I know you don't believe me, but it really is difficult. I know I make it look so easy with my spotless house and impeccable wardrobe, as well as the well-behaved tidy children that line up behind me wiping their own noses and putting themselves in time-out.
My home is a pillar of organization, creativity, harmony, and inspired learning all appropriately scheduled out into sections throughout the day. I impart a 'thorough knowledge of music, singing, drawing, dancing, and the modern languages'...Miss Bingley was slightly more full of it than I am at the moment. What a wonderful piece of literature to so deftly and timelessly define "the accomplished woman" myth and the egotists who perpetuate it. I digress.
As often as I think I am failing in this enterprise once in a while I get a glimmer of evidence that I am not a complete derelict...alright I am being a little harsh about feeling completely derelict and only seeing glimmers of evidence, but those feelings of inadequacy and heavy responsibility do come on a fairly regular basis so glimmers, sparkles, and lightbulbs are moments to embrace. Exempli gratia:
On the way to basketball I was quizzing Ethan on some percentage/fraction/decimal conversions when he brings up the fact that public schools don't teach any History and what a travesty that is, in his humble opinion.
"Why don't they teach any History?" he asks, "I know there's some US History in high school but what about the little kids?"
So, because I'm a homeschooling parent, I almost never answer such a question but ask another, "Why would it matter that they know History? Why is it important to know anything about Hammurabi, or Babur, or Alexander when they lived so long ago? Is it important?"
"That's a good question." Thoughtful silence. Then after a moment,
"Well, those who understand the past are better prepared for the future. So if we know what happened in wars and things hundreds of years ago, we don't have to have those same wars again, because it could just happen all over again. Because there were a lot of dumb wars. And we could just forget a lot of things, like discoveries and languages."
Brilliant.
4 comments:
love light bulb moments, sparkles, glimmers, all of it. moments that help me see that my MOM job is important, because some days i just feel like the laundry doer. i feel real joy - like joy in my heart kind of joy - when my kids are KIND to other kids. those moments make me want to shout glory hallelujah! and a few times i think i even have. so YAY for your glimmer moment. you not a derelict - this i know.
uh, i'm confused though...maybe seattle is different? but my kids all learned history in elementary school. third grade is world, fourth grade is utah, fifth grade is american and sixth is ancient.
What are you talking about? They teach history in grade school. It's convoluted and highly politicized. My kid knows everything about Martin Luther King Jr. and probably can't tell me who Thomas Jefferson is. I think I'll go wake him up and find out!
I like the book tree. Of course Ethan is Brilliant, I'm his aunt! No really, you do a great job teaching them real history and not waterdown, liberal, PC history!
um, i want to be put under your sub heading for talented people
just sayin...
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