Thought I'd share here some thoughts I recorded a year or so ago. Here they are:
Thoreau said, "The life which men praise and regard as successful is but one kind. Why should we exaggerate any one kind at the expense of others."
My non-reading 5 yr old just said, "Arthur is our silent King. Nunnies are his passion."
(Arthur is the new baby in our home. "Nunnies" is our family word for nursing.)
Can it be said that the language skill that is required of 5 yr olds in the schools is but one kind? I'm not suggesting that illiteracy is a good life-long condition. Nor am I suggesting that one can't both read and be creatively expressive. I AM saying this is yet another reason why I'm glad I homeschool: I can enjoy and encourage the strengths my children DO exhibit without fretting about the ones they haven't mastered, yet.
In school she would be "behind." In our home she can be the girl who makes us laugh with the outrageous things she says. She can be our family's poet laureate. And when she begins to read, and begins to spell correctly (she spells all day after her own fashion), she'll really have something to tell the world.
"The standards and benchmarks and skill sets the schools praise are but one kind. Why should we exaggerate any one kind at the expense of others?"
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