Recipe for Genius

Resources for Children

Oh, to be six again! Remember those days when paints, crayons, colored pencils, stickers, scissors, and glue provided you with hours of tranquility and fun? Life was good! Providing the ‘tools’ for a creativity is so important for children. Levi enjoyed a visit to our home recently. . .and we enjoyed observing the results of his efforts.  It is always interesting to see how each child develops uniquely when it comes to creativity. 

Is creativity something that can be taught?  Each reader may respond to this differently, but most would generally agree that creativity comes from within and is a quality that is innately possessed at birth.  Each child has potential, and if given the proper tools to develop it, wonderful, quirky, unique, and inventive works of art, song, or verse can result.  Many years ago I read a book about growing creative children.  I don’t remember the title or the author, but the principles were ones that became important in our homeschool.  The writer suggested that the best tools for creativity were simple resources (paper, pen or pencil, keyboard, cardboard, glue, paint, crayons, glitter, feathers, sequins, crayons, etc.).  It was her belief that there were always to be available to the child.   She went on to say that the time and freedom to explore and create with these resources was  key.  This was not a subject taught in school, but rather an opportunity that took place during a child’s free time each day.  When resources are available to the child, the creative activities they participate in become child-directed and meaningful to them.  Exercises that involved coloring within the lines or copying existing art may assist the child in developing fine motor skills, but they do not foster creativity in a child.  In the same way, a child who learns at an early age to think of their own sentence or story to write on a page, rather than assigned copywork that a teacher-parent chooses, learns not only to develop and improve their handwriting, but to become a thinker rather than a reflector of  the assignments or thought of others.  Why be satisfied with bringing a child up to grade level when he or she can reach for the height of imagination and artistic, musical, or written creativity?

This is a good time to review the Smithsonian Institute’s study of the factors that world-class geniuses experienced as they learned and developed their intellects.  I believe that these factors not only develop great thinkers, but creative ones as well.  Do you remember them from a previous post?  The key factors are:

1) warm, loving, educationally responsive parents and other adults;
2) scant association outside the family, and
3) a great deal of creative freedom under parental guidance to explore their ideas.

Dr. Raymond Moore, in his book Better Late Than Early, makes a statement that ties this subject altogether for us.  As the “grandfather of homeschooling”, I believe he was a very wise man.  I love this quote from him:

“Children are happiest when they are busy, and keeping them busy should not be a matter of concern.  Much of a child’s busyness will be accomplished on his own.  Much of it will come from the child’s questions and curiosity.  The parent’s goal should be to respond to the child’s questions in a patient, consistent and constructive way.  Forget about the pressures of achieving.  Cultivate the idea of being happily child centered, for the child is important.  Take advantage of his motivation of the moment.  Be happy that he is curious, and try to go along with his curiosities whenever you can”  [page 21].

Give your child the resources he or she needs.  They need the tools to create — free time, materials, and affirming support.  Try to cultivate a child-centered approach.  And take advantage of a child’s natural curiosity.  Creativity is always sure to result when the formula is implemented.  Allow the child to think outside of the box and stand-by to see the exciting results!

Applying Your Homeschool Philosophy

An educational philosophy is important for your home school. If you have a home school philosophy that is specific to your family it helps to keep your goals and strategies in focus. The grandfather of home schooling, Dr. Raymond Moore, recommends that each family have a philosophy written and prepared as the basis of establishing a curriculum for each family that home schools. A successful family philosophy focuses HIGHLY upon the formula that Dr. Moore presents (Smithsonian formula) on creating a genius.

The Smithsonian Institution’s study of twenty world-class geniuses stresses three factors: 

1) warm, loving, educationally responsive parents and other adults;
2) scant association outside the family, and
3) a great deal of creative freedom under parental guidance to explore their ideas.

Peer pressure works to tell us that we must socialize our children by having them spend time with other kids. But, studies have shown that the greatest socialization takes place within the family structure and by association with other adults. It is perfectly okay for children to spend all week with their parents, associating with other children only weekly at church. As children reached the upper elementary grades, they frequently start asking for opportunities to spend with other children. At that point, teaming with other friends to start a ‘home school activity group’ that meets semi-monthly and provides structured field trips for a group of local, home school children can be provided. This frequently fills the ‘need’ of children to associate with others their age. Piano and other group lessons can also help meet this need. The structured environment continues to facilitate learning and prevents an opportunity for negative socialization.

A great deal of freedom to explore is important. In order to create creative children, time and resources to work with are essential. So is the ability for mother or father to put up with a mess! A separate space for learning can be helpful in containing materials for this type of exploration. Paper, glue, paste, scissors, computer printers, cameras, film, paint, glitter, etc. and etc. are much more important than coloring books and paint by numbers. A supply of art materials should always been readily available at all times. They are tools that can be utilized for every subject, not just art class.

It’s important to keep priorities in focus. If one chooses to home-educate, then the education of our children must be a priority. This includes their religious education and the development of their intellect and ability to think for themselves. This comes before: canning and freezing food; laundry; a clean house; shopping trips; visiting the neighbor; etc. Of course these other things are important — but the children and their education should come first. Assigning workbook pages for the children so that the parent has time to wash windows or clean the oven does not create a wholesome and productive school environment. Children become bored to tears and homeschooling can become a struggle with this approach. Instead, plan work into the daily routine, so the children work with the parent in establishing a tidy home structure. Make this process a part of learning. Then, continue to develop other kinds of learning events as a family team. Although it is important for a child to learn to work independently, busy work is not the key.

Lessons learned while creating, building, analyzing, and applying concepts are best absorbed and retained by children. A unit study approach that is developed by the parent teacher around the interests of the children being taught is interesting and grasped well by them. It is the role of the teacher parent to create lessons and learning experiences that spark the interest in the children being taught. A bored child does not learn well. It is the parents role to provide experiences that facilitate growth, learning, and interest in any subject. Mastery will result effortlessly if this principle is applied.

Developing an educational philosophy assists the home school family to teach and learn purposefully. Once a philosophy of learning is established, the resources selected to facilitate this learning fall into place. If workbooks do not play a role in promoting your educational philosophy, there is no need to spend money on them! Instead, use your resources to find the tools that promote the philosophy you choose to embrace. Children are a precious natural resource. Thoughtful care should be taken in establishing how we will help them learn.