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We’ve gone over the basic idea of what strewing is, and some places in your home you can start – but what exactly should you strew?
I’ve given a few examples already, and I will suggest more. However, each family and child is going to be unique and therefore strewing is going to look different in each home.
Join me for my series on The Art of Strewing.
Strewing More Than Physical Items
When it comes to scattering our children’s paths with interesting things – there is much more involved than just stuff.
Sure, we want to strew interesting resources and physical items for them – but if you stop there you are not utilizing the full potential of strewing.
There is so much more to life and the world that we can place within reach of our kids!
Strewing Ideas
We want our offspring to develop critical thinking skills and discover their own ways of thinking right? So why not strew ideas into their world that make them wonder and seek out answers?
This is easily done through daily communication with our child. We can bring up new ideas or problems at the dinner table. Or you can wait until they ask a question and challenge them with another question.
Kids love to have their ideas heard and have a healthy open dialog.
Ideas don’t always have to be weighty and philosophical either. They can simply be an opinion like – “Is Batman a super hero even though he doesn’t have any super powers?” (this was a recent heated discussion in our house)
Here are some great conversation cards to get you started:
Strewing Opportunities
Strewing learning opportunities at the Renaissance Festival
I know that most of us as parents and home educators probably make an effort to provide fun learning opportunities for our children already.
But did you ever think you were strewing when you did that?
Well, you are!
You can make your event planning and opportunity strewing even more intentional by leaving notes on the calendar, setting out event lists and mentioning local happenings, and planning trips that are themed around your child’s interests.
Don’t get caught up in thinking “big field trip” or “family outing” for all those opportunities either. While it’s great to get out and do something fancy, sometimes it just takes hanging out with someone who works in a trade your child is interested in.
And while we enjoy our fun trips (the zoo, the Renaissance Festival, the art museum), my girls tend to get a lot more out of realistic opportunities.
For example, both of the girls love books and I set it up where they could go over to the elderly neighbor’s house once a week and have book discussion with her.
Raven loves art and she gains more from chatting with artists online and in person than just going to the art museum every so often.
Make sure you are strewing those small opportunities as well because they build relationships and passions.
Strewing With Technology And Media
Homeschooling and Unschooling are easier than ever before simply because of the vast amounts of resources, tools, and information at our fingertips with technology.
It would be silly to hide all that learning wealth from our children and delegate them to a few educational websites and apps.
One of my first reactions now when the girls ask me a question that I don’t know the answer to is to go look it up on the internet. Either we search YouTube for “How-to” videos or we go looking for web pages that we can explore.
Strewing with technology can involve a variety of things:
- Emailing cool finds
- Downloading printables
- Putting specific ebooks and audio onto their devices
- Placing movies and shows into your Netflix Instant Queue
- Buying software programs and hardware (microphone, writing tablet, ereader, etc.)
My only advice would be to not overly rely on strewing technology in order to prevent losing those engaging connections with your children. Technology is to be used in addition to the real world and its people, not as a substitute for it.
Other than that, you can go hog-wild finding cool games and audio books that relate to topics your kids enjoy. You can watch amazing videos together to discover the deepest oceans, the worst parts of history, and how things are made.
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Just remember that strewing involves the whole child – physical, mental, spiritual, emotional, and relational.
The more you focus on learning as it relates to real life and not just broken-up subjects and tasks, the easier it will become to strew. You won’t see a game as a way to get them to sneakily learn math, but as a way to expand their world and their abilities in order to lead a fuller life.
Check back tomorrow as I explain How NOT To Strew – plus enter in a giveaway!
This post is part of the iHomeschool Network Hopscotch – go check out some of the other series that are being featured (and check out the giveaways that are being hosted there)!
Here are the lovely ladies that are participating in the Autumn 2012 Hopscotch:
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