Hi, welcome to this week's mindset video. This week, I'd like to discuss a term called “Scholé” with you. You can only dig so deep into the world of home education without hearing about this buzzword.
It has become increasingly popular in the past few years, but the concept has been around for a long time. The word scholé is where we derive our word school from. It's a Greek word that means leisure or restful learning.
We've come a long way in transforming this word, which once meant restful, leisurely, or joyful learning, into a more traditional view of school, emphasizing rigor and work, and something that is not necessarily pleasant.
Today, let’s discuss what it means to embody the spirit of restful learning, how to bring it into your home, and how to create an environment that fosters scholé for your children to learn in.
The true meaning of Scholé: restful learning explained
Scholé means allowing time, allowing space, and encouraging activities such as contemplation of ideas, meaningful conversation, reflection on a particular topic, or personal thoughts and ideas about the topic. Time for rumination on these ideas.
And it also means an appreciation for learning for learning's sake. So, an appreciation of literature, art, music, or even some of the other subjects, like science. You can have an appreciation for the beauty and the wonder that is science, and you can really apply this to any subject.
It involves slowing down and taking time to delight in the learning process, engaging with it for its own sake, not for checking something off a to-do list, attaining a particular objective, or satisfying a school assignment, but rather because it is delightful.
That's what Scholé is.
How to incorporate Scholé into homeschooling preschool
There are a few ways to incorporate it into your home, especially with very young children who are just starting their educational journey: focus on quality over quantity.
Completing one deep, meaningful, and memorable learning activity is worth more than 10 or 20 superficial moments of just going through the motions or completing a worksheet. (Not that worksheets cannot also be meaningful learning activities, but they tend to be more superficial.)
You want to focus the majority of your time and effort on things that go a little bit deeper, such as having especially deep and meaningful conversations with your child over a particular topic. These don't have to take a long time, especially with little kids, as they don't have a huge attention span.
It doesn't mean that they need to be 20-minute conversations. Instead, you really engage with them on a topic, answer their questions, or discover those answers if you don't already know what it is.
Scholé provides them with a sounding board to think for themselves, validating their thoughts and allowing them to express their feelings on a topic. This approach teaches them that this is a worthy use of their time.
These are all good Scholé ideas that are a great way to promote your child's engagement with the learning process in a very pleasurable way.
Reading and Scholé: building deeper learning through stories
Another wonderful way to bring Schole into your home is through reading. So, choose your favorite stories from when you were a kid and share those with your child. Choose some really great high-quality literature that uses a wide range of vocabulary, complex sentence structure, or delightful and inventive word choices to broaden that vocabulary for your child, whether they're classic books from a long time ago or brand-new ones.
There is a ton of really high-quality literature being written these days for children of all ages. Take the time to sit leisurely with your child and enjoy these stories together, discussing them as you go. The point is not to sit down and accomplish the 20 minutes of reading that you wanted to do with your child today or to get through the book from cover to cover, but it's where you're going to sit down, and you're really going to enjoy this story and talk about it meaningfully and take time to laugh over it or take time to ask questions about it or ponder, well, what if this had happened instead? And things like that.
Take time to make connections between the story and other things your child is learning, as well as between this story and a different one you've read. Or perhaps between this story and something that's happened in your child's real life. Those are the Scholé moments that really prompt your child to go much deeper than just a superficial reading of a story.
Why child-led exploration is key to Scholé
Another Scholé activity is to let your child be particularly interested in a topic or engrossed in something, and to set aside whatever you had planned as a learning activity for that day, allowing them to be fully absorbed in what truly interests them. That's where you'll get the most learning, excitement, and passion for learning when you capitalize on moments when your child is interested in a topic.
A great way to bring Scholé into your home is to look for those moments and not worry too much about getting off schedule or rearranging some things. Take that additional time to really dive into what your child is interested in at the moment, whether it's sharks, space, ballet, or whatever it is, and really let your child exhaust their interest in that topic.
Exploring beauty: art, music, and the Scholé mindset
As I said, a lot of Scholé is simply appreciating things for their own sake: taking the time to notice beautiful art, poetry, and music. Another thing you can do just as you're going about your daily activities is turn on different types of music, everything from classical to bossanova to jazz, and each day you could try a different kind of music and have it on in the background while you're doing your chores, see what your child seems to respond to or is interested in, and then maybe talk to them a little bit about it.
Look up a few things about that style of music or that particular artist. And you can do the same thing with art. You can bring them over to the computer and show them, say, 'Hey, look at this that I found,' and pull up some impressionist paintings, portraits, or Picassos, or whatever style you like, and share those with your child.
Talk to them about it. See if it inspires them to want to get out paint or crayons and make some art. Even better if you have the time to visit an art gallery nearby or appreciate a variety of art forms, such as street art or beautiful murals in your town. Just take a moment to stop and notice those and point them out to your child, and appreciate those things.
That's Scholé, and it really gets your child thinking, noticing, processing, remembering. It really engages their brain more than just a school activity, such as, “We're going to sit down, and we're going to complete this activity about this objective that your child is really not necessarily invested in.” We're invested in that because it's on our to-do list, and it's an objective that we know they need to learn. Still, your child doesn't necessarily have any reason to be invested in that objective, and so if we follow their lead, we usually get a lot more out of the experience.
Why meaningful conversations are essential for homeschooling
Valuing conversation. Conversation is such a fantastic vehicle for learning. It's often underrated as a way to help your child learn, access information, and develop their cognitive skills. Talk to your child a lot and give them the opportunity to talk to you and to express their ideas. Really hear them and actively listen: “That's a really interesting question. Tell me more about that”. Or ask them for their opinion. “What do you think about this?” And really engage them in conversation on everything from the storybooks that they read to the television shows that they're watching to whatever game they're playing.
It'll pay off.
It's really, really the best vehicle for learning that you can have with your child. The Greeks, after all, who came up with Schole, made a whole thing out of learning through conversation, the Socratic method of asking questions in order to really get to the bottom of your thoughts on something.
So it's probably the number one best thing, maybe up there with reading. I'm not sure which one is better, but between reading and conversation, that's so much of the game right there.
I hope that you've been inspired to learn more about Scholé, incorporate some of its elements into your home, and incorporate a little bit of that thought process into your interactions with your child.
Again, I encourage you to look it up and learn more about it if you're interested. There are various groups, including Facebook groups and practice sessions for school, as well as numerous books and articles on the subject.
We'll see you next week.