Thursday 29 April 2021

Delight Directed Education

After seeing some of the great lego builds by Desiree in her Lego ABC challenge I was inspired to watch  Lego Mastersthis week.  I've been astounded by the creativity of the contestants.One of the things I noticed however was that each team did so much better at their challenges when they were delighted in the concept.  Delight as a concept is something that can hugely impact your homeschooling. 

Last week we explored a round up of posts on Charlotte Mason.  This week I would like to take a look at Delight Directed Education. It's one of those technical words bandied about homeschooling circles that can often leave both new and veteran homeschooling parents wondering what it's all about. I first heard the term when doing a homeschool conference by Greg Harris many years ago in New Zealand and then was reintroduced to the topic when Marcy shared with me that she was using this philosophy to home educate her son Ben.



What is delight directed education?

  • Teaching your student according to their interest and passion.
  • Working with your children's natural curiosity and interest. Ask yourself does this fit in with the individual's strengths, interest and goals?
  • Following those 'rabbit trails' along the way and exploring a topic inspired by your current learning.
  • Looking for a learning opportunity as it presents itself in what you are already doing.

There is no right or wrong way to follow a delight directed educational path.   One of the advantages of incorporating a delight directed approach into your homeschooling is you are able to encourage your student to learn on their own terms, in their own way and help them to take ownership of their education. Delight Directed homeschooling is NOT unschooling.

Greg Harris
 "Delight-directed study is child-responsive, but still parent-supervised. Delight-directed study strategies are more responsive to the interest of the student, without being indulgent. Rather than allow the student to study whatever he sees fit, however he sees fit, delight-directed study urges parents to guide their child’s studies and establish clear accountability for his work." Greg Harris

 You can read the full excerpt from Greg's book here: Delight Directed Studies by Gregg Harris.

Delight Directed Education - a word study

  • Delight - a high degree of gratification, joy, extreme satisfaction, something that gives pleasure. Delight is a more permanent pleasure than joy, and not dependent on sudden excitement.
  • Directed - means Aimed; pointed; guided; regulated; governed; ordered; instructed
  • Education - Education comprehends all that series of instruction and discipline which is intended to enlighten the understanding, correct the temper, and form the manners and habits of youth, and fit them for usefulness in their future stations 

More on Delight Directed Education On the WWW

Have you used a delight directed approach in your homeschooling?  If so what are some tips/secrets that helped you implement this method?

Blessings

Chareen

Featured from Week 3 all things 'C'

Find the other posts here:

  1. A is for Art Lessons at Home
  2. B is for Books Where do You Purchase Yours? 
  3. Charlotte Mason a Round Up of Posts 
  4. Delight Directed Education

This week  over at Our Homeschool Notebook the topic is D is for Display.  

Please link up your posts starting with the letter D for this weeks ABC Blogging. This is a Blog Hop!

 

10 comments:

  1. I think many homeschools probably do this to some small extent. It sure helps children want to learn when they are learning about something interesting to them.

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    1. I agree. I think it's what drives us to find the curriuclum that fits us best.

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  2. I absolutely love this post. I have never heard of this approach before, but it sounds great. I wish I had known about it when my kids were young!

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    1. Don't be afraid of trying it with your teens. I wish I had more fully understood it too especially when my eldest two were in primary school.

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  3. I love that you can combine this with other things to really hit on those things that your child wants to learn. Thanks for some more good resources for me to continue to learn more about how to guide my girls.

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    1. You're welcome. I agree with you Lori :D As homeschool Mom's it's good to know we can implement this whenever we want to .

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  4. it's fantastic to see the learning that can be done when one is delighted by the subject matter.

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    1. I agree. It's an interresting perspective.

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  5. I really love how you defined each word in Delight Directed Education. This is a great round-up. I admit I'm not fully understanding of how to create more of a delight directed homeschool. We do it some, but I'd love to be better at it.

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    1. I've never fully implemented the method either. I agree with Kristen. As home educators we do use this in one form or another.

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