Math as art

November 14, 2006

I've been wondering lately if I shouldn't be doing more "school" with my children, specifically Celine. Homeschooling is so individual for each family which is the beauty of it but I've found myself lately comparing our schooling un-structure with other homeschooling families we know. Comparing notes and progress is not a bad thing, in fact I've come away with some great teaching tools from asking other moms what they're doing with their kids. But once in a while I have niggling doubts that maybe we should focus more on academics - you know, sit down and "do math" etc... Forgetting the fact that Celine can read 150pg chapter books in one afternoon and has started teaching Damien and I from her knowlegde. And that all three kids love memorizing scripture, take interesting photos, can sew a basic stitch(even Brienne), and understand intutively why we need to care for God's creation. During the past few days I have forgotten or not valued the 1000 other facts, understandings, skills and character traits my children have gained in our homeschool adventures.

This morning I was stuggling with these thoughts of inadequacy but determined to push the thoughts aside as the kids and I tackled the day. Our main job was to tidy up from the weekend and generally get our life in order for the week. Sometime mid morning though we encountered an interruption to our work that set my mind to ease regarding my children's lack of structured education.

We were cleaning up and came across a bucket of damp clothespins that had been taken off the clothesline outside a few days prior. I gave Celine the job of laying them out on the table to dry. I continuued vacuumming and checked a few minutes later on her progress, ready to assign the next chore. Celine had laid the clothespins out in a pattern and was grouping them. I sat down to admire her design when she informed me she was counting them by 2's. A light clicked in my head "aha, a teaching moment" and I set down my cleaning and we proceeded to have fun grouping, regrouping, counting & multiplying the clothespins. Laurent didn't want to be left out so when Celine and I were done he & I counted up to 10 and then his numbers started jumping around and we all had a good laugh. While Laurent and I were counting Celine took care of Brienne by teaching her letters, numbers and shapes (all on Celine's initiative). Brienne was thrilled with all the attention from big sister and proudly showed Daddy her numbers and letters at the supper table.

Laurent and I wrote numbers and when I tired of the whole scene (sit down schooling does not hold my interest long which is one reason I don't take this approach with the kids) and returned to cleaning he continued - only with a creative twist, see drawing above. If you look closely you'll see a backwards 5 in the boy's shorts. Well, that's where the picture all started. Apparently Laurent saw shorts in the number 5 and took off from there. I just love that creativity. Who says math can't be art?

What a lovely reminder I had this morning of why we've chosen the path we have and how it really is working for us. My children truly are learning all the time and not just when these "school moments" pop up.