When my kids were small, I looked forward to the day that all of their pressing questions would be answered, such as “Why is the sky blue”, and “Why do we have bugs”. We all know how tiring it is to have a hundred or more of such questions fired at you every day. The questions start around age 2 with “What’s that” and “What’s this”, and end sometime around the age of six, with of the last questions being “Where do babies come from.” I think they stop asking questions after this one because they know we aren’t exactly giving honest, truthful answers. Also, once children can read, most parents push them to dictionaries, encyclopedias and even the internet to answer their increasingly difficult questions.
With my youngest child being twelve, I had forgotten just how active and inquisitive children’s minds are. Spending this past week with my daughter in California has shown me that the questions have never stopped, she has just stopped asking them out loud. Spending this week alone with my 12 year old daughter in a strange place with little computer access most of the time has spurred a barrage of questions from her, all of which she expected me to answer immediately. I quickly found out that her mind is just as active as it was when she was three years old and would ask me questions until I collapsed at the end of the day in exhaustion.
This is a good thing. This is exactly what we want as homeschoolers. We want our children to continue to be as inquisitive as when they were as very small children. Our job as parents and teachers is to continue to provide experiences and activities that keep them curious and asking questions. We have to remember to vary their schedules and to not let their lives become too predictable. If we can keep their lives exciting, we can keep their minds inquisitive. As homeschoolers we are in a unique position that allows us to be creative with educational opportunities that will keep their minds active.
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Just Because It Does Not Look Like Education