Learning Through Conversation

This article comes from notsomodern.com

by Bonnie

When someone makes the decision to homeschool, you can pretty well assume they aren’t striving for typical learning methods. For some reason, at some point in time, they’ve decided to go against the grain and take responsibility for their children’s learning. The beauty of homeschooling is it is completely customizable. There is never a shortage of learning opportunities, we just have to be willing to see them.

One of my favorite things about homeschooling is learning through conversation. Young children never have a shortage of questions as they learn about the world around them. Every question is a learning opportunity for both my children and myself. However, I have to be open to these learning opportunities. It’s easy to tune out the questions, or put them off when I’m tired, busy, or frustrated. I don’t have the time or the mental capacity to answer and explain every question my kids ask, I’m human, but I do try to come back to it. I try to keep the lines of communication open, and I want my kids to know that their questions and concerns are important to me.

The Benefits

Teaches that they can ask me about anything. We’ve created a culture of curiosity and learning, but also of trust. They know that they can come to me when they feel the need to know more about something. This lesson can never start too early in life.

Teaches that they are valuable and worthy of my time. Every time we tell a child (or an adult for that matter) that we cannot make time for them, we are telling them that whatever else we are doing is more important to us than they are. Now, that isn’t to say that we can or should drop everything every time our children ask for our attention.

They also need to learn to wait their turns and be patient. However, we should also prioritize our use of time. How often are you putting your kids off? Are you putting them off for a tv show or something on Facebook that you could easily come back to later? Do what you can to find a stopping point, or let your children know that you will help them as soon as you are done, then remember to seek them out and answer their questions when they have your full and undivided attention.

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