by Mimi Rothschild
Experiential education is defined as purposefully engaging learners in an experience with focused reflection to increase knowledge and skills and to clarify values. Rather than hearing or reading about the experiences of others, experiential learning requires students to discover, research, and experiment with knowledge themselves. Experiential learning then asks students to reflect on their learning, thus developing new ways of thinking and heightened awareness of their world.
Several prominent figures have stated their views about the way experience impacts education. Some thoughts are as follows:
* “What one has not experienced, one will never understand in print.” – Isadora Duncan
* “Experience keeps a dear school, but fools will learn in no other.” – Benjamin Franklin
* The principle goal of education in the schools should be creating men and women who are capable of doing new things, not simply repeating what other generations have done; men and women who are creative, inventive and discoverers, who can be critical and verify, and not accept, everything they are offered. – Jean Piaget
* “All men who have turned out worth anything have had the chief hand in their own education.” – Sir Walter Scott
* “I have never let my schooling interfere with my education.” – Mark Twain
If such commanding leaders believe that education must be paired with life experiences, why doesn’t traditional schooling reflect these beliefs? Why do most schools still implement teachers as knowledge-givers and students as information-takers? Rather than teaching what someone else has accomplished, homeschooling families have the exciting advantage of using life experience so that homeschooled students accomplish something meaningful through their education.
John Dewey was one of the earliest promoters of learning through the experience of action and reflection. This type of learning never “caught on” in mainstream education because it differs drastically from traditional education. In traditional classrooms, teachers set knowledge before the students. They hope that students will connect this knowledge with other information they have learned and apply it in their lives. Despite many efforts to alter this type of teaching, studies have shown that most teaching, especially in high school, still involves the teacher providing knowledge and the student as a passive recipient of information.
Homeschooling can provide an escape from “typical schooling” and can help implement experiential education. Regardless of how experiential education is employed, its key idea involves students taking on new active roles that have real consequences. When students are active learners, their adventures often take them outside the classroom walls, which, ironically , makes available a world of learning opportunities. As our children’s teachers, we need to take advantage of these “secret” teaching locations.
Experiential education not only changes the role of the student, but also that of the teacher. Just as students must become active learners, so must the teachers. Teachers must experiment mutually with their students, evoke student reactions to the activities, and respond to those reactions. Because of the necessary closeness between teacher and student when experiencing education in this way, homeschooling families are in the best position to teach and learn through these progressive and effective methods.
Some suggested experiential learning activities are:
* write articles for a local newspaper
* complete a ropes course with your family
* act in the church play or sing in the church choir/band
* organize a service group with your friends
* interview others and write articles on their views
* renovate a homeless shelter
* take self-defense classes with your family
* set a budget and go shopping
* volunteer in a soup kitchen
* launch an environmental campaign
* write to a pen pal from another state or country
* collect money for a local children’s hospital
* plan and run a fundraiser for a charity
* set goals for and play Monopoly
* make beaded jewelry to sell to friends and family
* cook for a bake sale
* have a yard/garage sale
* shadow a professional while they work
* write to your local politician about an issue that concerns you
All of these activities require a variety of skills, from proper speech and language to sociological awareness to financial responsibilities to teamwork and problem solving. Experiential education strives not to isolate one skill set or topic, but to unite acquired skills into a cohesive blend of informative action. Because of this, experiential education can be much more successful than traditional education.
Homeschooling families have the means to take experiential education to a level not possible in the traditional school environment. We encourage you to take advantage of this and allow yourself and your child to learn in the most unsuspecting of places.
by Mimi Rothschild
Whether your child has been home schooled for all or most of his or her school career, or if you’ve just introduced home schooling recently, you’ll need some pointers and suggestions from time to time on how to keep learning interesting and fun for your teen. The key to making sure your son or daughter is retaining all the information necessary to be successful in home school is being attuned to the needs and interests of your child, and incorporating these things into effective lesson plans. Here are some suggestions that you may want to try with your teen to keep both of you motivated.
Customize your teen’s lesson plan
While it is necessary to maintain structure and order when teaching at home, it’s perfectly okay to incorporate your child’s learning style and academic interests into the daily lesson plan. Observe the ways that your son or daughter learn best, and try to include these methods into every subject possible. For example, if your child is more of a visual learner, charts and diagrams are best for teaching everything from Language Arts to Math. If your child learns best audibly, recording examples of proper sentence structure and writing styles, as well as scientific definitions and instructions for solving math problems will help your child to absorb the information. Very few children have just one method for learning, so try to include every way that your child retains information during instruction. Using visual, auditory, and even tactile learning methods on tests will also help your child remember material and make the best possible advancement in every subject.
Make the most of home school
Since you and your teen have more time to spend on schooling and the environment is much more personal and comfortable, use this to your advantage. Take as much time as is necessary to explain a new concept or definition to your child, and use as many hands-on examples as you can. You have the freedom to be a little more creative than a regular classroom would allow, so make sure that your child feels completely comfortable asking questions and thinking out loud. Also, make sure that your schedule meets the needs of you and your teen. If you’re not much of a morning person (or your son or daughter isn’t), starting school later in the day is perfectly fine. Or, if you want to finish school early so that you have most of the afternoon free, this is fine, too. You have the ability to help your child make the most of his or her education, and any thing you can do, big or small, can make home school a great experience for the both of you.
Ask your children what they need
It’s a good idea to have conferences every so often with your son or daughter to make sure that they are learning at the proper pace for their age and grade. These progress reports will also help you to see what needs to be improved in the curriculum. Be sure to be open-minded during these conferences with your child. Ask what you can do to make home school more effective and exciting. If your teen comes up with a creative idea for presenting a lesson plan, try it out to see if it will work, even if you’re a little skeptical. Being both parent and teacher can be difficult, but if you keep the lines of communication open with your teen, he or she will feel the comfort and attention that are hard to come by in a traditional classroom. And, you’ll create a unique bond with your teen that very few parents can claim. If your son or daughter tells you that a particular teaching method is no longer working, don’t get offended; get creative. Ask for suggestions on how you can improve as a teacher, and if need be, give tips on how your teen can strengthen their abilities as a student. Making sure that your teen feels that he or she is a part of the learning process will definitely keep your star pupil focused and motivated about learning.
by Mimi Rothschild
As a seasoned home school parent, you have undoubtedly enjoyed the benefits of helping to educate your children and watching them bloom and grow under your guidance. However, your children are beginning to grow older and you are experiencing increased difficulty in keeping your teenaged students motivated to learn. This process is becoming more and more frustrating and if you are new to the home schooling environment, it might just be enough to convince you to give up.
Take heart, you have selected a wonderful avenue for educating your children; you just need some help. Do not feel inadequate; just about every teacher in America has to find resources to keep students, especially teenage students, motivated.
Online Learning
While your curriculum is likely motivating and challenging, it is also your curriculum. Teenage students are…well…teenagers, and as they go through hormonal changes, they challenge and test their parents. Don’t take it personally when their attitudes or words are less than complimentary toward you. Teenagers need boundaries and limits; however, they also need a chance to learn how to motivate themselves, and you can help them do that. Rather than pushing them to use your curriculum and do a project within your expected time limits, consider several classes in an online learning environment or asking them to develop their own course of study if yours is not of interest to them.
In an online learning environment, the students are responsible for doing their coursework. Give them the primary responsibility of maintaining the online learning material. This will provide them an opportunity to increase their independence, and online tools will allow you to monitor your students’ progress without appearing nosey. You may be amazed at how your students will desire to excel at the hand of someone beside their current nemesis (you, The Parent). While your teaching may be no different or better than the online professor, your students will likely be more motivated because it is an authority outside of the one they are currently testing.
Rewards
Provide your teens with physical rewards, not material ones – for example, an outing, social gathering or event that they have expressed interest in or want to attend. Perhaps a membership or involvement in a club contingent upon continued success in an educational area relating to the club. Do not use food, television or material products for ongoing rewards; not only can this be a costly way to reward your children, it will give them unreasonable expectations for future achievement.
Another method for rewarding your teenagers is to have them pick a reward that they want (again, non-material). As your children work on projects, motivate them by offering a daily award for completed work. Give them something nominal, (a ticket, rock or coin) as they perform designated tasks. The items can be saved and spent as the children wish for the reward of their own choosing. Have a list of rewards available to choose from, like having an afternoon off of their choice or not having to clean their room for a weekend. This will teach your children to work consistently, the importance of saving, and the beauty of enjoying rewards for a job well done. Rather than pushing chores as a punishment, show them how hard work can make their lives easier by providing them with breaks from their usual tasks around the house.
However you choose to keep your students motivated, do not be inconsistent. The number one thing that teenagers get frustrated with parents for is inconsistency. Be sure that this is not a source of contention between you and your teenage students.
by Mimi Rothschild
Home schooling doesn’t have to be all work and no play. In fact, a departure from straight book learning is one of the fundamental principles in home schooling. There are a lot of fun recreational activities that you can give your kids to help them learn every subject imaginable. Not only will they build great memories of having fun in school with you, but they’ll remember what they learn as well because you are utilizing more senses than just visual (reading) or visual and aural (reading aloud while they follow along; videos). Computer programs take it a little bit further by engaging the tactile sense – they use their fingers to key in answers and move the cursor. But how fun is that?
Science
Science is the easiest subject to include fun and recreational projects. Teach plate tectonics and stratification with Milky Way candy bars. Let them see photosynthesis demonstrated by planting a garden outside and then potting a few plants under the kitchen sink. Gardens teach so many different things that no home school should be without them. Kids can learn the plant names, plant reproduction, nutrition, cooking and even values like patience as they wait for the plants to grow and produce fruit or the concept of giving and sharing by baking zucchini bread with their homemade zucchinis and giving them away to the neighbors.
Math
Teach infinity with grains of sand at the beach or by studying astronomy. Stars and math are embedded within each other and the first makes the second a bit more interesting. Estimation is fun when played by guessing the number of jelly beans in a jar and then using the candy to demonstrate exponents, basic arithmetic – though division and fractions might be better shown on a slightly larger treat.
English
Churn your own butter and learn hand sewing and paper making to make your own notebooks for other work as you go through the Little House on the Prairie series. Experiment with writing plays to enact exciting scenes from favorite books. Use poetry magnets to teach syntax and make your own letter and punctuation magnets to teach punctuation.
Social Studies
Learn other cultures by cooking their staple dishes, re-creating a few of the ancient clothes or jewelry they wore, or comparing customs. For example, compare ancient Christmas traditions between various countries and time periods.
Another idea is to keep up with current events. If there is a drive to build a new playground in the neighborhood, get involved. Start a little home school newsletter and send it to family and friends – even just a few issues by your child will teach her how much work is involved in keeping up with events in the house, reporting facts versus opinion, and deciding what is important to print and what is not.
Field Trips
When there’s a new play in your area, even if it’s done by a local high school, use it to study elements within it. West Side Story offers an opportunity to discuss race relations and prejudices, Puerto Rico, immigration and international relations.
When a new panda comes to the zoo or a baby lion is born, take your child to see it. Keep up with it in the paper as it grows and visit it occasionally, taking pictures to mark its progress. Study lions, where they’re from and their behaviors.
The changing exhibits at museums can help lead you into units as well. Recreate old relics with papier-mâché, dress up as famous historical figures that relate to the exhibit – anything that elucidates what you learn at the museum. Often times, the gift shop can give you ideas. Postcards from your exhibit will serve to memorialize the experience and also make great flash cards for learning.
by Mimi Rothschild
One of the main reasons families opt for home schooling their children involves religious grounds. Religion subjects are no longer part of public school curricula, and because of this, parents feel that they ought to be responsible for teaching their children not just the educational subjects that they need in the future, but religious doctrines as well.
They are right for doing so. A careful study of the Bible will point you to the conclusion that God indeed meant for children to be taught in the home by their father and mother. According to Proverbs 6:20, “My son, keep thy father’s commandment, and forsake not the law of thy mother.” He clearly meant that children ought to abide by their parents’ laws.
God himself placed authority on parents, and not on any other person or institution. Proverbs 29:17 says, “Correct thy son, and he shall give thee rest; yea, he shall give delight unto thy soul.” This means that if you bring up your child with your teachings, through God’s guidance, you, your child, and society, will find satisfaction.
Because of this, as Christian parents, we ought not to turn our responsibility over to others. It is not the responsibility of the government, or the church, to raise your children and teach them how to live in this world. It is our responsibility, and we ought to take it seriously and not allow other external factors to affect our children.
When God gave us this responsibility, He also expects us to be responsible for our actions. One good example of this is the story of Eli. 1 Samuel 2:22 states, “Now Eli was very old, and heard all that his sons did unto all Israel; and how they lay with the women that assembled at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation.” When Eli learned of this, he consequently told his sons to stop their wicked acts, but they did not listen. Eli was then punished by God, because it fell on Eli’s shoulders to discipline his sons.
Likewise, it is our responsible to take account for our actions. If we send our children to a public school, where they will learn things that we never meant for them to learn, we ought to own up to our actions. After, all, we were the ones who put them there. Another inevitable part of public education is that at some point, you and the teacher will one day contradict each other, and this will cause confusion for your children. To avoid this, it is best to educate your child in the home.
Home schooling will also help “separate” our children from the worldly society. This is not to say that we ought to stop our children from having friends. This just means that we ought to know who our children associate with, and to keep them from people that might influence them negatively.
These are only some of the scriptural reasons that we, as parents and Christians ought to keep in mind when thinking of educating our children. It is responsibility to teach our children, and we should not reject this responsibility.