My plan, art and math

I always wanted Zoe to be well educated. I planned for her education to be deep and high. I wanted her to be challenged because meeting challenges or even attempting to, help us grow.

I wanted her to have a liberal education, one not defined by her interests and her own narrow knowledge of what there is to learn. I believe in the value of standing on the shoulders of giants.

Her disinterest in a subject would be a challenge to me to find a way to change her mind. I wanted her to see for herself the worth of what she is learning and to be intrinsically motivated to be a scholar, and to make curiosity and learning a habit.

I believe in her. There is really no question that she is capable of all this. I know because she continuously surprises me by being more capable that I assumed.

I have to wonder if she is falling in line with my vision of an education or if, over the years, it grew organically based on Zoe's own inclinations.

In any case I am really happy with how our homeschooling is going.

I am so grateful for all the great enrichment opportunities our small town offers. Zoe and I are both excited about my recent find of the art studio classes. It's not your normal child's art lessons. The studio is open every afternoon and evening. The kids are encouraged to spend the beginning of the session doing whatever they want. Then they have a two or three projects with the artist, it is very informal - more like a round table, with ideas being passed around, time for chatting about artists, artistic styles, and seeing the world through the eyes of an artist.

The first time we went it was a slow night and there were just two boys there, they were around 10 or 11. It gave me a quiet joy for Zoe to spend time with some thoughtful artistic boys. For awhile her only experience with boys has been Chase, and War with Spears at homeschool park day.

At Math Center Zoe works our with other girls and women. And I am happy for that. I really appreciate her seeing for herself that woman can be good at and enjoy math. She doesn't experience any of the peer pressure or taunting she might experience at a traditional school for being a "math geek" because, at Math Center, being a Math Geek is super cool.

I think there are even more females that males at Math Center, so the boys and men Zoe does interact with, don't see her as a strange beast, a lone female in a man's world. So it is good for them too.

And I think it is good for the teachers and tutors to see this pretty little eight year old girl be the best in her age group (ages 8 - 11). Because I think they underestimated her at first, she didn't look the part.

The art instruction looks good, the math projects at Math Center are good, but the social aspects, the less tangible lessons that Zoe is learning, are teaching her very important things as well.

I will write more later. This post is already getting long.