It is easy to feel inadequate, but we have been able to overcome this feeling by realizing that the most important factor in our children’s education has nothing to do with a particular approach or curriculum. Rather, we found that what is most important is building a solid foundation of learning that our boys would be able to continually draw from as they explore their world. Further, we realized that the creation of this foundation should include building both a base of general knowledge to draw from, as well as a base of multiple learning approaches so our boys could experience many ways of obtaining knowledge.
For our family, building a solid base of knowledge started last year in preschool as we casually engaged in unit studies on topics the boys found interesting as they explored the natural world around them. Interspersed throughout, we often added fact-based, organized learning such as beginning phonics and easy number concepts. With the start of Kindergarten this year, we thought we might need to look into committing to a curriculum or a single approach, but as we mulled over our options, we began to see the benefits of mixing approaches and programs. It dawned on us through a series of summer vacations that we needed to focus not on a curriculum, but on building a solid foundation of learning.
As our summer turned into a series of trips, both business and pleasure, we noticed an amazing number of interrelated facts and observations. As a homeschooling family, we were pleased with these happy coincidences, especially as we realized that our boys had begun to link many of their new experiences with their past learning.
The first obvious link came as we were touring a granite quarry in Vermont. As we rounded a bend on the ascent to the viewing ridge, our tour guide pointed out two huge, abandoned granite rollers and explained that they were discarded, cracked rollers that were used by places like Hershey to grind the cocoa for their chocolate bars. The boys perked up at the mention of Hershey, better known as Chocolate World in our house, which is their all-time favorite destination. While the comment made by the tour guide was simply another interesting bit of trivia, to our boys it sparked the beginning of their growing curiosity of all things granite.
Another fact we learned that day was that granite is so hard that it can only be cut by diamond-studded drills. Andy and Matt immediately grabbed on to this new fact and began asking us questions in earnest about materials, hardness, and what substance cuts what. We attempted to answer all of their questions and explained to them that diamond is the hardest know substance on the earth.
Sooner than we wished, our tour and our vacation came to an end. The learning continued, though, as every couple of days the boys brought up the diamond and granite conversation, always attempting to think of a material harder than diamond. In the weeks that followed, we often overheard them at play discussing which of their toys could cut the others and proclaiming their Lego buildings covered in invincible diamonds.
We soon found ourselves in the car again on a business trip turned vacation, which included a trip to the ocean and a day in Philadelphia. As we drove, we gave the boys a visual clue of how long it would take to reach our destination, telling them we would be very close when we crossed the Ben Franklin Bridge.
Andy and Matt, like many of their friends, have an incurable fascination with large bridges, and as we finally crossed the nearly two-mile-long Ben Franklin (we later learned it is 9,650 feet and was the longest suspension bridge in the world when it was built) the excitement level in our car noticeably rose by a factor of ten. We took advantage of their excitement and during the last thirty minutes of our trip, we explained who Benjamin Franklin was, which led to a discussion on the founding of our nation and the finer points of religious freedom.
We were surprised at how interested and how much information our boys were able to absorb during our drive. By the time Daryl had finished his business obligations and we were able to go sightseeing in Philly, the boys were literally chomping at the bit to see the famed Liberty Bell.
After passing security checkpoints, we found ourselves in The Liberty Bell Center, a new hall dedicated in 2003 that houses a museum of sorts as well as the Bell itself. Figuring the boys would be most interested in seeing the Bell first, we initially skipped all the displays and headed straight to the back where after only a few minutes we were able to pose in front of the Liberty Bell for pictures. Not realizing the extent of their interest, we were surprised yet again when Andy and Matt asked to see the back of the Bell. We promptly got back in line and were able to soon walk them around the entire Bell.
As soon as the boys had seen all the angles, we led them back to the plaques and pictures lining the walls to explain some of the history of the Bell and its famous crack. The boys insisted we read each and every plaque to them, and along the way we learned things that even we didn’t know.
One of the things we learned was that the crack in the Bell was originally only a hairline crack caused by inferior metals, and the large gap that makes it so recognizable is actually a result of an attempt to restore the Bell. This new knowledge prompted a discussion on the materials used, and later in the car, one of the boys asked why the makers of the Bell didn’t use diamond. We were initially caught off-guard by this question until we remembered our granite quarry trip and our multiple talks on the hardness of materials.
Of course we explained to the boys that bells were usually made out of metal in order to make a ring tone. They replied with an idea for a bell made out of metal on the inside to get the tone, and diamond on the outside to ensure it didn’t crack. And while we chuckled to ourselves at their creative solution and explained why the high cost of diamonds and the muffling qualities of the diamond might make their solution implausible, we were impressed that they were processing and building on the knowledge they had gained over the course of our summer.
In the end, we realized that even if their suggestions were humorous or impractical, the most important thing was that they were learning how to problem-solve using all of their available resources. This summer our children learned about the founding of America, about bells and metals, and about granite quarries and diamond. More importantly, we learned how every experience they have, every scrap of information that comes their way very well might become a building block in their education, forming the basis for all their learning to come.
It’s refreshing as homeschooling parents to know that every experience from workbook pages to family vacations really do get filed away in our children’s minds to be accessed and used when needed. In college I had a professor who often said, “All is grist for the English mill.” He was quoting one of his own professors who referred to the fact that all of life’s experiences provide fodder for poets and writers to expand upon, but as I thought about it I realized the same rings true for homeschoolers.
For the homeschooling family, learning is not about what book or program we choose, and it’s not just what happens from eight to two on weekdays. For a homeschooler, every encounter with learning and living provides us with an opportunity to link, to learn and to build our solid foundation of learning.
Originally published in
Homeschooling Today, July/August 2005. Copyright Lisa Tiffin, 2005.
