Homeschooling Journey

How do you motivate an disinterested student? A common question for many. I, too, have asked that question many times. One thing that has helped me (to a certain extent) is to teach to your student's interests. As my son has quite the interest in space exploration, we look for books, movies, projects that focus on that particular area. I basically look at it as enriching the learning environment.

Some families do unit studies which takes a theme and carries it over into many (if not all) areas of the curriculum. Say your student likes horses_ for reading, you have them read a book about horses and do a book report : for grammar, you give them an article on horses and have them proofread the article for errors: for science, you have them research their favorite breed of horses, focusing on the longevity of that particular breed: for art, have them sketch their "dream horse": for history, have them do a report on the importance of horses at the turn of the century: for geography, have them study what parts of the world have produced highly successful racehorses: for math, have them make a graph which compares nations to see which produces more successful racehorses. Of course, you can add to or edit to fit your situation.

I like unit studies, but we basically stick to a classical type of learning. We do occasionally, however, venture out from the ordinary schedule and do a little something to jumpstart his lagging interest.

Another interest of his is insects ( and other various creepy crawlies). Not my forte, but I push aside my squeamishness and look for something to encourage him. The other day we found some bug casings (I am not sure what they were, unless they were cicada shells). We did an impromptu search online, and found some pictures that strongly resembled what we had. Now he wants to go searching for more.

When his interest is piqued, it is kind of like a "light bulb moment". His face lights up, and he gets so excited. Man, I wish I could bottle moments like that. Then, on days when he is simply not interested, I could just sprinkle a little of the enthusiasm on him to get us through the day (lol). I guess maybe I need an idea file to develop for when he (I mean we!) get a little draggy.

On that note, I guess I better get to work!