When I began homeschooling, things were pretty easy. Spelling, addition, art, story books. Life was good. And then they would ask a question and I would have to decide – should you teach what you know, even if it is advanced.
But I couldn’t help myself. My kids would innocently ask a question like, “Hey Mommy, how do eggs turn into chickens?” I would launch into a long explanation of the miracle of development, how the point that the eventual head of the chicken lifts off the yolk turns into the mouth and the beauty of the formation of the gut tube in an almost alien progression. I decided to teach what I know. My kids carry my enthusiasm for reproduction and development, cellular biology, physics, chemistry, and even marine biology to this day.
Have you ever wondered if you should teach what you know, even if it is advanced?
If I had said to myself, “No, I better slow this down so that I teach only what other kids their age are learning,” then I would have missed the moment. There is a particular moment when your child is truly interested and receptive to learning something. If you delay answering those interested questions, then that interest fades. It is just the way we are made. When we are in the process of figuring out and on a path led by curiosity, the things we learn to take us to our goal will stick forever in our memory.
Every one of you has something you know a lot about.
It might not be science. Maybe it is language or art or cooking or sewing. But whatever it is, answer that question with everything you have got the next time your child asks. You will be surprised at how much they understand and that enthusiasm you have will flow into them and magnify into a joy of learning that will be hard to quench. Isn’t that what we want for all our children?
We want our children to believe that they can touch the sky and reach the stars. We want them to wonder and dream and experience that joy of discovery and understanding.
It all begins with you and how you answer that question. If you know it, teach it even if it is advanced.
