As a homeschooling parent, one of the most valuable gifts I give my child is time. Time to spend how he chooses. There's plenty of time to eat when he's hungry, drink when he's thirsty, and use the bathroom when he needs to--basic freedoms we don't take for granted, having once been in school.
There's a lot of time to talk together, natural conversations arising from the TV shows he watches and the games he plays. Funny stories. Musings. I'm glad to be there to answer his questions, and look answers up together, learning alongside each other.
Wouldn't it be absurd, as a homeschooling family, to have designated "question and answer" times, like kids have in school? I could wear a sign, like Lucy in Charlie Brown: "The doctor is in". Only, my sign would say: "The teacher is in". My son could then, between the hours of nine and ten, ask me all the questions about the known universe. I would have all the answers.
Yet, it's a funny thing about my kid and his questions. Sometimes our most profound and meaningful discussions happen around eleven o'clock at night. Or when I'm changing his sister's diaper. Or composing an email. For me, his sparks of curiosity are often curiously ill-timed..
Fortunately, we have lots of time. The diaper can't really wait, but the email can wait. The dishes can certainly wait. Increasingly, the scheduled classes can wait.
While I can't always predict when the spark of curiosity will strike, I can predict when it won't. This is my third year of homeschooling, and I can predict with about 95% certainty that when I say "Now it's time to....", my child's eyes will glaze over and the spark will be gone.
He was fairly compliant, in the beginning. Kindergarten and a little of first grade taught him to tow the line some. But there was no engagement, no joy or true learning. Not the kind that I see naturally, every day, when he chooses how to spend his time.
In his free play, my son creates, tinkers, ponders, imagines, and produces. He reads and writes and does math calculations to support his play. He does these things for real reasons: his own reasons.
We can provide our child time to learn through play at home, but unless we have a big family, we can't easily provide play with others. That's where park days and the Discovery Learning Center come in!
Starting January 8th, on Wednesday afternoons, my son and I will open the DLC's doors to families who are interested in learning through play. The DLC has a rich collection of toys and games, and children are welcome to bring their own to share.
I have no idea how this experiment will go. Homeschooling kids have such a wide range of interests and personalities, that there may or may not be a spark of shared interest between them. But there might be. And we can set aside some time and some space for that to happen.
