It's the last Friday of the five-month maternity leave before I go back to work next week. It's been an amazing time that I'm already starting to miss. I spent precious time with my boys, pondered about their education and my art, and got to know some amazing people outside the high tech circle. I have also thought about what are the best ways for us as working parents to spend limited available time with our children. I think I found my answer.
On Friday morning, after spending quite a bit effort working through a fairly advanced Chinese story book, Andy was able to independently read the whole story to me fluently. We were both thrilled. I wanted to do something adventurous for a change of pace. I had a few ideas and Andy picked the Pacific Science Center. After an hour of drive, bus and walk, we arrived! It was a fun adventure despite my shoulders hurting from lifting ~17 lb all day (Daniel + backpack). We learned about everything from genetics (the first exhibit as we walked in), tide pool creatures (this really friendly staff explained what they all were so now I can tell mussel from clam), to a history and future live show (I explained concepts like future and predictions to Andy, he liked the show a lot). He didn't like the 3D IMAX Sea-Rex though, the sound effect made it too scary for him.
 |
| Working on DNA sequencing |
 |
| a Hermit crab |
 |
| a clam |
Today was an example response to my question. I think it is about exposing kids to things they don't readily experience in school (museums, hikes, libraries, sports, etc), and doing things either the parents or the kids are excited about. When we first started homeschooling I was amazed by how fast Andy absorbs knowledge like a sponge and was eager to teach him as much as I could. Slowly I came to realize that they have many many school years ahead to learn academics and you wouldn't want him to get bored in school. So I no longer spend much time teaching reading and math. Aside from the social behavioral teachings in the daily doing, it is my privilege to explore the world with him. Our homeschooling turned into more of doing projects and exploring places together. Andy loves doing projects. It started out as me suggesting project ideas and he soon started coming up with his own. We work together to complete each other's ideas and implement the projects. One of the first projects he came up with was making a dragonfly out of 1 branch (body), 2 rocks (eyes), and 2 leaves (wings). We are currently working on a flower press project. I look forward to weaving a learning journey out of fond childhood memories together.
