Making learning fun

I love the philosophy of learning from life. That not all our learning need come from a dry old textbook. I think we can learn lots and lots of useful stuff and have fun doing it! That said I really enjoy homeschooling my children and I am striving to find ways to make them want to learn rather than having to push them to learn. For a large part that has been quite successful. (We do still have subjects that they don't prefer and I do still insist that they study them anyway but for the most part they do indeed love to learn.)

Here are a few things that have happened lately to make the kids want to learn.

1. Jonathan wanted to get a watch. I said that would be fine but we need to get a regular one (not digital) and he would need to learn how to tell time. He got a watch and within a couple of hours was an expert at telling time. In fact now we often get the time announced around here so I could probably stop wearing a watch if I wanted too. It was so nice to have him learn in that way rather than off the pages of some book.



2. Jonathan still struggles a bit with reading but there is nothing like the love of a little sister to motivate you to read. Megan wanted a story and Jonathan didn't feel like he could say no.

3. Have fun and educational books and games available. On Monday we got a couple of boxes of new books and games that we ordered. (Our school district allows $75 per school age child for educational material each year. These books are from that.) The kids were so thrilled to look through them. One thing we got was a book about our body that also had a little skeleton. The kids have found that to be very interesting and have learned a lot about how we are made. We also got a set of books called The Story of the World by Susan Wise Bauer. It is History (starting in ancient times) presented in a very readable format. I haven't read them yet but Mara has read over one and a half of those books. I also got some historical fiction which she has been enjoying. Another treasure we got was a CD with a story and music about Mozart. We also got a puzzle and game to help with geography. All of it the kids really enjoy and they LEARN. Below is a close up picture of most of what we got (Photography by Jonathan, he was having a blast lining everything up and taking pictures).

Another fun learning tool that Jonathan has been enjoying lately is Google Earth. He has been exploring the world on the computer. I thought especially fun was the tour of neat landmarks around the world. Jonathan enjoyed trying to go to the top of the Mountain behind Grandad and Nana's house.

Having kids that enjoy learning certainly works for me!