A few weeks ago, my husband bought me these gorgeous tulips for Shabbos.
I put them next to the window and noticed how they all just naturally started leaning toward the sun.
The tulips gain nutrients by leaning toward the sun, allowing them to grow.
In a small way, this is very much like people. Children in particular.
We will naturally lean toward what feels good to us. What we like and enjoy.
If a child is artistic, they will love coloring and crafts.
If they like math, they will love all things numbers and see the math in every day life every where.
For the longest time I have always been drawn to child led learning. It just makes so much sense to me. If a child enjoys learning something, feed it and let them enjoy it as long as they wish.
The idea of forcing a child to learn something made no sense to me.
But as my children get older, I realize as an Orthodox Jewish mother, that there are some things that my kids will not love learning but as Jewish children, they need to do it.
So how do we 'force' our kids to learn things that they are not necessarily crazy about?
My answer is to help them get really good at it, no matter how long it takes.
It's not about the worksheets and tests or how much material you can cover with them.
It's about giving them the skills to learn and understand and get really good at it. Because when you are good at something, your confidence is higher and you want to do more of it, because you 'get it.'
Scour the internet for ideas and books and resources to make whatever it is you want to learn with your child as interesting and fun as possible.
Now is the time to give them that sweet taste for learning.
One of my kids was having a really hard time learning Chumash. I was very fortunate to come across these fabulous workbooks that have helped my son so much and given him so much confidence in his learning.
He is also learning Mishnayos and I came across these wonderful magazines, which illustrate the Mishnahs.
We homeschool our kids, so we are their primary educators. It is our jobs to instill a love and enjoyment of learning. Just like we make their veggies taste good so they eat them and will grow strong and healthy, so too when we teach our kids, we want to make the experience as 'sweet' as possible.
Wishing you a beautiful Shabbos,
Always,
Nice, Mommzy! A good reminder that serious learning doesn't have to exclude fun and interesting.
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