Homeschool IS Working (Part 2)

Most days I go to bed with guilt over my parenting mistakes, rarely do I feel a sense of accomplishment about my specific roles in my kids growth. I know I am a good enough mom, I am even a good mom on most days, but it takes a lot for me to willing admit that out loud. It is much easier to see my flaws and failures, to see the ways in which I am not good enough, the areas in which I could do so much better.

Homeschooling has added a whole new level to this mind drama I indulge in. I am constantly measuring and comparing if Luke is learning enough academics. Then in the next instant I am stressing that he is not playing enough.  When I know he knows something and I ask him to "perform," and he doesn't remember, I feel concerned that whoever is watching is judging and thinking, "I knew homeschool was not gonna work!"

Last night though was a triumph! A total and complete academic triumph! For Luke's night nap book I was reading him a Timeline of the History of Food. (Yes, his choice!) The timeline started in 400,000 BC. and we got as far as 1510 AD. During this time Luke showed us how much he has learned, how much information his brain contains just from the last seven weeks of school, how much homeschool is teaching him. (Which he also demonstrated in his conversation at his ophthalmologist today, but, I don't always accept his brilliance as having any relation to my teaching.)

Because we still do the Classical Conversations Timeline each day Luke is familiar with Sumer. He doesn't know much about it, other than it was important around 3000 BC and was a river community, but he is familiar with this ancient city and somewhat where it falls in the world history timeline. When I read that Sumerian farmers invented the sickle, he had a frame for who those farmers were.

He also knew what sickles were. We have read two books where this very old, yet very functional tool has been used. We read a historical fiction book about Samuel Eaton learning to harvest wheat in 1621 as part of my Pilgrim curriculum we are doing. We discussed how wheat and sugar cane can be harvested with sickles while reading How to Make an Apple Pie and See the World using our Five in a Row curriculum. Now he knows the Sumerians invented the sickle and can plug in so much information and make these huge connections. 

We have talked about the building of the Pyramids by the Egyptians while reviewing the CC Timeline. We have studied where Egypt was on the map when reading The Giraffe Who Walked to Paris (another Five in a Row book, which we have not officially rowed, but spent a good deal of time on and frequently reference when studying geography). He knows the Egyptians became an important part of world history before 3000 BC. When I read the foods the Egyptians ate while building the pyramids he had a reference for how much energy they exerted because they had no power tools, how much food would have meant on such a heavy job. 

When we made it to 312 BC to learn that Rome started getting fresh water, I asked him, "And who founded Rome?" Without missing a beat he answer Romulus and Remus. Thanks CC Timeline. He knows they were twin brothers. Not a lot of details in his head, but enough, big starting points!

In 1250 AD European Crusaders brought spices from the Middle East to Europe. He could tell us that cinnamon is a spice grown in Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka is a pear shaped island in the Indian Ocean. My kid knows all that! He is five-I am in awe! Thanks Five in a Row!

Italians started making pasta commercially in 1400 AD. Luke knows that semolina wheat grows in Italy. We learned about it in How to Make an Apple Pie and See the World.  Even though the wheat in the story is ground into grain to make a pie crust, he knew it could also be used to make pasta.  

Sunflowers were brought from America to Europe in 1510 AD. When I asked Luke, "So if sunflowers had to be brought from America, they were what to America?" He answered quickly, "Native!" I asked, "What does native mean?" He replied, "From the place." Exactly, my Five in a Row friend.

Last night I saw so much leaning being connected to new learning. I saw how all those hours we spend working together, doing projects, talking about our lessons are building knowledge in his brain. Now that I really see this, that I have hard evidence I know our other lessons are sticking too. I honestly cannot believe how much Luke has learned and retained in seven weeks. 

Mark changed the light-bulb to a much brighter one in our bedroom tonight, but I feel like the real light-bulb turned on in my head. Homeschool IS working. We are doing this. We are succeeding. Right now, right here, my five year old is a Kindergartner learning so very much!