The moment was like some bright beacon calling from a distant shore. Angels sang. Planets aligned. Dogs and cats played peacefully together. Eddie Vedder could be heard whispering from a far corner, "Damn, you are Awesome." (with some guttural "yeeeeeeeeeeeah...")
"Mom. If 4+4 = 8 and 8-4 = 4, then all those numbers are related."
Maybe the average teacher is used to hearing epiphanies like this one, but me, just some regular ol' person... It's still magic. You can preach and preach, but until they figure it out for themselves, it's really all just talk. If I hadn't decided to home school, I would have given these moments to someone else. That wasn't one of our original reasons for home schooling, but it's become one of the biggest. The first time I experienced "a moment" was last year when Coop, after working on phonics for several weeks, uttered, "lllll....ah....guh.... LOG!" and from there we were off and reading. I'm not going to lie, on top of having a comfortable environment for the children to learn and stretch out in... I really get off on the fact I taught someone to read.
I don't mean to make it all sound easy though. Most days are tough. Crazy tough. And if you're smart, you don't have 3 other kids under the age of 3 getting into stuff while the 6 year old is schoolin'. But when the epiphanies do come sporadically and far between, every tough day is just so worth it.
That's pretty good for a six year old. That logic right there is all you need for basic algebra. Give him x+4= 8 and see if he can figure out what x is.
ReplyDeletehmm... I like a good experiment.
ReplyDeleteAs a teacher I can say those epiphanies thrill our hearts every time we experience them with a child. You have some amazing moments ahead of you!Found you through FTLOB
ReplyDeleteThank you so much, Beverly. Really! I am really loving it!... the epiphanies that is... the little ones screaming and getting into things... well, that's different. =o)
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