Children ask a million questions daily – or maybe hourly. And if we’re honest, we don’t know the answer to a few – or maybe most – off the top of our heads. So what do we do? Well, at some point, parent-teachers quit saying, “I don’t know” and “Let’s learn together” and opted for telling children to google it on their own or even worse the question is shut down as “irrelevant.” For many of us, our default response is one, that whether we like it or not, says learning is something we do until we are “grown” and then we can stop. Is this the message we really want our children to internalize? Can this be at all a healthy view of learning? Certainly not! Let open back up our curiosity and jump back into the learners spot with our students.

What does this look like?

– Maybe it is finding your own topic to discover or question to answer.
– When was the last time your children saw you read something other than the children’s book they bring to you or pages from their text book?
– Maybe it is a family Google session or field trip.
– It’s possible that it becomes a whole unit study.

Your time is yours. You get the make the educational choices for your children and for yourself. Let’s do it in a way that says “we’re in this together” instead of with our actions saying “good luck buddy, you’re on your own.” Take the time to acquire the knowledge, instill the value of lifelong learning, and strengthen your relationship with one another by “sitting in it together.” Learning need not be solitary or complicated. You can keep it smart. You can keep it simple. You can do it together.