At this somewhat late stage in the game, I feel unprepared
for life, with this pestering notion that I am constantly playing catch-up on
the learning that I didn’t have time for when I was in school solving pages of
similar math problems and writing essays on dead authors. If only I had more time to prepare I would be
better at this life. I would know why once purple glass turns yellow in the sun
or how to properly treat a burn (which yes, I know now, but I was unprepared when it happened). I would have answers for all of the questions,
okay not all of them because there are new ones every day, but I would have
answers for a lot of the questions that enter my brain, questions that I do not
have time to read about with three children needing breakfast, shoes found or
to use the toilet.
You see these words and would expect me to want to send my
kids off every day to school, so that I could have a moment to breath and
read and find information, but why would I want to take away their ability to
breath and read and find information on the questions that plague their brains.
Right now, the questions are often simple and do not take
hours of reading and/or experimentation to uncover the snippet of understanding
for which they are searching. The time
will come when, at least one of them if not all, will spend hours reading
various volumes and the internet to solve a piece of the puzzle. This will be because they want to, not because
I am making them. They will, in this way,
learn to think and find information not just recite what they have been
taught. In my theory, in order to have
that deep desire to really learn, one needs to have had time in life that does
not involve deep pursuits. This is why
our school is on their terms…most of the time.
My kids are all under ten and we spend much of our day doing
things that are not school related. My
oldest is reading a plethora of comic books and though he finished the entire
Harry Potter series before he was eight, he has no interest in starting a new
novel (that is until the next Rick Riordan book arrives at his door). The next one in line is my odd man out. She is an extroverted kinesthetic who would
suck every bit of life from me if she could.
She cannot entertain herself for any length of time and cannot be
alone. She loves to draw and copy
words. Any lessons with her are short
and once her brain wanders off, we stop because there is no point in trying to
force her. She started acting class this
year, something we all knew she would do well with. The youngest, who is 2 ½, may possibly read
before her older sister. She knows her
alphabet, both aurally and visually, and speaks in clear cognizant sentences. She can summarize a book or television show
hours, days after being exposed to it. My husband caught her one night with a flashlight
and a book hiding under the covers. They
are allowed to be…nope that is it, they are allowed to be.
I question whether I am doing the right thing, keeping my
kids home to let them learn naturally and not in some regimented way. I think that is a parent’s job to constantly question
whether they are doing the right thing, because a parent should want the best
for his/her child. I am breaking the “rules”
of how childhood is “supposed” to be. I am
part of a larger and larger group of parents who are taking back the control of
childhood. I also have to remember how
it was to be a child. I hated
school. I LOVED learning. I was always under the impression that I
would learn so much more if I didn’t have to go to school every day. That is what they get to do. Learn on their own terms.
Thanks for reading,
Sarah McTernen
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