Self-led learning. More fun and more facts that stick to the noggin.

Even though our homeschool year hasn’t officially begun (we are in Canada where ‘school’ doesn’t start until next month) learning is always happening no matter the time of year.

I have learned through the years that workbook learning and following a traditional school schedule does not entirely work for us. It’s drudgingly boring in our home and not much learning really happens. Some learning, yes, but not that kind that sticks.

Oftentimes when we make our trips to the library we end up taking home more books than planned. This time, my oldest grabbed The Human Body Theater by Maris Wicks, from a display table. It’s formatted much like a graphic novel which I am sure means, for our graphic novel loving family, a more interesting read.

Human Body Theater book

L has taken an interest in biology and graphic-novel-style books have certainly helped. What’s more fun than a peanut butter and jelly sandwich describing to you its travels through the digestive system?

We stayed up for an extra half hour at bedtime talking excitedly about all of the wonderful facts about the human body. I couldn’t believe how much he remembered and he hadn’t even finished the book!

I love biology and had thought seriously about going into medicine so having a child who is as excited as I am about this kind of stuff was just too much to wait until tomorrow to talk about. 🙂

X is now in the process of reading the book and enjoying it just as much.

L is our ‘Finder’.

To explain, whenever we are in a store searching for a specific product or looking for a solution to our quandry, L is almost always the one to find what we are looking for. I call him my ‘Finder’. X, on the other hand, has total parking mojo and often when we need a parking spot in the city we find one just vacated with time still on the meter.

I had been searching for some time for a good molecule building set for the boys. There were many online but either didn’t show exactly what the contents were or were just too pricey for our budget. Not long after the search had begun, L spotted at our local second-hand store just the kind of molecule building set we were after. That’s my Finder!

Today he built the molecular structure of glucose after easily naming it off to me the other night. He’s got a knack for numbers too. They both do, just like their math-loving father. 🙂

I have since had the request to put Primates, another of Maris Wiley’s books, on hold at the library.

I have to say that these boys retain information that is of interest to them far more easily than things that are not of interest. This is true for so many of us, of course. It pertains to homeschooling and self-led learning too. The boys are reading and making and creating on their own all of the time.

And for that, they love to learn.

And I love that they love to learn.

My heart smiles and I feel like a good mama.

And I am so happy to have a Finder and a Parking Mojo dude in my family.

🙂