There are two things I would like for you to keep in mind as you read this essay.
1) What I am saying here is inspired by ideas I had while reading an amazing book about learning to play piano. The chapter talks about Post-Practice Improvement. It can be found for free (legally) here: http://www.pianofundamentals.com/book/en/1.II.15
I have no formal education in child psychology. I took a good psychology class in high school, I think and read about things a lot, Being a student I have practiced some learning techniques myself, people and IQ tests tell me that I am smart and I almost have an engineering degree(with decent grades). These are just about my only credentials. I believe that the author of that book knows what he was talking about, as the techniques in his book are brilliant and the structure of the book is excellent. Based on his account he is well educated.
2) In this essay I am talking about experimental techniques for teaching children about life and the world while training them how to learn in the most effective manner. I think in many people's minds that this will conjure up images of children being monitored in rooms all day in some white building but that is not what this is at all. These children would be with their families in a very loving environment. These methods would not interfere with the day to day life of the child and rather ought to improve it by helping them to learn efficiently, leaving more time for other things. Imagine not a hospital, but a warm family room with a loving parent feeding the thirst of a curious child. (I say feeding because quenching implies that the curiosity goes a way, when in fact it likely will grow when learning is presented in a fun and positive manner. Think Faust without the evil involvement)
I am writing about this in a rather mechanical way, but this would NOT be a mechanical environment. We are avoiding that and attempting to embrace and work together with our own nature.
Perhaps you can take advantage of the way that the mind learns to help explain complex topics to children. When a child comes to you with a question to which the answer is very complecated or difficult for the child to comprehend work with the physiological growth. Begin to introduce the concepts in simple language. Break them up into small bits and present them in as linear a fashion as possible. If your child seems to understand, continue until she/he does not, or is having much difficulty with the concept(when the rate of return has significantly decreased.). Now is when you are actually teaching the child something new. Up until this point you were making simple connections in the child's mind by helping them reorganize concepts that they already can grasp. You must keep the explanation of new information pretty short (From my source of information, probably within 10 minutes. The 10 minutes really shouldn't be a measure of the length of the conversation but the length of time spent actually trying to understand a new, previously not understood concept. This means a max of 10 minutes of saying things that the child doesn't understand. As long as the child understands, you can talk as much as you want. The difficulty comes, in determining when exactly this is happening. It needs to be studied.). If you reach this "time limit" stop explaining. After you stop (either because of time or lack of understanding) ask the child to think about it again later, before they go to sleep (remind them when you send them off or tuck them in) and tell them that you can talk about it again the next day or the day after. Give them some kind of prompt, something to help stimulate their mind and lead them in the right direction a question of some sort would probably do very well.
A mind can only handle so much new learning at a time. Once the novel stimuli has been experienced, growth begins in the mind. This growth has to happen over time. So you stimulate them and get them thinking in the right direction. Then you stop and allow their mind to take it in and grow overnight. During the follow-up the child should have come to some sort of a conclusion. Review this with the child and see if they can better understand the issue. Correct their hypothesis if nessecary but not by just telling them they are wrong. Show them why they are wrong. Basically you just repeat this process. Help them to gradually learn. It is an iteritive process. By teaching your child in these ways you don't just teach them about difficult topics, but you also teach them how to learn most efficiently! When your child gets older you should explain this process to her/him. They will already have the habit, but will be unlikely to understand why they should keep this habit unless it is explained. With this knowledge the child will be able to take full advantage of their good habits and can use them to their benefit throughout their life.
I am applying knowledge of the way that the brain absorbs new training/skill and applying it to hypothesis about the way the brain absorbs new understandings because I believe that understanding something new IS a skill. I don't mean understanding in general, I mean that understanding a particular concept requires a new skill, a new understanding that is unique to that concept. When the child tries to understand they are practicing a new understanding technique. The brain's capacity for knowledge is infinite (or infinite enough) but the rate at which it can learn a new skill is limited. After a certain amount of time you begin to do damage to the learning process. This is hard to swallow because it is counter-intuitive. To apply this you will have to in many cases counteract not only your intuition but also that of the child. I want to see an experiment. I don't think it would be difficult to prove.
Also, don't worry about limiting it to one topic a day. A growing child's mind is amazing, a separate topic will stimulate growth in a different area of the brain. As long as they are asking questions answer. I don't care if it takes you all day, these are your children. This is likely the most important thing you will ever do.
Some good variables to concider for experimentation are: the amount of time talking to the children, time left for them to think, time of day and when they sleep, how long they sleep, the complexity of the issue, the explaination, child's age and experiences with the subject, the child's IQ (preferably one of the new style IQ tests)
Edit: Thanks to Joel for working back and forth with me on this. He doesn't agree with everything I say in this essay but has helped me better understand which parts were unclear. I have modified these.
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