Everytime there is a gathering or any situation where my kid is asked where her school is and what grade she's in already, I can hear her proudly say "I'm in grade 2 and I'm homeschooled. My Nanay is my teacher." By now, I am already used to getting several different reactions from them. And also getting asked several questions. One of those questions being "How do you get your kid to listen to you and sit tight during your lessons?" Some would be so daring to ask "Is she really learning something?"
Most parents worry that their kids tend to be so disinterested in learning. Some would judge that their kid may not be the intellectual type but that is simply not the case. I strongly believe that every child is born with the intellectual ability to understand and digest everything that the world, their environment, their parents teaches them. You can observe how babies know that the one holding them is their mother and would suddenly stop crying. A 1-year-old suddenly learns to walk, because you taught them, and they understood. A toddler understands the word "No" and either cries or obeys. Children are naturally born intellectual beings, capable of understanding what is good and what is evil. They are naturally curious and intrinsically thirsty for knowledge.
The question remains, how does it happen that there are children that seem to be so highly disinterested in learning while some show more effort in gaining knowledge. It all falls on the child's initial contact with learning. My daughter hated our lessons at some point when she was in kindergarten. She felt too stressed out because of the materials that the homeschooling provider gave us was a bit too much for her. We were given textbooks that she needed to read through, answer, and then would have to be graded.
When I learned about the Charlotte Mason Method, I learned that education is not just about studying, answering exams, and getting good grades. I learned that a child needs to have a healthy, positive relationship with books - not just any books, but the best that we could find for them. They are imaginative and adventurous, it is only fitting that the books we introduce to them are those that inspire them to read more and more. When one is inspired, adult or child, they will continue to thirst for more knowledge. There is very little chance that the kid gets disinterested if they are inspired. That's one of the things that I established for my kid as early as 3 years old. We may have been derailed during our kindergarten year, her love for reading - and listening to rich and beautiful literature did not dwindle.
Now, I mentioned before that every kid is born a person and that they are not born good or bad, but with the possibilities for good and evil. This is one of Charlotte Mason's philosophy of education. Even if you did do a great job with establishing the love for reading, there is still the possibility of stunting a kid's love for learning.
I was reading up on Volume 6 of Charlotte Mason's Homeschool series: Towards a Philosophy of Education. I learned that there are 2 things that could reduce a child's enthusiasm for learning.
The more the teacher talks the lesser the student listens.
Have you ever been in a class where the teacher does all the talking and never lets any student speak at all? I'd say that's most of my classes growing up. Then do you remember having that teacher who holds a deck of cards on their hands, those cards contain your names and they would pull out one card and whoever's name gets called needs to say something - recite, recall, review, or talk about anything about the topic at hand? Do you remember how thrilling those classes are?
There's a reason why narration proved to be the best tool for our homeschooling journey. In this homeschooling style, I am merely a presenter of the good books and literature. Once I'm done reading the story to her, she would then do all the talking. First she's going to narrate back what she remembers about the story, then, she would tell me what she thinks about it, every now and then, there will be tears and anger, or sadness, depending on the story we read. (She was pretty upset when she learned about what Juan Luna did to his wife.) I would throw in some leading questions should she stray away from our topic (I got a highly talkative kid) but mostly, in the entire 20 minute per lesson, she takes a huge chunk of that.
Of course, I have rules when it comes to our lessons. First, she has to pay attention. Otherwise, she's going to miss out on the good details in the stories we read. Take note that I make sure that the stories we read everyday keep her interested. It pays to look for good literature for every subject. When she knows I am not going to repeat myself, she developed it in herself that she has to listen closely lest she's going to get lost in the story. And because she has developed that love and respect for the books, she gives me her full attention.
Monotony and Repetition Kills Progress
One of the reasons my little one got too tired when she was in her kindergarten was because of me. I made our schedules to be 2 hours a day, 1 subject per day. So Mondays, we will do Math, Tuesdays will be for English and so on and so forth. I did not understand back then that students need only 20 minutes of study time per subject. I also did not know that after a rigorous lesson, their next subject should be something a bit more relaxing. So for a whole year, our routine was too stressful for her. That repetitive, monotonic daily routine on her kindergarten year almost made me think that we were not going to survive homeschooling.
Children are not some robots that should be programmed and fed information again and again and expect them to memorize those data. This is one sure way of leading them into not loving learning. I am really thankful that I looked for another homeschooling provider and found Living Learning Homeschool. Those living books really saved our homeschooling lives.
I learned that continual progress is the law of intellectual life. As much as possible, every lesson, every session should be as short as it possibly could, but full of learning not from the thoughts of the teacher, but the understanding of the student. I learned that in homeschooling, the more the teacher works (with the visual aids, setting up activities, decorating the homeschool room) the less effective they become. Learning should come from within ourselves. That's one thing that has helped me through our 1st grade and has been a huge help on our 2nd grade. It's what has afforded us our long vacations, breaks, and relaxed homeschooling journey.
