The other day, my usually precocious tweeny kids were worn out and weary. So I woke early and got out a pile of their old toddler and preschooler toys. I suggested catapults, or flying paper rings, or the slingshot combined with marshmallows.
They chose the immense cardboard blocks and decided to try different structural configurations to create the largest and most stable building. Now that my kids are both taller than I, I simply sat back and watch the fun as they stacked and adjusted the blocks to heights never before reached in our living room.
In fact, I realized that my tweeny kids actually learn more if I do not interfere or even participate. They work at problems together and when they have ideas or questions, they look answers up by themselves. The hardest part to getting this new type of homeschooling magic to work is finding a band-aid big enough to cover my mouth. After living down in their wonderful twin world as the third twin for over a decade, it is very, very hard and even a bit sad to back out to the spectator seats. But that is when the magic happens.
And on this day of spontaneous construction to the ceiling, the magic was there.
…. and for those of you who wonder, structural stability of the buildings that actually made it to the ceiling was tested by hurling stuffed animals from the dining room (to give the building a fighting chance for survival).
I love homeschooling my kids and my only regret is that we wasted three years with the kids in public school. Those are 36 months of fun and magic I missed with them, but happily we have many, many more months in our future before they become adults.