More CLAP Interview Questions!

Note: If you're wondering why all the talk about applause, CLAP is actually an acronym representing the four basic food groups of nourishing a child's character. I made it up! I use it to help my kids figure out what to do with their free time: Chores, Learning, Attitude, and Planning. Click on the label on the right to read other posts on this theme! I do interviews with the kids (it's supposed to be weekly but doesn't always turn out that way... but that's okay! I keep using the system anyways, even if I use it imperfectly!) and that's when they get their allowance -- which we call Bank of Dad. Yesterday's post covered some good questions to ask about chores... today, I'll share questions about learning!

 I run the carpool on Wednesdays, and one of the boys told me that SCHOOL is an acronym for Seven Crappy Hours Of Our Lives. I hadn't heard that one! This is how I responded:

"I get it. I get it. I know why it's crappy. Because you don't have control.

• You don't get to pick what time you go to school. 
• You don't get to choose what teacher you have. 
• You don't have much say in what subjects you cover on any given day 
• or HOW you study those subjects. 
• You could try to say "no" to homework, but there's those durn grades your parents might use as leverage against your social life. 
• You don't get to talk whenever you want. 
• You can't get up and walk around whenever and wherever you want. 

I get it! But there is ONE thing that you still have control over... your attitude towards it all. You can choose to consider it all crappiness and continue to slog your way through each school day, daydreaming and wishing and not getting anything out of it... or... or..."

He said: "Or what?!" (Oh, good, I have his attention!)

I replied: "Yeah. Or what?" (I want him to answer it for himself...because the only real education is self-education.)

Kids (well, any of us, really) can be victims of their own short-sightedness. One of life's great truths that can be applied in almost every situation is:

Do a little, get a little. Do a lot, get a lot. 

Bada-bing, bada-boom! You might be thinking that the L in CLAP (Learning) is overlapping with the A (Attitude) in CLAP -- and you're right -- it does... because, as quoted in the initial post about Attitude here, Attitude is Everything.

So, often, the questions I ask to my children about the Learning facet of their lives are really about their attitude towards learning or to help them have a better attitude about it:

• What is something new you've been learning about?
• What is something old you've been learning new things about?
• What subject do you find most interesting? What specifically intrigues you about it?
• What subject do you find most difficult? How can you make it easier?
• Who is your favorite teacher and why?
• Where are some places that you learn that aren't school?
• What are some ways you learn that's not related to school?
• How does your brain think through writing an essay? doing a math problem?
• What do you know that I don't? Teach me!
• When does your brain feel the freshest and smartest? When does it feel worn out?
• When have you used something that you learned at school when you weren't at school? Be on alert for those moments and report to me next CLAP Interview!