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The Natural Path to Learning for Your Child - An Introduction

My wife, Bobbie, and I have beenbefore). The child learns and we support
teachers all of our adult lives. We haveand guide.
spent many years in both public andThe Ultimate Goal is for each of our
private institutions and, havingchildren to become an independent
survived a few years, we have seenlearner. This is kind of scary for some
almost every teaching innovation and/orof us parents but it is the necessary
gimmick the world has experienced.goal. We are to give our kids Roots and
Bobbie is an accomplished musician andWings -- and eventually, the Wings must
music teacher in elementary grades andtake over.
college. I have taught in the fields ofThe Natural Path to Learning is based on
reading, spelling, math, and history atthe idea that each of us learns in our
the elementary, junior/senior high andown unique way, at our own special pace.
college levels. We have both done a lotOne Size Does Not Fit All Children. Many
of work with learning theory -- on howschool and home school programs are set
people learn.out in a sequential, rigid pattern and
We have gathered together all of thethe child must learn in that pattern and
ideas that we believe can be calledat the rate required to be on grade
Natural -- as opposed to Artificial. Forlevel or to not "get behind." NPL
example, it is Natural for a parent torequires that the program be fitted to
take Andy for a walk in the stroller andthe child not the child fitted to the
while walking and talking, the parentprogram. Our child will be learning the
can say, "Look at the beautiful flowers.skills and information at his own pace
These red flowers smell nice, don'tand in his own best learning pattern.
they? These blue flowers are pretty,Your child, and not the program, is at
too, and they are bigger than the redthe center of the learning process.
flowers." In context and in a natural,Fortunately, and very happily, we have
real way, the child has learned aboutreal experiences to share with you. Two
'flowers,' 'red,' 'blue,' 'big.' Thisyears ago we were presented a gift in
has given the child a meaningfulthe form of our great grandson, Reese.
experience for the words and concepts.We, again fortunately, live in the same
Later, we'll go shopping and say, "Andy,city as Reese and his Mom and Dad so we
shall we buy some of these green applesget to spend a lot of time with him. We
or those red ones."will be sharing with you many of the
Contrast this with the more oftenliving, learning experiences we enjoy in
techniques used in "teaching the Kidsour relationship with Reese. In the
their colors." Out comes the blocks ormeantime, we will be submitting articles
color strips or worksheets and the kidstaken from our book, The Natural Path to
are supposed to differentiate among theLearning.
colors. This is Artificial or at leastBy the way, we will be using a lot of
Contrived -- It is not Real Experience.critical thinking and creativity
Learning, rather than Teaching, is theexperiences which sadly have been
process. Learning is as natural asdisappearing from our school lessons --
breathing. We learn from the environmentit is almost impossible to write
around us and from the people who existachievement test items that include this
with us. We can't keep our kids fromkind of right brain activity. So, if you
learning. So what are we as parents towant to raise your test scores stay with
do with our kids? We take advantage ofthat left brain only memorization and
all of those real life learningfact recall. However, if you want to
opportunities and channel them into thebroaden and deepen the learning, let's
things we call reading, writing,get to the right brain stuff, too.
arithmetic, science, history, andWe'll have more commentary on testing in
whatever else exists -- from birth (andfuture articles.



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