Freedom is a Funny Thing...

It's interesting how one little thing that can help point you to the bigger picture. I've spent the last few weeks almost paralyzed and overwhelmed both by an excess of and a deficiency of information. The "curriculum" that needs to be covered, the newest "studies" that tell us things we all inherently know about children and child development and the latest push by the Ministry of Education towards numeracy, child-centered play based learning, and the infusion of technology. It's a lot to take in to say the very least and even more to teach while you simultaneously attempt to document and analyze while you fear being required to provide evidence of your child's learning at the drop of a hat.

But then this happened:

...and then I remembered why I wanted to do this in the first place. To keep the love of learning alive in my children for as long as possible.For those of you that are interested, the topics going from left to right and top to bottom are:

• chemistry
• body
• germs
• planets
• geography
• how does rain come out of a cloud?
• Nanaimo
• How do people make wind?
• What is inside a molecule?
• How do people make sand?
• B.C.
• How do you make a button?

I know that everyone fears what they do not know. I do not know how tomorrow will go. I do not know how this week will go, or this month, or this year. But I do know that the most important thing is not whether or not my children "can count backwards from 20 or any number below 20 in intervals of 1, 2, 5, 10" before the end of September, but rather that they have the desire to learn how to count backwards from 20 when they are ready.

My children want to learn. Maybe not about everything, but they do have a passion for learning. And I think that as long as I provide the resources for them to do so, they will be able to accomplish whatever they wish regardless of where and what they choose to learn...with a little direction of course!