Raising an autodidact (on purpose)

I’m remembering now how this goes, this feeding the rabbit trails for the younger set. It’s been a while, but I’m getting back into the swing. Jemmy is currently fascinated with volcanoes. You know what that means: time to break out the baking soda and vinegar.

The older kids are easier, I’m not going to lie. These are the steps for satisfying the curiosity of a middle schooler/high schooler:
1. Something gets mentioned. Recent example: “Did you know that the Smithsonian has the body of a man that turned to SOAP?!?” I overhear and say, “Saponification. Interesting phenomenon.” Older kids look at me askance, ask me to repeat the phrase, then request permission to google. I oblige.
2. Googling begins. Articles are read. Chemical formulas are charted. Condition requirements are investigated. A murder mystery from the 1940s is discussed. This goes on for an hour or more.
3. A new, previously unknown topic is discovered. The children abandon saponification with the promise that they will try their hands at soapmaking sometime soon, but will avoid lakes and human bodies.

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Do you see how relatively limited my input is into these little educational meanderings? Something completely random (spurred on by a guidebook on DC that I brought home in preparation for our trip in a few weeks) is throw out. I pop in with just enough information to fuel the fire. Autodidacticism–the act of owning one’s own education– kicks in and … we’re off!

It was always a goal of our homeschooling for our children to grab the reins of their own awe and wonder and have the skills to hunt down the burning questions that result from a natural curiosity in the way the world works. We’ve always encouraged active learning, preferring experimentation over film clips, drawing over watching, researching over simply taking other’s conclusions on as our own. The result of this style of learning has been kids who can not only handle locating resources and digging up information, but are also not quite content to encounter a new term or idea without stopping to ask the vital questions of “Who? What? When? Where? Why? How?” They are, for the most part, problem solvers. Thinkers. People who are not merely consumers of knowledge, but seekers of wisdom.

With the long pause between learners in our family, it is sometimes easy to look at the fruit we see in the olders and forget that this was a purposeful directing on our behalf, not merely a by-product of having books around or being homeschooled. We fanned those flames, I remember.

Now we get to do it again.

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But how? What was the process in the beginning? What did we do, specifically, to guide our kids away from the popular pastime of couch warming, both physically and mentally? How did we make “I’m bored,” a verboten term in our house?

Thankfully, John Mark is on duty to make sure that I don’t fall down on the job. Armed with enough curiosity for 10 six year-old boys, this little man is ready, at all times, to dig beneath the surface of everything and anything. And so, as I sit here pondering how to squeak in a visit to Mt. St. Helens before we depart for Nepal (because, y’all, we live just a few hours from the site of one of the most amazing eruptions ever!), I share with you some of my tips for watering the seeds you want to see bearing fruit as official autodidacts (aka self-directed learners).

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1. Swing wide the gates. Your kids can’t have sufficient objects for their fascination if they’re constantly plugged into educational apps, teaching videos, or plain old entertainment. Wild Kratts is great (my littles love it, actually), but it’s no match for noticing a wasp’s nest in progress and monitoring the progress over a series of days. If it’s a season in your family’s life when screen-time is necessarily high (new baby, illness, etc.) then find other ways to get stuff that begs to be discovered in front of your kids’ eyes.
2. Listen. What your children talk about reveals where their hearts and minds are going. You’ll find plenty of things to put on their plate if you have an ear towards what they’re interested in. Pretend play, eye-catchers during neighborhood walks, even favorite styles of literature are all things that you can pick up on and use as fodder for a library run.
3. Ask questions. As they’re making connections (“The wind is blowing the leaves on the trees, and when I blow on my pinwheel, it moves, too!”) step in gently with questions, not necessarily answers. Lead children– even young ones– to draw their own conclusions and begin looking for the “why” on their own. Your quick explanation may just short circuit an amazing opportunity to follow a life’s passion.
4. Be prepared to be inconvenienced. Children at work in the business of learning are rarely tidy. After all, science is messy stuff. Be ready to have stacks of books littering every flat surface, a trail of art supplies snaking on your dining room table, and ears that ring from a constant barrage of questions. Know, too, that genius never sleeps. Sometimes that means being available, literally, after bedtime, when a 6 year-old spots his first shooting star through a window left open to the nighttime air. Other times it means guiding curious mental meanderings when you’d rather be quietly sipping your tea and knitting.
4. Resources, resources, resources. In a way, the easiest part is gathering up the tools that will bring a child’s interests to life. Books, field trips, activities– anything that lends itself to discovery and meets your family’s personal criteria is a possibility. Hit your library’s website, ask friends, consult idea books, and scour pinterest. You never know what you might unearth!

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5. Know when and how much. Ah, this is the trick, isn’t it? Here’s my rule: always leave them wanting more. In my book, total saturation of resources is overwhelming and, in many cases, too repetitive. A bird-loving 1st grader has already got a solid handle on the difference between raptors and songbirds. Another book comparing beaks and claws is going to fall flat. But what about desert birds? Or the nuances of blue and red footed boobys? It’s a bit of an art, but with some careful monitoring, you can keep things fresh and exciting, even when things go beyond a mere flash-in-the-pan interest and bleed over into obsession territory. Which brings us to …
6. Obsessions can be good things. (They lead to other things, eventually– I promise!) Mary Hannah was in second grade when she first heard the story of the Titanic. I hade no idea what it was that appealed to her so strongly, but I saw an opening, and used it to provide her with all kinds of materials on that moment in history, ship building, navigating, social classes, oceans, water safety, you name it. When the urgency to know more, more, more didn’t die, I knew we had a passion on our hands. Over the years, she has built models, watched films, read more books than I can count (including some really dull, really dry, really boring nautical accounts). She can tell you names, dates, temperatures, and details that are beyond the pale. While her Titanic t-shirts no longer fit, her house key is still hanging on her Titanic key ring … and her “pick” for a destination of choice during our trip east was the Titanic Museum in Pigeon Forge. But I’d still say she turned out “normal.” Your dinosaur-obsessed preschooler will, too.
7. Keep it varied. If you have a child who leans exclusively in one direction (computers!), try to occasionally shake things up a touch by introducing a topic for consideration that might be outside his or her normal comfort zone. While a kid who likes his four-legged friends to only exist inside a gaming console might be reluctant to know more about animals, maybe a different slant (“world’s most bizarre animals”) would get him going. You just never know. And you won’t … unless you try.
8. Let them own it. Yes, even as littles. Remember, this is not about telling. Frankly, it’s not about you at all. Let your child make the discoveries, dig for answers, and generally get excited about learning new stuff. The amazing thing about learning is that once you know a little, you want to know more. Give your children the room to live out that truth, and watch them grow into self-directed, curious individuals pursuing wisdom with joy.

 

14 thoughts on “Raising an autodidact (on purpose)

  1. Thanks for sharing this! I have two curious little guys, and the older one is especially insatiable in his quest for knowledge. I definitely want to nurture this in my boys, but I do struggle to be flexible and “go with the flow” sometimes. These are good tips and reminders on coming alongside their learning processes!
    I do find myself weary sometimes with the incessant flow of questions. Do you have any thoughts or wisdom on that aspect? Maybe just need to keep on praying for more grace and patience in the times that the sheer volume of questions and project ideas and such feels overwhelming! :)

    • You know, I used to grow weary of the “WHY?” barrage as well. I think I got a little more perspective when Phineas did not hit that stage, and I became so engaged in trying to get him curious about things that would expand his world. Now I have a little easier time stepping back and remembering that his is healthy and good. That being said, one of my favorite things to do is to turn the question around on the child. Not in a snarky way– just in a “Hmmmm…. what do you think?” or “What does that remind you of?” or “Where have you seen that before?” or “If you didn’t have me to ask, how would you find out?”

      As for projects, well … it just goes with the territory I think. My husband’s grandfather once told me, in reference to one of my busy little boys, “Heaven help you if you ever let him get bored.” He was so, so right! Better a busy brain than hands looking for trouble!

  2. Thank you for this post! I am trying to help my youngest follow her own educational path. So far it’s going well, but homeschool moms worry over the details more than others, as I know you understand. I can always do more!

    I have a very curious almost-5 year old. She’s pretty good with numbers. Can you give me a more concrete list of materials you use? My older kids were being schooled by her age, so I’m not as tuned in as I should be. Do you include workbooks?

    Sorry for the detailed questions. I appreciate any suggestions you can give!

    • I did a post that ended with a short list of math resources here. But I am actually working on a list of faves for this age group that goes beyond math. I’ll stick that in my FAQ files. :-)

      • Thanks! I’ll appreciate seeing that. I actually read the math link when you originally posted it, but found the additional links confusing. Now that I can look at them on a computer, though, it’s much easier. :)

  3. Excellent information! Great to know other people feel the same way. I especially agree with you on the no tech so they can explore notion!

  4. Thank you so much for posting in the Geeky Educational Link Up. This is a great post. I wish more parents would purposefully include Science into their lives. In a culture so set on Me Time I love that you focus on being inconvenienced to grow your child.

  5. Great post! Thanks for sharing. I have a question: My boys are 6 and 4 and they are obsessed with Lego and Star Wars. They spend all their free time (and I make sure they have plenty of it) building and pretend playing with their Lego. They are allowed 1 hour of media time per day which they like using for playing Wii with their siblings and dad or watching Star Wars. They don’t seem to ask a lot of questions about anything in subjects such as science, history etc. We read a lot of books together, but they’re mainly classic fictional picture books/chapter books. Do you have any suggestions on how to get them “wondering”/asking questions outloud?

    • Legos and Star Wars are actually huge paths to all kinds of learning! Do you know about CurrClick’s Lego Club? It’s free! There are also First Lego League clubs (my boys LOVED this) for url interactions and learning. And there are a zillion learning ideas centered on Lego. Here’s just a sampling that I’ve pinned. There are books (affiliate links coming up)(The Lego Idea Book), kits (Lego Education Simple Machines) … it’s crazy what you can do with Lego!

      Star Wars brings you to aviation, space, physics concepts, linguistics, Bible allegories, climates, weaponry, governments … just start asking THEM questions and see where they go. Then be prepared to follow a rabbit trail wherever it leads.

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