Develop a Love for Learning, part 1

Whether you are a current homeschooler, or considering homeschooling, if you have a child that thinks school is boring or anything but fun, you are looking for answers. How do we develop a love for learning in our children?

As I pondered this question and began jotting down ideas, it occurred to me that the ideas I had could be visualized through Einstein's familiar formula.

Let's start with E ...

Exposure - working from the fact that the brain's primary function is collection of information, we need to expose our children to information in a variety of forms that employ multiple senses.

• Examples bring awareness of a topic and spark their interest. Whether you are presenting engaging characters in context of a story, or taking your children on a nature hike, or showing them the variety of fruits and vegetables in the produce section of the grocery store ... you are bringing awareness. Facts presented without a connection are harder to grasp, but examples provide the context needed to retain information and begin to use it.
• Exploration is the next step as you gain Experience by putting the example into motion, test its application, discuss it and make comparisons, build a model or create a map. By working to provide opportunity to exercise the examples, you will find your children's interest growing.
• Emotion is the "gatekeeper of learning and performance," according to Susan Kovalik, the founder of Center for Human Brain & Human Learning. She points out that emotion keys memory, as you will understand if you think back to significant childhood memories. Invariably those memories can be tied to a strong emotion, be it anger, fear, joy, etc. Likewise, your child will remember information that is tied to emotion, even in the realm of academics.
• Excitement on your part is contagious and is the key to drawing in your children. Many of us have seen Brad Stein's Visine commercial where he epitomizes the lack of excitement with his "wow." If you are just going through the motions to press your children to get their work done, your children aren't going to be absorbing as much as if you are eager to see what can be discovered each day. If the curriculum you are using doesn't inspire excitement for you or your children, you may want to consider a change.
  

Even more intricately than the computers that are so central to our society today, our brains make meaning of new information by storing it in patterns. Your brain organizes information into patterns which are cataloged for storage and future retrieval, just as a computer would store information in documents, files and folders, according to the way you save the data. When you as the teacher present new information already sorted into a pattern, then your child's brain is easily able to use the information. Academic examples would be studying materials in a historical theme, or focused on geographical cultures, teaching Math with manipulatives or exploring fractions through a baking project. When we studied Science, we not only read about it, but we also did experiments, which naturally inspired my children to want to know more, dig deeper and find answers to their questions. When your child's brain seeks to retrieve information that has been stored in a pattern, the information in one neuron connects with information in other neurons, creating a brain-firing, electro-chemical reaction ... what we commonly refer to as the "lights go on." Susan Kovalik says, "the more experiences children have, the greater their ability to make connections."

My family has experienced this time and again when reading books or watching movies. Think about it - when you go to a movie, pay the admission price, perhaps stock up on popcorn and drink, and settle in to the theater seat, you would not be pleased if what appears on the screen is a list of bulleted statements telling the story. Interested? NO! The story in visual movie form, or in the rich word form found in great literature, calls you forward to find out what happens. "Just the facts, ma'am" is not appealing, yet if you imbed any amount of otherwise dry facts in the storyline, they become meaningful and memorable. This is because they are attached to the pattern of the story. An example of this would be our experience with the movie, National Treasure. The plot was intertwined with a mystery related to history, and set in a variety of historical places. What child or parent didn't learn American History in the process of watching that movie? We had the opportunity to be in Philadelphia after the movie came out on DVD, so we watched it again before venturing out to see the sights. Suddenly, the buildings had a whole new meaning - my boys were looking for the different places that were shown in the movie, searching for artifacts like those they had seen, and even got very excited to meet a park ranger who had been in the movie.

Great literature does the same without requiring the movie theater, projector or other technology - in fact, I love the versatility of reading. Great books can not only be read almost anywhere, but can transport you anywhere, anytime, and give you and your children a thirst to find out more about the person, time period or event. Emotional connections that are necessary for children to learn can be found by reading - and living the events through the characters in - great literature.

stay tuned for the rest of the equation ...