Our son's dramatic change towards learning...

When we pulled Zak out of school over five and one half years ago he hated learning, reading, writing, and all things of a *schooly* nature. His private and public schooled days were filled with getting up early and having so much homework that he barely had time to spend with family, let alone be a child. Although he managed B's and C's, it was a struggle that came only as a result of having entire days spent studying. So, what did I do when we first started home schooling him? I tried to do "school at home". That method works for some and I do not personally find myself in the position to condemn how anyone home schools their child, but it was definitely not for us.

After practically being angry with him for not trying "hard enough" and after every day being a battle for the first several months, I decided it best for me to learn more regarding how children learn and why some are resistant. I delved into just about every philosophy out there and came to the conclusion that a relaxed and eclectic home education atmosphere would be best. When I started to let go of the mainstream thinking about how children should be educated and allowed freedom to become a stronghold, changes began. Me letting go did not happen right away as we went from traditional schooling, to school at home,to unit study based education, to Charlotte Mason Method (we still implement quite a few of her principles), unschooling, and often times back and forth.

Zak's first claim to having freedom in learning happened when he was nine years old and he spent over three months studying Egypt. How wonderful, but then after that three months was finished he grew tired of studying Egypt and remained in limbo for quite a time. Of course, I panicked and started to force full learning again but a few months later he was into learning the Greek alphabet. He spent weeks studying Greek and learning how to annunciate the letters...he still remembers both his Greek and Egypt self-studies. After I allowed the Harry Potter books into our home, he read the first four books in just a few months...if he wanted to read them all day, I let him read all day. Whenever he has been interested in a subject of his choice that he is really passionate about, I've let him go for as long as he wanted. IOW, I've never said, "Okay Zak, you can only study Greek/Egypt until 9:30, time for you to read about something you care nothing of because the kids at school who are your age are learning this."

Zak used to struggle with mathematics. I totally backed off on this for quite awhile until Donnie said, "Sandy, he has to know how to do math. Take your time and go slow, make sure he understands before moving along to the next lesson, but I want him doing math." So, as per Donnie's request, we implemented math into our day. ***Keep in mind that my hubby was not studied about learning philosophies and so I felt differently and was not worried about Zak and math*** He already knew how to add, subtract, multiply, and divide but fractions were his "enemy", lol. Out of the blue about a year and a half ago, still not knowing how to do fractions he asked me if he could learn algebra. "What?! But you do not even know your fractions yet." Ah, stop me right there because that is schoolish thinking at its finest...you can't move on until after you've learned this concept. So, I purchased an algebra curriculum and you know what? He understood it. The reason is because algebra made sense to him; it is concrete and not abstract. We ran into problems later in the course, due to the curriculum not coming with an extensive teaching manual or crystal clear instructions and chose to go with [i]Saxon Math[/i]. Zak has literally blown me away; Geometry, fractions, algebra, story problems, mental math, and more he has learned by self-study. Zak has a positive attitude towards math and if and when he needs help, we are just a "Mom/Dad" away.

Lately he has taken interest in the military and he spends hours learning about careers available in the Navy, college requirements for being an officer, military history, ship disasters and umpteen other things. Wow, just wow! I am 38 years old, ex-Navy, and he already knows more than I ever knew. And, guess what famous artist he was inspired to learn about after reading about submarines yesterday...DaVinci; he just finished reading two chapters of book about this wonderful, talented, and amazing artist and he enjoyed doing so.

Science has always been an interest of his but not when it comes to doing experiments, though he will do them...it is just that normally, because he is a logical thinker, he usually knows the results by simply thinking things through. He loves learning about planets, black holes, the big bang, and retains damn near anything he's learned from reading or watching educational shows about science...unlike his mother who still falls asleep. ;-) My passion for science is more along nature: plants, flowers, trees, mammals, reptiles, etc.

I'm so proud of him, not for reasons you may think though...I'm proud of him because he has taken his own life into his own hands. I'm proud of him for knowing that he is responsible for his life. I'm proud of him for setting goals, his top two being dual enrollment into our local college at age 16 and joining the Navy as an officer (and I would still be proud if he were to change his mind because he will work at achieving any goal(s) he sets for himself). I'm even more proud that his decisions and "go for it" attitude have not come because we have forced competitive sports, or pushed college (like many parents do...to each their own) as if it is "the" only way to go in life.

Zak is a wonderful, intelligent, kind (okay, his little sister may beg to differ on some of these things, lol), caring, considerate, strong, thoughtful, respectful, and well-balanced human being. I believe that there is nothing he isn't capable of doing should he set his heart and mind upon it. Now, if only I could encourage him to play the guitar regularly...he knows that he's brought tears to my eyes because his *originals* are so beautiful on the acoustic guitar, lol, maybe that is why he doesn't play. :-)