Discovery Time

 This post is part of my thoughts on educating the kids.
On my original schedule I had called this "Mom School", but I'm calling it "Discovery Time" now to help me keep my goal in mind.

I mentioned in this post that I don't like to require my kids to learn things, and that I have bought into the philosophy that the most important thing I can try to teach them right now (besides a moral foundation) is to love learning.

One way for me to do this is through the TJED principle "You Not Them" which means I show them how exciting it is to learn by working on my own education.

 "Teach ye diligently and my grace shall attend you, that you may be instructed more perfectly in theory, in principle, in doctrine, in the law of the gospel, in all things that pertain unto the kingdom of God, that are expedient for you to understand;

  Of things both in heaven and in the earth, and under the earth; things which have been, things which are, things which must shortly come to pass; things which are at home, things which are abroad; the wars and the perplexities of the nations, and the judgments which are on the land; and a knowledge also of countries and of kingdoms—

  That ye may be prepared in all things when I shall send you again to magnify the calling whereunto I have called you, and the mission with which I have commissioned you." -Doctrine and Covenants 88:78-80

I've been trying to work on this by reading the Great Books, practicing the piano (don't ask me how I"m doing on that one lately), writing about what I learn, memorizing things I like, learning about things the kids are interested in (I know more about praying mantises now that I would have ever thought I'd care to know), and learning about things I want them to be interested in (like reading a book about trees so I could talk about them as we hike).   I'm also trying to learn a little more about the people we read about in Story of the World.   I check out short (okay, children's) biographies from the library and read those myself.

"There are few things more fulfilling and fun than learning something new. Great happiness and satisfaction.... come from this ... Lifelong learning can increase our ability to appreciate and relish the workings and beauty of the world around us. This kind of learning goes well beyond books and a selective use of new technology, such as the Internet. It includes artistic endeavors. It also includes experiences with people and places: conversations with friends, visits to museums and concerts, and opportunities for service. We should expand ourselves and enjoy the journey" -Dallin H. Oaks

I really haven't been doing a great job on making these things more of a priority lately.  I have to get back on the ball (I was doing good before Christmas break) and set aside at least 1 hour of study time for myself when the kids are studying (so they can see me doing it) and for at least on hour after they go to bed (so I can get some uninterrupted study time in there).

Discovery Time is the time that I share what I've learned with the kids.  Here are some examples of what I mean:

-I was looking through the educational children's videos at the library and I came across a series of videos about different artists.  I wanted us to learn about different artists, so every week I check out a video and a couple of books about one of the artists, and then for Discovery Time we read the books and watch the video.

-Sometimes it helps me to look at the elementary school curriculum to get an idea about what some fundamentals are in education.  I recently saw that 4th graders are learning some basic chemistry so I got a couple of basic books about chemistry and we'll sometimes do an experiment for Discovery Time.

-I have a CD that puts the times tables to classical music.  Each time table is set to a different musician.  Bud is working on his 3s times tables.  The 3s are set to Bach, so I decided to learn more about Bach.  We have a video about him, a couple of books, and his music.  The other day we all laid on the floor with our eyes closed and listened to one of his songs.  Then we all drew the images that came to our head while we were listening.

-The kids love Bill Nye the Science guy, so I might check out one of his videos about eyeballs, for example, and a book or two about eyeballs.

Basically, my goal is to expose them to a variety of interesting things so they can start to see how exciting the world and the people in it are.  They will want to know more.

Unfortunately, Discovery Time seems to be one of the first things to go when I'm short on time.  I'm going to make sure I get my morning started on time so that we are able to do it most every day.  It's really such a fun part of our day!