They will learn . . .

There are those moments as a parent when I wonder "will they ever learn to (insert a life skill)" and start to panic that I am not fulfilling my role to teach them. But recently I have been reminded to slow down and not worry.

I have been reading a few homeschool books that focus on unit study and some kid direction to the curriculm. This is not completely what I plan to do with the kids, but has been mostly what we have been doing this past year. For example the kids are interested in flying so we made paper airplanes and discussed vocabulary words associated with planes. Jim also explained to Samuel how a plane flys. Right now Samuel has been very excited about the moon, sun and planets. So we have spent many hours reading books on these topics and studying the night sky. Have we learned something? Most certainly! Does it follow what other kindergarteners are learning? Probably not. The point of some kid direction is that almost any topic can include your tradtional school subjects (math, reading and science) and be more fun to learn if you are interested in it.

I was reading a book on what your child should learn in each grade level. I was pleasantly surprised that much of what was on the list for a kindergartner Samuel has had exposure to. One thing he hadn't learned was telling time. Was I worried? A little, but life goes on. A few weeks later Samuel asks me about the clock on the stove. I tell him a little. The next day he asks me about my alarm clock, I tell him some more. Little by little he has learned a lot about telling time. Last night he walked into the living room to announce it was half past seven. Awesome!!

This is just one example of what a little time will do. A month ago Grace didn't care about puzzles. But last week when we cleaned out the game closet, she sat down and was doing all sorts of puzzles and asking for more. During the 5 day hunger challenge, Isaak learned a lot about the numbers 1-5. Everyday he would announce how many days were left. Two months ago Samuel and I made a number chart of 1-100. He was so excited and we hung it in the living room where everyone can see it. Now in the last few weeks he goes to it and counts to 100. And the practice is showing, he can identify most numbers now and even corrects his brother.

God has entrusted us with little wonders. Let us enjoy them and teach them, but not get stressed about the little things.