[Creativity] Child’s initiative for problem-solving

One of the reasons I like homeschooling is the amount of time, space and freedom the child gets to solve his own problem creatively.

Being given a problem to solve (often happening in traditional schools) is different from facing your own problem and trying to overcome it. The sense of ownership and motivation are much higher in the latter.

There’re a few cases of HFMD (hand-foot-mouth disease) in kindy, so I’m keeping 4yo Jae at home for a week.

Since it’s post-vacation and post-reno, I needed to tidy up and refresh the learning materials, so the little ones simply played this morning.

After some time, Jae came up and said he needed a round hump for his car.

I suggested using the toilet cardboard roll. So we discussed about cylindrical shape, semi-cylindrical, circle, and semi-circle.

Then decided on the materials to use, including the type of tape.

The semi-cylinder proved too big for his little car, so he suggested making it smaller so that it’s flatter.

Version 1.2 was still too big, so we trimmed it further.

Version 1.3 was just right.

He continued playing happily with the hump while enjoying the real-life application of math and physics. (Little El did the same because I made a similar one for him too.)

After refreshing the materials, we ran through various topics of flashcards (math, pictures and words).

Lunch time, he was still hungry after eating a huge portion, so I casually questioned if there were a worm in his tummy that ate all his food up. He suggested finding out about worms, so we read up on various worms and invertebrates before nap-time.

We’re going to enjoy this week of homeschooling while it lasts.

P.S. Check out my workshops here

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