Raise Kids Who Love To Learn With These 10 Ideas

Raise kids who love to learn with these 10 ideas! Remember, it’s not necessary that we teach our kids everything, but that we teach them to love learning. This concept is key. When kids love to learn, they can learn whatever needs to be learned in any given circumstance. When we help kids love to learn, we set them up for success. Here are ten ideas to help you foster this kind of lifestyle with your kids.

You may also enjoy reading What Happens When Kids Love to Learn?

Video: Raise Kids Who Love To Learn With These 10 Ideas

#1 Surround Yourself With Living Things

I think one of the best things about homeschooling is that kids spend so much time in the real world, surrounded by living things. Living things move; they change; they need to be cared for and fed. Kids can observe and interact with living things which is what makes them so interetsing! Here are some living things that you can bring into (or outside!) your home.

Pets: a dog, cat, hamster, fish, reptile.
Fermented foods: sourdough, kombucha or kefir.
A vegetable garden: Kids love going outside to look for fruit and collect the harvest.
Bacteria: science experiments are fun to observe!
Backyard chickens.
Miniature outdoor pond.
A terrarium.
Flower garden, learn to make arrangements.
Watch caterpillars change into butterflies.

#2 Don’t Answer Every Problem

When your kids encounter problems, don’t rush in to show them how to fix it. Let them think; let them experiment. Have them look up answers themselves on Google, YouTube, or even in an old encyclopedia.

Give them problems to solve. How can you fix loose knobs on the kitchen drawers? What is the best way to organize a messy closet/drawer/room? How do you change the batteries when the smoke detector goes off? Let siblings solve their own quarrels when appropriate. As parents, we don’t need to solve all their problems. Let them come up with solutions. Their ideas may surprise you!

#3 Let Them Get Bored

When kids have time in their day to be bored, this is when some of the best learning happens. They build forts, they write and perform a play, they ask to bake something, they want to draw. Don’t fill up their schedule so much that they have no time to wonder at the world around them.

#4 Read To Them

If we want kids to be curious, we should introduce them to a feast of ideas. How do we do this? Read to them A LOT! Especially, read things that interest them. One of my favorite poems is by Emily Dickinson when she writes, “There is no frigate like a book to take us lands away.” When we read to our kids we can go anywhere together. It’s a shared experience that makes memories even if we never leave the house.

#5 Play Games Together

When kids play games, they learn so much without realizing it. It’s a fun way to learn that draws them in. Most importantly, kids like games, so they often want to play more rounds.

Board or card games challenge the mind in many ways. Kids can learn and sharpen computation skills by adding up and subtracting points. Being the banker in Monopoly helps with exchanging money amounts. Strategy games are especially good for helping kids to think.

Not all kids love table games. Let’s not forget the ways that playing sports stimulates the mind as well. Moving the body and hand-eye coordination sharpen brain function. Team sports also help kids learn how to work well with others.

#6 Learning By Doing

One of the best ways to learn is by doing. Many kids are wired to learn this way. Teach kids practical life skills: how to change a tire, crochet with yarn, make a cake, fix a bike chain, administer first aid. For more reading on this topic, you may enjoy 50 Life Skills That Should Be Taught At Home. The more skills they have, the more they will branch out and try new things.

Give them daily chores, especially ones that have purpose and contribute to the family. As soon as they are capable, allow them to cook meals for the family occasionally, do their own laundry, mow the lawn.

#7 Be a Learner Yourself

Perhaps the key ingredient to raising kids who love to learn is to be a learner yourself. Are you growing in your skills or knowledge as a person? Do you read, try new things, take risks? Let your kids see you tinkering with your favorite hobby. Even if it’s something that you fail at, your kids will see you trying, failing, and trying again.

#8 Work to Make Your Home Atmosphere Engaging

I love how the home provides the opposite of the sterile confines of a brick and mortar school. Home is a place where you can be the most creative. Look around and find raw materials you can have around your house for your child to use in creating, experimenting, and observing.

Here are some ways our kids have used raw materials in our home for creating.

Fabric to make a dress for a doll, hair scrunchies, hot pads, and other trinkets.
Wood for making a stool and a decorative shelf. Whittling branches to make designs.
Scrapbooking materials to make cards to give to people.
Metal pipe to hammer into a sword.
Wooden blocks, play animals, and people to build pretend towns with roads and houses.
K’nex to make robot and a rollercoaster.
Legos…the possibilities are endless.
Yarn and thread for embroidery or small knitting/crochet projects.
Musical instruments, first for experimentation, later for serious mastery.

#9 Spend time together as a family

It is well known that children who have experienced trauma or who come from broken homes are more likely to have learning difficulties. When kids don’t feel safe at home, when they are afraid or under pressure, their worries keep them from being curious and growing well. The opposite is also true. The times we spend building solid family relationships, laughing, eating meals, exploring, even just sitting around the living room talking…these family-strengthening moments provide the safe environment that helps kids thrive.

#10 Encourage them to take the Initiative

Remind your kids that they alone are responsible for their education. They will reap the rewards in proportion to the effort they put forth. Contrary to popular opinion, learning isn’t something acquired only in a classroom, transferred from student to teacher via the whiteboard. The best learning happens when kids pursue their interests. Motivate your homeschooler to be an independent learner. Challenge them to write out personal goals. I often ask our kids in the morning, “What’s on your agenda today? What do you plan to accomplish?” Put the ball in their court. Have them decide what they want to pursue and accomplish.