The Blink Of An Eye

Our Children are grown up now and, as things go, there are more children in the world because of this process.

We also have young friends with young children and we find ourselves saying what all older parents say, “Don’t blink because this time in your life will be over so fast. Enjoy every moment.” We mean what we say in the same way that every person who spoke these words to us meant them. But, I can see that it is different for the parents who are in the middle of all this chaos. At some level, they would like their life back — who could blame them? I felt that way too, but my thoughts were projected beyond my time with my boys — I was in no hurry for it to end — it was a magnificent time in my life. Maybe it is the way I am wired, but I get a buzz out of being around people who are hungry for knowledge — hungry for life. This definition describes children — all children. To be the person who smoothes the way — supplies the tools — provides encouragement, this is the best way a person could spend their life.

MUM, DAD, THE KIDS, AND A KOOKABURRA.

I’m sitting in the garden of a local Tavern when a Kookaburra swoops down and grabs a chop bone from one of the tables and flies onto a nearby branch. The young family sitting next to us saw the bird and mum took the three young boys over to the tree where the bird was proceeding to ‘tenderise’ it’s catch. The mum had her camera out and the bird was helping out by perching on a low branch. As you would expect, the boys were full of questions and observations. The boys were excited and fascinated at being this close to a wild creature.

Dad sat by at their table watching his children observing the behaviour of the bird. From time to time they filtered back to sit next to their dad. I could see them talking to their father. The boys would then go back to get close to the bird and head back to dad with the latest report.

What a privilege it is to be present when your children are absorbing their world. Unfortunately most parents miss out on 90% of their children’s discoveries, as a home school parent I was lucky enough to be present at hundreds of such moments.

There are disadvantages to the home school experience, mostly financial, but the rewards are enormous.

STAYING HOME WITH MUM

Teaching Your Children at Home: Staying Home With Mum?

By Terry Barca

While giving a talk at the Yarra Junction Library, a member of my audience asked me why a boy would want to be at home all day with “boring old mum”.

I told her that I was an only child and there was nothing I would have liked more than to spend my school hours in the company of my mother.

Mums are fun to be with.

They know us well and are smart enough to leave us alone when we need to be alone. They make us laugh and they know how to peak our curiosity. They know how to challenge us in such a way that we rise to the challenge. Mums make excellent teachers because by definition a good teacher cares about her pupil and knows how to pass on a love of learning.

I really want this mum and any other mums (and dads, for that matter) who are reading this to understand how important they are in their child’s educational life.

You are their guiding light educationally. You introduce them to language (good and bad), to numbers, art, drama and a myriad of other things that will excite them for the rest of their lives.

I have an eclectic taste in music having grown up in the 60s and 70s. My love of classical music comes from my mum, and my love of 40s music comes from my dad. I can set the seat on a bicycle to the correct height because my professional racing cyclist father taught me how to do it. My house is full of books because my mum read to me and led by example when it came to reading books for pleasure.

From Boston Blackie to Charles Laughton to Errol Flynn, my parents introduced me to the fabulous world of the movies.

My dad had an amazing head for numbers and because I wanted to be like this amazing man I learned to like them too even though they didn’t come as easily to me. As a teenager my competitive streak made me want to be better at things than he was and this drove me on when the work was too hard and the pressure to pass exams was almost too much. The male ego is an amazing thing and my dad knew how to use this knowledge to spur me on. In the end I was better at some things but he was always smarter than me in the things that mattered and I learned what it is to be a man by watching his example.

Possibly the mistake that the woman asking the question was making was assuming that her job is to entertain her child.

It’s not.

Her job is to do what my mum did: to make sure that the tools for learning are close at hand, to suggest, to challenge, to occasionally show the way when the need is obvious, to answer questions or, more importantly, to show where the answer might be found, to occasionally make sense of the world, to instil a passion for language and numbers, to put history in perspective, to cherish laughter and recognise sadness, to listen carefully, and many other things besides.

Above all your job is to create a safe warm place where learning can begin to grow and flourish.

It is said that ‘the hand that rocks the cradle rules the world’.

I prefer to believe that the parent, mum or dad, who inspires a child, improves the world.

Terry Barca is the author of ‘SCHOOME: An Adventure in Home Schooling’.

www.schoome.net