"How do you instill a love of learning in your child?"
My children would say that's impossible. I don't believe them. They tell me that every kid hates school and my goal to make them love learning is a quick trip to frustration. That, I believe they think they believe anyway. They want to believe they hate school, and probably some of it they do, but they love to learn. They just don't know it.
When my 19 year old wanted to play the drums, he got himself a drum set and spent hours on the Internet, researching and viewing teaching videos. He loved every minute of it and is now a very good drummer. When my 17 year old was interested in cultural anthropology and floral design (interesting combination, I know), she researched these things online and read books and requested information in the mail. When my 14 year old wanted to know more about game design, he researched it and figured out what he would need to learn what he wanted to know. He saved money to purchase the program he needed in order to do what he wanted, and then he purchased it.
They know how to learn and they love learning about things they are interested in. And I think that is the key. They may protest about learning everything we want them to learn. I am all for child directed learning to a point, but sometimes they just have to learn something because we want them to know it. We understand the importance, even if they don't. This learning, they may not love. But if we teach them how to learn, they will learn to love learning about what they love (say that ten times fast).
So how do you instill a love of learning in a child?
Teach them how to learn and then allow them the freedom to learn what they love. It's that simple.
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