If you’ve read any of the posts on this blog about homeschooling or unschooling, you’ve probably noticed they usually revolve around or were inspired by a book. I’ve been asked why this is a few times lately and thought I would share the reason.
Reading is important, like, really important. There is so much research surrounding how important it is, especially out loud to your children that I can’t possibly share just one…or a few here, here, and here. But seriously, there are so many studies to back this up.
It makes reading that much more fun. By embracing the little interests we come across in a book, we learn such a variety of things and really look forward to the next. The first post I shared about homeschooling was about one of T’s favourite books, “The Three Little Pigs” and how we turned it into a whole lesson on architecture and later biology. All because his interest in construction was sparked due to some book where three pigs built houses out of straw, sticks, and bricks.
We learn how to learn. That seems like a weird sentence right? With my desire to learn everything (haha) I’ve had a few different titles and I find too often that people don’t know how to do research. Even scarier, too many don’t know how to do proper research and tell facts from falsehoods. But finding topics in our books, we start discovering how to learn more and how to determine what factual sources are.
When T saw something about the Silver Age in one of his superhero books, it sparked so many questions. Instead of just telling him what I knew (I had actually taken a really fascinating college class on it) we went to the library and searched for information. When he read something about pyramids, oh my goodness, all the information we found and read. And one of the best things, when a child is passionate about a topic, they often want to share. Hello essays and papers–but not forced boring ones, ones that come from joy and enthusiasm.
As Maria Montessori has said, “What the hand does, the mind remembers,” which studies have backed, a few here and here. Children who have had hands-on learning in subjects, like math, do better in those subjects later. They have a better understanding of the fundamentals. So when we read about something in a book and then go out and create activists (like when T built the three little pigs’ houses), crafts, or look for more information surrounding that subject, that’s exactly what we are doing–taking a hands-on approach. Books are often the source that encourages us.
And that sums it up😄
Do you find yourself unschooling more than homeschooling due to a love for books?
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