Years ago, when I was but a young elementary school student, we had an unusual snowfall in the tiny town where we lived. Most of us had never actually seen it snow before, and our class quickly became completely distracted. Our teacher allowed us to go to the windows, catch a few snowflakes on dark construction paper to look at them---and then it was back to school as usual.
This morning, in the middle of "school", we had an earthquake. It was so mild that, at first, we weren't quite sure whether the ground was really moving. Since the younger children were abuzz with questions, we set aside our planned Science for the day and delved into earthquakes, volcanos, Mount St. Helens (which was in the news this morning) and Mount Shasta (which we've driven past on family vacations).
The local news, on at noon, rounded out our study, with a full report of the earthquake activity, plus some brief mention of the scientific study that's been going on in Parkfield.
This is one of the things I really like about homeschooling---that we have the freedom and flexibility to learn about what matters to us.
There is also the freedom of time. Yesterday, Isaac met for the first time with a falconer. Since then, he's had his nose buried in a book he borrowed---when he's not designing the mews (or, as I call it, "little house") for the red-tailed hawk he's planning to get. I'm so glad he has the freedom to dive deeply into this interest.
Days like yesterday and today convince me that we're doing the right thing.
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