She Doesn't Get It From Me

Emmaline is a Science and Math lover. As a home schooling parent, you learn about your kids in a different way. You figure out HOW they learn and you get to see first hand what lights their fire. Emma from the beginning showed very little interest in reading and writing. Much to my dismay. Once she learned to read, I thought she would love it. Not really. She did figure out that she can read all sorts of things, not just her school text though and that did ignite a bit of a spark. But nothing comes close to her love of Science and Math.

I should not be surprised by this. Emma has always be an inquisitive child and prefers a real, straight answer. Much of reading and writing is left to interpretation. But Science and Math have finite answers.

For first grade, there is only a small amount of Science. However, Emma watches Zoom on PBS. A couple of weeks ago she learned how fingerprints are all different and conducted an experiment that involved pencil all over a sheet of paper in which we had to rub our fingers on it, she took our print and covered it with tape and then decided if it was loopy, hilly, or circles. We all participated, even Davis, and Emma had conducted her first Science experiment.

Yesterday the child came to me asking for a large bowl, water, salt, a glass, plastic wrap, rock, and tape. She had seen another experiment on Zoom and was going to try it. While she had the process right, we had no sun in which to sit the experiment and it did not work. This morning I got on the net and printed off the directions and we set the experiment up again. Right now Emma's still in sitting out on the table, in the sun, hoping to collect water into the cup.

My child, is wanting to do Science experiments, not sit and practice her handwriting. I am not sure whose child this is but she is not mine. My child would want to day dream all day and make up stories and practice her handwriting so it looked pretty. Not Emma. Apparently that stuff is for the birds and Science and Math with it's only one answer are the way to go.

I can see home schooling is going to be challenging for me in whole new way. Talk about not pushing your likes on your kid. All I want to do is read and make nice letters. All she wants to do learn why things happen and how to do all sorts of Math problems. I guess we balance each other that way. I can make sure she gets her reading and writing done and I can finally learn about Science and Math.

I can say though that THIS is exactly why I home school. Emma is leading the way. She is doing hands on learning. The Science stuff it not in our "curriculum" but we can do it anyway. We have the freedom to do that. She is showing me how she likes to learn and how she best learns and we can do that for her. I like that she is taking the lead and teaching herself and doing what she likes while learning at the same time.

There have been many times in doing this that I have seriously wondered what I was thinking. The last few days have shown me that we are doing what is right for Emma. The way she is growing and learning fit for her and she is blossoming as a result.