Module 1.3 – Locating The Switch

We're about to do a lot of thinking, self discovery and reflection so let's warm up with a fun brain dump before we start to go deeper into how our children see themselves through a Lights On lens.

It might also be a good time for you to listen to Sir Ken Robinson and Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi who share their ideas about being in your element and being in the flow. There are key concepts that form the major backbone of Lights On - if we find our passion then everything in life starts to make sense and we can start to discover our purpose which ensures that we spend our lives learning with our Lights On.

We are huge fans of mindmaps, brain dumps and committing our thoughts to paper - as you may have realised in this lesson! 

So you may want to start by stimulating your child's thinking with a brainstorm, using lots of colourful pens, paints or crayons, so that you can end up with something to put up on the wall as a reminder of all the things your child loves to do!

This is quite fun to do with a few of you together - as in the video below - so maybe do this as a whole family or even with some of your child's friends. Lights On learning, is at it's very best a collaborative experience - so you'll hear me say this often - JUMP IN WITH THEM!

It is time to help your child discover more about themselves and to ask questions that they may, or may not, have ever considered.

I'd also really encourage you to do this exercise with them as sometimes we can take it for granted that we 'know' ourselves. With how busy our lives are it is easy to overlook the fact that just as everything in life changes around us we also change. The person you were a week ago is different to the person you are today because of the experiences we've had, the learning curves we've been exploring and because another piece of the puzzle has finally slotted into place and that has moved your and your thinking about something forward massively! 

We've designed some worksheets to help you start but, as always, you can turn these into more creative exercises if you so wish. However, I have come to realise that there are moments where we need to have quite adult conversations with our children because their insights always amaze me. So simply asking our children questions can sometimes be enough. 

Download the All About Me! worksheet and get your child to work their way through the questions. I would suggest you also sit down and do this, for yourself, alongside them and then you can both share at the end. You'll also be able to help each other if you get stuck - which sometimes we can.

If you are at a place where you, as a parent, no longer know what you love to do (and I was there when my children were about 3 and 6 years old) then a major part of this course is to help you reconnect with your switch too. 

We all have something we are good at and a major part of Lights On is making sure you help your child discover and explore what that is. It can be quite hard thinking about what our strengths are BUT it is SO important because we design learning through our strengths, interests, passions and talents so that we can become braver at taking some risks. 

We'll be going into mindset and resilience in the module on Wired For Learning, but for now take some time to encourage your child (and remember do it for you too!) to think about what strengths and obstacles they have in their toolkit.

So download the What Stops You Playing To Your Strengths worksheet and start thinking about what obstacles are potentially stopping you playing to your strengths. These could be internal or external obstacles and we'll be going into these in more detail later in the course. But for now see what comes up for you and your child.

You have probably gathered by now that a Lights On culture is all about being authentic and being 'you' rather than someone you think you should be. 

So download the worksheet Authentically Me and help your child (and you as well) reflect on how authentic they (and you) are in your daily lives. If your child is at school and becoming a teenager then they may well feel that they are struggling to hold on to their sense of self. So these exercises in this module are really important. 

Still a bit of insight to gather before we start to locate that switch! These worksheets don't have to all be done in one time - so use your judgement about how much you can and can't get through. You might find yourselves on a roll or you might need to do little and often. Hopefully though your child will enjoy thinking about themselves in this way, especially as we are making them feel 'ok' to talk about what is not working for them as learners.

On that note - a reminder here about the importance of legitimising lights going dim and off and to help you explore this with them download the worksheet Talking About Lights On and discuss times when both yours and your child's lights have not shone as brightly as you would like.

You'll learn, later in the course, how to use these moments in a positive way through reflection.

Now it is time to start to think about what Lights On goals you and your child/family want to set. Again the more you can do this together the better. If your child is aware of what your own goals are then they may also be great at keeping you accountable...my two are! It also models to your child that you are a great life-long learner and that when you tap into Lights On Learning it doesn't actually ever stop! In addition, it reinforces that you are learning alongside them - learners together rather than the teacher/student relationship.

So download 'My Lights On Goals' worksheet to give you some structure if you need it to think through some micro-goals.  We'll be exploring the importance of micro-goal setting later in the course, as of course all successes are not made overnight but the result of lots of small steps. 

This is the final worksheet of the module - I promise!  This one should really pull together all your insight you and your child have gained this week.

Before we learn how to set up the Learning Carousel in the next lesson you may find it useful to watch this video about the various switches that we have seen to be fairly consistently coming through our doors.

This is by no means exhaustive and you may find that your child crosses over various switches - both my children do - and this is the aim of Lights On Learning - to get your child to a space where they are comfortable transferring skills to whatever they do. 

There will of course be many more that are not included in this - but hopefully you get the idea and won't feel the need to pigeon-hole rather you'll see the potential that opens up when you look at your child in this way.

I've seen my own children go through many switches and that is what we are aiming for in a Lights On culture. The more our children learn with their Lights On the more opportunities open up for them, the more skills they develop, a broader range of interests start to develop and new switches start to come into play. 

But for now let's have a look at a few of the common switches that we've found.