Mom Is Teaching

The other night at the tattoo place, I was sitting waiting my turn.  There was a couple across the way from me who had came to Panama City Beach in an effort to flee New Orleans.  The couple was relatively young, that I could tell by looking.  But further conversation took me deep into a conversation that I never dreamed I would have in a tattoo parlor, in Panama City Beach Florida at close to 10 PM.

I’m not even sure how the subject came up, I think she mentioned her children, I asked about them and she indicated that she had five children.  Their ages ranged from 3 to 11.  It was fairly obvious that the children weren’t with her but I wasn’t going to just be blunt and say, ‘well where are the little chaps” so I listened to what she had to say about them.

Side note here:  I was holding the book The Case Against Homework by Sara Bennet and Nancy Kalish but I don’t think she had noticed that at this time. 

Anyway, she barely got the words “they range from 3 to 11, but we homeschool and they are with their dad right now.”  I was immediately drawn to her, of course, she had information that was definitely useful for me.  As it turned out, she was an Army brat and apparently at one time called New Orleans home.  She later moved to Nevada but in the last year she had returned to New Orleans.  Thus the need to get the heck out of there this week. 

What she told me was simply fascinating.  It may or may not be that interesting to you since many of you homeschool and we’ve yet to talk about schedules and time of the year for school sessions, etc.  But, because of the work schedule of the children’s father (which she didn’t tell me), it works best for them for them to handle their school time from January through August.  Then, the children go to their father’s and stay and they swap the visitation schedule.

I was stunned.  I grew up in the house with a public school teacher, remember that.  And for me, the year starts in August and ends in May and those months in between are simply extra credit.  I mean that literally, if you did well from August to May, you had a free summer, but if you didn’t, summer school was waiting on you.  I had never entertained the idea that school could go from January to August.  How is that my little brain was so closed and couldn’t imagine such a thing happening?

She explained to me about going to the zoo, the arboretum, grocery shopping and having the kids weigh stuff, compare prices and the like.  She continued to tell me that her belief is that children are like sponges, they want to learn, they want to create and as long as you give the little ones an opportunity to see and do, they will learn. 

Now, duh, that’s not rocket science.  But as I’ve mentioned to you before, the only home schooled children that I know in real life didn’t even make it to graduate.  And, neither of them have been able to hold down decent jobs.  I was mesmerized by our conversation and when the guy told me it was my turn, I was a bit disappointed.  I was learning so much from this lady.  She couldn’t have been over 26 or maybe even 27 years old though.  Still I absolutely loved listening to her.

She doesn’t follow a set curriculum and her thoughts on education reminded me much of what Meg L said in this comment regarding her role in homeschooling.  Meg L and the lady in the tattoo place both said, I’m a facilitator, I’m a coach, I’m someone to lends directions.

It was totally a wow moment for me.  TOTALLY!