Skip to main content

Teaching Creatively Through Delight-Directed Homeschooling


I am not the most creative person there is. As a homeschooling mom this fact has been my pet-peeve, as I often associated being a good homeschooling mom as being able to be innovative in the way I teach. To some degree, I still feel that way but I have come to terms to the kind of person I am and try to make the most of it.

I like to think that homeschooling is not so much "doing school at home" (though that is what I tell the boys), but "home educating". What is the difference you might ask? Well, when I think of school I think rigidity, mold and pattern. When I think homeschooling I think flexibility, innovation, out of the box.

That is not to say that there are no constraints to homeschooling, because there surely are if you want your kids to be truly educated. They have to know how to read, write, count, do algebra, have a good vocabulary, know science, history, geography and if possible foreign languages, but all of this gets to be taught in a familiar, safe and inviting environment. The idea of teaching creatively is really the idea of finding ways that best suit your students and allow them to grow and learn in a non-threatening environment and in a context where they can go beyond and to the fullest of their abilities and interest.

The first aspect of teaching creatively we would like to look at this week, as part of the quarterly TOS Crew blog hop, is the idea of delight-directed learning. 

First off what do we mean by delight-directed learning? 

One thing it does not mean is every study as being fun learning. Delight here does not necessarily equate fun. What we are talking about here is learning where the child is led, encouraged and assisted in the pursue of  his interests. Delight here means taking pleasure and enjoyment, being enrapture in the study of something. This is one of the top reasons why I Homeschool. My eldest from a young age tended to have strong interests and I would try to feed them to the best I could.  I saw in homeschooling the chance and flexibility to do that better than being in school where most of your time is taken doing what the school board says you need to do and learn. With homeschooling one can really dig to the fullest into topics that fascinate or intrigue him. This is such a blessing!

 How? Here are a few ways:

  • You go on field trips to explore those interest as much as you'd like.
  • You can read all day about it. I have this thing where anytime the boys seem to be interested in something, I go and get as many books as I can on the topic from the library. I believe that is why they learned how to read early and on their own. I must have read all the books on trains and then on trucks and emergency vehicles that were in our library when they were young.
  • You can do projects on the topics where you can even include others school subjects like math, history, science, vocabulary etc.. These are known as unit studies.
  • Allow for free time for exploration and creativity.
Delight-directed homescholing can take as many forms as there are students and teachers, but the main goal and tenet would be making sure it takes advantage of the child's interests in some form.

Zach for example is a history fanatic. He reads history encyclopedias for fun. He spends lots of time imagining historical events both factual and fictional (he is the boy so lots of it is battle related). More recently, my son, who does not like writing has been writing essays on history. He has been acting as president and come up with bills to approved and veto himself.


In the case of my youngest he loves chess and last year spent a lot of time reading books on it and developing his critical thinking through chess games.

Delight-directed homeschooling does not mean that is all you do, but homeschooling gives you the chance and freedom to determine time for such enterprise. We run a relaxed/classical type  homeschool in our home, which means that there are things that MUST be done, but the boys also get lots of time to explore what they like and be creative.

To conclude, I would say the reason why I believe it is so important to allow for delight - directed learning is because it develops, fosters and encourages a love of learning in a more meaningful way that no other method does, and THAT is the goal of education.
"A delight-directed study is like a wonderful fire in the mind of a student. It starts small, but as it grows, it begins to consume vast amounts of information until it bursts into a roaring blaze of insight, understanding and creativity. It takes on a life of its own."     From The Christian Home School by Gregg Harris:  
 
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Reformation Day Giveaway

We are approaching October 31, which is an important date for all protestants. This date commemorates Martin Luther’s nailing of his ninety-five theses to a church door on October 31, 1517 in Wittenburg, Germany, which in turn provoked a debate that resulted in what we now call the Protestant Reformation. As the “Father of the Reformation”, Martin Luther is a vital figure in Church History. His sacrifice and willingness to wage battle against the spiritual, religious, and political powers of his medieval world allowed Christians throughout time to embrace the following truths: salvation by grace alone , through faith alone,  and in Christ alone, along with the supremacy of Scripture, referred to as  Scripture alone, and all of it for God's Glory Alone. These being commonly called the Five Solas of the Reformation.  Danika Cooley, author and creator of the Bible curriculum Bible Road Trip ,  has recently written a book for young people recounting Luther's sto...
4 comments
Read more

Our Current Homeschool Routine - Virtual Homeschool Fair - Week 2

For week 2 of the Virtual Homeschool Fair, which is hosted by Homeschooling Hearts and Minds , we are talking method of homeschooling. When it comes to the how of homeschooling, and the method that we all follow, with the 20 plus blogger participating I can guarantee you, no method will be the same. Homeschooling is a lifestyle and a path unto a goal or toward a direction that each family sets for itself. For us, this encompasses academic rigor, as well as Christian values and depth of understanding of how to live in this world as Christians. To that end, earlier on we had settled on a classical education. 10 years into it, I cannot say we have been very good classical homeshooler. We did not follow the method and philosophy to a T but instead adapted it to our family's routine and rhythm. We became more relaxed classical homeschooler. I had good intentions with the Latin and Greek, but not enough discipline and it did not appeal to the boys; my oldest son did two years, the...
5 comments
Read more

When Lightning Struck - A Book review

Are you studying the Reformation? Do you love Historical Fictions? Do you love reading about the heros of the faith? Then read on... As a homeschooler I always encourage my fellow homeschoolers to include Historical fictions in their study of History as it helps students really enter the time period that they are studying and get a better picture of how people lived and what they felt. I recently had the privilege of reading a historical fiction titled When Lightning Struck: The Story of Martin Luther . If you have never heard of Martin Luther or read anything about him, you are missing out and here is your chance to learn who he was and what he did in an enjoyable way. When Lightning Struck is written for Middle and High schooler, but I could not put it down. If you love reading you will devourer this book. It would also work really well as a read-aloud for upper-elementary kids. It contains 23 chapters of average length that will keep you wanting to know more. When Lightni...
1 comment
Read more