20 Ways to Improve the Love of Learning

February is the month of expressing our appreciation for the good around us.  In particular, Valentine’s Day is a time for showing our admiration for others.  Why not let this month also symbolize a deep love of learning?  How can we, the adults in our children’s lives, help propel a real passion for our children’s innate will to grow their knowledge base?

At Oak Hill Academy, a New Jersey Private School, teachers are continuously looking for ways for their students to engage deeply in the learning process.  Many in educational circles label this “a love of learning.”

 The following are a few of the ways that we can inspire our children to ignite their God-given talents.

1. Help them build confidence that they are capable of learning.  Provide honest support with plenty of opportunities.
2. Permit learners to be independent doers.  They become active in seeking and solving problems.
3. Real life experiences do much to add excitement to the learning process.  Our world is an open book.
4. Use history as a catalyst to experience lessons from the past to improve the future.
5. Have students collaborate with others and exchange ideas to solve problems together.
6. Allow students’ imagination to be ignited.  Teachers and parents must leave the doors of curiosity open to allow the flame of learning to grow,
7. Teachers and parents must inspire students with the desire to know more.
8. Use evidence-based learning to add fun and to offer time to weigh various opinions.
9. Encourage all kinds of writing to open up opportunities to use students’ thinking skills.
10. Schools must always keep open students’ opportunities for success.  No dead ends, just detours and forks in the roads.  Brief failures must be viewed as paths for more adventure.
11. Giving students voice and ownership of learning adds much to enthusiasm and accomplishment.
12. “Improvement, not perfection” is a theme that shows appreciation for growth.
13. Schools must help to sustain students’ natural drive to make sense of our world.
14. Adults must encourage learners to find a passion and explore to deepen understanding.
15. Instruction should be personalized as much as possible allowing for individual growth.
16. Students flourish when they are in a school that has a friendly accepting atmosphere where students make life-long relationships.
17. Diversity adds to a school’s understanding and the appreciation of various cultures and customs.
18. Students, when given various options to show achievement, increase avenues of success.  Well planned projects permit students’ creativity.
19. A sense of discovery and deep meaning provides intellectual satisfaction that is worthwhile.
20. Expose students to all the arts. They will make connections between art, music, history, math, science, and reading which will allow for meaningful appreciation of all subjects.

So, not only in February, but all year long, our school can offer many lessons that give our children the gift and love of learning.

Oak Hill Academy is a NJ private school that is co-educational, independent, nonsectarian, and nonprofit for grades pre-kindergarten through eight. Oak Hill Academy is dedicated to a traditional, challenging, and caring learning environment that encourages comprehensive thought processes and deep understandings; thus promoting the wholesome intellectual, emotional, moral, and physical lifetime growth of our students. If you want to learn more about what makes Oak Hill Academy one of the best private school in NJ, visit us online at www.oakhillacademy.com , or subscribe to our mailing list to be notified when we post more topics.