Remember when you discovered that one thing you wanted to do over and over again as a kid?

Take a minute.

Remember now?

Well, I used to enjoy collecting stickers, baking cookies, and dancing…so much that I could spend hours doing that.

Our kids feel the same way when they find that one activity, one topic, and they just can’t get enough.

Some kids are born with that interest clear in their minds, some kids discover it along the way, and others create it as they explore.

And to be honest, I have developed other passions I didn’t think were in me as a kid; like writing! I enjoy writing this newsletter so much!

But I’ve been thinking about this topic over and over: How do I help my kids develop their passions?

We live in a world full of distractions. We get distracted from our work, our family time, and our social time. Our brains are being trained to get distracted by the media and it's affecting our focus, even our focus on ourselves.

Now, I could talk all day about how technology is diluting our attention, but that's not what we are here to learn.

Today I want to focus on how kids develop their passions.

But why is passion important?

Passion is a force that drives us. Passion motivates us.

Bring passion into learning, and BAM! You have yourself a winning formula, endless opportunities, and vast possibilities for your kids.

What does this have to do with the future of education?

Well, much.

Passion-based learning drives kids to be personally motivated to learn. When we give kids the freedom of choice to learn what they want and what they are passionate about, we empower them to create and innovate.

But, what are the benefits of encouraging your child to follow their passions?

1. Kids get to know themselves through the exploration of multiple interests. They discover what they like and what they don’t.
2. Teaches them to persevere. When kids engage in what they love doing, they don’t just easily give up, which builds perseverance and motivates them to work harder.
3. Builds independence. Kids get an opportunity to practice making decisions in what interests them and build responsibility in developing that interest.
4. Develops a sense of purpose. Every kid brings their own uniqueness to this world and when they discover they can bring value to this world through their uniqueness, kids feel a sense of purpose. We all do! And how valuable this will be for them to discover it early on.

How can we encourage and support our kids to develop their passions?

Here are 3 videos, 2 strategies, &1 tool that will help you understand and implement passion-based learning at home.

📹 Three videos to help you guide your kids in discovering their passions.

• Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance
• Why does passion-based learning matter?
• The puzzle of motivation​

💡 Two proven strategies that will fuel your child’s passion and skyrocket their learning.

• Google’s 80/20 Rule encourages everyone at Google to spend 20% of their time working on other projects that will benefit Google the most but might not necessarily bring direct dividends to the company immediately. This ‘20% Time’ rule led them to create Google News (2002), AdSense (2003), and Gmail (2004). Employees felt empowered to be creative and innovative

Like those employees, children feel empowered to be innovative and creative if they are given the space and time to do so, outside all of their other regular activities.

• Genius Hour is a learning approach that encourages students to pursue their interests and curiosities to drive their learning. It is a less standardized, less formal, and less traditional type of learning that happens. It is learning guided by each child’s unique interests. Some schools have this hour once a week, while others have turned their whole learning approach into ‘genius hours’.

These strategies for our kids at school would allow kids to dedicate time in school to their interests. Whether it is ceramic, robotics, language, or researching dragons. It would be up to every kid to decide. We all know that there are a few kids that would not do much. But allowing this for all kids would give kids freedom of choice and empower them over their learning to feel motivated.

At home, we can think about focusing extracurriculars and enrichment programs on what our kids truly love to do. As parents we can create the conditions for exploration, discovery, and curiosity so our kids can learn and make mistakes without feeling judged!

⚒️ One tool that parents can use to plan and budget further to support their kid's passions.

• Livada: Enriching minds, empowering futures. Livada, a new education and money planning tool, can help you find enrichment resources for your kids’ to develop passions and gives you a holistic view of how those choices will impact the family finances.

​

Before we end, let’s think about what Albert Einstein said “I have no special talents. I am only passionately curious.”

Signing up your kid’s into unique experiences designed to nurture skills and talents can spark the curiosity needed and expose them to different areas of interest.

Let’s encourage kids to follow their interests, nurture their uniqueness, and explore.

Let’s encourage kids to be passionately curious!

As always, thank you for reading.

Stay curious,

Alexandra

from MindSwitch Education

​
​
​

Follow me on my social media adventures as education evolves!