Kyla doubled the recipe to make two loaves.

Every home school family I know wants to develop a love of learning in their children. This of course does not mean hitting the books 24/7, but rather giving your child the tools and desire to continuously learn something new. How? Well I want to focus on one way to achieve this goal: learning with a purpose.

Have you ever wondered why someone is so productive when he/she has a deadline? My mom for example is a watercolor artist. She never paints like she paints when she has a big show coming up or when a gallery is showcasing her work. She is a whirlwind of creativity uninhibited by self-doubt or anything else that she uses as an excuse to not paint. My mom’s art suddenly has a reason for being created; therefore, she paints and creates.

In the same way, a daily writing assignment for my children can become tiresome to them. They do not put their heart and soul into it. Instead, my kids do the bare minimum. However if I tell them that PawPaw’s blog needs an article, suddenly their interest is sparked. The gears in their brain start turning and within 10-15 minutes they are handing me a well-written article with a smile on their face.

Another idea is to have your children write and send letters. Kyla, my daughter, is the queen of correspondence. She asks for stationary all the time and has collected a good amount that she keeps in her room. Kyla also keeps an address book. She writes to her ex-harp teacher, cousins, aunts, and friends. Sending the cards and letters gives her writing a purpose.

How many times have we heard, “When am I ever going to need math?” As the teacher and parent, I believe that it is our responsibility to find ways during the day that give math a purpose.  Your children need to figure out a real-life math problem for you. Cooking is a very easy way to achieve this.  He/she can do fractions, multiplication, etc. as you cook together. It is better if you act like you don’t know the answer and are depending on him/her to solve your problem than just quizzing his/her ability.

When Hurricane Ike hit last September, our house suffered damage. We are still in the process of replacing the flooring in many of our rooms because of water damage. My oldest son, Clayton, who was working on perimeter, area, surface area in math had to figure out how much tile we needed to replace our floors. This was complicated because of the shape of the rooms, but he did it. He set out with a tape measure, a piece of paper, and a pencil. He did not complain. He had a purpose. We needed him. Then this past Christmas my husband and I decided to repaint and decorate our children’s rooms. Clayton had to figure out how many gallons of paint we needed to buy for his bedroom.

Not everything needs an immediate purpose like the above examples. My children are learning Spanish using Rosetta Stone. I used to teach Spanish in the public school system so I am able to speak the language myself. We speak Spanish to one another at times, but not as much as I would like. However, we have a purpose for learning the language. We want to one day do missionary work in a Spanish-speaking country. I learned Spanish with the same purpose. I went to Mexico three times as a missionary when I was in high school. Needless to say I actually learned the language and did not just do the work required to pass the class.

So if you are teaching your children or want to learn something yourself, I recommend finding a purpose. One that matters. One that gives meaning to what you are learning.

If you are interested, you can check out my seven-year old Jake’s latest article on www.beefmaster-ranch.com/wordpress. It is entitled “Where is your Horse’s Love Spot?”

Tags: Homeschooling, love of learning

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 25th, 2009 at 2:04 pm and is filed under Homeschooling. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.