A friend of mine, who is a kindergarten teacher, once told me that one of the skills she considered most valuable was independence. In my opinion, self-learning and independence follow from each other. I was surprised that her answer wasn’t the alphabet, or some other academic metric, but at the same time, I wasn’t surprised at all.
John Holt said:
“Since we can’t know what knowledge will be most needed in the future, it is senseless to try to teach it in advance. Instead, we should try to turn out people who love learning so much and learn so well that they will be able to learn whatever needs to be learned.”
Yes!
It doesn’t matter if you’re an unschooler, Charlotte Mason, Classical…
You could be homeschooling a preschooler or a senior in highschool…
We all strive to create LEARNERS.
Here are just a few benefits of creating self-learners:
- They identify passions in life; and interests that they claim as their own.
- On a logistical note, self-learning reduces the workload on the parent-educator, so that they don’t have to be it ALL for the student.
- Self-learning prepares students to be self-sufficient and competent in a future life filled with questions that will range from when do I have to catch the train? to why is that new supplement so popular? or, what is the history behind ISIS?
- Self-learners are less likely to see boundaries in what they “should,” or “should not” be doing. Children instinctively believe that they can do anything if they can just learn about it (and work hard). Being well-versed in self-learning is more likely to perpetuate that belief into adulthood.
- Self-learning creates well-rounded humans. Instead of learning only what is placed before them, and suffering the teacher’s (or department of education) biases, self-learners have pursued whatever knowledge caught their eye.
I know, I know, there might be a few things that you think your child definitely WILL need (like reading and arithmetic, maybe), but the idea here is that if they are taught how to learn, they could even learn those skills on their own. OR, that we can use those skills as a platform to model to children how to learn.
I’m not saying that your children must be ONLY self-learning (although some certainly are), but I am saying that it is a vital component of being a minimalist homeschooler.
Minimalist homeschoolers use self-learning both because it reduces the workload for the parent, and because self-learning puts things that are of value to our students at a level of primary importance.
Every style of homeschooling that I have researched has their own way of modeling learning. They do NOT all do it the same way. Need I point out that the classical model of grammar, dialogue, and rhetoric is very different than the unschooling approach?
Regardless of your style, I think there are some ways to foster independence and self-learning in your homeschool. Not only does independent learning develop life-long skills in your child, but it also can provide a reprieve for the hectic homeschool parent. Win-win.
The 11th Minimalist Homeschooling Mindset Hack in the book is: Parent-teachers dedicate themselves only to progress in the core areas of study; they do not micromanage free time or interests.
Now. This is one of those mindset hacks that doesn’t necessarily capture everything in a single sentence. What do I mean by micromanage? I mean that if your child is interested in engineering, you would learn everything you can about engineering, check-out all the books from the library, and plan projects for your child. You then complete the projects together. That’s micromanaging their interest.
Independent learning looks more like offering support and opportunities for the child to pursue their interests themselves. In this case, you would take them to the library, and let them look-up, find, and choose the books. The child would research the subject and find a project. You will help collect supplies that the child has identified for the project. The child will complete the project independently, and then excitedly tell you all about it. Perhaps there will be an issue that you trouble-shoot together, and the child will continue on without you after it is resolved.
This is different from unit studies, where the parent draws upon a child’s interest and creates lesson plans. I’m also not talking about learning centers and montessori-styled lessons (unless you love doing that), which take a lot of time, and thought, and *stuff.* This is truly fostering independence and self-learning.
There are a few different aspects of self-learning to foster:
- Passions and interests
- Ability to find information
- Ability to follow instructions
- Ability to create, synthesize an/or improvise
- Self-motivation and responsibility
The following ideas to encourage self-learning are aimed at reaching these goals.
1. Teach them how to use the library.
As young as possible, and in age-appropriate increments, teach them how to find books and look up subjects. Teach them about the Dewey decimal system, and let them ask questions at the information desk instead of you.
Don’t forget to teach them how valuable the Table of Contents and Index are.
2. Let them choose their own books.
By all, means, keep recommending or assigning classic literature that you love. Read aloud books that you believe in. Stock your home shelves with only the books your family loves most. BUT, also let your child choose their own books without criticism (preferably at the library so that they can try a variety of books without them all becoming permanent fixtures in your home). Then, read their books aloud if they ask. In fact, offer to read them aloud.
This is not about whether your child chooses something “worthwhile” or “beautiful;” it is about empowering them to choose for themselves, and to form their own opinion on it. It is about respecting that they have preferences and interests that may be different from your own, and that you’re willing to ask what they love about their choice and why they picked it. This is how history majors end up with children who are mechanical engineers, and vice versa – because at some point, the children learned that having a different interest was ok. When you see what resonates with them, you will be better at picking classics and read alouds with their interests in mind, too.
3. Give them a list of independent work to do each day.
Math drills or independent reading are usually on our list. Piano practice, specific books, educational apps or shows, or freewriting are also great ideas. You can give them a checklist, or post a standing suggestion list. The delivery doesn’t matter much. Rather, the element of responsibility, self-discipline and self-motivation are the focus of these tasks.
You can also give them homework. No, no, you don’t have to extend your school day. This is like independent work, but instead of a standing list, you would give specific assignments for the child to do alone, and you review it later. These assignments are specific to what you are working on that day or week, and will vary from day to day. Homework doesn’t have to happen after dinner – you can always designate a time earlier in the day for the children to do their “homework” after the lessons are finished. I’ll talk more about why I love homework in minimalist homeschooling in another post.
4. Create a Maker Space
When my oldest was about 3, we converted an old armoire into a “craft cabinet.” “Maker space” had not yet become a popular term, but that is essentially what it was. The drawers had recyclable materials, buttons, straws, popsicle sticks, string, ribbons, and beads. The shelves had construction paper, paper plates, scissors, glue, and all kinds of tape. We still have the cabinet, and all of my kids have free-range access to it (except any child who still puts things in their mouth, because, well, choking hazards). I won’t lie, it makes a big mess constantly. But, I am exchanging hours of independent creativity, experimenting, and imagining for 10 minutes of clean-up. That seems like a fair trade.
If your kids are not used to entertaining themselves, you may need to model creative or imaginative time for a while, give prompts, put in some effort to make it appealing based on your child’s particular interests (silver glitter glue and pink glitter tape, anyone?), and be patient. But, stick with it.
There is a conflict for minimalism when it comes to having a lot of resources. Here’s the key: there is no dogmatic rule about how much to have, or what to have. The actual minimalism rule is to have just enough of what you need and love. When it comes to our Maker Space, we have a specific amount of space for the materials, and a specific location where the materials must stay. The cabinet is free to be filled by me or the kids with odds and ends of everything they believe they need or love.
I use the same criteria for the maker space that I use for books, pinterest boards, and toys: I know they need to be purged a refreshed when the kids stop using them so often.
5. Be a self-learner yourself.
What have you always wanted to know more about? Is there something that you have been meaning to learn to do for the longest time? What skills are you practicing? Make sure your child sees you modeling self-learning.
6. Support their interests.
Take them to the library. Help as little as possible, but do help whenever they ask for it. Get the supplies that you are able to get. At holiday times, aim for gifts that are specific to their interests. Indulge the the things that are most loved by them, even if you fail to see the value. Show them a cool YouTube channel. I share Pinterest boards with my 2nd and 4th grader for hands-on activities, engineering, and art ideas. We can all add ideas to the boards. Then, in their free time, they can go and find a project that they’d like to do. **Do be vigilant about parental controls, and monitoring your children’s activity online, though.
Encouraging student-chosen projects is far more rewarding than assigning projects – and oftentimes, the results are better, too! In this way, free time is not an “indulgance,” or”frivolity,” but rather, sometimes they are completing valuable projects that rival or surpass school-assigned projects.
7. Allow Imperfection.
Please, resist the urge to perfect, edit, or grade your child’s projects that they have pursued of their own free will (unless the child wants you to). You don’t want to be be a kill-joy and make them avoid doing any other projects! Rather, take note of the skills you’d like to help them improve, and work those into your future educational goals.
My favorite questions to ask are things like “what do you love about this?” “Did it turn out the way you had hoped?” or, “Is there anything you would like to do differently next time?” These questions allow your student to identify and own the victories and shortcomings. People are more motivated to improve upon shortcomings that they have identified themselves, than the critiques from others. You can always ask “would you like some suggestions?” AFTER you have ooooo’ed, aahhhh’ed, and listened at length. Praise their new knowledge, their effort and/or their self-reliance – those are more important to self-learning than punctuation or perfection.
8. *Sample* the feast: introduce new things.
Before you start designing learning centers and elaborate maker spaces, let me clarify: Introduce new topics, but don’t require or expect your student to dive deep into every one. Every once in a while, watch a documentary together on a subject you normally would never watch; put out duct tape, recyclable materials and construction paper; bring home a book from the library you think your child would like on a topic they wouldn’t choose for themselves; bring out a set of snap circuits that you borrowed from a friend; or try-out a free online college course.
My kids and I literally tried learning how to break-dance together from YouTube videos one cold day last spring. Why? Well, because it was hilarious (I might have some on video), but also because nothing is too ridiculous or off-limits. The point is to live an interesting life. You can offer samples of the the world in little bite-sized portions, instead of spreading an entire (and elaborate) feast. Your child may or may not be interested in learning more, or doing more for any particular topic, but you won’t know unless you try. The key is to offer the samples only occasionally – it is NOT your job to fill up all the free time with all of the samples, because then it wouldn’t be free time, now would it?
9. Create the time and space for personal interests.
Most of all, make sure that there is time in a day for children to dive into their own interests or to discover new interests. My favorite way to do this is to make sure that “independent reading” happens every day. Pre-readers get to choose what I read aloud, and older ones get to snuggle up wherever they want to read whatever they want. One of the goals in minimizing is to create more time! Resist the urge to schedule more than what is truly loved or needed just because you have time for it. Let the students choose their “extracurriculars” instead of you. Free time, and boredom can be regular parts of your homeschool.
What do you think? How else can we foster independent- and self-learning? What would you list as #10? Share in the comments below…
This post is part of the Minimalist Homeschooling Mindset Series in which I discuss in more detail each of the Minimalist Homeschooling Mindset Hacks from the book. If you’re looking to find more value in your homeschool (and less stress!), check out the other posts, and come back to see what’s next.
Finally, there is a facebook group of homeschoolers who are all striving to minimize their homeschools. You can join us there!
>Read the previous post: How to Make a Successful and Confident Change
Wishing you all of the simple things,
Zara
