Okay Teacher, Whatchya Gonna Teach?
School’s out for the year, and you are in charge of ensuring that your kid stays on track. Yikes! Which math chapter do I start with? What are the standards of learning for a second-grader? How do I test progress? Who’s going to tell me if I’m doing a good job?
Whoa, Nelly. Ease on back there.
As parents, what are we really hoping for our children? Functional and fulfilling lives, right? Math problems and spelling words are important, but so is knowing how to cook, crafting gifts for people in the neighborhood, and being able to manage a to-do list.
The visible exteriors of our functional and fulfilling lives are unique, but underlying them all is a common structure—the three Pillars: Learning, Service, and Integrity. Whether you have ever thought of it in those words or not, they are the foundation on which you have built your own success, and from them, your children will craft their own successful lives.
Today’s Topic: Learning
Our responsibility as parents is to teach our children how to learn, cultivating faith in their ability and a desire to do so.
Start by making sure your children have access to good resources. These can take many forms, from books and websites to teachers and coaches (online teachers are waiting to hear from you), and even physical objects like works of art or architecture. Got a question about something? Call up an expert! Email the author! You may just get a response from an esteemed mentor.
Perhaps most importantly, read to your kids! It’s the best way to connect and learn together.1 Many of us stop reading out loud to our children once they learn to read for themselves—this is a missed opportunity! Let books raise questions about how and why, then seek the answers together. And if your child is not yet reading, help him get there. We believe there is no better way to unlock a love of learning than to teach a child to read!2
Once you have the resources, check your learning environment. Is it quiet enough for focus? Stimulating enough to incite curiosity?
Demonstrate curiosity. Teach with humility. You do not have all the answers, and that is perfect! By letting your child see that you have some learning to do, as well, you can convey the right message—that life is a treasure hunt with untold wonders to explore. In this way, you can create a culture of learning in your family that will help your child lead a functional and fulfilling life in the years to come.
Worry about the math chapters and the tests in a little bit—they’re not going anywhere. We will have our list of recommended educational resources available in a few days. For now, dig into a really good book, bring out the workshop tools and teach how to hammer a nail, or measure out some flour to bake a batch of cookies. Learning happens in the littlest of events, as long as we pay attention to the lessons at hand.
Stay tuned for tomorrow’s lesson on Service….
Notes:
- Given our current predicament, I’m recommending to everyone Laura Ingalls Wilder’s The Long Winter. It offers old fashioned, and yet timely, ideas on how a family can stay cooped up a house together for months and still enjoy each other’s company.
- For early literacy, we recommend BOB Books by Bobby Lynn Maslen and Lynn Maslen Kertell, They are brilliantly organized, charmingly illustrated, and appropriate for the earliest reading students. It was through them that all three of our sons learned to read.
