Trusting my Child

Part of my philosophy (and that of Mary Hood and Mary Griffith) is to trust your children to learn and discover on their own, without set curricula, strict schedules, classrooms or text books.  If your child is interested in a particular subject, he or she is more likely to retain what is learned.  Not to mention, it's more fun this way and easier on everyone involved.  You in turn, become more of a facilitator than a teacher or lecturer.  We've been testing the waters on this and it's been working for us!  Consider the following example:

One morning, I suggested that Jake check out one of the new, large map books that I had recently purchased at a garage sale (of course).  He opened to a map of North America.  He wasn't that into it, as you can probably tell from the pic below.  He was able to point out Georgia and Florida, but then, he turned and asked, "Mommy, where's Egypt?"

YES!  A spark!  (One little spark, can light your fancy.  Your mind sees more than what your eyes see.... Sorry, can't wait to go to Disney World in November!)

Anyway... great opportunity for learning, right?  I explained to Jacob that Egypt is on another continent and that we'd have to pull out the other map book.  Upon doing so, and turning to Africa, he lit up and wanted to hear more!

So we talked about Egypt and the continent of Africa and the other countries that you can find there.  Before I knew it, we had a "Stynx" sitting near our map of Africa and a very proud boy, pointing out where Egypt can be found on the map!

I had no lesson plan or course of action.  This is just the natural progression of what transpired when we pulled out a book.  Oh, and Jake's fascination with Egypt?  Well, his Grandma Shirley gave him a huge Egyptian Playmobil pyramid playset and a sphinx for Christmas and additional sets for his birthday.  He spent the rest of the day playing with them. And... VBS starts next week and the theme?  EGYPT!

Side Note - Try buying your kids some toys that don't light up, make noise, move on their own or have a screen.  Get some toys that will peak their curiosity, make them use the precious brains that God gave them and help their imagination take flight!  (Imagination... Imagination.. oops, there I go again.  Sorry.  Love Figment!)


Trusting my child, his natural curiosity and thirst for knowledge has been working for us so far... I'll keep ya posted!