Luke's post from earlier this week made me smile ... I so remember feeling this way when it came time to teach math to my high school kids. I am seriously missing the required genes for learning, understanding and teaching math ... so this was a big deal for me! I often struggled with not knowing what I was sure my kids needed to know.
As I talked with homeschooling moms and dads this week, it struck me that it's really not about needing to know all that our kids need to know ... it's about *my* loving to learn right along with my kids. It didn't take long in our homeschool journey before my kids figured out that mom didn't have all the answers. What I hope they learned, now that they've all graduated, is that mom wasn't too proud to hunt and search for answers along side of them.
I thought about this as I talked with the mom who was uncertain about having her son do the current events assignments found in her Instructor's Guide. It seemed, to her, like a great deal of work to add to his busy schedule. But a wonderful learning opportunity would be missed by skipping those current events assignments! So much is going on in our world ... even this week ... that will make for wonderful conversation and debate. I hope I encouraged her to see the value in reviewing and discussing current events right along with her son.
Another parent was upset about some of the content they were finding in one of our high school Cores. Their family does not own a TV, doesn't have Internet access, and works hard to avoid any "appearance of evil", which is why some of the books were so concerning. While I respect anyone's convictions about what they will and won't allow in their home, I do hope that she was encouraged to see the value in tackling some of those more "difficult" titles together with her student. Learning together about the evils in the world seems much better than setting a child loose on a culture about which they know little to nothing.
So when you face the fear of not knowing what your kids need to know, choose instead to embrace the opportunity to learn together. Lay to rest the concern that you are somehow failing your children or leaving "gaps" in their education ... and warm up to the idea that you can discover and debate together.
Still on the journey
~Judy Wnuk
Sonlight Customer Champion
PS ... Sonlight has an unequaled Love to Learn Guarantee on their curriculum packages. Notice the title? Yep ... that's what it's all about.
