In my previous post titled “Is Child-Led Learning the Best Style of Schooling?“, I highlighted numerous benefits of a child-led approach to education, such as fostering critical thinking skills, promoting a deeper understanding, encouraging lifelong learning, and building confidence in students. In this post, I will delve into the role of educators in a child-led environment and provide guidance on how to implement a child-led approach.
The Educator’s Role in Child-Led Learning
As an educator, your role in the child-led learning process is of utmost importance. It requires extensive research, dedication, hard work, and trial and error. You must learn to navigate the learning process as a guide for the child, rather than a traditional teacher.
How can you support and guide your child’s education?
These are the steps needed to implement a child-led learning approach, regardless of the style you choose to follow.
Observe
As a child-led educator, one of the most crucial roles you will have is that of an observer. You should approach this job like a scientist discovering a new species. Your child’s interests will evolve and change every day, making your role as an observer a never-ending one.
You should notate the items your child is drawn to, the questions they ask, and the stories, movies or podcasts that spark their interests. Once you have identified their current interests, you can then move on to the next steps.
It’s important to avoid intervening too much and instead make yourself easily accessible for when your child may require your assistance. If your child asks for help, it’s crucial to provide it as soon as possible. If possible, pause what you’re doing to answer their questions or help them research a topic. This will help them feel valued and stay engaged in their fleeting interests.
Provide
As an educator, it is important to learn how to provide the right amount and type of support and encouragement for each child. What this looks like will vary depending on the child, but it is crucial for their educational progress. If you already know how much attention and support your child prefers, then stick with it and make small adjustments as needed. However, if you are unsure, it’s best to provide more support and encouragement than not enough. Your student will quickly let you know if it is too much through their actions and attitude.
Once you have identified your child’s interests, offer a variety of resources to help them explore the topic in depth. Depending on your child’s age and ability, these resources may include art, storybooks, articles, documentaries or videos, chapter books, hands-on activities, field trips, online or in-person classes, music, outdoor exploration or any other relevant material that can help your child learn more about the subject.
Prepared Environment
Providing a prepared environment is an essential aspect of child-led learning. Having materials at the ready allows for instant gratification, exploration, and continued motivation. Although each student has unique needs, there are many common elements in the environment of students around the same age.
To provide a conducive learning environment, it is essential to have a diverse range of age-appropriate materials available. While it is important to provide materials that align with the child’s interests, it is equally important to offer other options to encourage curiosity and exploration. Over-saturating the environment with only one type of material or subject is not as effective in promoting learning and development.
The Montessori method emphasizes the importance of a prepared environment in a child’s development. This approach is designed for toddlers and early elementary-aged children. One example of a prepared environment for this age group is providing child-sized, functional tools and furniture. For instance, my twins love to help me with household chores, particularly vacuuming the floors. So, I decided to purchase a kid-sized vacuum with real suction that they could use to clean the floors themselves.
Model Activities
When it comes to teaching toddlers new skills, it’s important to show them how it’s done. For instance, you can demonstrate how to put a puzzle together or how to chop a banana. As your child grows up, they may not need a direct “how-to” anymore. If you want your child to develop a love of reading, you should actively read books to them as well as read your own books in front of them.
It is equally important to demonstrate to your children that you have hobbies and interests as well. You can achieve this by introducing them to your hobbies or just engaging in them in your children’s presence. When children observe their parents engaging in activities, they tend to develop an interest in them too. Which leads to a child-led learning environment. This also portrays a healthy image of allocating time for the things we enjoy.
Ask Open-Ended Questions
Closed-ended questions have limited and narrow responses, while open-ended questions encourage a more detailed response based on the child’s knowledge, feelings, and understanding. These questions allow educators to analyze the answer and determine how much the child already knows about the topic. By doing so, they can provide the appropriate resources to further engage the child in the topic.
Instead of asking a child “do you like dinosaurs?” you should try asking “why do you like dinosaurs?”. This will start a longer conversation on the child’s love of dinosaurs. It is important that the open-ended question doesn’t have a right or wrong answer, encourages discussion, and gives control to the child. Most of these questions will start with what if, how, and why.
The more thought-provoking the question is, the more detailed and insightful their answers are likely to be. Here are some example questions: “what made you think of that?“, “what is your plan?“, “how did you learn to do that?“, “What excites you when you wake up?“, “what are some different ways to do ___?“, “what do you think will happen if ____?“, or “If you could go anywhere on a vacation, where would you go and why?“.
Foster Collaboration
Collaborating and interacting with other children who share similar interests can lead to increased curiosity, a deeper understanding of the topic, and improved social skills. As the old adage goes, “two heads are better than one.” Similarly, when more children work together and share their ideas, it can generate more questions and diverse approaches to finding a solution.
Based on personal experience, I have found it can be highly beneficial for teenagers to collaborate with other adults. Learning from a professional can be far more valuable for a child’s education than what parents can provide. Therefore, if your preteen or teenager is interested in a trade or any professional field, I would suggest finding a mentor who can show them the ropes.
Document Journey
Maintaining some sort of record-keeping for your child’s academic progress is highly beneficial for a variety of reasons. For one, numerous states mandate homeschoolers to present documentation verifying what their child learned throughout the school year. Additionally, keeping a record helps you accurately assess your child’s academic standing. Lastly, displaying your child’s educational progress enables them to reflect on their learning journey.
Documenting your child’s journey can be accomplished through photos, journals, displays, books, or even a blog/vlog.
How To Let Your Child Lead in Their Education
Starting at a young age, the learning process is fairly easy. For children aged 1-8, most learning occurs through play and exploration. Children are naturally curious and driven to learn. Introducing them to new material comes very naturally to both parents and children. If you plan to use a mixed approach to your child’s education, I recommend not starting any formal learning before the age of 7, unless the child is particularly interested in a subject and wants to learn more about it.
Toddlers and young children tend to be fascinated by the daily activities they see their parents and siblings carrying out. They often show an eagerness to help with household chores, and have the ability to successfully complete them if their parents are patient and allow them to learn at their own pace. It is important to understand that mistakes may be made, but this will lay the foundation for child-led learning. It is necessary to be forgiving of accidents and to provide ample opportunities for children to engage in these activities.
Structure & Routine
Having some structure and routine is crucial to promoting a positive learning environment, even if you take a flexible, child-led approach to learning. The routine can be as rigid or pliable as your child needs, as long as it provides them with a sense of security and predictability. This is especially important for toddlers and young children, but even teenagers are more productive in a predictable environment.
I suggest starting with a simple routine for a few weeks to allow both of you time to adjust. For example, if you would like to include reading, outside play, and individual/quiet play in your daily routine, you can plan your days around these three “time-zones”. A basic routine could look something like this: Wake up, individual/quiet play, breakfast, outside play, lunch, chosen activity/schooling for the day, reading, dinner, bedtime. This routine allows for last-minute changes and new daily activities at a predictable time of the day.
Let’s use the routine mentioned above to consider potential changes while still keeping the routine intact. For instance, you may have joined a meet-up or co-op group that meets every Thursday at 10am. If the meeting is not in an outdoor setting you can still leave early and enjoy some time outdoors by playing in the grass or climbing a tree before going inside for the meet-up.
Leaving an allotted time for new activities or schooling allows for flexibility in exploring any topic, while still maintaining a predictable schedule for being productive. In case of any unexpected interruptions such as a doctor’s appointment, easy adjustments can be made.
Age Appropriate Guidance
One of the most challenging aspects of child-led learning is determining the appropriate amount of guidance to provide for your child. It’s all too easy to exceed your bounds and extinguish your child’s enthusiasm and inquisitiveness about a topic. Conversely, if you don’t offer enough guidance, you may feel as though you’re not adequately supporting your child’s education.
How should you offer guidance, and what is the appropriate amount of guidance to provide?
Ages 1-8
It is recommended that children between the ages of 1 to 8 years old should primarily be learning through play. There are three main types of play; structured play, guided play, and free play. Structured play involves any type of activity that has strict rules to abide, such as board games. Free play is structureless and gives the child complete control over what and how they want to play. Think of free play as letting your child play on the playground while you sit on a bench and relax.
Guided Play
Guided play is a learning approach that provides structure while allowing flexibility. To ensure an optimal learning experience, there are three essential characteristics that must be considered.
Firstly, the educator must have a clear learning goal in mind before setting up the activity. This helps ensure that the activity is purposeful and relevant to the child’s learning needs.
Secondly, the activity or game needs to allow for some degree of choice by the child. This fosters independence and motivation, as children are more likely to engage with activities that they enjoy and find interesting.
Lastly, the adult needs to remain flexible in the use of guiding techniques to ensure sensitivity to the child’s interests and needs. This means taking into account the child’s individual learning style and adapting the approach accordingly. By doing so, the child is more likely to remain engaged and motivated, resulting in a more positive learning experience.
According to a study published in the Society for Research in Child Development, supporting evidence found that guided play has a greater positive effect than direct instruction on early math skills, shape knowledge, and task-switching, which is important for adapting to new and different situations. The study also found a greater positive effect on spatial vocabulary in guided play than in free play.
Summary of ages 1-8
To clarify, while guided play has a significant impact on your child’s education, it is also important to include structured and free play in their routine. Structured play helps children understand the concept of rules and limits, whereas free play encourages children to create their own rules, boosts their creativity and enhances their social skills.
It is appropriate to introduce 1-2 structured subjects for children between the ages of 6 and 8, but the majority of their education should still be obtained through playtime.
Please note that every child is unique and will require individualized adaptations to their education. Some children may discover their passions at a very young age. These children may want to explore those topics at an accelerated pace. In these cases, I encourage you to follow the child’s lead, even if it means that your four-year-old is studying astrophysics. It is important to support and nurture their interests and talents, regardless of age or perceived difficulty.
Ages 9-13
It is advisable that children aged 9 to 13 should engage in both play and structured learning. For 9-10 year-olds, their daily routine should be divided equally between play and structured learning. As for 11-13 year-olds, their routine should be primarily focused on structured learning with a ratio of 70-90% of structured learning to play.
You may be wondering how structured learning can be incorporated into a child-led approach.
I don’t believe that child-led learning means total freedom. Planned structured learning is essential to discovering new interests. It’s completely up to you and your child to decide how much curriculum you want to follow. However, starting with some light curriculum can be helpful in getting started. Once your child shows interest in a particular subject, it is a good idea to pause the curriculum and dive deeper into that interest. Once your child gets bored or has learned everything they can about the subject, you can simply resume the curriculum where you left off.
Ages 14-18
This age group is generally mature and responsible enough to make more decisions and pursue educational goals independently. One way to encourage your teen’s independence is to create two lists. The first list should include topics and activities that you want your teen to cover. The second list should include elective topics and activities that your teen can choose from or add their own ideas to the list.
Once they have chosen which topics they are going to cover, they can create their own schedules. However, younger teens may need your help with example schedules to choose from.
As teenagers become more curious about the adult world, they may seek out volunteer work, internships, or part-time jobs.
As a guide, your role is to prepare your teen for a successful life and help them focus on their interests to potentially pursue a career in those fields. If your child plans to attend college, you should ensure their transcript is detailed and accurate and prepare your teen for entrance exams.
Summary
As we learned, a child-led learning approach is not for weak. There are many aspects to consider and roles to play as the educator. However, once you and your child get the hang of it, it becomes an incredibly rewarding and beneficial approach to learning.
Next week I’ll list out age appropriate activities to help you and your child on your educational journey.
I know this was a lot of information, please let me know if there is a specific topic you’d like more information on in the comments.
References
https://45conversations.com/the-power-of-child-led-learning-in-early-childhood-education/
https://www.readandspell.com/us/what-is-child-led-learning#:~:text=child%2Dled%20learning%3F-,What%20is%20child%2Dled%20learning%3F,and%20materials%20used%20for%20study.
https://mybrightwheel.com/blog/open-ended-questions-for-preschoolers
https://montessoriacademy.com.au/the-role-of-montessori-educators/#:~:text=Educators%20serve%20as%20a%20link,learning%20experiences%20unique%20to%20them.
https://srcd.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/cdev.13730
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0885201405000663
