Ask Your Kids: Planning Your Homeschool Content Around Your Kids’ Interests
How do I get my kids excited about learning? The answer is simple…Ask them what they want to learn!
So many parents and teachers say that their students have lost their love of learning. One question you can ask yourself is, “Do I give my kids the content and the time to learn and pursue what interests them?” Since every child is born with purpose, passions, and callings - why not listen to them in what they want to study?
There’s a spectrum for choosing homeschool content of course. At one end, there is content that you feel convicted to teach your kids, that is good for their brain, the non-negotiable content, that many times may include things your kids do not want to learn nor care about. Then, at the other end of the spectrum, sometimes, there are the things your kids are super interested in and passionate about learning that fall outside your core curriculum. Ask yourself, where do you fall on that spectrum when choosing your homeschool content?
We all fall at different points on this spectrum of what to teach our kids. Some strongly prefer one end or the other on this spectrum. Others, like myself, want to lean towards one end, teaching a mixture, basically a hybrid. It’s a hybrid of the “non-negotiable content that may not interest your kids” and the “pursue your kids’ interests outside the average traditional scope and sequence” content. So, if you do want to include your child’s interests in their school day, ask your kids what they want to learn. Then, build the lesson(s) with intent, purpose, and pride.
Every year I ask my kids what they want to learn - and that’s why we’ve studied trains, Mandarin, Disneyland history, sea animals, and more. That’s why I super promote theme days - it’s what they want to learn - but I add in activities and books to make it more robust, growing their knowledge and exposure to the exact topic/theme they requested! I simply asked them to tell me, but especially to write down, what they wanted to learn, and I weaved it into our homeschool days. You can order books, use the library, experience the activity, enroll in a class, watch YouTubes or documentaries about it, and etc. - it’s that easy.
“We can best help children learn, not by deciding what we think they should learn and thinking of ingenious ways to teach it to them, but by making the world, as far as we can, accessible to them, paying serious attention to what they do, answering their questions -- if they have any -- and helping them explore the things they are most interested in.”
John Holt
One of our favorite homeschool authors and educators, John Holt, talks a lot about that in his books if you want to explore that further - but for now, we do have a questionnaire available here for you to utilize.
I introduced the Interests Questionnaire to them with the introduction, “I want you to love what you are learning this year and give you time to pursue your interests. This little packet is a way for me to know what you would like to learn, where you’d like to go, and what classes and activities you would like to do. If there are questions or topics that do not interest you at all, leave it blank. You only need to answer what interests you. If you’d like me to plan in some of your interests into this school year, please complete this packet.” My kids’ eyes settled on mine with knowing and thankfulness when I said this. We’ve done this before, but never with a six page packet! My eight-year-old took about 10 minutes to complete it, and my ten-year-old took about 30 minutes, since he wanted to be really thoughtful about it.
What I like about this type of questionnaire is that it has the open ended, non-leading questions and space to write whatever they want. Then, it offers categories for them to write more - categories they may not have thought of like cultures, careers, and monuments; categories that they may have an interest in, but hadn’t even considered it as being something we could spend time on and include in their home education. My daughter just said the other day, “I didn’t know Universal Yums was for school time! I didn’t know to write it down on the packet - I thought it was just for fun! Please can we do it again this year?” Also, since us homeschool parents also need feedback, there is a small section to give us some encouragement, as well as areas we could improve.
It was a fulfilling experience to go through this exercise for a number of reasons.
It is super helpful to me to have this information all in one place
It filled my own cup to know I fulfilled my mission of listening to their voice
It filled my child’s cup to feel heard and cared about
My son and I shared a precious cuddling experience going through each of his answers together, which he was super excited to share with me.
I have to say, I think I will keep these questionnaires in my keepsake box. Although it’s not an About Me book, it actually kind-of is. And, my ultimate joy: for the open-ended question, “This year, I want to learn:” my ten-year-old son wrote, “I want to learn to be thankful, to be kind, and to love God.”
