In one word:

Autonomy.  That’s it.  Give your child control over his learning.

I can hear some of you now.  You don’t know my child.  If I give him an inch when it comes to his education, he will do anything BUT what he’s “supposed” to do!  But have you ever thought about why it is he doesn’t want to do his “work”?

In his book Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us, Daniel Pink explores why people, including children, are motivated to do what they do.  He explains that if an individual has control over the task, time, technique or team involved in a job, they will be much more inclined to produce more creative work, in a more efficient way, and be much more motivated to complete that job with excellence.

Said in another way, if our children have a choice or sense of control over what they do, when they do it, how they do it, and/or whom they do it with, they will be much more motivated to learn.

When it comes to autonomy, home educators have a far superior advantage.  Although there are some amazing democratic schools that are implementing self-directed learning methods, the home is by far the easiest place to give your child control over these 4 areas of his education.

Autonomy in what our children learn:

Let your child direct as much of the content of learning as possible.  How much is that?  Well, it’s ultimately up to you.  Parents who “unschool” their children allow their children to make 100% of the calls about what they learn.  There is the opposite end of the spectrum of home “schoolers” who follow a standard course of study just as meticulously (if not more so) than their local school system does. We tend to fall into more of the former category.

Pink describes companies such as Google and 3M who allow their employees “20% time”.  This means that 20% of their work week can be spent on working on projects outside of their specific job, but still related to the company.  That’s one out of 5 days! The opportunity that the employees have to delve into their own curiosities pays off big-time for these corporations. Gmail, the “sticky note”, masking tape- all 20% projects.

You can probably see how this might translate into our child’s “work week”. Try it.  Watch your child surprise you.  You might even consider having a group of your child’s like-minded friends over each Friday and they can collaborate on a project, business plan, etc. together.   For some inspiration check out:  http://www.20time.org/.

Here are some online learning platforms that may help spark that curiosity in you and/or your children: Skillshare, Udemy,Coursera, MOOC, EdX, Alison, OpenLearn and FutureLearn.  Or spend some time at the library, in nature, or allowing them to simply tinker with “loose parts” (like whatever is in the recycle bin), or with art supplies.  As their ideas become more concrete, feed them with more resources to allow them make their ideas a reality.

Autonomy in when our children learn:

If our children are in school, we don’t have much control over this one.  Actually we have no control.  They must follow a certain calendar, wake at a certain time, be at school at a certain time, take certain classes at certain assigned times, take a certain amount of time in each of those classes, take a certain amount of time on the tests given in those classes, come home and take a certain amount of time to do a certain amount of homework.  Not to mention the time for sports, piano, tutoring, etc.  It’s exhausting just thinking about the hamster wheel that so many families perpetually run on. 

As a home educator I LOVE that we have control over when we do what we do and can give our children a lot more control as well.

Our mornings are typically relaxed.  Our teenagers can get those extra minutes of sleep that their adolescent bodies need.  They can choose to tackle harder things when their brains are fresh, and the more mundane or creative things in the afternoon when their brains have let their “analytical guards” down.

How long does it take to master a skill?  As long as it takes.  That’s the point, isn’t it?  If something is worth learning, then it’s worth learning well to the point of mastery.  To allow a child to “pass” a class with a C or a D is an injustice and affront to that child because what you’re saying is “It’s simply not worth the time for you to get to where you need to be”.  And yet it makes perfect sense in a broken system where kids are moved along and sorted out so that a few can be honored in the end.  We have a gift to be able to give our children as much (or as little time) as they need to master any given skill.  

When your child needs a break (or when you do) take it.  Do something stimulating that is enjoyable, physically active, and/or social and then settle back in for another burst of learning.

Evenings and weekends can be (and should be) reserved for rest and play and fellowship with family and friends.  We were in the library as a family on a Saturday morning and, next to us, there was a girl who looked to be 14 or 15 years old, seated with her tutor.  They were working through what seemed to be an essay or some sort of writing assignment.  (The tutor was giving her pupil “suggestions” and the girl would say “yeah”, to affirm her tutor’s ideas, and write them down). It happened to be a beautiful, unseasonably warm day in January and these two were discussing the thesis of this poor girl’s paper on Animal Farm.  No thank you.

A holiday?  Take one now if your family needs it.  This is the beauty of being autonomous over when we learn.

Autonomy in how our children learn:

When it comes to home education, the “how” is the most exciting part.  Those of us who sat in a classroom for 16 years (and then taught in that classroom for several more years) have a really hard time getting over the fact that our home does not have to (nor should it) look like a mini-version of the classrooms we inhabited for the majority of our school-aged hours.  The idea that kids are expected to sit still and quiet for the bulk of their day goes against anything that you read in sound educational research today.  Yet for so many institutions it’s the most efficient way, and therefore the only way to go about teaching children.

How not to instill autonomy:

• Worksheets (or anything disguised as a worksheet).  If you are a home educator who is trying to find the best worksheets for your child, then it’s time for you to re-think what education means and what it’s goals are.  Our goal is not to see if we can make our children as bored as they were in their classrooms.
• If it’s boring, pretend it’s not.  Please don’t do this. Be honest with your child.  
• Give rewards and punishments to motivate. Even businesses are finding that the old “carrot and stick” motivation techniques are not producing superior results and are certainly not producing motivated workers.  So why pull out those carrots if you don’t have to?  If they are learning for a reward, like a certain grade or score or GPA, then motivation will become harder and harder as they get older.

So how do we give our children more autonomy over how they learn?  If they’d rather listen to the book, let them.  If they want to learn by watching a YouTube video, let them.  If they want to cook a snack with their sibling, let them.  If they want to play with bubbles, let them. If they want to write outside, let them. You get the idea.

Autonomy in who our children learn with:

This is another area where home educators have the potential to soar far above their schooled peers.  There is some cross-over with how the students learn since learning in a group is quite different and not always preferred to learning independently.  Your child may prefer one social learning scenario to another, but the social benefits of home educating are endless:

• Authentic learning in the community- apprenticeships, self-chosen projects that benefit a local charity, organization, museum, library, with neighbors, etc.
• Book clubs
• Study groups- This could be just a group that is studying quietly together, or a more collaborative learning experience where a problem a being a solved, a business idea is being organized, etc.
• “20% time” groups- Reach out to home education Facebook groups to get a group of like-minded students together to tackle an idea. Or maybe it is simply your child and her friend working together on face painting or magic show ideas.
• Mommy time- spend 10 minutes a day doing something with each of your children that they love. Or perhaps sit with your child while he tackles a subject that he’s not too crazy about and find ways to commend the effort he is giving, or the creative methods he is using, etc.

Try to make this promise to your child:

 “I will not make you learn anything that is not relevant to your life.  I will make sure that you have as much control as possible over what you learn, when you learn it, how you learn it, and who you learn with.”

Make that promise and I guarantee that you will think differently about the way your children learn and the way you facilitate their learning.  It will also give them the freedom to call you out and ask “What does this have to do with my future?” or “Is there another way I can do this?”  And that’s a good thing because we want our children to be thinking critically about what they do.

Giving autonomy builds a child’s desire to learn for the sake of learning, as opposed to “because Mommy told me to” or “my teacher said I had to”.  That is who we want our children to be when it is time for them to leave our homes.  Autonomous.  I mean, we still want them to come back to visit, but to have my daughter own her learning and be passionate and driven about it as she strikes out into adulthood would make this mama proud!