Hi, welcome to this week's mindset video. This week, I want to talk to you a little bit about a term called “Scholé”. You can only dig so deep into the world of home education without hearing about this buzzword.
It's become increasingly popular in the past few years, but it's a concept that's been around forever. 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 turning this word, which once meant restful, leisurely, or joyful learning, into a more traditional view of school as far as rigor and work, and something that is not necessarily pleasant.
Today, let’s discuss what it means to embody this spirit of restful learning, how to bring it into your home, and how to provide an environment that embodies scholé for your children to learn in.
So, one thing I wanted to talk to you about was a few things you can do to create this atmosphere in your home.
The true meaning of Scholé: restful learning explained
Scholé means allowing time, allowing space, and encouraging things like contemplation of ideas, meaningful conversation, reflection on a particular topic, or your own thoughts or 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 and 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 and engage 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 engaging with the process because it is delightful.
That's what Scholé is.
How to incorporate Scholé into homeschooling preschool
There are a few ways that you can incorporate it into your home, especially with very young children who are just starting in their educational journey: really focus on quality over quantity.
Accomplishing one deep, meaningful, 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 do have a tendency 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 engaging 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, discussing them together. The point is not to just 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 when your child is particularly interested in a topic or engrossed in something to throw aside whatever it is that you have planned as far as a learning activity for that day and to allow them to be absorbed in what that is that they're really interested in. 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.
So, a great way to bring Scholé into your home is to look for those times and not worry too much about getting off schedule or shuffling some things around. Take that additional time to really dive into what your child is interested in at the moment, whether it's sharks or space or the 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 just appreciation for things by themselves: 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 type of music and just 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 just show them, say, Hey, look at this that I found, and pull up some impressionist paintings or some portraits or some Picassos or whatever style, 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 activates their brain so much more than just a school activity of, “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, but 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 an amazing 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.
So, I hope that you've been inspired to learn a little more about Scholé, incorporate some of those 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 lots of books and articles about it. So there's a lot of information out there if you want to learn more and get more ideas. But I hope that this has inspired you to look at learning from the Greek perspective of leisure, restful learning, and joyful learning, and to bring some of that into your home. We'll see you next week.