Educational Ramblings . . .

So, I've been doing a lot of processing lately about my kids and the reasons I have chosen to educate them at home. I'm sure that our decision to enroll Gloria in public school in the fall has something to do with it. Well, today I was reminded of the reason that I decided to home school in the first place, way back in 1999 when Zach was in the first grade at Cole Valley Christian School. . .


We started out the day with a driving lesson. Zach is doing just fine as a driver except that he keeps comparing the things I'm teaching him with the things he has learned on the Wii game, Need For Speed. It has me a little worried. Anyway, I wanted to give him a chance to practice for a couple of hours today so he drove us out to Nampa to visit my parents. . .


After a short visit with my mom and dad followed by lunch at Panda, I decided to stop at a thrift store and see if there were any book treasures that I could buy cheap and sell on Amazon. As I was browsing the books, Zach found a hardbound college textbook titled, Introduction to Psychology. He made his way to a table, sat down and began to pour over it.

This is when I was so clearly reminded about the main reason I decided to home school in the first place.

When Zach was in the first grade, we would go to the library and he would make a bee-line for the non-fiction books. He knew exactly where to find the books on dinosaurs, space and volcanoes. He would take one off of the shelf , make himself comfortable and begin to read it, cover to cover. He liked school well enough but he would often tell me that he wasn't learning anything there. I really didn't see myself as capable of teaching him but I figured I could give him a stack of books and he could teach himself!! That's really not too far from the way it's worked out.


I had to laugh when we left the store with his newly purchased text book when he told me I could drive this time because he wanted to read. When we got home, he sat down on the couch and spent another 2 hours soaking up Psychology. . .

So, it's been a no-brainer for me each year on why and how I educate Zach.

Gloria, however, is a whole 'nother ballgame. . .

The funny thing is, I'm really not worried about her socially or academically. She's confident and smart and seems to learn what she needs to know right when she needs to know it. Kind of like her dad. I guess my biggest worry is that someone, somewhere along the way will decide she should be something she isn't . . . Hmmm. . . I'm still processing all of that so I'll save it for another day. . .