Wonder, Awe, Insatiable Curiosity… When our kids are little they are swimming in these traits. They are mesmerized by a cricket hopping through the grass or a trail of ants. Their eyes light up when they understand something new or see something exciting. It is this sense of wonder and curiosity that propels a child to intensely focus on learning something when they would otherwise have the attention span of a fly flitting around.
Our role as homeschool parents is to cultivate this sense of wonder. We cultivate wonder when we recognize that education is more than merely skill acquisition. It is thinking deeply about interesting things. It is feeding the imagination. It is encountering a problem and then delighting in the journey towards finding a solution. We get to tantalize their senses as we give them time to explore. Time is a precious commodity and it is one that homeschool families have the flexibility to powerfully utilize.
For us, it means holding our lesson plans loosely and knowing when to allow them to follow down bunny trails. It means encouraging them to study something in depth instead of merely skimming the surface. It means we take care to provide interesting things for our children to explore. It means encouraging them to ask questions and then delight in seeking out the answers.
Cultivating this sense of wonder will pay life-long dividends. It can lead to children who want to understand completely, children who want to tackle new challenges, children who delve deep and ask hard questions. This kind of tenacious wonder pays dividends in college, in the workplace and just in every day living. Because the learning isn’t over when they graduate from high school or even college. No, learning is a life-long adventure!
Heather Haupt – As a homeschool graduate now in the trenches homeschooling her 4 children, Heather is passionate about being intentional, about cultivating relationship with the Lord and preparing to launch her children into whatever kingdom work God has for them! Learning is a grand adventure and a rich experience when we stop trying to replicate ‘school at home’ and embrace a home where we learn. Because of that, she likes to bring in a dialogue rich, literature heavy, hands-on element to all their learning adventures! She blogs at Cultivated Lives and is the author of The Ultimate Guide to Brain Breaks. You can connect with her on Google+, Facebook or Pinterest.
Adriana Zoder says
Congratulations for winning Best HS Methods Blog Award! 🙂
Sarah says
Thank you! And congrats to you on best blog design!
Barbie Poling says
I completely agree that it is wonder, awe, creativity and curiosity that drives true learning forward. However, I disagree with you that parents must continually “provide interesting things for our children to explore.” This idea causes parents to decide, or lean on someone else to decide, what is interesting and then attempt to cause their children to be interested in it.
In reality, what causes children to wonder and be curious comes from inside of them instead from outside of them. While one child may be filled with wonder at a caterpillar, another child will not. One child will be fascinated with boats and water while another will be similarly fascinated with music and dancing. It is God who instills in children what they will find wonderful and curious and interesting, and He does so in a completely individual way. Therefore, it’s the parents responsibility to discover what God put in the child to be interested in, and then to cooperate with that God in that God-inspired interest rather than deciding what is interesting, and tempting or pressing the child to be interested in it.
This activity of pressing or drawing children to be interested in things they are not currently interested in actually destroys the wonder, creativity, and curiosity that drives life-long learning forward, and produces bored children who’ve lost their ability to wonder.
~ Barbie Poling
Colene says
Barbie,
I think you misunderstood the author. She does not seem to be encouraging parents to “press” children into things they are not interested in. But we do need to expose to children to a variety of experiences and books. For instance we need to take children out into nature- parks, the zoo, botanical gardens, etc. so that they can discovery what they want to explore. And there should be a variety of books and topics that a child is exposed to so that they can choose. The awe does not happen in a vacuum.
Barbie Poling says
You are right Colene, the author did not present the idea of pressing children into interests.
I’m coming from the perspective of knowing many, many homeschooling parents who DO press their children to be interested in things they are not interested in, with the good intention of bringing their children an interesting education. The idea that education comes from outside of the child is way too common in our homeschooling culture, because it is the belief of the school system.
The author is suggesting that children will be able to keep this sense of wonder and curiosity and creativity, which I totally agree with. They can keep a life-long love of learning if certain conditions are at work in their lives.
Unfortunately, the majority of homeschooling parents who continue to bring just-like-school methods into their home can easily end up being concerned, confused, and discouraged when they realize their children no longer have wonder, awe, creativity and curiosity, but instead they see their teens and tweens lives filled with boredom and disinterest in anything but video games, social media, and hanging out with friends. They find their children are especially disinterested in the curriculum assignments they’re trying to provide for them.
I would really love to see homeschooling moms come to understand what causes this loss of wonder, awe and curiosity, so that they can be free from our culture’s ideas to lead their children to the restoration of their God-given interests and a life-long love of learning, and to provide the environment their children need in order to keep or restore the love of learning they had when they were young.
~ Barbie Poling
Heather Haupt says
Barbie,
You and I are passionate about many of the same things. This was a short article and it was impossible to tease out every facet of what it looks like. As a homeschool graduate, I’d have to disagree with your statement, however, that parents should NEVER provide interesting things for a child to explore. While I do agree that we need to be careful to not force things and that we shouldn’t try to replicate school at home, there is so much that a parent can do to set the tone in the home of exploring and learning about things. I would never have naturally been drawn to an interest in art history and how it intersects with worldview if my mom hadn’t had a passion for it. Her enthusiasm as she took us to museums and as we delved into interesting books piqued an interest that I probably wouldn’t have otherwise had. Many of my interests are unique to me, but others are a result of the family climate and what other’s in my family were interested in exploring.
But we are both in agreement on the importance of giving our children freedom to follow down bunny trails and explore things that they are interested in. A wise homeschool mama will recognize that God-given curiosity about specific things and feed that curiosity by providing them time to explore those areas of interest. I loved reading your feedback and your passion for pursuing out of the school box learning. There is certainly a need for that message to be proclaimed over and over again.
Barbie Poling says
Dear Heather,
I’ve typed and deleted multiple times, since I can’t seem to express my current thoughts without filling a sentence with double or triple negatives, so I’ll write my response in the positive.
I think parents should expose their children to interesting things, especially the interesting things the parents and siblings are also interested in, just like your mom did. I also do this with my children. I share with them my love of music and art and my passion for helping parents with their relationships with their children and with the Lord.
My initial response was only to point to the most important place to watch for what will interest our children, and that’s intently focusing on what is coming from inside them—what God put there. It’s true children can be inspired by something new, but not unless it is connecting with what God put in them in the first place. The connection of awe and wonder doesn’t come from the thing or the place, or from the parent, but from what God has put inside the child.
Just like when my oldest son at 12 was inspired by watching Veggie-Tales to desire to become a 3D animator, it appeared to be the Veggie-Tales that caused that interest, but in actuality, God put that computer/art/connection/desire in Him, and that’s why he connected with the Veggie-Tales 3D interest with such wonder, curiosity and awe. The rest of my children watched the same Veggie-Tales time and time again, and they were not similarly inspired. (He’s 20 now, and quite a computer genius and artist, and he uses his skills to great service for us in our ministry.)
I think moms should have lots of fun with their children and take them to all sorts of interesting places, building sweet memories together as a family. But most of all, moms need to be intently watching their children to know and understand them more and more and see what God put in them, so that they can cooperate with Him to encourage it all the more, and help their children focus on it all the more.
With lots of agreeing,
~ Barbie Poling