How Do You Know if Your Child is Ready?

Chapter 2 from The Basics of Learning and Homeschooling and the course by the same name.

Readiness:

Definition: “State or condition of an individual that makes it possible for him or her to engage profitably in a given learning activity -- learning readiness depends on such factors as past experiences, cognitive development, affective factors, and motivation as well as on the instructional methods and materials to be used.”

How can you tell when your child is ready to learn a specific skill or topic?

I usually let my children lead by the questions they ask and the things they start attempting to do. At times, I will try a new topic with one of them just to see if they are ready. If they show interest and attempt it and seem to be able to do it with some success, I will help them and give instruction where they need it, being careful to encourage and praise and not get too picky or demanding or impatient with them.

Durenda Wilson says this about finding out if a child is ready to learn a certain skill or concept:

“Find out where they are developmentally - not where they “should be” but where they are - don’t focus on their inabilities, focus on their abilities, then go down that road with them, let them pursue the things that they’re interested in.”

Durenda Wilson wrote a book called The Unhurried Homeschooler, and in this post I use quotes from a talk she gave based on that book.

Giving our kids time to play and learn and to think and process what they are learning is so important.

Durenda Wilson’s book title “The Unhurried Homeschooler” reminds me of “The Hurried Child: Growing Up Too Fast Too Soon” written by David Elkind back in the 80’s. The premise of this book was that Americans expose children to ideas, concepts and experiences that are too mature and too complex for them to process. This leads to insecurity and low self-esteem, among other issues that are very harmful to children.

Elkind has also written articles that discuss the value of play. Play is extremely important in the development of children’s understanding of the world around them. Letting children play with toys, objects, words, and different media helps them to learn, discover, and relate to the way things work and to find out what they are capable of.

Not everything should be planned or organized for our children. We should let them plan and organize for themselves. They will develop a deeper understanding of the concepts they explore and observe for themselves than they would from watching someone else do it. They also learn to plan and organize when we let them do it for themselves! They learn by doing. They develop readiness for more advanced skills and knowledge as they practice and try new things.

So let them explore; let them play. There is great value in masterly inactivity, which means “wise and purposeful letting alone”.

Charlotte Mason’s Home Education Series vol. 3, p. 27.

Sometimes we parents and homeschool teachers try to interfere too much in their natural learning process. Invite, encourage, and inspire your children to want to learn more. Make it seem attractive to them. Explain to them the benefits of learning to read and write and count. They can explore new worlds of imagination, learn about things they want to know more about, and be able to play certain video games if they learn how to read. ;) They can find out how much money they have and how much candy they can afford to buy if they learn how to add and subtract. They can tell other people what they’re thinking or order them around if they learn how to write. :)

Don’t try to make them do things that are not developmentally appropriate. Don’t push them to do academic work before they are ready. Let them play and learn from their play until they show that they want to do more academic types of activities. They will naturally progress to maturity and a desire to learn more about reading, counting, arranging, organizing information, and finding out more about subjects they’re interested in. Model for them reading and researching techniques that you use yourself.

Invite them to learn how to read, how to write and how to count and add and subtract. Make it attractive and desirable to them. They may still need more time for the necessary growth and development to take place before their brains and bodies are ready, but if the desire is in place, then learning will be more likely to begin to take root and to grow naturally as they reach toward it and stretch themselves to a new stage of development or toward the acquisition of a new skill.

Be a student of your child. Watch them and listen to them and find out what they love, what delights them. It may be something that you are not the least bit interested in, but help them find resources that will help them learn more and develop their skills in that area. They may find out that it’s a temporary interest, or they may find out that it is their passion and the thing that they were put on Earth to do! The point is that we need to support them and help them in whatever way we can.

“Look for where God is working and join Him.”

Durenda Wilson

“Facilitate what God orchestrates!!!”

Durenda Wilson

Natural curiosity makes them want to learn.

“Encourage their curiosity, don’t kill it with book work.”

Durenda Wilson

If we try to force them to learn something they are not ready for, we risk damaging their self-image or causing them to dislike learning. We want to instill a love and desire for learning. It is more important that they are ready and able to assimilate the new information than that we are able to check off a box on a checklist that says we covered a particular topic or lesson. If the child didn’t really learn the information or skill, then we really didn’t cover it after all.

Action steps:

1. Pray for wisdom to raise and teach this child according to their abilities, interests, and future calling.

2. Observe your child while they play, and see what they are interested in and what they are attempting to do on their own. If you see something that they are struggling with, offer to help them. This is the earliest form of teaching. And it counts!

3. Intentionally think about the skills they need in order to accomplish the kinds of play and projects they want to accomplish. If they need better balance, help them to walk on a balance beam of sorts. If they need better skill with a pencil, give them lots of opportunities to practice writing with a pencil, crayon, paintbrush, writing in sand, shaving cream, etc. and give them feedback and support. If they need to learn the letter sounds, read to them and point to the letters making the sounds as you point to them. If they seem to want to organize things, offer ideas or language to describe what they are doing.

4. Give them lots of art and craft materials to play with. Let them explore and experiment. Only give them instruction and guidance and help from time to time, mostly when they ask for it, not constantly.