Written by Carol Barnier
\nPublished with Permission
\nwww.TOSMagazine.com<\/p>\n
\u201cCarol,\u201d my friend quizzically began, \u201cwhat are you and your kids painting on the wall of your garage?\u201d<\/p>\n
My children and I were throwing large orange brush strokes over the white drywall. \u201cThis is our re-creation of the Aurora Borealis in Alaska!\u201d I gushed.<\/p>\n
\u201cWow. That\u2019s . . . big. Are you guys doing a unit study on Alaska?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNo. Actually we\u2019re in a study about musicians from the Baroque period.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThen, why the wall?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause the sea monkeys aren\u2019t done breeding yet.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cCome again?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cOver in the corner. Our sea monkey population has to peak and wane before we can throw them out. That\u2019s why we\u2019ve started building a trebuchet in the backyard.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cUm . . . and what does all this have to do with Baroque musicians?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWell,\u201d I began with enthusiasm, \u201cwe started off with Vivaldi, who taught music in an orphanage, which someone said was right next to a bakery, which took us to a quick study on yeast, which we decided look remarkably like sea monkeys, which . . .\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cStop right there.\u201d My friend\u2019s face seemed concerned. \u201cI\u2019m already exhausted. You\u2019re not helping. I\u2019m gonna go take a nap.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAlrighty then! We\u2019ll see ya tonight at our octopus dissection!\u201d<\/p>\n
This is how learning sometimes seems to go in our house. I may be exaggerating just a bit in the above dialogue, but not by much. We do sometimes head down some rather interesting and unintended trails. I\u2019ve grown so fond of it that I\u2019ve not only learned to embrace it, but I\u2019m even developing it into a whole new curriculum method. It\u2019s called Rabbit Trail Education.<\/p>\n
A study of one thing brings up an interesting question, which we track down, which might lead to another question, which we track down. (Rinse. Repeat.) And before you know it, a study on Gladys Alyward\u2019s missionary work in China has us out in the local woods, scouting and classifying mushrooms.<\/p>\n
Let\u2019s start with a confession. I have a mind that loves distractions. There. I admit it. I delight in finding a new question that begs for an explanation. I love tracking down answers to questions that just pop up in the course of a typical study. Following a prearranged lesson plan to the letter, with no deviations, is almost painful for me. I used to despair at this truth about myself. I worried that this was going to damage my children\u2019s education\u2014that there would be huge gaps in their package of learning. But over the seventeen or so years I\u2019ve been doing this, I\u2019ve found good reasons to relax. In fact, I\u2019ve even found there have been some benefits to this method of study.<\/p>\n
Learning and information are exciting. My kids have absorbed an unintended lesson: learning is an adventure. This method has a sort of Indiana Jones feel to it. We\u2019re exploring, mining truths and facts from the dull dry ground, retrieving a sparkling gem of interest. Anything that piques their curiosity is information ripe for the plucking. Lessons are not rote or drill or drudgery when they are propelled by a question that your kids want answered.<\/p>\n
It sticks better when it\u2019s relevant. You might have a child who asks what type of stone the pyramids were made of. You might even say to them: \u201cThat\u2019s a great question, but we won\u2019t be looking at Ancient Egypt till you\u2019re in fifth grade. So let\u2019s get back to Daniel Boone.\u201d Okay. That\u2019s not unreasonable. But if you answer questions when they arise, when the child has an expressed interest, when it\u2019s tied to something that is meaningful to them, their retention of the final answer is greater. You can wait for two more years when the question appropriately fits into your lesson plans, but by then, your students may no longer have an interest in what the pyramids are made of. They\u2019ll learn the answer long enough to fill in a blank on a test, but the spark of interest that made it intensely fascinating is now gone.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s active, not passive. Much learning comes in a rather passive package: read this, fill in the blanks, take a test. This is a method for learning. Don\u2019t get me wrong. Many curriculum packages use this method and the students do indeed learn. But it is passive learning. Information is handed to them, prepackaged, ready for consumption.<\/p>\n
It is a very different experience to have a question with no answer. That requires an active approach to learning and information. That not only makes learning more interesting, but it prepares kids for exactly the kind of approach and discipline needed by scientists, researchers, and analysts of any sort.<\/p>\n
It ties the world together. You might think that this Rabbit Trail Approach would lead to a disjointed view of the world of information, but I have found it to be exactly the opposite. At its core, this method is all about connections. The very reason that a question comes up in the mind of a child is because of something else that is connected to it. It doesn\u2019t take very long to start seeing connections everywhere. Things that seem to have no relation whatsoever, in fact, if you look, are tied somehow to everything else. This is truer in the study of history perhaps than in any other subject. I don\u2019t know about you, but when I left school, even college, I couldn\u2019t tell you if Cleopatra was a contemporary of Shakespeare or if the Crusades happened before or after the fall of the Roman Empire. It was all a blur of memorized dates without connections. The Rabbit Trail Approach, over time, actually pulls more things together, recognizing the touch points that each person, place, or event has with other things.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a family activity. This is perhaps my favorite of the benefits. Unlike many learning moments that have children sitting off by themselves, reading something or filling in a workbook, this method requires people to get up, get moving, and get going. It often requires Mom and Dad to lead the way, finding resources with answers. In other words, learning is a group activity. Your children could read about longitude and latitude from a textbook, or they could learn about coordinates from the family activity of geocaching (www.geocaching.com). Even if it\u2019s simply something best answered by a trip to the Internet, you still tend to see Mom typing on the keyboard with all her children gathered round, excitedly watching as the answer unfolds. For me, this aspect of homeschooling has brought about one of the best gifts in the world of education. I finally get to have the great education that I wish I\u2019d gotten in childhood.<\/p>\n
I know this method is not for everyone. Some mothers would soon be overcome with the uncertainty and angst. Such academic flitting about would be almost frightening. If you\u2019re happier with a clear, sequenced plan that is predictable and sure, there\u2019s nothing wrong with that. In fact, many teachers successfully teach this way, and many students successfully learn. You guys already know you\u2019re fine. But the moms who need this message are the ones who are more like me, who are delighted by new discoveries, who love the energy that accompanies a child\u2019s desire to know more, who enjoy learning right alongside their kids.<\/p>\n
If you\u2019re a mom who would just love to follow the delight of the moment, I want to assure you that it\u2019s all good. This is not a mistake. God can use the delight-driven learning method that comes naturally to you as well as He can use the more structured, traditional model.
\nYou are now free to pursue learning that doesn\u2019t take a linear path, that meanders, that finds joy in the unexpected. There are so many benefits to such learning that you can rest in the knowledge that you are still serving your kids well. You may have to check your lesson plan every now and then to make sure all the boxes have check marks in them by the end of the year, but don\u2019t hesitate to go with the curiosity-driven lesson. The payoff will be a school that zings with possibilities and kids who will have a lifelong love of learning new things.<\/p>\n
Carol Barnier, author of three books, is a popular conference speaker who is known for mixing serious topics with equally serious humor. Learn more at carolbarnier.com or www.sizzlebop.com.<\/p>\n
Copyright 2012, used with permission. All rights reserved by author. Originally appeared in the January 2012 issue of The Old Schoolhouse\u00ae Magazine, the family education magazine. Read the magazine free at www.TOSMagazine.com or read it on the go and download the free apps at www.TOSApps.com to read the magazine on your mobile devices.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Written by Carol Barnier Published with Permission www.TOSMagazine.com \u201cCarol,\u201d my friend quizzically began, \u201cwhat are you and your kids painting on the wall of your garage?\u201d My children and I were throwing large orange brush strokes over the white drywall. \u201cThis is our re-creation of the Aurora Borealis in Alaska!\u201d I gushed. \u201cWow. That\u2019s . […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[81,79],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1865","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-burn-out","category-classroom-help"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arkansashomeschool.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1865","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arkansashomeschool.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arkansashomeschool.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arkansashomeschool.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arkansashomeschool.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1865"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/arkansashomeschool.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1865\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1866,"href":"https:\/\/arkansashomeschool.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1865\/revisions\/1866"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arkansashomeschool.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1865"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arkansashomeschool.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1865"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arkansashomeschool.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1865"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}