Fire, Mom! Fire! Or How I Learned that I Need to Think Faster than a Six Year Old
I will tell you this was quite a weekend. I spent Saturday preparing and freezing 20 different meals for my family. That pretty much took care of the entirety of Saturday. Sunday afternoon was consumed with a project – I am wallpapering my schoolroom walls with maps from National Geographic. In the midst of ironing said maps, I heard my 6 year old yell excitedly, “Mom! MOM! Fire! There’s a FIRE!!” Four of us came running into the kitchen to find Eoghan (aforementioned 6 year old) standing in front of the microwave, with what looked like a burning pencil in there. I slammed(!) the door, and the fire sputtered out. In a smoke filled kitchen, I said, “Good Lord Eoghan!! WHY did you put a pencil the microwave?!?!??” He says, rather tearfully, “Well, Mom, I like my pencils hot!” Sheesh!!
This kid is the personification of “pistol”… He is ALWAYS one step ahead of me… So, when we sat down together after clearing the smoke-filled kitchen, and restoring sanity to the rest of the household, I asked him what on earth he was thinking.
Our conversation was a little convoluted and I will spare you the headache of trying to follow 6 year old logic, but the bottom line was that he had not been “instructed” on what could or could NOT be put in a microwave. And he was curious, asking himself “what if?” Score one for the short set. It never occurred to me that I would have to talk that one through.
But that is really the reason why we homeschool, isn’t it? We want them to be curious about the world and explore their thoughts with us in a way that helps them grow and learn. It led to several discussions that day about how things work and why you can and cannot do some things. What is the difference between being “able to do something” and “can do something” – as you can see, he is already perfecting the hair-splitting that comes with the teenage years.
As I was laying my head on my pillow after this event-filled weekend, I was reminded of a wise homeschool friend who said to me once, “But Gretchen, everything is taught – either implicitly or explicitly.” Oh my. That is a heavy burden for a homeschool mom. I am not sure I am up to the task! Fortunately, tomorrow, I get to go back to the routine of teaching what is provided for me, and I don’t necessarily have to think completely “outside the (microwave) box.” It does give me fodder for some interesting dinner table discussions in the coming weeks.
