15 Signs that Homeschooling Is Working

As a follow up to my "Kids Say" post I thought I should post some of the things my kids say (and do) that makes me feel like perhaps I'm not failing at this whole homeschooling thing.

 
I was surprised to find that this was harder to write than I had thought.  I figured it would be pretty easy because most of the time I am very sure of our homeschooling and all that my kids are learning.
 
Perhaps I've gotten so used to seeing and hearing all of their wonderful work, thoughts, and ideas that they don't stand out as much as all their little blunders?  I don't know.

I do know I have some pretty smart, happy, caring, wonderful boys who put their all into all they do.

They often amaze me and here's a sampling of those times:

1. Listening to my 7 year old playing in his room I hear: "Let them perish in the fields of Asphodel" (while playing he often quotes Harry Potter, Percy Jackson, or other literary figures).

2. My 7 year old:  "it costs $35?  I have $32 so that means I need three more, right?!"

3. My 9 year old son handed me a thick chapter book "Here I'm all done with this.  Can you get me the next book?"  He started reading it less than 24 hours ago!

4. It happened a long time ago but I'll never forget the day we were at a bird show and the woman asked why Ben Franklin did not want the bald eagle as our nation's symbol and what bird he wanted instead.  Out of the corner of my eye I saw Alec's hand shoot into the air and I was amazed that he knew the answer-- in detail too!  When he finished speaking I turned to him in amazement and asked where he learned that.  He shrugged and told me "I read in a book somewhere." This happens a lot!

5. I know I'm not failing every time I go to do a load of laundry and find that one of the boys has a load of their own clothes going.

6. When I see my 10 year old driving the excavator through the woods to help his dad.  It makes me a wreck but he's a really good driver and bound to get better as he gets older.

7. When I watch Evan play Monopoly and he immediately hands the banker a 100, a 20, a 5, and a 1 when he landed on a property to buy for $126.  He's 7 and seems to do it without even thinking about it.

8. When Alec starts asking questions about animals that the zoo keepers and animal experts can't answer for him either.  He already knows all the "usual" stuff.  Google has become our friend.

9. When Evan decided to do 7 pages in his phonics book so he could finish up with his book and move onto the next one.

10.  When Ian asked me to bring him to the bank so he could deposit all of the money he made while shoveling.  He was able to add it all up himself, filled out his own deposit slip, and went up to the teller to handle his own transaction by himself.

11.  When my thee boys each took a turn cooking us all dinner this past week:  Alec doubled the waffle recipe and measured, mixed and baked them all by himself.  When Ian made cheeseburgers and hot dogs for us all without needing any help in the kitchen.  When Evan worked painstakingly hard to measure out the ingredients for fresh bread in our bread maker and made us all a dinner of sauce and shells.

12. When Ian added up an entire bag of loose change that equaled over $53.

13. When Alec thought nothing of asking the lady at the jewelry store a million questions about what she was doing.  What the tool was that she was using, how it worked, why it beeped and what the beeps meant.  He then proceeded to read the signs about the different types of diamonds, their clarity, color and cut.  I love watching my boys educate themselves and find the answers they're looking for.

14. When Ian (who claims to hate reading) handed me a book over the weekend and told me he had read it earlier that day.  Imagine my stunned disbelief that he willingly chose to read a book on the weekend!

15. When Evan looked at the scoreboard while bowling and told me that he was 10 points behind Alec since Alec had 51 and he had 41.  He spent the whole night figuring out how far ahead or behind he was from every else's total scores; and he got them all correct!

These are  just some of the little ways my kids show me that what we are doing is working.