What’s that one thing you wish you could do over again? If you could offer a word of advice or warning to moms still on the homeschooling journey, what would you tell them?
@Sallie, this is such a great question. Immediately, what comes to mind is a “math mistake” I made – or rather, to generalize – I completely underestimated my kiddo.
My 3 sons each have their unique talents, and I knew one of my twins was good at math. The usual signs were there – liking to solve puzzles, good at finishing math homework, etc.
My predisposition is to finish assignments and curriculum – if the math curriculum has assignments, we needed to cover all of them to make sure the concepts were understood. We had actually switched from Saxon to Singapore in 2nd grade because my other twin refused to accept the concept of subtraction (but that’s another story). Singapore Math is conceptually excellent and it worked for us because it balanced how concepts were related. Yet, I still felt we needed to cover everything in order. I would allow some skipping of individual questions on a homework if the children could demonstrate that they got the idea.
Anyway, fast forward to junior/senior year summer. My son was going for a dual enrollment degree of Associates at the same time as high school diploma, but to do it he needed to have completed Calculus I at the end of junior year in order to do both Calc II and Calc III in senior year. Our original plan was to take Calc I in senior year. But he really wanted to get the Associates of Science and needed Calc I as the prerequisite.
So at the beginning of the summer, I handed him the course he was supposed to start in the fall. He finished Calc 1 in three weeks. And passed a CLEP in it, giving him the prereq.
I was flabbergasted. I completely underestimated his capabilities.
So my word of advice is to read your child. Are they different than your preconceived ideas about them? Have they changed? How have they grown? It’s a wonderful journey and we want to remember that our kids are growing towards that unique potential given to each one of them.
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First of all, welcome!
Second, your last paragraph matches my experience. There were things Caroline struggled with or even could not do at one point. But a switch flipped along the way and now she has no problems with that same thing.
It’s easy to think that if our child has an issue with (insert something learning related here) that he or she will always struggle. But children do change.
Such a great story! Thank you for sharing it!