Inviting Choices (and More Joy)

Denver the Noodle Monster

Denver does not want to do homeschool today. He told me last night, "I don't want to do homeschool. I don't like it." I didn't argue.

Denver is bright and curious. He cannot NOT learn. I think the only way to make him lose his love of learning is to force him to endure lessons-- kind of like the only way to make me stop loving brownies would be to force me to eat them even after I was full. I did not tell him this. I said "okay" and we went to bed-- or at least I did.

This morning, I asked him if he still wanted to go pick up his Piggy book from the library (what Denver calls the beginning reader book series by Mo Willems). "Yes," he smiled. "I still want to read my Piggy books."

"Okay," I smiled to myself. "Would you like to do our history project with mosaic tiles today, too?"

"Yes! I really want to do that."

"Okay," I said. "I'm making out today's schedule right now. Is there anything else you'd like to do for homeschool today?"

"I'm pretty sure I'll do some other stuff; I'm just not sure right now."

"Okay, Buddy."

Denver has been hiding from Mimi and acting out during her Spanish class. He crawls under the table when she asks him questions. He runs away. He says he does NOT plan to speak to Spanish people ever.

If I didn't know it before, I definitely know now that every child is different. Every child is inspired by different things and needs to be permitted to make different choices. My job is to support and nurture the boys' growth and learning in the way that best serves them. Too bad for me, but what the boys really want is nearly ALWAYS different than my ideas of what we should be learning and how we should be learning it. On this point, Denver has been and continues to be a wonderful teacher.