Joy of Learning

Teaching for Joy in Learning

January 21, 2020 by Ben

Have you seen that brief animation of the learning process at a government school? I mean the one where a student, who’s sitting upright in a small, traditional desk, moves along a conveyor belt. At the student’s first stop, a robotic arms saws off the top of his cranium, revealing a light bulb. At the next stop, a robotic arm wielding a hammer smashes the lightbulb. And at the final stop, a robotic arm bestows a graduation cap. The process continues on and on with child after child moving through the “educational” process at government schools. This system was not designed for teaching children to take joy in learning.

This animation illustrates a critical fact: educational approaches have impacts on educational outcomes. So what outcome do we want for our children? We want them to think biblically about all of life. We also want them to receive the joy they can expect from their calling. In past blog posts, we’ve explored the scriptural reasons for expecting that our children can have this kind of joy. We’ve also examined reasons why our children’s experiences may be anything but joyful. While some of those reasons relate to factors inside our children, today we want to focus on the factors that we as parents and the educators of our children are responsible for. We need to create educational experiences for our children that most closely conform to how children learn.

When it comes to encouraging learning, I don’t have a comprehensive list of best teaching practices or foolproof methods. I hope to keep learning as my wife and I continue on our homeschool journey. But here are some effective approaches for teaching a joy of learning I’ve learned so far.

1. Teaching Joy with Understanding-Based Learning

Learning that focuses on understanding instead of performance cultivates joy in learning. It can be incredibly satisfying to have a child who performs off the charts on a standardized test or who can recite the Roman emperors’ names from memory. Your child might perform well on paper, but what about his or her understanding? If performance is what we’re aiming for, then we’re not concerned about children’s understanding, just their ability to memorize and regurgitate information. And what we get is children who do well on tests but can’t apply what they’ve learned. Unless they’re also focused on performance, then children who just learn for the grade get bored or frustrated.

Instead, we should be interested in comprehension. When a child understands math, it’s not only easier to learn, but the child has the tools to use math effectively. That’s why breaking out math manipulatives or engaging in other hands-on activities is so powerful. Understanding-based learning is the bridge to higher levels of learning. And Scripture reminds us that “knowledge is easy to him who understandeth” (Proverbs 14:6).

2. Sequenced Learning

Putting learning in the proper order, or sequence, prepares your child for the next step. When children have all the pieces they need for understanding at the time they need them, they’re equipped to find joy in learning. Has someone ever explained something to you, assuming that you already knew something that you didn’t know? Maybe there was important information that you’d never learned. When that happens to me, I get confused and frustrated. I want to stop.

In the kitchen, we wouldn’t ask our children to add three eggs to a mixture until we had taught them how to crack an egg. It’s often easy to approach learning by jumping around from topic to topic without a plan in mind.

With sequenced learning, our goal is to challenge our children without frustrating them. We plan each step carefully so that they have prior experiences and the knowledge they need so that they can take the next step in learning. I love it when my daughter encounters a familiar concept that has added depth and complexity to it. She’s seen it before, but it looks new to her. The new information is more challenging than what she learned before, but it is simple because of her prior experience with the topic.

3. Authentic Learning

Another way of teaching a joy in learning by focusing on the purpose for learning instead of the test. Has your child ever asked, “Will that be on the test?” It’s often an expression of frustration. Instead of taking joy in the experience of learning new things, he or she just wants to know how to pass the class. At that point, your child is probably just overwhelmed by all the extra, seemingly unnecessary information. Children also express this frustration when they ask, “When will I ever use this?”

When we teach our children, we need to regularly show them the real world application of what they’re learning. When learning is relevant to their lives, it becomes real and authentic. They can use math at the grocery story. Or they can apply what they studied in science to make a ramp to move a heavy object. Or take spelling, for example. If we give our children a list of random spelling words to recite back on their test, they’re likely going to get bored or frustrated, and they won’t remember it beyond the test. But when part of their spelling assignment is to proofread someone else’s writing, it’s authentic. They see how spelling is relevant and useful.

When children start to use their learning, they’re exercising good and wise dominion in this world. That is one of the purposes that God has given mankind. And it is the reason we educate our children.

The choices we make in teaching our children will have an incredible impact on how they view learning. If we don’t aim for comprehension, if we teach things out of order, or if we don’t give them a reason for learning, then we won’t be teaching them to have joy in learning. We’ll be crippling their joy of learning, instead. We need to choose teaching methods that support our children. Then we will be able to see the light of joy in our children’s eyes as they’re learning.

Barriers to Joy from the Fall

December 3, 2019 by Ben

Have you ever had a frustrating experience when teaching your child? I know I have. I teach my children Grade 1–3 history. Last year was the first year I taught my second daughter history, and it was smooth sailing. But this year, it has been a challenge. The material is more advanced and abstract. Tears have come several times during our first three months. We’ve hit some hard barriers in both teaching and learning already.

In an earlier post, I mentioned some Scriptures that teach the importance of having joy in learning. We have a scriptural expectation for a joy in our work. Furthermore, there is a connection between our work and our learning. Naturally, there’s a parallel between joy in our work and joy in the work of learning. But if we have a scriptural expectation for joy in learning, why don’t our children always experience that? There are three things the fall has broken that can prevent that joy.

Barriers from a Broken Creation

When Adam sinned, the earth was cursed. And now all of creation groans under sin (Romans 8:22). Because of the curse, nothing is as easy as it was designed to be, including learning. Just like Adam, our child will learn “by the sweat of [his] face” (Genesis 3:19). Learning isn’t easy for kids, and teaching isn’t easy for moms and dads. We cannot reverse the fall. But like farmers who toil to extract food from the ground and yet still rejoice in their labor, we can toil at learning with the expectation that there will be joy in mastery.

Broken Hearts

Not only is learning harder, but our hearts can also come to detest things we should love. Romans 3:11 reveals that there’s no one who understands; we all wander out of the way; we are all unprofitable. The lazy man doesn’t want to work even though God calls it a blessing. Sad to say, our children’s hearts can hate the good that God gives us, including learning. As parents, we’ve been given the high calling of shepherding our children’s hearts. So when we see signs that their hearts are opposed to something good, we need to direct them wisely back toward it.

Barriers from Broken Pedagogy

Pedagogy is the method or practice of teaching. Regrettably, we sometimes unintentionally contribute to our children’s frustration with learning if we adopt poor methods of teaching.

Remember those farmers that Isaiah spoke to (Isaiah 28:24–28)? They learned to farm effectively by observing how God’s creation worked and adjusting their farming accordingly. That’s what good teachers do too. They observe the way children learn and adjust their methods accordingly.

For homeschool parents, it’s easier to “data dump” than it is to create an engaging learning experience. Our challenge is to create the learning experiences our children need for success. Have you ever found yourself saying or thinking:

“Here is the information—now learn it.”
“Read the book and answer the questions.”
“Here’s a list of terms to know for the test.”
“Memorize these facts.”

It’s so much easier than taking the time to craft a learning experience. But when we take the easy way, we’re not helping our children. We’re teaching in a way that’s expedient for us, and not in a way that fits how our children are made to learn. As homeschool parents, we need to be constantly working to discover the ways God intends children to learn, and then conform our teaching to that creational norm.

As a result of the fall, there are going to be real barriers to joy-filled learning. The material is often hard, and there’s a fleshly aversion to hard work. My children won’t want to do it all the time. There’s also a temptation for me to choose easy paths for teaching instead of creating learning experiences that enable them to learn. In a future post, I will share some of the strategies I’ve found to help create a joyful learning experience despite our fallen condition.

Joy of Learning: Taking Joy at Work

October 22, 2019 by Ben

When I was six, my dad took our family on a homeschool field trip to Patriots Point Navel & Maritime Museum in Charleston, SC. I was awestruck from the moment we drove into view of the Yorktown aircraft carrier. After exploring old navy ships, I was hooked—history became my favorite subject and it was fodder for play. And I still love history.

Joy permeates my history learning. Even in times when it became tedious, the thrill of mastering the subject never left me. That experience with my dad set the tone for my learning.

As homeschool parents, we want our children to have joy in learning. I want my daughters to love history as much as I do.

Joy of Learning in the Bible

Do we have a scriptural expectation to find joy in learning? We should start by looking at our expectation to have joy in our work. Then we can examine the connection between learning and work.

Taking Joy at Work

Most Americans view work as a drudgery, a long slog until they get to what they really want: a weekend full of pleasure. One way to summarize the American Dream is “work hard so you can play harder.”

But that’s not a scriptural view of work. The book of Ecclesiastes tells us three times that “a man… should make his soul enjoy good in his labor” (Ecclesiastes 2:24, see also Ecclesiastes 3:12-13 and Ecclesiastes 5:18-19). And for good reason. The Lord intends that we “enjoy the good of all [our] labor” (Ecclesiastes 5:18). Even better, we should enjoy our labor because God gives us the power to work (Ecclesiastes 5:19).

Best of all, the work itself is given by God. In the beginning, God gave mankind dominion over creation. Even before the Fall, Adam and Eve worked by dressing the garden and naming the creatures. So when we take up a lawful task to meet a legitimate need, we are fulfilling one of God’s original intents for us.

You know, we, as parents, experience this every year at Thanksgiving or Christmas. We invest long hours on our feet in the kitchen preparing a feast. Some parts are fun, like making pie filling. Others are tedious, like peeling ten pounds of potatoes. Then there’s the layer of dust to clean from the fine china. And, of course, we can’t use the dishwasher for that! But what a joy it is to cook with your family and see them delight in the meal! Even scrubbing the grease off the turkey roast pan can be satisfying.

Let’s not lose sight of the joy we can have in the work of homeschooling our children. Some parts may be fun, and others tedious, but the final result is priceless. It is God’s calling for us, and we can and should find joy and satisfaction in it.

Work and Learning

Since God intends for us to have joy in our work, can we apply that to our children’s learning? In Isaiah 28, the Lord makes an important connection between learning and working.

In this passage, the prophet confronts the proud farmers of his day. He asks them a series of questions about the fundamentals of farming. Do they plow? Are they planting seed? What about the careful arrangements they make in planting their seeds? “Of course!” the farmers are thinking. Then Isaiah asserts, “For his God doth instruct him to discretion, and doth teach him” (Isaiah 28:26). You can imagine these arrogant men thinking: “No he didn’t; I figured that out on my own,” or, “My dad taught me that, not God.” But they’re missing the point. God created His world to work a certain way. When we adjust our lives through careful observation to the way He made the world, we are learning from Him. The learning is coming from His hand.

The learning and the work both come from God’s hand. For our kids, their primary calling—their work—is to learn. It enables them to exercise dominion over creation, just like the farmers from Isaiah’s time. And just as God gives joy to the laborer, we can expect God to give joy to our children while they work at their calling of learning.

I love teaching history to my daughters. My dad inspired a lifelong love of learning about the past, and now I get to share it with his grandchildren. Homeschooling is one of our most blessed callings. What a delight it is to be right there, when the light bulb goes off for our children and we see the joy! What we’re witnessing is our children receiving the gift of joy in learning from God’s own hands.

Learning Activities that Come Alive

November 21, 2017 by Megan

At the beginning of the school year, I had the perfect opportunity to create some excitement around a historical fiction piece in our Reading 3 curriculum entitled “Alex the Drummer Boy.”

As I read through the story in anticipation of our reading lessons, I realized that the plot is set against the background of the Battle of Cowpens during the Revolutionary War. We live in Greenville, South Carolina, so the Cowpens battlefield is less than an hour away. Why not go visit the battlefield and experience the real-life setting of this story?

A Journey Back in Time

Our family made the trek up to Cowpens somewhat spontaneously on a beautiful Saturday afternoon. We took a walking tour of the battlefield, hiking along the historic road that the soldiers themselves marched on. We stood in the wooded areas and pretended to shoot rifles. We watched a documentary about the famous double envelopment military maneuver that won the battle. We saw soldiers’ uniforms and weapons on display and studied maps that depicted the movements of both the British and American troops. It was an incredible educational experience.

And the learning opportunities didn’t end when we drove back to Greenville. As we read “Alex the Drummer Boy” in our reading book, all of those memories of the battlefield resurfaced. As we read, we were able to consult our battlefield map and the photos we took. We checked out a nonfiction book from the library that told the story of Cowpens in detail. The fictional story of Alex came alive in such a way that for weeks I caught my young daughters acting out the story using a metal popcorn container as a drum and a broomstick for a rifle.

Learning Activities that Build Enthusiasm

You won’t be able to travel to experience firsthand the setting of every story, but—with a little imagination and the help of the internet and other sources—you can find learning activities that build excitement for just about any lesson. Here are a few of my go-to sources for inspiration.

Teacher’s edition—BJU Press works hard to make learning enjoyable, and most lessons include fun learning activities for introducing or enhancing a lesson.
Pinterest—My daughters and I recently used the site to learn how to construct a clubhouse using large boxes. It was a great project to go along with our reading of The Case of the Dognapped Cat in reading. I love how you can search for just about any topic and find ideas for crafts, food, games, and so on. (Be sure to follow BJU Press Homeschool!)
The local library—Books and educational videos allow us to dig deep into any subject. Studying mammals in science? Watch some of Planet Earth to be amazed at God’s creation. Learning about early American history? Do what one of my daughters did—check out the entire shelf of books pertaining to the Revolutionary War, and dig deep into the subject.
Travel/visitor’s guides—Nothing makes learning exciting like a field trip. Travel brochures and visitor’s guides for your local area are great for discovering educational sites nearby.

As a busy homeschool mom, you probably won’t be able to enhance every lesson with fun activities. But I’ve learned enthusiasm is contagious—if you are enthusiastic about a subject, your child probably will be too. And you’ll be one step closer to inspiring your child for a lifetime of learning.

Easy Knowledge for Those Who Understand

August 23, 2016 by Ben

“It’s easy for small children to memorize, so memorize as much as possible.” I heard this maxim over and over when I was growing up. And from my experience, I would say it’s true. In our family worship time, my small children memorize the verses and songs far more quickly than I do. It’s certainly worthwhile for children to store up knowledge while they’re young, but is it best to focus on memorization as the main educational approach for small children? Should six- to ten-year-olds primarily memorize for math, science, reading, spelling, and history?

Proverbs 14:6 provides insight into the way we learn: “. . . knowledge is easy unto him that understandeth.” Here the Holy Spirit tells us that knowledge flows best from understanding. What I observe in my own children (ages 6, 4, and 2) is that their useful knowledge is always based on comprehension. I asked some of the educators here at BJU Press to help me understand why focusing on comprehension, even at the youngest ages, is the best approach. Here’s a summary of what I learned.

Avoiding Conditioning for Memorization

When children start learning by memorizing, they become conditioned to think of learning as memorizing. This often leads older children to protest about the expectations in high school. The request to “tell me what is on the test and I’ll memorize it” is characteristic of children who have been conditioned to think of learning as memorizing. In reality, memorizing is a small part of education. An education that prepares children for life is one that prepares them to understand and apply what they’re learning.

Experiencing Education as a Whole

Some children struggle more than others with memorizing. This seems to be the case more often for boys. I know that was my experience. Children who find memorization difficult could come to think that learning isn’t for them even though they may be excellent learners when it comes to higher forms of thinking such as applying, evaluating, and creating. If we as parents focus on the entire educational process, then our children will enjoy learning far more.

Preparing for Success

Sometimes children learn to translate letters on a page into sounds without getting the meaning of the words. Or they can rattle off the math facts for multiplication up to twenty but don’t understand how multiplication is used in everyday situations. Real life doesn’t give us multiple-choice options. It requires skill in using knowledge. That skill demands more than the superficiality of memorization.

I find gratification when my children can recite the facts that I’ve taught them. However, I know that those facts are useless without understanding. That’s why my wife and I ask our children comprehension questions to help them understand. Knowledge will come easiest when they understand.