Franco’s blog

Ways to learn

Welcome back!

There is so much to learn as a Dad. There is so much to learn as a child.

But have we spent enough time to step back to think about what learning is all about? My experience is that the best learning can happen anywhere we want. So much more is happening outside of school. I wish I understood this a lot earlier.

Here are 3 things for you to take away in this lesson:

Active & Passive

Let's start with my definitions of learning:

Active learning is when someone tells you what to learn and how to learn on a set schedule and on a specific topic. Just think about the Math class you took in school.

Passive learning is when no one tells you what to learn or how to learn. There is no time limit or a topic. You let your mind wander. You stumble upon different people, materials, knowledge, and situations that resonate with your interests and curiosity.

I can't stress enough about the magic of passive learning from what I've witnessed in my kids.

Let's talk about language. When my daughter was about 13-14 months old, even if she couldn't quite express what she wanted with words, she could perfectly understand most instructions that we gave her.

When my son was about 2 and a half, he could hold a pretty-much full-on conversation with an adult on his favorite subject matters - cars and trains.

Schools and classes have their benefits. I wouldn't deny that. But don't contain both your and your kids' learning in a school, a course, a class, or a major.

Don't underestimate the ability of a child to find patterns in life on their own terms.

Believe in our innate capability to learn, adapt, and create knowledge.

Believe in your children. They are learning everything on autopilot.

Types of learning

Once you understand the differences between active and passive learning, the next step is to learn about the various types of learning.

Let's start with you.

What type of learner are you?

What works best for you when you want to learn something new?

What doesn't work so well when you want to pick up a new skill?

It's the same for your kids, and here are the 4 key types of learning:

You are probably familiar with these types of learning and know which type of learner your children are.

The key here is to both play to the strengths and accommodate the circumstances.

For most knowledge in the form of images or texts, we can learn through the visual, auditory, and literal approaches.

But there is no way around sports and physical activities. You couldn't learn how to swim or ride a bicycle by watching YouTube or taking a lecture. You need to throw yourself out there and try.

While I love reading and writing as my default way of learning, it doesn't mean I should avoid the other ways of learning.

Make sure you create opportunities for your kids to have different types of learning experiences. Yes, the school has done most of the jobs, but there is so much more in life that you can learn with your kids.

What's learning

If you think about what learning is, it's basically a way for us to understand how everything works. And the one thing I have learned from my kids about learning is that they are curious and keep asking all these questions:

Our curiosity and imagination differentiate us from the rest of the species on Earth. While we take this ability to learn mostly for granted, this is actually a miracle that we tend to overlook.

The lesson here is to have an open mind as a parent to allow your kids to explore and wander, even if what they do might be nothing like productive work at all.

The world has changed, and let's change along with it.

See you in the next lesson.

Franco

Final lesson

Practice