DIY Homeschooler

There is a tendency to teach children how to take tests, rather than teaching them how to think. Here are 5 ways we can teach our children how to think.

Students who work a practice book before a test do in fact score better on the test. They play that game to score as well as they can. But does it make them better thinkers in life? Not really.

In one customer testimonial a parent wrote that her child scored well after using the curriculum. Then the following year his test score fell, so the third year she wanted him to use a thinking book again. This illustrates how poorly the skills transfer, as well as the artificial nature of this kind of testing. If the student had transferred the skills into life and into school subjects, he would indeed have been a better thinker a year later at test time.

This indicates that thinking does not work well as a separate subject. Students should practice thinking in every subject and in family life, too. We are preparing children for life, not for tests.

Dr. Ruth Beechick, A Biblical Home Education

Read

Yes, passive reading has its place. But we also need to read to think. 

There are a variety of ways to interact with literature. This type of interaction helps our minds process what we have read, and gives the material sticking power. 

Other ways to use reading to develop a better thinker is to encourage our children to read things slightly above their level, and to develop their vocabulary.

Further Reading

7 Ways to Mark a Book
Mortimer Adler, author of How to Read a Book, makes the case for marking in a book and shares the seven devices “for marking a book intelligently and fruitfully.”

Write

Thinkers are not only readers, but also writers. Writing continues the process of interacting with what we have read. We write to remember, to organize our thoughts, and to play with others’ words.

Rewriting what another has written broadens our understanding and commits words and thoughts to memory.

Write Something Every Day: 366 Pencil Sharpeners for Students of Writing
Our book will get you started. This huge 554-pg. resource provides carefully crafted writing prompts and challenges for each day. We use nearly 20 different forms of writing to keep the student engaged. Also included are writing instruction, tips for modifying assignments for “younger writers,” and other resources. Learn more.

Discuss

It takes patience to listen attentively to what is on the minds of our children. But by letting them discuss what they have read, they are not only thinking more about what they have read, but also organizing their thoughts and conveying their understanding. This gives us an opportunity to guide them in taking every thought captive, and sharing other points of view.

Further Reading

Language Arts the Natural Way: Narrating
Narrating employs all of the skills we use in writing — but without the pencil.

Investigate

Everyone has an interest in something. By allowing our children to follow these interests through, they develop their ability to research, reason, and relate what they have learned.

The motivation from within spurs our children on to a broader understanding, and not just of the topic at hand. The skills they develop in the process will carry over into other disciplines.

Further Reading

7 Ways to Develop an Independent Researcher
The ability to learn anything for oneself is a valuable skill. 7 ways we can mentor our student and develop an independent researcher:

10 Ways to Use Notebooking: #9 Research & Projects
Foster a love of learning that carries on beyond the school years.

The Research Approach
The Research Approach to homeschooling involves the four elements of research, record, reason, and respond.

Observe

All subjects are interrelated, and nothing happens in a vacuum. When we learn about a situation in Afghanistan, we are not simply absorbing geographical knowledge, but also historical and political. 

By providing our children with time to observe the news, the weather, nature, or the way things work, they will develop their skills of observation — and an observer is a thinker.

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One final thought. As a Christian, I want my children to measure their activity in each of these areas by Scripture. Since God’s Word is truth, that is the plumb line in our home. Measuring another’s words against my own thoughts is an exercise in futility. But measuring another’s words by Scripture is taking every thought captive.