One of the main goals I have in homeschooling my children is to teach them to love learning. What I'm finding, is that as I guide my children along this path, I am re-learning to love learning.
I went through a traditional schooling experience. I survived it. I succeeded at it. I came out ok. However, many of my "successes" are really just my success at coping with certain restraints or figuring out how to "work the system". I want my children's experiences to be more than just coping.As I homeschool my kids, I find that I'm excited to learn too. I am still not interested in learning history, it's never been my favorite subject. But I am fascinated, that when I read about historical events, knowing there is no test later, I find that the information is much more interesting to me. I may forget the facts tomorrow, but the general feelings of events stay with me. I love putting different historical pieces together and seeing a larger picture. A new energy is emerging from me as I read about our world's history.
Perhaps one could argue my interest is peaking because I'm older now and history is more interesting to me at this age than when I was a teenager. But I think I'm having more fun because there's no test to measure how much information I'm retaining. No one is asking me if I can site 3 examples as to why my point of view is correct. I'm free to read in any order I want. I get to share my thoughts and interpretations with others without a grade attached to it.
I am also allowed to learn about things that interest me, like the photography business I have with my father. There is always something to learn in photography that will make my work better. I hope my children see that, while I may be scared sometimes (like shooting my first wedding event), I am attacking the learning curve around my passion. That I, willingly, spend the time to be sure I'm ready for a shoot. That "getting ready" can look like practice, information gathering, reading, and more. I hope they see how proud I am of myself after successfully completing a shoot I worked really hard one (not just on the day, but the days and weeks leading up to the event).
