This is something I discovered in the process of teaching my own kids. We’ve been homeschooling for 37 years now. When I started, I , like most people purchased a curriculum and stuck by it. I just assumed that what the government schools taught was what everybody needed to know and that they taught those things when kids were developmentally ready to learn that information. I stuck doggedly by the books for the first few years, seeing that my kids finished every problem, completed every exercise just as it was written.
As time progressed, however, I realized that not all my children learned the same way. As a matter of fact, some learned VERY differently than their siblings had learned; techniques I’d used to teach many just didn’t work for all of them. I had to dare to think that perhaps there wasn’t one BEST way to teach all kids.
I remember one of the greatest joys was watching my kids develop an interest in certain areas. I came to watch them, study them,- their interests, their strengths, their weaknesses, what motivated them, what discouraged them, what made their eyes sparkle- and I took great delight in then supplying them with books, materials, supplies, so that they could pursue what interested them. I absolutely LOVED being the facilitator who carefully observed my children and then looked for “tools, books, etc”, to turn them loose on. I loved watching them become the person God had created them to be.
Continue reading Discover Your Child’s Passions