Child-led learning....helping your children study something they are interested in or have a passion for!
It sounds like it would be something which would end with good results right, I mean, if a kid actually wants to do something, he is going do it well with enthusiasm and pleasure...surely!
Since home educating my own family, I have read home schooling articles and books here and there, and it has always resonated with me that if a child is interested, then he will benefit more as appose to finding something mind-numbingly dull and forgetting before the lesson is even over!
Having been raised in a society which accepts the public school arena as an entity which knows best, it can be difficult to break away from what is customarily accepted as the right way and instead opt for something a little more outlandish....like allowing a child to choose for himself what he wishes to study and trusting him in that!
Over the short 2 and a half years we have been home educating, I have always tried to provide my children with areas of study they are interested in, however, I have still maintained the control and decided what and how they should learn about their topic of interest.
However recently I have been looking more seriously at how children effectively learn and project based schooling or child-interest led education.
Now, I'm running a sort of semi-unschooling experiment, I've told the children they will produce a project of their own choosing and present it however they so desire. All I will do is facilitate them in finding the required information they decide they need and maybe give a few helping prods or nudges if they tell me they need it!
The only bit of "structure" I have given to this project, was asking them to produce a spider diagram of all their project ideas, topics they think they'd like to study, before selecting one and completing a project planner. The purpose of the project planner was to help get their own minds thinking about what they want to do.....to understand
Mum isn't going to decide for me, also to let me know what they think they will need so that I can make arrangements to get them what they require, such as books, visits, meetings with people in subject fields, material supplies etc.
I have to say, they are so excited Alhamdulillah, and have never seen them so eager to get on with something mashaAllah!
I tend to steer away from mentioning personal accounts on the blog, however I think there could be a benefit to vaguely sharing our experiences with this as we go with this project inshaAllah, so will update with our progress and experience of child-led learning!
Use the project planner to help you to facilitate your children's research needs by knowing what they want....this will probably change as they continue through their project, but this will help to get them (and you!) started!
Download for free inshaAllah HERE!
