Friday, January 26, 2007

Homeschooling is a Double Feature

There are so many good things about homeschooling, the most obvious being the learning that can happen so efficiently (in about a third of the time of public school, at least in the early grades)...but the double feature of this is that I get to learn while providing learning materials to my kids--teaching them things, but mostly about the love of learning. How can I not pass along this love when it grows the more it happens! The more interesting the materials, the more we all benefit. I learned the first round with Katie, and I'm learning more again this time with Tim.
So often mothers worry that they're leaving "gaps" in their children's education by homeschooling, yet I'm finding that I get to fill gaps left in my own education this way. I don't remember learning much about Alexander the Great, or ancient Greece, or polar explorers, or so many things, in any of my twelve years of school, but I'm learning about them now. So I don't worry about what I won't accomplish; I just do as I believe God has led me, and all I care to do is continue by trusting in His leading.If I have gaps from my public school education, my children would have if they were there too--and if I leave gaps in their education, well, I'm not necessarily doing any worse than what they would get anywhere else.
Besides. Who doesn't have gaps in their knowledge? Even the most brilliant minds have areas where they don't excel. I notice on a game show, 1 vs. 100, often the 100 will be made up of various types of geniuses; yet in the matter of a few questions, many of them will be eliminated--maybe because they asked about the price of a basic postage stamp.
As a result of homeschooling I have determined that my favorite subject must be history. Such a rich subject, so many ways to learn it! It's all about the people who have filled this earth from the 6th day of God's Creation. We have discovered multitudes of wonderful biographies, and I would never put those aside for long, but lately we have discovered a newer set of books that Tim and I have been devouring together. This new series is wonderful for immersing the reader in the difficulties and details of various periods of history. The titles are humorous and the same vein runs throughout the books. "You Wouldn't Want to be an Arctic Explorer," "You Wouldn't Want to be a Soldier in Alexander the Great's Army," "You Wouldn't Want to be a Slave in Ancient Greece," and a number of others. They contain many ghastly but not objectionable facts--and to a boy, a fascinating way of presenting history! I have to say I love them too.