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 Sparks S.P.A.R.K.S. Sparks Promote an Attitude that Releases Kinetic Studies What does that mean? Basically a "spark" is a plan, idea, or project that promotes in your children a desire to study a subject, or promotes in them a desire to improve the skills they have already attained. It will produce in them an "energy" (that's what "kinetic" means) which makes them WANT to continue to learn, explore, and study. Once your children get the hang of the sparks concept, they may begin inventing sparks of their own. You do not have to be creative to come up with sparks for your children. Steal them from other people. Whenever you hear a mom talk about a spark she used to ignite her children, write it down and use it! Keep track of sparks in your fuel notebook. Notice what kinds of things spark your children. Not all children will be sparked for the same things. Take notice of what things inspire your children. All of the sparks listed in this chapter have been tested on real live children. (No children have been harmed in this study.) The age levels vary, of course, depending on the abilities of each child, but the neatest thing about sparks is that the child will either create or expand from the point he is at. A five-year-old and a ten-year-old beginning with the same spark will learn, will grow, and will both be challenged. Let's begin with some sparks for you to try on your own children: One of the best sparks to begin with is a mailbox. Now, I don't mean go out and buy a new one from the store. Have each of your children make their own personal mailbox. They can make them out of shoeboxes, tissue boxes, oatmeal containers, etc. They may decorate the boxes anyway they want. My children's boxes even have flags on them that can be raised when the children have a letter. Allow them to have their boxes near their bedroom door, hanging from the wall, or placed on shelves. Please understand you must set up a couple of rules. When placing a letter into someone else's box it must be encouraging, uplifting, and kind. This is not a time for Big Brother to tell Little Brother that he's a pain in the neck! Packages are allowed too. Mom and Dad might need to get in the act and have their own boxes! This simple little project has been known to help children learn to spell better, for they don't want to send a letter to Dad with misspellings on it. It energizes them to write, write, and write some more. Children also learn to communicate effectively as a by-product of giving a child a personal mailbox. You remember making Valentine boxes at school, don't you? Well, this is a similar concept, but the children keep them up all the time. Easy science experiments are another great way to put a spark in your child's learning. You can purchase simple science experiment books at all the major discount stores. There is even a scientist who will e-mail a science experiment to you each week. (If you would like an experiment a week, send e-mail to Robert Krampf at krampf@krampf.com) He also travels around the country and is a great opportunity for you to take your kids to see a "real" scientist. These experiments are great ways to begin your week. Your children will often find experiments they would like to do on their own. Do you all know what roll end paper is? It is the end of the rolls of newsprint. Many newspaper offices will sell hundreds of feet of this paper for a dollar or two. Not only is it economical (we make our own wrapping paper), but it is also a great spark. If you unroll some of the paper, your children are going to find a use for it. If you are studying the human body, outline each of your children and have them draw the parts of their body. The little ones will draw in major things like eyes, ears, etc. The older ones may draw the nervous system, or the organs, or even draw and label the muscles. Another project you can do with roll end paper is to tape it up to the wall and let your children write notes or draw on it. This may even be a keepsake for you someday. We home schoolers often hear about the importance of timelines. Not only are they great for your children to get some historical perspective, they are also great for sparks. When you have a timeline up and some places seem kind of bare, your children will want to fill those spaces up. There are many ways to make timelines, and there are also books on timelines. We once used roll end paper to make a timeline, using 10 inches for every decade. That timeline was like a scroll. It was extremely heavy. We had a great time working on it, but didn't use it as much after the initial few times because it was so big and heavy. It was about 50 feet long. Was the experience worth the time and effort we put into it? I believe it was. Nature walks are a must. Have your children take a few things with them when they go on a nature walk. Nature notebooks are vital. My children keep a backpack already packed for the days I tell them we are going on a nature walk. In their backpacks they carry pencils (some carry colored ones) and their nature notebook, which is a small spiral notebook with a hard back. The sheets are blank at the top with lines on the bottom. They also have observation books in their backpacks. Reading biographies to my children is one of the best sparks I know. They tend to spark new interests as well. I will discuss this at length in the Fire Books chapter. One way to give your children an appreciation of their own family heritage is in the development of family games. Have your children create games for Grandmas and Grandpa, or Aunts and Uncles, etc. You can create a game like "This is Your Life". You might include some of the historical things that happened during that person's life. You might have your child interview the person who they are creating the game for and include some of their "stories". You may even include trivia from their life. That's just one way to create a family game. I have found, when we decide on a unit for the whole family to work on, that the children get more excited than if they just do something on their own. If we are all working together on it they are more apt to want to discover information to share. We found a spark that has lasted for a long time when one of our children created their own personal website. She spends a great deal of time doing research and working on her website. She set the goal to make it educational and informative. She is constantly revising it to provide more and more information. This was a spark that lighted a fire for her, a fire that may never go out. I often use food sparks for my children. You can make a bunch of pizzas the same size, and then cut them into wedges to help them with fractions. You can make a batch of cookies, cut them into state shapes, and have the children make a relief map of the U.S. with frosting. You can even have an "international" food day, based on the region that you want to study. You will see as you begin implementing a spark just how energetic your children can get when they are excited about learning. They will run to the encyclopedias. They will bounce to learn their multiplication facts. They will even jump to find the right resource that they need for the project. It's not just the external difference you will see, but also deep within them, they will be developing a desire to learn. All the above SPARKS are included in my book Ignite the Fire! This is just a sample of what is in the book.
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