By The Green Parent
16th August 2022
Leslie Martino lives in Florida with her four home schooled children, aged six to 11. She is the founder of Thrive at Home Coaching - lesliemartino.com
We have been using a project-based approach to learning since we first began homeschooling seven years ago. Our days are centred around lots of what I call ‘meaningful work’. They incorporate a great deal of room for work that is led by the children’s interests. My experience working with children over the years (both mine and others) has taught me that when they are genuinely interested in what they are learning, there is the potential for the depth and breadth of their knowledge to be great. So I try to offer the necessary time, materials, and support so that they can develop these interests further.
This often begins with uninhibited periods for exploration of open ended materials; wood, Lego, paint, books, or kinetic sand for example, allow for curiosity and creativity. Later, these become the tools with which a child will create and explore, investigating deep interests and creating models or plans, because they are using familiar tools and mediums. We’ve had interests like birds and electricity develop from the use of open ended materials.
More often than not, learning this way requires taking the time to really sit with ideas, sometimes struggling through them too. It’s a way of investigating that goes beyond surface level. Sometimes that means many months of research, trial and error, repeated activity, or seemingly frivolous acts. A slower pace allows for true inquiry-based learning. It doesn’t fit neatly in a little box and it doesn’t always fit our agenda as parents.
This approach to learning is all about a commitment to value what is interesting to the child, even if that doesn’t align with what is interesting to us. It is making space for the child to work out their own ideas without taking over. It’s important because we all should have a right to our own ideas and our own work. Most adults are comfortable with children doing this outside of the parameters of ‘school’, but this truly can become a priority for true learning. Cultivating this approach daily involves trust and also a dedication to cherish process as much as product.
Here are some questions I like to ask my clients to help them get started: Does our environment allow opportunities to pursue interests? How can it be improved? What can my role be in a scenario like this? What does a good mentor do? What home routines would support self-directed learning? How can I recognize the evidence of learning even when conventional visual work isn’t being shown?”
