Outdoor Learning: The Right Attitude

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In our last post we focused on why outdoor learning can be so beneficial (Integrating the Outdoors into Your Homeschooling – WinterPromise) In today’s post we will talk about our attitude and posture toward outdoor learning. We want you to know that if you take on the attitude that we talk about today you will be successful in making the outdoors a key part of your homeschooling experience.

Before we jump into the attitude there is an important element to learning that must be emphasized. A key part of the WinterPromise educational philosophy and a truly transformative view of learning is that we learn best when we make a memory. Yes, memories make learning. The best way to reinforce something is to help form a memory around it. How do we do that? By making enjoyment, discovery, and engagement paramount. This means for you the parent, ensuring your student discovers, laughs, and makes meaningful memories when you are learning is the best way to support their learning!

So, how does this connect to outdoor learning and our attitude toward it? Keep reading to find out! The way you view the outdoors will mean success or failure for you in carrying it out. If you place all this pressure on yourself or think that you have to “do” it in a specific way to make it a success then you are probably going to stress more and fail more often in creating meaningful learning experiences outside. The key to using the outdoors in your homeschooling is knowing that you should use them in the way that fits your family culture. What does your day look like? What does your outdoor space look like? How far is it? How old are your kids? How much time do you have to carry it out? All these questions only you can answer and they will help guide you to the right use of the outdoors for your family. So, the right attitude is first and foremost making sure that you actually take advantage of the outdoors by doing what you (and your family) can handle. No extra pressure, just do what you can do, how you can do it.

The second part of the attitude is based around making memories. The goal of integrating outdoor learning and the attitude you should take on is NOT one where a super specific task MUST be completed, or you have failed. No, the goal of outdoor learning is to make memories together while exploring and discovering. This is a very broad range of success and lets the student lead. The key for you is to invest time and energy in simply making a memory with your child. This is the very foundation of learning and will make whatever you do with the outdoors a success.

To review:

  1. Making memories is the best way to reinforce learning.
  2. Your attitude will determine your success and an attitude of pressure is not the right one.
  3. The right attitude is twofold:
    1. Do not feel compelled to use the outdoors in the ways other people may expect. Do what makes sense and fits YOUR FAMILY. Only you can judge that.
    2. Finally, every time you do use the outdoors regardless of how specific you are being in your use, your goal is to make memories with your child through laughter, exploration, and meaningful moments.

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Integrating the Outdoors into Your Homeschooling

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Spring and summer often bring the hope and excitement for being outside. For families in general we understand intuitively that being outside is good for our kids and for us. Families that homeschool usually seek to bring the outdoors into their education for their children. In this new series we will explore how best to take advantage of the outdoors in our homeschooling and what posture we as parents should have toward this important goal.

In this post I would like to focus on the actual reasons that being outside is beneficial for your kids. Likely, most of us already have an idea as to why it is good but may lack specific reasons. When we examine the reasons for why something is true (or why we believe it to be true) we often have better clarity and motivation on that specific topic. With that in mind, here is a list of some of the major reasons the outdoors will enhance and are an important part of education.

More than just a different context, but never less.

First, it is important to realize that the outdoors provide more than just a different context for your students to learn. At the same time, it will never be less than that. At the very least you can take them into different scenery which will help them be more creative and more engaged.

Active students and students that are outdoors experience a general academic benefit.

Similar to the last one this will encourage you that even if you don’t feel you are doing something creative or unique with your outdoor learning you are still bringing broad benefits to your child. Studies show that students who are active and outdoors experience a better education.

It offers learning experiences with all senses engaged.

The outdoors offer a fantastic opportunity for you to engage all of their senses all the time. Even though it is not all focused on what they are learning they are simply more engaged outside when they are touching, feeling, and smelling the outdoors.

Problem solving and nimble thinking is promoted.

When a child is outdoors, they are constantly problem-solving or investigating, even when they don’t realize it. Children walking down a path discussing the trees and soil are at the same time avoiding pitfalls, finding stumps to jump from, and looking (or running from) bugs. So much is happening, and this is very healthy for their minds and development. Kids love it too!

Nature and outdoor curiosity are the foundation of sciences, scientific investigation, and cultivates curiosity.

British educator Charlotte Mason believed that promoting nature learning and curiosity was essential for every student as nature investigation is the foundation of the sciences. Do you want your child to excel in STEM? Get them outside early and often! It develops curiosity, joy in experience, and connects them to the idea that they need to investigate and explore the world around them.

ADHD/busy/fidgety students excel in this environment.

Many of our children are either ADHD or are simply busy and active. Often these students experience one of two extremes. Either they need constant stimulation to stay engaged or they are overloaded with stimulation and need calm and space. The outdoors unique serve both students. The outdoors offer loads of stimulation and experience for students craving engagement. While at the same time, it also provides a calm and soothing context for students normally over-stimulated inside. The outdoors are incredibly designed by God to speak to us and help us. Amazing!

Next time we will discuss how our attitude and posture toward outdoor learning is key to making it a success.

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How Does Understanding Intelligence Help with Homeschooling?

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It was a Wednesday. That worst day of the week — hump day. We’ve all been there.
Sometimes they’re all Wednesdays.

This particular Wednesday was memorable because it was the first day I tried to school
my fourth-born — my “busy” child, better known as my little “terror on legs.” The child that
— as his Sunday school teacher kindly put it — didn’t have a lot of “sit” in him.

Yeah. The woman was a master of understatement.

On this particular Wednesday, it became clear in less than five minutes that what had worked with my older children in the way of schooling and instruction was not going to work for this little blessing from heaven. He’s not a homeschooler, I thought. He’s not even an unschooler.
Then it hit me. He’s a not-schooler. I’m doomed.

You know this child. You probably have one. Or two. Hey, maybe you’ve got a whole pack of not-schoolers at your place. These wonderful children are gifted — we know that. But in moments like these, it seems their only gift is a marvelous ability to make it clear they’re not-lists, not-facts, not-tests, not-sitting-still-in-chairs, and most definitely not-words-on-paper.

My little not-schooler needed something else. But what?

I put the schoolbooks away for that day, a week, more than that. There was no sense in using methods that weren’t going to work, so I did my own homework, and looked for answers. What I found fundamentally changed how I taught my children — all of them — not just my “not-schooler.” In fact, it changed how I related to them, person to person. It was the power of understanding the multiple intelligences. In the years since then, this knowledge has influenced how I talk to my children, how I approach giving them information or encourage them to disclose their thoughts or feelings.

It’s even inspired me to create a curriculum that harnesses the power of multiple intelligences. It’s fundamentally changed how I view the mission of education.  It was out of this search that WinterPromise came to be.  I wanted other parents to be able to reach their kids in a way that truly connects with their student’s own giftedness.

So What Are the Different Learning Styles, or Multiple Intelligences?
As I dug in, I found that the theory of multiple intelligences was first offered by a man named Howard Gardner in 1983 to more accurately define the concept of human intelligence. It was a new way to conceptualize how people think about intelligence, talk about it, and teach to it.  Gardner’s theory helps educators and parents alike to understand the different ways that people take in new material, how they process their world, and even how they interact
with others.

The fundamental point of Gardner’s theory is that there is no such thing as a single intelligence, but rather there are multiple intelligences. Most people are quite gifted in a few areas of intelligence, are capable or average with a few, and are less likely to use or integrate a few others. Gardiner described nine different intelligences.

Each of us is unique in our use of and level of function within each intelligence. So, if we could exactly represent how each person uses and functions in their assortment of intelligences, it would be as if each one of us had an “intelligence handprint.” How many and which fingers were used in the handprint would fairly represent the individual intelligences, and the handprint as a whole — how the fingerprints were laid down, the roll of the hand, the position a person most utilized — would demonstrate how each of us, in our own one-of-a-kind way, functioned in bringing together our favored intelligences to accomplish a task or think about the world around us.

As I looked over Gardner’s list of intelligences, I could see the beginnings of a path to reaching my not-schooler. Gardner’s list of nine intelligences includes these: visual-spatial, verbal-linguistic, logical-mathematical, bodily-kinesthetic, musical-rhythmic, interpersonal, intrapersonal, naturalistic, and existential.

How Does This Make a Real Difference to Parent-Educators Like You and I?
This! Though I had only the first glimmers of understanding in looking over the list, I could already see this was something that made sense with what I saw in my children. My firstborn was a born student: she loved to read, create through art, and complete worksheets. My second born joined her in an enjoyment of school, for he was social, and simply turned school into a way to connect and enjoy learning together through collaboration. My third-born? Loved to think big thoughts and could sit so long he outlasted me. But my not-schooler? It had been difficult to figure how being able to ride a bike without training wheels at the age of two could serve him well as a student.

But now I had a guide! A way to find his intelligence “handprint” and connect to that! I couldn’t wait to find out more, so I delved in farther. It was obvious my little not-schooler had a bodily-kinesthetic intelligence, with all his daredevil antics atop a bike. So finding active ways to engage him was also an obvious conclusion. Not so obvious was discovering that not only did my not-schooler more willingly participate in active learning, but that bodily exertion itself is thought to open up his pathways of learning. Let me repeat that. The acts of moving, jumping, tracing with a finger, tapping a foot in rhythm — it actually opened up pathways to learning in my not-schooler that simply seeing or hearing did not. He
actually learned by the ACT of doing!

The multiple intelligences, then, do not merely describe a child’s preferred learning environment, but in fact suggest optimal ways for children to process  information that enable the child to more rapidly take in information that can be used with greater functionality. As a unique individual, each child has their own learning superhighway, specially designed to transform information input from mere data into learning experiences. The key is for us as parent-educators to find their unique superhighway, and utilize its on-ramps with these optimal learning avenues.

As I began to see my not-schooler’s bodily-kinesthetic intelligence, I also began to see his other intelligences: his visual-spatial intelligence, which was strongly influenced by doing and seeing at the same time, and his intrapersonal intelligence, which enabled him to learn well on his own by trying new things. He actually didn’t mind trying and failing, which my firstborn hated.

To reach all of my children with these newfound insights required me to dive deep into the multiple intelligences, and understand each one’s superhighway with its unique on-ramps. Are you ready for more?

In my next post, you’ll discover each of the nine intelligences Howard Gardner described, so you, too, can discover what learning avenues best connect with each of your kiddos. Find that post here!

Plus, you’ll find out just how WinterPromise’s rich curriculum has been created to reach all of the multiple intelligences in your family!

Kaeryn Brooks, WinterPromise Author

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