Inspire and Motivate

First and most importantly this post is going to contain A LOT of grammar/spelling errors. My husband/editor is out of town, so for that I apologize. I'm only at a 5th grade level, but don't worry I'll be up to a 6th grade level by next year.

When home schooling you kind of have to have a goal in the back of your mind as to why you continue to home school. Everyone I've ever asked has given me different answers. My answer is, I want to give my children a love of learning. I want to inspire them to learn, to create, to be or do whatever they want to do. Doesn't that sound beautiful? Now if I only knew how to do it. 

This last year I've had my kids start teaching some of our lessons or having them plan the activity for the lesson. I was impressed with some of the things they came up with. When we learned about Handel one of my sons had us compose are own oratorio. I would have NEVER had them do that. I would have thought it would have been too hard and nearly impossible. But we all did it, and we had a blast doing it. Another time we were studying about a war in history so naturally one of my kids had us create weapons and have a full on battle outside. Once again, I wouldn't have done that; fearing that it was too violent or someone would get hurt.

I learned two things from this. First, my kids aren't dumb:). Second, my kids have so many great ideas that I wouldn't have ever thought of. So with this new knowledge I have gained I want to add one more thing to my goal with home schooling. 

I want to inspire and motivate my kids to do great things. 

Now, with that being said, do I honestly think any of my kids will be the next DaVinci or Handel. Why not?

So how do I plan on inspiring and motivating them? I plan to inspire them with great works of art, classical literature and beautiful symphonies. But how to motivate them? I have been studying a bit about that and found this great TED talk. This talk is geared towards motivating businesses, but I think the same principles could be applied to motivate our children. It's about 20 minutes long, but very worth while. Enjoy!