I heard about a study showing that college graduates are twice as likely to be successful at work and in life if these few conditions existed at college:
-teachers that encourage students to follow their dreams
-teachers that cared about the students as people
-teachers that got students excited about learning
Doesn't that sound like homeschool? But how do I make sure it sounds like my homeschool?
I guess it looks like helping Rachel edit and publish a book, giving Sam endless hours each day for stop-action videos (and sitting on the bathroom floor all day to help him film), or letting Sarah play the piano twenty-seven times a day when she might be doing other school stuff. Like staying up late at night to talk about something that concerns them, not making them do dishes when they have dry hands in the winter, or having someone else scoop the cat litter when the person whose turn it is feels yucky.
As for getting them excited about learning, that's a harder one. I think if I get excited about learning something, they follow that example. It's just that sometimes I forget to be excited. I get in a rut or can't find anything new to think about, or I'm tired. But I know it works. So being the mom is really the best way to point our kids toward success at work and in life. Don't we care about them, want them to have their dreams, and want them to be excited about learning? What better person to do that than their moms--dads too!
I had to laugh tonight when we were reading Kamille's email about chapter 4 of Rachel's book. She was talking about a line the main character says to someone, and Kamille referred to it as flirting. Rachel didn't think it was flirting at all; and it cracked me up, because of course it was! I guess I need to teach them more about that. I told them that if you make a cute little joke with someone you think is cute, that's flirting. They couldn't believe it. Rachel said that sometimes if a guy at church comes up and is nice to a girl, the girl will say that the guy had flirted with her. Rachel says she always thinks he was just being nice and normal. She's even told someone they guy was just being nice. I told her never to tell a girl that thinks she's been flirted with that she hasn't; just leave it alone! Too funny.
We did a lot of school today. It was so nice. We're still reviewing math, and we will be for another week. They're just reading through the rest of their science books. They're still reading things for American History. George Washington Spymaster and The 5000 Year Leap. Rachel's neglecting researching for her paper on expressive writing because she's too excited about editing her book, but she'll need to do it in the next 2 weeks. It's hard for her to want to finish her math book, since she knows that the online college she's going to use has one very easy math course that she'll be required to take. Really, really easy. I did the whole course in one day. She going to use the same college I'm using for my online degree. And we had a big conversation with Sarah about how everyone is not a math genius like she thinks they are. It's hard to be a teenager.
See you next week!
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