring out how you can teach them at home.

She believed that one of the first requirements for a homeschool environment is for the family to respect the father as the head of the home. But she also knew that it is equally important for fathers to respect their wives as the primary educator of the children.

She also believed that we should respect children and treat them respectfully. She gave the example of giving a child a warning when it’s going to be time to finish up what they’re doing so they can come to dinner. She said that play is their work, and we shouldn’t just expect them to stop immediately in the middle of what they’re doing to go to the dinner table. We wouldn’t expect that of our husbands, so we shouldn’t expect it of them, either.

Mary recommended that new homeschool moms learn about the developmental needs of children so they know what is to be expected and don’t accidentally mis-label normal conduct as “laziness” or “misconduct”.

She said “it’s critical to recognize the individuality of your children. Not everyone learns at the same pace, or develops in the same manner. Even young children begin to show certain strengths and weaknesses, desires, and inclinations. Learning styles vary considerably, and it is very likely that what works well for the first child in your family will not work at all for the second or third.”

When children are allowed to learn in the way that works best for them, they almost all turn out to be good readers and writers. They don’t need to conform to someone else’s idea of grade level to be able to learn what they need to know.

She was adamant that we need to change all of our assumptions that we developed in a public school setting. The homeschool environment is quite different, and will require a whole new mindset. She said to challenge every single thought that pops into your mind like “I have to finish this second grade book by the end of second grade.” Learn to question everything you’ve ever believed about learning, and examine what is really true and necessary. Ask if it’s appropriate at this time for your child and if it’s consistent with your goals.

I love this statement that she made in her book: “In reality, somebody made up all those grade levels, and in some cases, it might have been pretty arbitrary!”

About standardized testing, she said they’re not good for homeschoolers to use for assessment, because the people who wrote those questions were not testing your curriculum. She still had her kids take the tests to meet state requirements and to give them practice in taking tests. She cautioned people not to take the test scores too seriously or allow their child to be labeled because of them.

She was very big on helping our children to set goals. When she set goals, she thought about 6 areas: values, attitudes, habits, skills, talents & interests, and knowledge. She said that setting these goals made it easier for her to make everyday decisions. For her it was a much higher goal to help her children learn to love reading than it was to teach them to read.

Mary believed that being a purist concerning any philosophy is dangerous, since flexibility and genuine respect is so important to your success..

She said the most important thing is to remain flexible and adapt things as necessary for a particular child. We should use our curriculum and not let it use us! Never insist on a child finishing something that isn’t working, or is killing off his love of learning just to “learn discipline”.

Mary said to never let yourself be married to a curriculum or philosophy, but to be ready to adapt and change wherever needed, so you can remain relaxed and confident that you’re still in control. Never let anybody take that control away from you.

She said to “listen, learn, and then trust your own judgement and adapt everything to your own family and the needs of your very unique individual children.”

Mary talked a lot about raising and homeschooling teenagers, which she preferred to call “young, transitional adults”. She said that if we demonstrate a growing respect for our young adults they will have a reciprocal respect for us and our role in their lives.

For her one son, they submitted a two-page narrative entitled “In Lieu of Transcript” and he got in to college!

She said that part of our job is to introduce our children to a wide variety of possible interests, starting when they are quite young.

The 6 main goals she set involved values, attitudes, habits, skills, talents & interests, and knowledge. She emphasized the first three during the years leading up to 12, and the last three during the teenage years.

To sum up her book, she repeated that “God and parents are the only ones that should be in control. Never give that control away to anybody else. Learn and grow together and pay attention to all the little blessings each day holds. Relax and enjoy it. It goes by in a heartbeat!”

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I hope you’ve enjoyed this introduction to one of our homeschool pioneers that paved the way for the rest of us to homeschool successfully and joyfully.

How are you doing? Really. Is homeschooling as good as you thought it would be? Do you feel like your kids are getting the best education they can get? Do you feel like your family is thriving with homeschooling?

If you answered “no” to any of these questions, I have something that will help you.

I have 25 years of experience homeschooling my 10 children. I LOVE homeschooling. I still have another 5 years or so of educating my children at home. And I don’t want it to ever end!

I have graduated 6 students from homeschooling. They all have jobs, and some have started families.

And I’m still homeschooling my 4 youngest children.

So, you might say I’m an expert in homeschooling. I’ve learned how to keep on homeschooling all the way through, with your relationships intact and your nerves unfrayed.

Well, I have written an e-course to help you to relax your homeschool and to free yourself from fear.

This course will help you to gain confidence in your ability to teach your children. Go from overwhelmed to peaceful. From feeling lost to feeling capable. From fearful and insecure to confident.

My dream for you is that you enjoy homeschooling your children. In this course I share techniques and approaches that will help you do that. Here’s a tip: If you let your children know how much you love them and provide resources to help them learn, you will find that the experience is beneficial to the whole family.

Please check out this course, and see if it is what you need to adjust, tweak, or completely overhaul your homeschool routine/method/mindset.

Here is a video that describes the course in more detail.

And this is where you can go to sign up for the course.

https://changed-by-love.teachable.com/p/the-basics-of-homeschooling

How do we encourage the physical, intellectual, moral and spiritual growth of our children?

According to Charlotte Mason in Volume 6 of Charlotte Mason’s Original Homeschooling Series, called “Philosophy of Education” in chapter 4:

Knowledge Appeals to and Nourishes the Mind

“If knowledge means so much to us, “What is knowledge?” the reader asks. We can give only a negative answer. Knowledge is not instruction, information, scholarship, a well-stored memory. It is passed, like the light of a torch, from mind to mind, and the flame can be kindled at original minds only. Thought, we know, breeds thought; it is as vital thought touches our minds that our ideas are vitalized, and out of our ideas comes our conduct of life.

The case for reform hardly needs demonstration, but now we begin to see the way of reform. The direct and immediate impact of great minds upon his own mind is necessary to the education of a child. Most of us can get into touch with original minds chiefly through books; and if we want to know how far a school provides intellectual sustenance for its scholars, we may ask to see the list of books in reading during the current term. If the list be short, the scholar will not get enough mind-stuff; if the books are not various, his will not be an all-round development; if they are not original, but compiled at second hand, he will find no material in them for his intellectual growth. Again, if they are too easy and too direct, if they tell him straight away what he is to think, he will read, but he will not appropriate.

Just as a man has to eat a good dinner in order that his physical energies may be stimulated to select and secrete that small portion which is vital to him, so must the intellectual energies be stimulated to extract what the individual needs by a generous supply, and also by a way of presentation that is not obvious. We have the highest authority for the indirect method of teaching proper to literature, and especially to poetry. The parables of Christ remain dark sayings; but what is there more precious in the world’s store of knowledge?”

In other words, when we introduce our children to great thoughts and ideas, they proceed to think great thoughts themselves. They make connections when they see something that reminds them of another thing that they learned or experienced. Thought breeds thought.

We need to present “vital” thoughts to our children, thoughts that challenge, inspire, excite, and spark imagination. Ideas and thoughts are to the mind as food is to the body. Our mind feeds on thoughts. We need to give our children good mind food. And then the thoughts that come from those ideas will cause growth.

This is a list of 5 of the main benefits I have identified from reading aloud to my family for about 20 years.

1. Reading aloud to your family promotes family culture, develops your family identity and unity, and provides an enjoyable shared experience and memories for your family.

It can also aid in character development when you read stories that portray a worldview that encourages good character and growth toward better character.

One year our family experienced a fun adventure as we read stories together on our way to a vacation in Florida.

We excitedly set out on our first real family vacation since we had kids. And we had 6 of them! We were going to Florida with 6 kids ranging in age from 18 months to 11 years old. It was a miracle. Gary was unemployed. We had no income. It was insane to think that we could do this, but sanity was not a part of the equation. We needed this! We needed a break from the ho-hum, humdrum existence we had been living for a year and a half. And my former boss at the day care center was offering her house for free if we could just get there. We could cook our own food once we got there. It had a fully functional kitchen and a grocery store nearby. So it wouldn’t really cost that much more than our humdrum life at home was costing us. Just the cost of gas to get there and one night at a hotel on the way there since it was a 900 mile trip and would take about 14 hours to get there.

We packed as lightly as we could with a family of 6 children and 2 adults. But one thing I made sure we took with us was the books we had been reading together as a family and the next one I had planned to read. We finished Wheel on the School as we headed out. I loved that story with all my heart! The next book I scheduled was Strawberry Girl. I opened it and started reading and found out that it took place in Florida! I didn’t even realize it before we headed out. I’m not the world’s best planner, but the Holy Spirit covers me all the time!

So on the way to Florida I started reading about a girl who lived in Florida and her family’s experiences as they moved from northern Florida to southern Florida. We kind of moved along with her from northern Florida to southern Florida corresponding to the story as we drove toward Ormond Beach on the Atlantic coast. We saw Palmetto trees like the ones Strawberry Girl described in the story. In fact our beach umbrella ended up in a tangled, impenetrable grove of Palmettos when a mini tornado swept in from the ocean and grabbed our umbrella and took it flying a few hundred feet in the air and deposited it across the street in the middle of a mass of plants and Palmetto trees that we were sure harbored snakes and all manner of spiders and other creatures that we wanted nothing to do with. So, alas, our introduction to Palmetto trees was not a happy one.

I was so happy to read a book about the same place that we were going to for our vacation. The only problem we had with reading aloud as we drove along in the car was my husband’s vivid imagination and his ability to lose himself in a story. We almost plowed into the back of the car in front of us several times because he was paying so much attention to the story that he forgot to pay attention to his driving. I learned to only read when traffic was light or we were on a stretch of highway that didn’t require a lot of his thought or attention to drive safely while thinking about something else.

We will always have that shared memory. The older kids were shaped by lots of stories. My husband still mentions the story I read to them on the way to Florida from time to time. We read almost every read-aloud in the Sonlight catalog to them. I need to go back and re-read them to the younger children now. I loved almost all of those books. They are living books, well-written, soul-enriching, full of moral lessons, and many of them portray family as a strong anchor for the members.

2. Reading good books aloud to your children exposes children to excellent authors, advanced vocabulary, story form, excellent writing, ideas, imagination, philosophy, heroes, and good morals.

It’s important to choose good books with a strong godly worldview that reinforces your values and ideals. Living books are the best books to read aloud with your family. If you’re not familiar with the concept of living books, research the Charlotte Mason method and look up her definition and explanation of living books. I have some posts about the Charlotte Mason method here on my blog  under the category of homeschooling and the subcategory of Charlotte Mason. She speaks about the process of children interacting mind to mind with great authors when they read their works and how our minds feed on great ideas.

Stories are the best way to teach and learn, too. Most of my children have been mostly read to as their main form of education, and the older ones have become excellent writers. I attribute much of that to being read to so much.

3. You can teach many subjects and lots of information by reading aloud.

When choosing a good book to read aloud, you should take into account the setting and time of the story. Many of the Classics and lots of historical fiction teaches content that we want our children to learn. They actually help children to learn more about history, geography, poetry, beauty of language and other cultures. Biographies and autobiographies are also good for immersing yourself and your child in the life and times of famous and successful people and can inspire your child to greatness himself!

4. Reading aloud to children builds their imagination. They learn to listen and visualize scenes, characters, settings, landforms, landscapes and so much more.

When children are read to or listen to a story on CD or radio, they have to use their imagination more than when they watch a video or movie. They can visualize characters, settings, scenes, landforms and landscapes. They get to do the work of building a picture of what the characters look like and their mannerisms, clothing, and so much more from their own imagination. It is a good exercise in developing their imagination and ability to visualize, which we all need to be able to use to make life more interesting and to create beauty and to invent new things.

5. Reading to children inculcates a love of reading.

It instills a desire to read to themselves and to become lifelong readers and learners. If you start reading aloud to children when they are very young, as in so young that they still can’t read themselves, you can read stories to them that they can comprehend or get knowledge from even though they can’t read it yet for themselves. And as they get older, if you continue to read to them, you set a pattern for them and create a desire in them to learn more and experience good literature. You enable them to experience great stories and profound ideas that might be above their reading level but meet or extend their comprehension level. And the great stories and Classics may beckon them to learn to read so they can enjoy them on their own also. But I encourage parents to keep reading aloud to their children even after they can read. Nothing can beat the shared experience of enjoying a good story together!

Contrary to popular opinion, there is no such thing as behind in education. Hence, there is no such thing as behind in homeschooling. I want to take some pressure off of you if you have felt guilty or stressed or incapable of teaching your children correctly.

Don’t feel like you’re behind. Who says you’re behind? Whose standard are you not meeting up to? The individuals who developed the scope and sequence or the order of skills taught in a curriculum were guessing the average ages and stages of readiness for certain skills and knowledge. It’s arbitrary. Don’t think it’s set in stone. Don’t act like it’s a law. It might help as a general guideline for what you want to introduce to your child and when, but remember to look for readiness. You can tell if they’re ready for it or not. Look for the signs.

All of math can be taught in 8 weeks, according to this article by besthomeschooling.org.

So if your child is “behind” in math, maybe you should evaluate how you’re teaching math and see if you can get through it more quickly. I’m going to, that’s for sure! I have heard great things from Dr. Melanie Wilson, aka psychowith6, about a curriculum that cuts to the chase and helps you learn math fast. In fact, that’s what it’s called: Learn Math Fast! You can find her reviews of this curriculum here.

What about the other subjects? Language Arts does not have to be broken up into 5 different topics, such as Reading, Spelling, Vocabulary, Handwriting, and Grammar. And let’s not forget about Literature, Composition, Speaking, Creative writing, prose, poetry, and research papers. We can easily combine those first five topics as we do those last seven subjects. We use all of the basic skills when we study Literature. We use the basic skills when we write stories and research projects.

Of course we need to teach reading first of all. And handwriting must be taught before the other subjects can be adequately studied. But when the basic skills are mastered, they don’t need to be singled out in workbooks with contrived, irrelevant, and unrelated sentences and exercises to continue practicing them. They should be used, put into practice, with real writing. By teaching language arts this way, your student may be able to accomplish the objectives much more quickly and efficiently than by using workbooks.

There are quicker, more efficient ways to let your kids study science and history, too. Let them study the topics they want to learn about. They may not cover all the topics in a typical textbook, but does that really matter in the scheme of things? What will be relevant to their lives after they graduate? Are the typical topics vital to their lives after high school? Probably not.

If there are certain subjects that matter to you and that you feel your child absolutely needs to know, then make sure he studies them.

But don’t put unnecessary pressure on yourself or your child to cover everything in the book or finish by a certain time.

Deadlines help to make sure we get things accomplished, but keep expectations reasonable and look for the quality of the work and the results of the efforts more than the quantity or speed of accomplishment.

If you will change your mindset to one that says, “We are not behind. We are learning what my child wants to learn about, while using skills that he has learned and honing them even more”, homeschooling will become more enjoyable, productive, and relevant to real life.

• And you will no longer hear the voice of that terrible taskmaster screaming at you that “you’re behind”.

In a related topic to individualized instruction, a goal that we as homeschoolers should be endeavoring to attain is self-education.

“Education is what remains after one has forgotten everything he learned in school.”
-Albert Einstein

“Self-education is the only possible education; the rest is mere veneer laid on the surface of a child’s nature.”
― Charlotte Mason

“I cannot teach anybody anything, I can only make them think.”
– Socrates

“Self-education is, I firmly believe, the only kind of education there is.”
– Isaac Asimov

“Real education must ultimately be limited to men who insist on knowing; the rest is mere sheep-herding.”
– Ezra Loomis

“Education is an admirable thing, but it is well to remember from time to time that nothing that is worth learning can be taught.”
— Oscar Wilde

When we think about teaching and learning, we think of a dispenser of knowledge standing in front of a group of students who are soaking up everything (?) the lecturer or instructor intends for the students to absorb into their brain.
But is that what learning is really all about? Is that how you learn best? Think about how you learn. If you hear a speaker, and even if you are enthralled with what he is saying – even if you are hanging on every word – if you never think about their speech again, do you really remember it? What helps you to remember thoughts, ideas, and concepts? Don’t you have to keep thinking and meditating deeply and for long periods of time, engaging your whole brain. Don’t you have to use different learning faculties, such as writing, rereading your notes, discussing your thoughts with others, and even imparting the information to another person (teaching) in order to make the knowledge your own and embed it deeply into your brain so that it becomes a part of your memory?

There really is no such thing as teaching. There is only learning. Learning depends on the person who is trying to gain new information. If they are trying to make it their own, then the knowledge will most likely sink in. If the learner is not putting forth the effort to learn deeply, then the teacher has no power to cause learning to take place. You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink. In the same way, you can lead a student to knowledge, but you can’t make him think.

Read and listen to this article and podcast about teaching and learning from the University of Pennsylvania.
http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/the-objective-of-education-is-learning-not-teaching/

So in your homeschool, make sure that you are giving your children plenty of time to think. You may ask questions to encourage further thinking. But give them time to think deeply about the answers to those questions. This is a missing element in the school-style of education. The students are given all of the information that the teacher wants them to spew forth on the exam, but real learning doesn’t occur, because the time to reflect, process, and meditate is not given to the students. That process is not even addressed or encouraged in most classrooms. Students are told that they have to memorize certain facts that will be covered on the test, and then they are evaluated on how well they memorized all of those facts.

We want something more for our students. We want them to be able to think deeply, and to ponder all sides of a matter. We want them to develop their own relationship with the information. We want them to care about it and make it their own knowledge. So, in order to make this happen, we need to lead them along to further thinking and questioning. We need to give them time to think and time to put in their own words what they are thinking about. Give them good mind food. Give them lofty ideals and hopes and aspirations to dream about. Give them books to read that inspire courage and conviction. Read stories to them about people who made a difference in the world – people who were honest and generous and filled with love for God and their fellow man.

When we do these things at home – when we give them great ideas and concepts to think about and then give them time to think about them and a way to express what they are thinking, we will help them to achieve a deeper, more lasting learning that will stay with them for the rest of their lives.

This is self-education at its finest.

And you have the perfect opportunity to kindle this in your children when you homeschool them in this way.