Ways to Support Interest-Led Learning

Interest-led learning, sometimes called child-led learning, is just what it sounds like, allowing your child's interests to direct their learning. Allowing children to dive into their individual interests is a good way to raise life-long learners who are self-driven and passionate. Below are some ways that you as a parent can support interest-led learning in your homeschool.

Talk to Your Kids

Involve your kids in your homeschool planning. Each summer I sit down with my kids, and we talk about what topics they are interested in learning about during the following school year, then I search for resources to fit those topics. One of the topics my kids asked to learn about this year is mushrooms, so I ordered a couple of mushroom ID books, found a printable mushroom unit study on TPT, and I'm working on a list of documentaries and YouTube videos to work through.

Strewing

Strewing means leaving educational resources, learning invitations, and interesting items around your house where they are easily accessible to your kids, for them to discover and explore on their own. Say your child has been interested in rocks, you could lay out a few books about rocks and minerals, some mineral samples with an ID guide, or a magnifying glass and some rocks to explore. If your child is into art, you could strew a few books about a famous artist and maybe some new art supplies to try.

Frequent the Library

The library is such an amazing resource. Use it! Take your kids weekly and encourage them to pick out books about topics they are interested in. If your child isn't a fluent reader yet, set aside time each day to read them something of their choosing.

Set Up a Creation Station

Set up a space or a cupboard for crafting and tinkering supplies that your kids are allowed free access to so that they can create and build whenever inspiration strikes. Some items we typically keep in our tinkering station includes construction paper, scissors, glue, tape, toilet paper rolls, pipe cleaners, beads, old drink containers, cardboard scraps, cord, beads, wire, yarn, paper cups, balloons, and rubber bands.

If you have a kid who likes Legos or other building toys, set up a Lego table. If you have a budding artist set up an art station with paper, paints, pencils, and pastels. Figure out what your kid loves to do and give them a space to do it.

Journaling

Let your kids pick out journals or make them some notebooking sheets and encourage your kids to write, take notes, doodle, and draw diagrams about whatever happens to pique their interest.

My kids each have several journals for various different topics. We each have a nature journal for sketching and taking notes about interesting plants and animals we come across on our outdoor adventures. My 7-year-old has a zoo animal journal for taking notes and drawing pictures of animals at the zoo. My 12-year-old loves art so she has an artist's notebook for sketching in and for taking notes about her favorite artists or artwork that she likes.

To hear more about using journaling in your homeschool, check out this blog post.

YouTube Playlists

My kids love watching educational videos on YouTube so I often make them playlists with videos on topics they're interested in or that I think they might find interesting. I don't force them to watch, I just make sure that it's accessible to them and that they know it's there.

Set Up a Reading Nook or Corner

Set up bookshelves and an extra comfy spot for your kids to curl up and read. Kids are much more likely to read on their own if they have easy access to a variety of age-appropriate books and have a special place to do it in. My 12-year-old has a reading nook set up under her loft bed and it is probably her favorite spot in the house. It has a small bookshelf stocked with lots of different types of books and magazines. She set up some old couch cushions and a bunch of throw pillows to make a comfortable place to lounge, hung a curtain for a little privacy, and hung some Christmas lights for extra light and to make it look pretty.

Unstructured Time

Probably the most effective thing you can do to encourage child-led learning is to give your kids free, unstructured time to dive into their interests and passions. Make sure they have access to the resources they need to explore the topics they're interested in and then get out of the way. Let them get bored, let them try new things. You'll be amazed at the things they come up with and with the amount of things that they learn.

If you enjoyed this post, check out:

The Benefits of Student-Led Learning

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