(an observation) I have pretty much never......

(or did it once and never again)....drilled phonics sounds.  Sat with "first readers" and asked my child to sound out words.  Done flash cards with math facts. 

But each of my kids over age 10 just knows these things.

Not all the under 10s do.  Not all the kids who know these things now knew them a couple years ago.

But they picked it up somehow.  Where?


I didn't have any stress sitting next to them waiting for them to sound out a word.  There were no power struggles over 9+7. 

I never really even drilled multiplication facts. Yeah, sometimes we play doing drills and have little competitions, calling out facts. But it's not something we do daily.

They just seem to have figured it out.

Honestly, sometimes I think I'm doing things wrong when I read the way other homeschoolers do these types of things with their kids ages 5-10.

My kids are playing Lego, building in a sandbox, playing with their pet laying hens, playing dollies, watching TV and playing computer games.

But then I read posts on the homeschool forum where someone is frustrated with a power struggle with a younger child who "doesn't get it" or is "refusing" to perform on command.  I read suggestions to "make" the child perform.  And honestly? 

I feel grieved.  And I think, it doesn't seem right. It doesn't seem natural. Yet- I know I get frustrated with my kids too--- just this morning I raised my voice to emphasize how unhappy I was that their floor was covered with Lego when no-one is playing... and that the bathroom was an absolute disaster area.   I told them I wanted them to each copy the Bathroom Rules poster.

Then I went back to MY activity and smiled seeing them in my peripheral vision, cleaning their bathroom and bedroom.....

And my 12yo just brought me the Bathroom Rules poster and showed me the first few lines he's copied and asked if it was OK if he copied it that way---

in what appears to be Elvish Runes. 

:giggle:

"Sure, if you can read it."

I sat down to type this and through my window can hear happy childish sounds on the back porch.

Throughout all this, my teen has been at the table doing his high school work.  It's all loaded on Home School Tracker Plus, he just opens HST+ and checks his agenda, does the work and emails it to me, and marks it "done" on the agenda. Then he does the Teen homeschool forum some.

He knows all his multiplication tables. And his Algebra 2, personal finance, and all the math he needs to do his Physics.  He knows how to sound out pretty much any word, but he also knows how to look it up at Dictionary.com to see the pronunciation.  In fact, he knows how to find the answer to anything he questions.

Einstein is said to have said, it's a waste of brainpower to memorize anything one can look up. I still recommend the books, Einstein Never Used Flashcards, Hard Times in Paradise, and Better Late than Early (see widget in sidebar).