Natural Born Learners

(What better title for a Valentine's Day post than an allusion to a film about murdering psychopaths, right? [NB: I have not seen the aforementioned film])

How about some love?

Some homeschooling love, that is!

Dave, the brilliant artist who did the artwork for the covers of the MathTacular series, sent me a link to bornlearning.org. I haven't had time to really delve into the content of the site, but it looks like a great promotion for homeschooling.

...but it's not.

At least, it's not aware that it's a site dedicated to homeschooling. Instead, it seems to believe that it is about preparing children for school; in their words, they're trying to "boost school readiness."

It would be incredibly amusing, if it weren't so sad, that people so often miss the link between caring for your newborn and growing children and homeschooling. I want to shout: IT'S THE SAME THING!

Teaching your children to read is little different than teaching them to walk. Helping your daughter learn to eat with utensils is very similar to teaching her handwriting. Getting your son to know when to say "Geese" instead of "Gooses" is much like teaching him to spell. And if your child learned 2+2 while still at home, you've started teaching Algebra^*. And so, this site dedicated to "early learning" is demonstrating how easy, possible, and enjoyable it is to teach your children at home, at the park, and on the go.

That's a lesson homeschooling parents all over the world have learned.

I just wish that educational theorists would learn this lesson as well. It amazes me that despite having an entire section dedicated to the importance of connection in learning, the good people at bornlearning.org do not connect the dots and realize that homeschooling is one of the best ways to make that happen.

So...

Here's to Homeschooling!