Kids answering their own questions

I have really enjoyed reading, Project-Based Home Schooling: Mentoring Self-Directed Learners. Lori Pickert succinctly (and with much more experience than me) articulates the views I've been forming over the years. I won't summarise her work, since it is worth looking at her blog and the book itself.

As a result, I have a few new habits I am working on. I have already mentioned that I think it is important for children to learn to ask good questions. The complementary skill is to be able to pursue answers to their questions. I got to practice this with Mr 4 year old the other day.

Mr 4 loves belts. Belts make him happy because they allow him to carry swords and daggers. He recently lost his precious belt. There has been a time of grief. At a visit to the second hand store, he found a new (old) belt. We bought it. Outside the store, he tried it on and realised it was too big. He was a bit emotional. I almost stepped in and suggested we take it to the leather shop to get more holes punched in it. But I had just been reading this,

Remember to let your child's ideas take precedence. Try to maintain a calm, open attitude and allow him to own his own excitement and interest.
Don't take over. Don't flood him with your own ideas; write them in your journal and save them for later. You may not need them, or your child may come to them on his own. Or, your child may have better ideas – ones you never anticipated. He may take his learning in an entirely unexpected direction. Keeping track of your own ideas can help you stay alert to possibilities, but make sure your child is focused on his ideas, not yours. Let him make the discoveries, and let him chart his own course. Project-Based Home Schooling: Mentoring Self-Directed Learners pp.86-87

So, I shut my mouth and calmly asked for his ideas to solve the problem. There was no real hurry to find a solution. It was a great opportunity where his motivation was high and he could test all sorts of ideas until he found one which worked for him.

At home, Mr 4 raced to the stationery box and pulled out the hole punch. This did not work. Again, he was a bit emotional. As I fed the baby, Mr 4 talked through some other ideas he had to make holes. He tried (carefully?!) stabbing the belt with kitchen scissors. It did not work. He considered finding a needle from his sister's sewing bag, but it could not be found.

At this point, I asked if he could think of anyone else who might have suggestions. No ideas. So, I asked what the belt was made from. As he felt it, he realised it was the same as the stuff we got from the leather shop recently. Then, he put the information together and realised we could ask the people at the leather shop for information and help. But Mr 4 wanted holes in his belt immediately.

Next, I "wondered aloud" about how we get holes in other hard surfaces. He looked around the room and talked about how we make holes in timber. He suggested a "screwdriver". So, without saying what I thought of his suggestion, we decided to look at the tools in the garage.

And there it was. Mr 4 spotted the power drill. We worked out what we would need to put under the belt and took it inside to see if the power drill was our solution. I helped steady the drill while Mr 4 went to work. The drill worked wonderfully and Mr 4 was satisfied being able to lead himself through a complex problem to a solution.

The biggest challenge for me was to stop myself saying, "That won't work because...". The other challenge was saying, "yes" to the messy, unpredictable, meandering process. I'm glad I went with it. It was a buzz for both of us. Small steps to a new habit, I hope.