In August we look with joy on the notebooks and pens and paper. We’re excited as we hold the books and page through them. We write in our calendars and color code things (okay I don’t, but I’ve seen my children do this and I married this person).

Then a few weeks later, drudgery. It all feels a lot like work. Perhaps it’s the homeschool mom who starts learning time later and later each day so she can relax just a little longer. Perhaps it’s the public school mom who is no longer waiting with cookies and homework time, but instead struggling the morning an assignment’s due to try to figure out what a teacher intended. Perhaps it’s us in our own learning as we find ourselves choosing books that are more brain candy than challenging. Learning is an amazing process. How can we stay motivated and engaged in our learning?

1-Learning is not a place you fall.

girl in schoolThose who know me will recognize this borrow from my concept of love, which is also NOT a place you fall…that’s attraction. Learning is not about circumstances or flash or entertainer-teachers. It is a choice. We chose to learn. We don’t wake up and see if we’re in the mood to learn that day, we chose to learn. In my opinion public school can push us towards thinking learning is a place you fall. You just go to school, teachers teach, homework, multiple choice test, rinse, repeat and learning just happens as long as you sit in the chair and do the work. We have to choose to learn, even when it’s right there in front of us.

Alternately, there are no circumstances which can keep us from learning if that is our choice. I am reminded of Immaculee Ilibagiza who wrote the incredible book Left to Tell. She was hiding in a bathroom with many other woman to survive the Rwandan Holocaust. During that six weeks she asked for books and materials and learned English!

Learning is not a place you fall…it’s a choice. Chose to make the leap every day.

2-There is a difference between creative hard work and drudgery.

woman writing outsideI use Sisyphus a lot. It’s a fascinating myth. He was the guy in Greek mythology who had to push a rock up a hill every day. At the end of the day it’d fall back down and he’d have to get up and do it all over again. Are you there? Doing the same thing over and over and over? Are you feeling frustrated and wondering what the point is in those daily, endless tasks?

What if Sisyphus could leave the rock there? What if he’s not pushing a rock–he’s building a temple? What if all of your daily work builds up to something far greater? It does. Remembering what you are doing and why keeps daily work from become drudgery. Choose your end goal wisely. Remind yourself of it regularly. Do not be Sisyphus!

3-Take time to learn something you are passionate about.

Is what you’re doing killing your love of learning? Why? Is it something you can control? Can you make small changes that can maintain your love of learning? Little children love to learn. You can’t stop them, though sometimes you wish you could. Please, just please, stop asking questions for 5 minutes.

Love of learning dies most readily when we are being told what to learn and the learning process is overly repetitive or irrational. Homework. Studies show it kills love of learning. Yet I have a child in school and I really want his love of learning to not die…even as they pile on the homework. He is starting to dislike his favorite subject.

He is still making time to read. We talk about what he is reading and just enjoy it. I share amazing things I find (and purposefully look for) related to his favorite subjects. Sometimes the discord between learning and what he must do for school is especially annoying to him. But I am cultivating in him, and myself, a knowledge that learning never ends and that brand of learning is exciting.

If drudgery has entered your own studies, take a break and find something in your studies you are passionate about and go. Take time to study what you are interested in at that moment. Let it take you somewhere you didn’t plan on and didn’t schedule.

4-Ask for help.

mother and daughter at computerSometimes our frustration and lackluster studying happens when we are stuck. We can’t quite figure something out and we want to just muddle through it to get it done. We are finishing an assignment instead of learning something. Ask for help. Try Kahn academy, or that crazy friend of yours that loves the subject. Ask a teacher, the teacher doesn’t have to be your teacher. Most teachers I know just love to teach and would be happy to help. Get a tutor. Find a mentor. Seek help so that you can get unstuck and pushed in the right direction.

5-Just add music.

Music makes everything better. It helps you learn and remember. It helps chores go by more quickly. It is amazing and magical. It’s scientifically proven to help your brain. Yet somehow we forget and frequently study in silence. Make yourself a study playlist and turn it on.

6- Take a break.

I know you can’t because of this deadline and that thing and that other thing. Too bad. Take a break. 20 minutes now and then will increase your study time while you are studying. Go outside. Breath. Dance. Kiss someone. Hug someone. Reconnect with the beautiful reality that exists outside of a textbook. Ponder. Rest. Exercise. Taking a short break can allow your mind and body to be energized and ready to work again. It can give you a fresh perspective.

7-Learning is in the interruptions.

Learning at Home

Learning at Home
To read more of Britt’s articles, click the picture.

I love to read. Right now, I’m not reading much. We are attempting to move and buy a house and there are complications and laundry and so much stress. It feels like an interruption in my learning. Learning is IN the interruptions. I am currently learning all sorts of things about mortgage law, power of attorney, well water regulations, appraisers and many other things that I never really wanted to know. Limbo is a great albeit annoying, place to learn. Learn where you are. When I embrace that learning, I am reminded that I am progressing even when many aspects of my life are on hold and most of my books are packed.

About Britt Kelly
Britt grew up in a family of six brothers and one sister and gained a bonus sister later. She camped in the High Sierras, canoed down the Colorado, and played volleyball at Brigham Young University. She then served a mission to South Africa. With all of her time in the gym and the mountains and South Africa, she was totally prepared to become the mother of 2 sons and soon to be 9 daughters. By totally prepared she means willing to love them and muddle through everything else in a partially sleepless state. She is mostly successful at figuring out how to keep the baby clothed, or at least diapered, though her current toddler is challenging this skill. She feels children naturally love to learn and didn’t want to disrupt childhood curiosity with worksheets and school bells. She loves to play in the dirt, read books, go on adventures, watch her children discover new things, and mentor her children. Her oldest child is currently at a community college and her oldest son is going to high school at a public school. She loves to follow her children in their unique paths and interests. She loves to write because, unlike the laundry and the dishes, writing stays done. Whenever someone asks her how she does it all she wonders what in the world they think she’s doing.

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