My kids are getting older and I realize that their educational years under my care are growing short.
The years really do fly by.
Sometimes these are the realizations that cause me to worry and start to panic. As in distract me from my normal tasks and cause me to start googling up a storm, perhaps searching for that elusive perfect curriculum that will cover everything my kids will ever need to know. Ever.
Then I come to my senses (a bit!) and realize how ridiculous that really is. First, there is no perfect curriculum and of course NOTHING covers EVERYTHING. Besides, that’s not really my job anyway.
Homeschool Learning Gaps
My kids will have gaps in their learning. There will be many, many people, places, and events that we just simply won’t cover. Some because I just don’t want to and many more because it won’t fit into our course of study. Most of the time I’m okay with this realization.
I often think it’s better to gain a deeper knowledge of something rather than just a surface introduction. Learn a few topics well instead of slightly learning about many. I do believe we all fall prey to that in this day in age, we see a blip here and there on tv or Facebook or with a conversation with a friend and we think we know, but truly we only have scarce knowledge. In just a few minutes we can pretty much have the answer to any question we might have, but then in a few more minutes we are simply on to something else. Information ADD.
What I hope we are teaching our children in our homeschool is how to gain knowledge. They don’t always need a teacher to feed them information. All they need is a healthy curiosity and the confidence to know that their learning is in their hands.
We try to talk often about the way we, as adults, gain information. When we are interested in a new topic we go to the library, search the internet, talk to friends and acquaintances that have more knowledge on a subject than we do. Sometimes we seek out a class or a mentor as well. Sometimes we just go and do and learn with trial and error.
Knowledge is power. Knowing how to gain knowledge is, I think, even more powerful.
Let us, in our homeschool journeys, impart that to our children.
Information ADD! Yes! That’s how I always felt about it. I like a simple path because its less likely to cause anxiety. Too many choices make me actually lose the goal that is set ahead for my kids.
I love that quote!
Hi! Is that the anna maria city pier in your first picture? We live in bradenton!
Yes!! We love it there 🙂 Good catch.
That was a good reminder for me to read as I start thinking about next year. My oldest pointed out the same thing. She is in her 3rd year of college and likes to remind me not to overload her siblings. She had plenty of gaps and gets nearly all A’s. (her B’s came in subjects she did cover in high school but were always challenging for her – so not like her B’s are in things we didn’t cover!). She agreed that no one learns everything wherever they went to school – and she is finding that she’s having an easier time learning whatever she needs when compared to some of her brick and mortar schooled classmates because she learned HOW to learn 🙂
That was a good reminder for me to read as I start thinking about next year. My oldest pointed out the same thing. She is in her 3rd year of college and likes to remind me not to overload her siblings. She had plenty of gaps and gets nearly all A’s. (her B’s came in subjects she did cover in high school but were always challenging for her – so not like her B’s are in things we didn’t cover!). She agreed that no one learns everything wherever they went to school – and she is finding that she’s having an easier time learning whatever she needs when compared to some of her brick and mortar schooled classmates because she learned HOW to learn 🙂
Great blog posting. Your points are so true on so many levels. Keep up the good work.
Thanks Nadia!
Everyone has gaps, even Phd’s 😉 No one can know everything about everything. Curiosity and a healthy love of learning is the best thing we can give our children. Love your thoughts Jen 🙂