I've been thinking about this post for several days. I had a very different post in mind when I started. I was going to site various articles that have come across my screen over the past months to show how our math and science instruction fares poorly when compared with other countries, or, how our children are less creative when compared to children from other countries. I intended to use these articles to support my assertion that I homeschool to attempt to remedy these issues for my children.
I then realized that I would be lying. While helping my children receive the best education and prepare to compete in a global market place is important to me, it is a secondary benefit of my true reason for homeschooling.
Looking over my life thus far, I realize that using my mind to absorb information, ponder, puzzle, hypothesize and opine gives me immense joy and satisfaction. The same is true for Jerry. Indeed, we were drawn to each others' minds. (In our marriage preparatory class, we were asked to name what we loved about our partner. Most of these sweet, dewy-eyed young couples mentioned eyes, smiles or hearts. Jerry and I were the only couple to immediately volunteer that we loved each others' minds.)
When the boys arrived, Jerry and I both saw that same passionate interest in them. We consciously chose to show them and discuss anything in which they were interested long before they were school age. Homeschooling became a logical extension of that process. Learning became as natural and enjoyable as eating and sleeping.
Does that mean that every day is some idyllic educational wonderland in my house? No, not by the wildest stretch of the imagination. Like everyone else, we have days where learning the fine points of literary analysis is simply of no interest. I have yet to find a way to make grammar something the boys find fascinating. Those are but two examples of many I could list.
Still, homeschooling provides us the freedom to tailor carefully the boys' curriculum so that they remain, for the most part, appropriately challenged while learning subject matter that interests them. Furthermore, when something isn't working, we can change it. I believe that those factors have preserved and nurtured their natural curiosity and passion for learning. Moreover, although I respect the men and women who teach in our classrooms and am awed by how they handle that many children each day, they simply are not given the freedom that homeschooling affords.
In nurturing the boys' passion for learning and thinking, I am trying to give them a gift that has greatly enriched the quality of my own life. And, as long as I am accomplishing that goal, I will continue to homeschool.
I then realized that I would be lying. While helping my children receive the best education and prepare to compete in a global market place is important to me, it is a secondary benefit of my true reason for homeschooling.
Looking over my life thus far, I realize that using my mind to absorb information, ponder, puzzle, hypothesize and opine gives me immense joy and satisfaction. The same is true for Jerry. Indeed, we were drawn to each others' minds. (In our marriage preparatory class, we were asked to name what we loved about our partner. Most of these sweet, dewy-eyed young couples mentioned eyes, smiles or hearts. Jerry and I were the only couple to immediately volunteer that we loved each others' minds.)
When the boys arrived, Jerry and I both saw that same passionate interest in them. We consciously chose to show them and discuss anything in which they were interested long before they were school age. Homeschooling became a logical extension of that process. Learning became as natural and enjoyable as eating and sleeping.
Does that mean that every day is some idyllic educational wonderland in my house? No, not by the wildest stretch of the imagination. Like everyone else, we have days where learning the fine points of literary analysis is simply of no interest. I have yet to find a way to make grammar something the boys find fascinating. Those are but two examples of many I could list.
Still, homeschooling provides us the freedom to tailor carefully the boys' curriculum so that they remain, for the most part, appropriately challenged while learning subject matter that interests them. Furthermore, when something isn't working, we can change it. I believe that those factors have preserved and nurtured their natural curiosity and passion for learning. Moreover, although I respect the men and women who teach in our classrooms and am awed by how they handle that many children each day, they simply are not given the freedom that homeschooling affords.
In nurturing the boys' passion for learning and thinking, I am trying to give them a gift that has greatly enriched the quality of my own life. And, as long as I am accomplishing that goal, I will continue to homeschool.
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