Inspiring Your Child to Learn – How Do YOU Do It?
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How do YOU inspire your child to learn?
Inspiring your child to learn is an endless and limitless opportunity that you have to make a difference in the life of your child. How you inspire them, however, depends on the child. Inspiration is not a one size fits all shoe. Inspiration comes through creativity, hard work, and persistence. It stems from a passion, and for our family, it is the passion of education. I want my children to love learning, to experience everything, and to instill in them a passion for wanting to learn more. Right now my children are still very young. Inspiring them to learn today will more than likely be very different than inspiring them to learn in ten years! Explore every angle, take every opportunity, and help your child to experience life to the fullest.
The biggest way that I inspire my children to learn to present them with opportunities. Opportunities to explore outside, opportunities to touch and smell something new, opportunities to be curious and ask questions. From the time they were born, and probably far into their future I have always promoted educational opportunities in our family- and within reason at whatever cost. I pursue the interest of my child. My oldest is absolutely obsessed with bugs and critters, so for his birthday party we ordered live ladybugs to release and went on a lizard hunt. We also attended a bug event at our local science museum. Both of my boys love making messes, so I make sure to have plenty of manipulatives that they can use such as clay, foam, paint, dough, sand, and more! Get creative and think out of the box- your kids do!
Inspiring your child to learn can be very simple if you only set aside your pre-conceived notions of rigid structure and allow them the room to ask questions, be curious, and stand behind them giving them the courage to pursue what interests them. Although we are on a tight budget, I try to give every possible allowance for experiencing new opportunities. Recently we purchased an annual pass to our local zoo. Every time we go I allow my kids to choose one or two hands-on animal experiences to enjoy- usually it is feeding the lorakeets. You can’t buy inspiration, but you can open up flood gates of opportunities for your children!
Consider a few of these ideas to inspire YOUR child to learn: filling your shelves with educational books (read to them if they can’t read!), watching educational videos (one of our favorites is Magic School Bus!), go outside (hike at the nature trails, camping, geocaching, beach, parks, even your backyard!), get messy (baking, paint, stamping, etc.), encourage them, invest in their passions, attend community events, volunteer together, take educational vacations (historic locations are great!), encourage them, visit museums (art, history, science, oddities, childrens, and more!), enlist extra help if you don’t know much about their hobby/interest…the possibilities truly are endless!
Intel has a new contest out for students (ages 14-18) called “What Inspires You to Learn?”. (If the child is between the age of 14-17 please have a parent submit on the student’s behalf.) The contest is open from now through August 15, 2011 and winners will be announced on September 15, 2011. (Let me know if your student wins!!) The prize is pretty fantastic too- a laptop with Intel 2nd Generation iCore technology for themselves, plus a Sony Internet TV for their school! I love contests that benefit both the student and the student’s school!
How to Enter
Students need to e-mail their name, age, state, telephone number and answer to the question, “What inspires you to learn?” to [email protected] (minimum 50 words)
Students can link links to original photos, videos, and any other multimedia content that will add to their entry. Please make sure all submitted material is appropriate at school (if it’s something your student would submit to his/her teacher you are OK!). If the material submitted contains content with someone else in it make sure you have acquired written permission from the other person. You cannot use copyrighted material unless you have specific written persmission to use it from the copyrighted material owner.
How Will Entries Be Judged?
Entries will be judged by a panel of educational and Intel experts based on the following things:
1. Relevance to the question- “What inspires you to learn?” (80%)
1. The compelling nature of the entry. (including supplementary materials submitted) (20%)
*Entries will not be made public unless they are selected as one of the finalists.
This sounds like an inspiring and fun contest for students to really share their stories of inspiration. You can read the entire official rules here!
Disclosure: This post was sponsored by Intel. All opinions are 100% my own.
I think this is a great contest. Though, I think the best inspiration and motivation for kids to learn is when they don't think of it as learning – just interesting! 🙂
That's so cool. Wish my son was old enough. I think providing opportunities and hands on experiences are the best options!
~Mimi
What a fantastic idea! I miss the time when my kids were young and we could do educational activities together. Now they're both teenagers and it's not quite the same thing 🙂
That is awesome. Good luck to all those who enter. I love giving my kids "experiences". I told the hubby that even Disneyland is educational for kids because it widens their horizons and stimulates their imaginations.
Learning should be fun! That is how I inspire my children. Thanks for the info! 🙂
like sneaking in a vitamin- sneak in the education! LOL
Great ideas! Learning should not be all about drudgery!