Homeschooling Our Gifted Children: The Power Of Artful Questions

We’ve been talking about this month about ways to to make our homeschooling experience exceptional for our gifted children. Today, our focus in inquiry based learning – how we use artful questions to help our children dynamically learn.

Artful Questions And Interest-Led Learning

Inquiry based learning is more than just asking your kiddos about what they want to learn. In fact, inquiry based learning is a lot like on an ongoing conversation that facilitates learning.

It begins with being a student of your child.

Notice what they’re enjoying. Notice what they’re getting fired up about. Ask them what they’d like to learn about. Ask them what they’re enjoying and what they’re interested in. This gives them a purpose in their learning because they have input in choosing what is being taught.

Inquiry Based Learning

Having said that, using this approach to learning is more more than asking what your child is interested in. It’s about triggering their curiosity. It’s a far more important goal than just simple information delivery. Triggering our kids’ curiosity is a gift we can give them that will keep on giving throughout their entire lives.

We have a unique opportunity to be able to do this on a daily basis with our kids, because we are homeschooling them. We are not setting them up for a system and a belief that there necessarily right and wrong answers. We can show them how to facilitate their own learning.

They ask questions. They can be curious and there’s nothing dumb about not knowing. It gives them the confidence and empowerment to go out and find answers. Inquiry based learning in a nutshell is all about triggering our kids’ curiosity and encouraging them to dive deeper and deeper and deeper into more and more and more difficult conversations and questions.

Traditional Learning vs. Inquiry Based Learning

This is the opposite of traditional learning. Traditional learning relies on a teacher to impart knowledge and facts.

Instead, inquiry based learning is assisted by a facilitator rather than a lecturer or a teacher. It’s focused on researching questions and issues to develop solutions.

Traditional classrooms start with the answers. Inquiry based learning begins with the question or problem and the student works backwards to find the answers.

Inquiry based learning teaches us how to observe, to ask deeper questions, to observe more and use those observations to form hypotheses, to ask more questions and dive deeper and deeper and deeper. In a nutshell, it enhances problem-solving skills.

Our job as facilitators in an inquiry based atmosphere is to help our kids come up with their own learning map.

Artful Questions In Action

How do we go about doing this?

Our first step is to engage our kids by asking questions, especially focusing on open-ended questions, not yes or no questions. These are open-ended questions that don’t have a single answer. These are thought provoking, higher level questions.

Examples Of Artful Questions For Learning

Why do you think that might have happened?
What would you have done differently?
What did you notice about that?
What would you suggest we do instead?
That’s a good point. How can you reconcile these two things?
Do you have an idea for how we could make this better?

I share more practical examples of inquiry based learning in today’s episode of the podcast. It includes a behind the scenes look at an online program to help you facilitate this type of learning. We also talk about the power of unit studies and interest-led learning to facilitate an environment of inquiry based learning.

Raising Lifelong Learners Podcast #153: Inquiry Based Learning For Gifted Kids

This series is all about equipping our kids for the future with a sense of wonder, adventure, joy and encouragement. Today’s topic is a discussion about inquiry based learning – what inquiry based learning really is, plus resources and ideas for how to incorporate it into your homeschool.

Links And Resources From Today’s Show:

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