When you hear the words child-led learning you may be thinking about unschooling. While unschooling is a form of child-led learning, it is not the only option for allowing your child to have a say in how and what they are learning.
Choosing to let your child take the lead in at least some of their education is a great way to encourage them to find a love of learning and start to explore their personal passions.
What is Child-Led learning?
Child-led learning is all about giving your child the opportunity to learn about what interests them and help to bring the joy back to your homeschool.
Allowing your child the chance to decide what they want to learn as part of their homeschooling is a great way to get them interested in learning and to cooperate better throughout the day.
Child-led learning is about allowing children to take the lead and/or set the pace for their education.
Does child-led learning have a curriculum?
When you think of child-led learning, you may be thinking that it means that there isn’t a set curriculum, but this is not always the case.
When using a child-led approach, you can have your child help you choose a curriculum that interests them and even use unit studies to create your own curriculum that fits well with what your child wants to learn.
Even those using a traditional curriculum can take a child-led approach on some subjects to provide a certain level of freedom. From finding books on something your child loves to diving in with science kits for a hands-on science approach.
Giving your child some control over the choice of the curriculum you use can show them that their opinions and feelings matter to you.
How do I know if child-led learning is right for my child?
Every child is different and one of the amazing things about homeschooling is that you can customize your child’s education. Like with other forms of education, child-led learning may not work for every child.
Child-led learning is best for children who can make up their minds on what they want to learn when asked, have hobbies that can be used to build lessons from, and have the drive to learn and explore on their own.
A child who will benefit from child-led homeschooling has the drive to learn and is willing to explore and learn on their own without the constant direction that traditional schooling methods and curriculum have to offer.
Child-led learning is perfect for children who will take the initiative to explore beyond what you teach them.
What does a day of child-led homeschooling look like?
Child-led homeschooling will look different from day to day. Bookwork often takes over a smaller chunk of the day, while fun and exciting unit studies and time to explore fill the rest of the day.
Child-led homeschoolers can often be found reading or creating something to help tie into what they are learning, allowing even the most redundant and boring lessons to become hands-on.
Once you have decided that you are ready to give your child the opportunity to take the reins in their education, take the time to discover what they’d like to learn about using the child led homeschooling survey below.
After that, you’ll be ready to dive in and see how to get started with child led homeschooling. Don’t be afraid to take the plunge; it may very well be just the change your kids need to fall in love with learning again!
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