The Elements of The Spark Station-The Best Homeschooling Tool

by Mary Ann on April 30, 2010

The Spark Station, in many cases is just that, a closet. It is most effective when it is located in the room where your family has “family learning time” or where your family gathers to spend time together if you do not homeschool. Its purpose is to keep interesting and inspiring materials close at hand so that children have a magical and exciting place to learn.

The Spark Station is organized so that items for the smallest children are on the bottom shelves, while materials for older children are higher up. For those engaged in the Thomas Jefferson Style or leadership education style of learning, the materials on lower shelves are for Core phase children, while materials on higher shelves are for those in the Love of Learning phase. The highest shelves can hold materials fo those older children in Scholar phase.

If possible Spark Station should be locked or secured away from children when the family is not having their structured family learning time or when the family is not interacting together. It should be wide open during those  times and locked when no one is supervising. Having times when The Spark Station is not available builds value and interest in The Spark Station contents.

The Spark Station is a tool used to help parents inspire their children, at all ages, to love learning. This applies equally to those who homeschool and those who utilize the public or private school system. A well organized, well used, and well understood Spark Station can benefit any child in any family regardless of the educational goals of the family.

The Spark Station is really a vital tool or ingredient of success in the Core and Love of Learning phases.

In future blogs I will address what to do when you do not have an actual closet available, what to put in The Spark Station, and how to manage it. I will help you understand the concept of “Spark Station” and how it can be used to help parents inspire their children.

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Creating a Magical Learning Space for Kids

by Mary Ann on April 30, 2010

Did you experience a magical place in your childhood that just thinking about it now makes you excited? I had one. It was at my grandma’s house. My grandmother taught first grade for over thirty years. I loved going to her home. She had a closet, a cupboard really, that I couldn’t wait to open.

 

It was filled with pencils, pens, crayons, scissors and paper of every kind and description. Some were large sheets of newsprint, or long rolls which made fabulous banners. Some was the grade school type with extra wide spaces for beginning printers. There would be colored paper and lined paper, as well as stationary. Some papers were folded and stapled into books. These always lured me the most. They held the possibility of the next best selling novel of  The Land of Oz or another sketch book just as wonderful as those done by John Muir. There was the possibility of a journal made famous by its rich contents or the beautiful art work so strategically placed in its pages. Often these wonderful plans were discarded after a few days, weeks or months but the love of writing and drawing remained. The possibility of doing something important still lay in the heart waiting for a time to begin to grow. Hers was a cupboard of possibilities.

 

My grandmother’s cupboard was a perfect example of a powerful tool of inspiring—The Spark Station.  The Spark Station helps families inspire their children to love learning and exploring. It is a must for parents who home school or for those who want their public or private school children to thrive.

One of the keys of leadership education is to inspire within a child a sense of wonder, excitement and possibility, in other words, a love of learning. When this sense of wonder and possibility become the norm for a child their learning thrives. The Spark Station is a core tool in inspiring this sort of magical learning environment.

This blog is dedicated to supporting parents as they work to develop magical and wondrous learning spaces and experiences designed to inspire their children to love learning.

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