Children are Natural Learners

By Ina Woolcott

Myth - To those ignorant of what home schooling is really about, the term homeschooling frequently equals = kids spending all of their time at home, learning the same way they would in a public school.

Fact -Truth is there are many methods of homeschooling and in the majority of homeschooling-homes the learning process is the total opposite of that in a public school. The foundation of successful homeschooling is trust, trusting the child to be ready to learn a new subject and also what they like learning, what they thrive on. Trusting them to be able to learn. This may sound strange to some, but in the early years of your child’s life you don’t doubt that your child will ever be able to walk, talk, eat unaided, to learn new and difficult things ALL THE TIME without much assistance from anyone. From the beginning you have an inherent trust in them that should never waver, that they will NATURALLY learn. You aren’t anxious that your child won’t be able to learn any of these things. People take it for granted that in time all babies will come to do all the things a baby learns along the way to maturing into a toddler and beyond, and on top of that be able to integrate into the world around them!

Children are naturally curious and are born with the wish to learn from first hand experience about their environment. They want to make sense of things, how they work, to become able to have control over themselves and their surroundings. They want to copy and do what they see others around them do. Children are open and like to experiment, they don’t like to just watch the world go by, to observe, but wish to participate, be a part of it. They don’t cut themselves off from the unfamiliar and seemingly complicated world that surrounds them but they use all their senses to learn from it and become a part of it - smell, touch, taste….

Children are patient, fearless and adventurous, not scared to make mistakes. They are able to endure a high amount of bewilderment and uncertainty. In a public school setting this soon gets suppressed. There comes a time (I remember feeling this way) that they are afraid to ask questions, they don’t want to seem like a ‘swot’. for some reason in school it is not that cool to get good grades. Of course there are exceptions but I wasn’t at school that long ago and I remember! If kids get a question wrong they also become afraid of being ridiculed. Or if the answer to a question seems obvious they may also be ridiculed. Children ARENT scared to say they don’t understand something and to make mistakes, they question things . Children who are homeschooled don’t ever have to feel embarrassed or put on the spot for asking questions, or of getting bad grades. They don’t get knocked back and feel stupid in front of a whole room of people. They therefore get to keep their openness for new investigations and discoveries.

CHILDREN LEARN BY ASKING QUESTIONS - NOT ANSWERING THEM!

Homeschooling parents often wonder who is learning more, them or the child? a lot of parents feel that what they seem to be learning the most about is the nature of learning itself!