Relaxing with my children while they learn is such a precious gift. We banter through the lesson, everyone enjoying the comfort of family and freedom to learn and explore without pressure to conform or commensurate stress.
Yesterday my kids revisited the periodic table. My goal for them was not memorization, but understanding and familiarity, and so the board game we played (available as a free download from Ellen McHenry’s Basement Workshop) was perfect.
Beyond the fun associated with the game, learning how the atomic number is organized on the table and what the valences are in different parts of the table, where radioactive elements are grouped or not grouped on the table, and that transitional elements can have more than one valence, they learned the fine art of making change. This is a wonderful game, designed by an inspirationally-smart woman who obviously understands that if children are motivated by getting to keep all the pennies and cents they accumulate during the game, they will pay attention to the rules and play happily, learning all the while.
At risk of turning into a broken record, I really feel so lucky to be given the opportunity to school my children. It is a life I never knew I would love and one that I prepared for only serendipidously. But it is a life I fully embrace.
Time slows when you homeschool, at least for me. The few years my children were in public school were a whir of activity, passing so quickly that I feel I missed a good potion of their lives. Friends at the time told me that the effect would only increase and before I knew it, my children would be adults and I would wonder where the time went.
But now I realize that for those of us who homeschool, time does not careen out of control as our children age. We slow to a pace that matches them. Synched together in a peaceful snowglobe that is our family life. I know that at some point my children will be adults, but it will not catch me by surprise. They will not gain their own opinions and ideas without my seeing the transition.
I will be there through the entire process each moment, watching them play a periodic table game, learn to play the flute, or invent a new toy. That is the gift and the blessing that the sacrifices of homeschooling bestow upon me. And for these, I am at the same time enchanted and grateful.
