How Children Plan and Learn When Asked

If you don’t use conventional school practices in your home, such as purchasing curricula and administering it on the school’s schedule, you may be confused as to what you can do each day with your child other than enjoy their company and include them in your activities as much as possible. Here are two stories about asking your children to make plans from Growing Without Schooling 49.

PLANS HER OWN DAY

A parent wrote in the newsletter of Home Schools United (NV):

... Our 9-year-old lost her enthusiasm for daily study; she just wanted to watch TV and play all day. We decided to put her in charge of her own learning program by requiring that after breakfast and her morning chores, she was to tell us what her study plans for the day would be and to then get started on them. We didn't have to remind her once. All we did was ask her what her plans were and it was obvious that she had already thought it out. She got busy right after her chores. And her work seemed better, too; there weren't as many mistakes. I have heard that other homeschoolers were "self-directed" but I never really understood that concept until trying it with my daughter …

WHAT HE WANTS TO LEARN

More from Kathy Purdy (NY):

 ... Last year our oldest son Teman (5) was enrolled in Yamaha music school. He has been teaching himself to swim in the kiddie pool across the park (he can dog paddle with his head in the water) and I asked him which would he prefer, going back to Yamaha or swimming lessons. He said he'd rather go to Yamaha because he already knows how to swim. I then asked him what else he would like to learn this year, and he told me: 

1) how to ride a horse

2) how to drive a car

3) how to control trucks (i.e. operate earth moving machinery such as bulldozers)

4) how to use a saw

5) how to use a chain saw

6) how to do monkey bars

7) how to climb a tree (which he taught himself shortly thereafter)

8) how to use a hammer

9) how to put a wall up

10) how to read

11) how to nurse (feed) a baby a bottle

12) how to write words

13) how to build a house

14) how to fix a book

15) how to make toys

16) how to hold a baby without leaning on an armrest

17) how to help my dad

18) how to help my mom

19) how to cook

20) how to use a food processor

21) how to go down the fast slide without getting hurt

22) how to go down the fireman’s pole

23) how to put up a ceiling

24) how to change a baby's diaper

25) how to put up pictures

26) how to have music lessons on a guitar

My husband is replacing the plaster walls in the boys' room with sheet rock, and many of Teman’s "how-to's" reflect this. I have been reinforcing the children's paperback books with clear, adhesive shelf paper and this is what he means by "fixing books." He has a 2-month-old baby sister ... The rest are self-explanatory, though I suspect 10, 17, and 18 were included by him to please me more than anything else. I was surprised at the range of activity he was interested in and at the powerful desire for mastery, both of himself and the world around him, that his list revealed. I'm glad I asked, because now I make a point to include him in activities I might otherwise have felt "too busy" to help him learn about. I could write another whole letter on the temptations of being too busy when raising children ages 5, 3¾, 2, and 2 months, but it's taken me four days to type this much so I think I’ll save it for another time ...