September 10, 2008

My son loves to bake. He reads recipes. He performs the associated math. He cleans up after himself. We eat his food.*

This is homeschool and every single day I am grateful for it. And every single year that passes, I love it more and more. My kids are learning how to be effective people. They are learning how to take responsibility. They are learning how to be loving. They are learning how to follow their own passions. They are learning to set their own priorities. They are learning, in short, what really matters to this family.

It turns out, learning to fight isn't so important. Learning to compete isn't so important. Learning how to stand in line isn't so important. Learning to subvert your own creativity isn't so important. Learning to follow unknown leaders isn't so important. Learning to be invisible isn't so important. Learning that some will always be shinier isn't so important. Learning to tolerate seemingly endless confinement isn't so important. And frankly, learning by endless repetition and coercion on a random and corporate timeline really just isn't so important. At least not for this family.

*(Learning how to lift a shot of cookies off a google image search can be a real timesaver, at least in this family.)

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Exactly why we unschool. Thanks for your amazing blog. And so funny, I just came away from reading "Chocolate Chippo Hippo" for the 150th time to Sam just before popping on here to see this! Now I'm hungry.

Anonymous said...

Fantastic post, apart from the cookie shot which just made me hungry.

MOM #1 said...

Those cookies look yummy. A true lesson in natural learning.

Anonymous said...

Mmmm, chocolate chip cookies! Baking yummy chocolate chip cookies is definitely the more important skill.

candyn said...

I love this post.