[Tea] What it means to enchant an education...

Welcome to "Tea with Julie," a weekly missive by me, Julie Bogart. My wish is to give you food for thought over a cup of tea to enhance your life as an educator, parent, and awesome adult. Glad you're here. Pinkies up!
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Cincinnati, August 20, 2022

Hi Friend,

An enchanted education is not about spells and magic wands. It's remembering to enhance the context where a child spends time learning. How can we attract a young learner? What causes a child to put in the effort to master a subject?

Enchantment is not about Pinterest-worthy projects or crafts.

Enchanting an education is simply paying attention to what creates an appetite for learning.

Academics are better received by children when the properties of surprise, mystery, risk, and adventure attend them. They are better mastered with some level of routine and measurable progress. The nexus of these elements is what creates and sustains momentum in the homeschool.

You can’t be all parties and you can’t be all workbooks. There needs to be some kind of mixture where the routine provides the sustained practice of academic growth, but the surprises and adventures lead to enthusiastic bursts and deeper dives.

Remember, enchantment can be:

time alone with one child,
adding a cookie to a math lesson,
taking time to do the science experiment rather than just reading about it,
reordering the day to accommodate a morning dress up time,
laying on your bed to do copywork,
sitting outside to read alone,
playing with alphabet magnets on the refrigerator,
watching a movie about history rather than reading about it,
reading historical fiction,
reading any book aloud,
triangling in an expert,
poetry with tea,
staying up late to discuss politics on the bed of your teen,
changing the tools to new ones (gel pens, iPad, writing on sticky notes)…

The aim isn’t to create an arts and crafts homeschool, or even an elaborate series of spectacular events!

The goal is to remember that for kids and teens, rote learning using pen and paper (abstraction) and receptive learning through reading text books is rarely enough to keep the enthusiasm high and the learning applied. Anyone can “enchant” learning because you have heart, connection to resources, and a home filled with space for exploration and coziness.

Take advantage of home (and for teens, take advantage of outside the home)!

That’s the best way to enchant an education.

If you're new to the ways of enchantment and education, my book The Brave Learner is filled with ideas that will give you a great head start.

Warmly,

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