By Linda Dobson who owns and maintains the website Parent at the Helm, and is the author of many homeschool books. A great read!
We hear it constantly, first from educators and, more recently, from politicians who have latched on to education as a “hot button” issue: We need to get children ready to learn.
Some parents have discovered there’s nothing one can do about children learning. Sound defeatist?
Actually, the opposite is true. Learning is just something children do. All the time. Even when no one is teaching. Talk to these parents, and you’re sure to hear stories of six year-olds learning to read, seemingly by osmosis, and 12 year-olds who never even glanced at a textbook who are ready for college math.
Learning Through Life Instead of Textbooks
Look at Jacob Powell who spent his formative years in northeast Michigan as a very young businessman. He started with a paper route and moved up to door-to-door greeting card sales. Then, as a teen, he began a home-based mail-order business, learning what he needed to know as he went along. “I knew Jacob was continually learning about numbers even though we never followed any math curriculum. When he decided he wanted to go to college,” says his mom, Lynn, “he picked up a couple of math texts from the local college bookstore, studied for a few months before taking the SAT, and scored well enough to head off to the college of his choice. “It’s amazing what kids can do when we give them a chance.”
Lillian Jones’ son was seven years-old when he was very sick and home from school. “For days he looked like he was bored stiff lying in front of the television and a public television science program,” she says, “but when he felt better he greeted his dad at the door and told him all about the wonders of atoms! I didn’t think he was even watching or listening.”
Books by Linda Dobson -
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