Truth, Beauty, & Goodness

Any homeschooler will tell you they have doubts.  If they tell you they don't, they're lying.  It's impossible to take on your child's entire education all the way through high school and say with confidence that you're doing everything right.  Or sometimes, even that you're doing most things right.

So, of course I have doubts, especially after the last year and a half of craziness that has been our lives and especially with Alice, who, as the younger child, has had much less one on one instructional time and much more being dragged along with whatever someone else is doing.

If she were in a classroom, would she be reading bigger words?  Reciting her math facts more quickly?  Writing stories on her own?

Maybe.

The other night we went to a planetarium show on the Sistine Chapel--a show aimed at kids 12 and up, but of course, she went along.  The narrator described each section of the ceiling as it was shown and she sat quietly and listened.  When the picture of Adam's creation came up, the narrator said something about how Adam was limp and lifeless and God was full of power and energy and just about to give Adam all of the good things he wanted most.  Alice crawled up next to me and whispered in my ear, "Isn't God so good?!" and then got back in her own seat and watched the rest of the show.

And I sat through the rest of the show and thought about what she had just said.  My six year old, who adds with her fingers and still calls the letter Y "V with a stick" gets it.  For all the facts I haven't taught her yet, she's been soaking in the Truth and goodness and beauty all along the way.  

I think that if she had been in a classroom for the last two and a half years, she might be a more independent reader, but I also think that there's not much chance she would see things on a regular basis in the classroom that would inspire her to reflect on the goodness of God giving life to his creation.

The last year and a half hasn't been wasted.  We'll keep on.  She'll learn her math facts and W will become W, not just upside down M.  And we'll continue looking for Truth, goodness, and beauty that you can't find in a traditional education.