Making the Home a Place to Learn

The entire world is a beautiful mystery to my daughter, and she spends nearly every waking moment searching for clues to unlocking it. I love looking at the world through her eyes. We try to fill the house with resources for learning, and it's been impossible to push the brakes on her drive for knowledge. She already knows how to Google things she needs to learn. She'll then (with mom's ok) watch YouTube videos to figure things out. (This is, of course, very dangerous. Supervision and an open discussion policy must be in place... but that's another post.)Sometimes what I really need to do is get out of her way. For a week now, my daughter has been trying to complete a science project. Distracted and busy, I kept putting her off, stalling her work at different junctures. My favorite words to her now are "problem solve" and "be flexible." Once I gave her these tools to deal with bumps in the road, she was able to finish the last steps in the project without having me by her side every moment. The project was completed and submitted, and she was over the moon about her work (literally, as the topic was "the solar system").If you give them resources to learn from, they will learn, and sometimes, you'll need to move over so they can run at their pace instead of yours.A Few Resources for Learning:Stock the house with all kinds of books, setting aside a bookshelf just for the kids.Create a folder on the bookmarks bar with links to educational, parent-approved sites (esp. PBSKids).Subscribe to BrainPop or BrainPopJr (best decision we made this year, I feel, b/c she adores it).Fill the house with books, paper, markers, crayons, scissors, stickers, and boxes.Engage them in kitchen experiments (ex. play with water and food coloring, bake cookies).Buy toys that are interactive and keep their attention (for us, that's Lego Friends, Rainbow Loom, Candyland, a rubber ball, and a bicycle)Be there and play with them (parents are the most important resource!)Critical Skills for Learning:Problem solvingBeing flexibleAsking questionsAsking for helpUsing a variety of computer programsUsing the Internet wisely