Always a Teacher

A simple question from my child helps me reflect on homeschooling.

Parenting is homeschooling. Even if you do not take it on full-time (homeschooling, not parenting), you find yourself constantly teaching...even when you do not feel like it.

I live in Texas. A part of Texas that has been in extreme drought for over 12 months now. It has rained so seldom the last six months especially, that we have forgotten what it is like.

Last Saturday, I awoke to a gray sky and the sound of pitter-patter on the roof. Excited, I ran to the back door and threw it open. Along with a great wave of humid heat came the sound of real rain. The boys and I feasted upon the sights and sounds for a little while, until we remembered that man-eating mosquitoes were probably getting comfortable on the couch. So, we shut the door and went about our business.

It was not much, really. Just a little rain. But we were happy.

Anyway, my 8-year-old had been pondering the weather situation all morning. Later that day, he asked. "Mom, what is making the weather so that is does not rain. Why do other places get rain, and we don't?"

What a typical kid question, isn't it? They do that - kids ask questions. We parents, we do our best to answer. That is what homeschooling is, what parenting is - seeking the answer to life's questions.

If I was swift with science, I could have gotten a really good lesson in on meteorology here. However, we were in the car when he asked, it was like 1 million degrees, and we had been walking at an Ice Cream Festival all morning. I tried to answer, honest I did. I began talking about clouds and weather systems and low and high pressure. All 2 minutes worth that I knew. My voice trailed off. I conceded defeat....temporarily.

I told my child that I did not know any more. But, we could find out. I will do that. We will research what makes weather patterns and study weather maps. We will learn what is bringing this weather that has killed all our grass and is making water scarce and precious here.

That is one reason I love homeschooling so much. I learn just as much as they do. We truly journey with our kids, in parenting and in schooling. That is both the joy and the back-breaking work that comes with schooling our kids. Learning all there is to know.

Isn't it amazing?