We adults make many and varied mistakes, you’ve got to give us that. But one of the worst mistakes we make is when we get too comfortable and overly content with our knowledge. When we stop challenging ourselves, mentally, we stop growing mentally. That, as you can imagine, doesn’t lead anywhere worth going.
I’m not suggesting that we have to enroll in college classes. In fact, the bulk of my own education hasn’t been acquired anywhere near a classroom. What I’m suggesting is this: Each day, go out of your way to learn at least one thing that you didn’t know the day before. It’s as simple as that. You could “tackle” a new subject each week (or month, depending upon the depth of the subject).
For example, when I was homeschooling our 3 daughters, we had our regular subjects each day. But for the last hour of the school day, we had what we called “Unit Studies,” where we dove into subjects that varied by the week. One of the funnest things we did, at the beginning of each school year, was to come up with the different subjects we’d be covering in our Unit Studies.
The subjects (some weekly/some monthly) below are a few of the ones I recall off the top of my head:
- The Underground Railroad
- Tigers
- Mary Todd Lincoln
- Madagascar
- Cleopatra
- Bach
- Beethoven
- African Elephants
- Sharks (I timed it to coincide with Discovery Channel’s always amazing Shark Week. Yay, me.)
- The Renaissance
- Vincent Van Gogh
- The US Government
- Shakespeare
- The Bronte Sisters
- Eagles
- Thomas Jefferson
- Dinosaurs
- Snakes
- Harriet Tubman
- Polar Bears
Etc… etc… etc…
Subjects such as these would make wonderful “Unit Studies” for all of us to pursue. If we took a different subject each week and nightly read online articles and/or library books about our subject – within a year, we’d be experts on over 50 different subjects!
I know I don’t have to tell you how much our brains would love all that stimulation. Quite frankly, it’d make us more rounded, much more interesting people as well.
You can use the subjects above, or round up some of your own that interest you. Listed below are my favorite educational websites. They’re the perfect place to find subjects AND informative articles.
My Favorite Online Educational Websites
- National Geographic
- Discovery Channel
- MSN Encarta
- History.com
- Algebra Help (I need all I can get)
- Extreme Science
- Science at NASA
- Smithsonian Education
- Animal Planet
Of course, you can also Google your subject and act accordingly. The main thing is to just get started and, then, to keep it up once you do. Have fun with it. Your brain is going to love every educational moment.
Make each moment count double,
~ Joi
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