This year Everyday Scholé is taking an in-depth practical
look at the eight essential principles of classical education. This month we
are focusing on wonder and curiosity. You can check out the previous posts in
this series as well: Charlotte Mason and Classical Combined, Slow and Steady inYour Homeschool, Multum non Multa Exhibited in a Charlotte Mason Homeschool,
and Practical Ways to Use Repetition to Memorize.
Very often I hear other homeschool moms make a
comment similar to this, “Well, we got off on a rabbit trail today and didn’t
finish our actual work. Now we’re behind and I feel like we wasted a day.” Even
if I don’t make a comment like this, I definitely think it! Anytime we stop to
pursue something that sparks our interest or imagination, my default train of
thought is failure. I’ve failed at accomplishment that day. I’ve dropped the
ball on learning. I’ve let the children get away with something I shouldn’t
have. After listening to Dr. Perrin’s talk about wonder and curiosity earlier
this month, I realized that sometimes what we call the rabbit trail is actually
the trail on which we’re meant to be.
Children are naturally born with an inquisitive
spirit and a sense of awe about the world. Unfortunately most of that is
drained or forced out of them in the typical school setting where time,
curriculum, and testing limitations rule the classroom. Too many times
homeschoolers follow this same trajectory of killing wonder and curiosity in
our children, not purposefully, but because we feel the pressure to keep up and
achieve.
However, as Dr. Perrin points out, the current
school system is not creating students in the true meaning of the word. The
original word is studium and means zeal,
diligent, striving, and eager. Those words are not ones I would use to describe
most children in school today. They do not seem zealous or eager to learn in
the least! Unfortunately many times our homeschools become more like the
traditional school system and wonder and curiosity are squeezed out of the way.
When a rabbit trail comes along suddenly in our
school day, it usually is because something has captured a child’s wonder or
their curiosity has been aroused about a particular bit of information. The
learning that follows as you wind among the trees of ideas, over the brook of
discovery, and step carefully along the path that other true students have trod
leads to a day where you have focused solely on reveling in true education. Don’t
do the disservice of dismissing these days as a waste or a loss. These are the
days that you have taught your children the value of a true education: that
following a path of wonder and curiosity is what true scholars, inventors,
authors, artists, and world shapers have done since the beginning of time.
Plan
for it. One of the best things I implemented this
school year is having free afternoons (on the days when we’re home in the
afternoons that is!). Once our official school time is over, around lunch or a
little after, the kids have a couple of hours to do nothing but pursue their
own interests and studies. Sometimes they continue with work we started before
lunch, or they get lost in library books we checked out that week or they
simply play. I have been guilty every year of over-scheduling our days, weeks,
and academics, and I wanted to purposefully create a time in our day for
exploration, wonder, and curiosity.
Strew
books, games, and movies. Every week when we go to the
library, I grab some books (usually non-fiction) and movies (usually documentaries)
that look interesting or are about something we’ve recently experienced or
seen. I keep all of these resources in an easily accessible cabinet in the
living room for the kids to enjoy during our afternoon time or any other time
they wish. For example, we recently went on a tour through a cave. The kids
were fascinated so even though we aren’t technically studying caves right now,
I checked out lots of books about caves, animals that live in caves, a
documentary about caves, and a travel video about Carlsbad Caverns.
Nature
study. So many times, nature study is dismissed even
by people who love it as an extra or something to get to if we find the time.
However, nature study is the original God-given source for wonder and curiosity
in not only children, but adults throughout time as well. Teaching your
children to be observers of nature and ask questions about nature is the
easiest and most hands-on way to feed their natural inquisitiveness. For the
past six months or so, I’ve made nature study an important part of our week and
a subject that each of my girls studies on their own a couple of times a week.
I’ve been amazed at how much science we’re actually learning through nothing
more than awakening wonder and curiosity about the natural world.
Of course, the best way to inspire your children
is to be someone who is curious and finds wonder in things as well. Once they
realize that learning is not a onetime endeavor, but a lifelong pursuit, they
will be more apt to hold onto what they already possess: a desire to know more
about everything.
Be sure and check out what Tonia and Sara have
to say about wonder and curiosity in education as well by clicking on the pictures below:
How do
you inspire wonder and curiosity in your homeschool?
Let me
know in the comments.
Chelli
