6 Ways To Foster Independent Learning in Your Kids

When a kid can motivate themselves to learn, there’s really no stopping them — now orin the future!

By developing the skills needed to be an independent learner, your kid will not only have a more enjoyable learning experience, but they’ll be able to boost their knowledge and understanding all on their own.

Kids of all ages can be encouraged to be successful independent learners. And, even better, once they learn these skills, there will be much less pressure on you!

What do we mean by independent learning?

Independent learners are motivated, inquisitive, and fascinated by learning. Most importantly, they are able to learn on their own.

That means reading, listening, and writing with little input from a parent or teacher.

Once your child is a successful independent learner, they will actually want to learn -—  so you won’t need to waste precious time nagging them to get their homework done.

Sounds like bliss, right?

How independent learning will benefit your child

While younger kids tend to be ‘spoon fed’ information in school, this style of learning doesn’t last forever.

Once your child goes off to high school and college, they will be required to complete hours of ‘independent study’ each week.

This can sometimes feel like an overwhelming jump, so why not prepare them by teaching them these skills from a younger age?

Independent learning will benefit your child by helping them to remember and apply the things they have learned. This is so much better than simply forgetting information as soon as they step out of the classroom.

And it’s not just this. Independent learning will also benefit your kid’s time management and organization — skills that will be useful throughout theirlife.

6 ways to encourage independent learning in your kids

1.   Ask open-ended questions

Sometimes kids just need a little nudge in the right direction.

When you’re first beginning to encourage independent learning skills, it’s particularly useful to ask open-ended questions — the kind that leads to lots of discussions and might even encourage your kid to research the topic further.

It’s also good to ask open-ended questions about a topic that your child has already learned about, as this will help them to keep hold of that all-important knowledge.

Avoiding questions with simple “Yes” or “No” answers will encourage independent learning by opening up your child to new topics, inspiring them to complete their own research, and helping them to retain the information they’ve picked up.

2.   Reward initiatives

Want to inspire your kid to learn new things all on their own? Reward them when they do!

By rewarding independent learning, your kid will feel way more inclined to do it.

If your kid decides they want to find out more about a certain topic, ask thoughtful and insightful questions, or researches something all on their own, recognizing and praising this is so important.

Whether that reward comes from words of encouragement or a little treat, this will reinforce independent learning as a positive, desirable, thing.

3.   Encourage recreational reading

Your kids might believe reading is just for school — picking up a book only when they absolutely have to. So it’s your responsibility to show them that reading can be fun, too!

Whether it’s picture books or magazines, fiction or nonfiction, long novels or short stories, reading is one of the best ways to foster independent learning.

Reading for leisure will benefit your kid’s independent learning skills by opening them up to new worlds, people, and ways of thinking.

4.   Inspire them by embodying a passion for learning

Kids learn by example. So, if your little one can see that you have a passion for self-development, they’ll mirror similar behavior.

Make sure to talk about learning with positive language and show a passion for all there is to find out about the world. As a result, your child will quickly develop a powerful and positive emotional connection to education.

What does this look like in practice? Simply talk with your kid about how they feel after they’ve finished learning something new, or how they think they will feel when they’ve finished a book or research project.

This will encourage independent learning by helping your child to associate positive emotions with learning — which, in turn, will motivate them to learn without being encouraged by you.

5.   Set goals

Help your child to set themselves some realistic, but also challenging, goals to work towards. This could be finishing a slightly longer book than they would normally read, or researching a topic that they don’t know very much about.

Supporting your child in setting these goals will encourage independent learning in two important ways.

Firstly, by sharing their goals with you, your kid will verbalize and start to believe in them. This will motivate them to stick at it and work that little bit harder to achieve them.

Second, setting goals will make learning more manageable for your child. It will help them to split the process into manageable chunks, as well as recognize their achievements at all stages of the learning process.

6.   Challenge them to find answers for themselves

Sometimes it can be tempting — and a lot quicker — to answer all of your little one’s many questions as soon as they ask them.

But a good independent learner goes in search of solutions themselves, right?

So take a step back, and encourage your kid to explore possible answers to their questions on their own. As much as they may grumble at first, they’ll feel so much more satisfied and motivated with their learning when they do!

If you have younger children, they might still need your support and supervision — particularly if researching their questions online. But the focus should be on your child as an independent learner, with as little input from you as possible.

Independent learning will benefit your kid throughout their life

By encouraging independent learning in your kids, you’re truly setting them up for life.

And it’s not just them you’re helping. By investing in these skills now, you’re saving yourself time, too — wouldn’t it be great to not have to nag them about their homework?!

What have you got to lose?