This week I’ve had a hard time keeping an eternal perspective. Everything rests on my audition Friday and there on the work I do up to that point, right? What a way to kill motivation to practice. Every time I pick up an instrument that evil voice said “It must be impressive!” Darn it, I’ve only been playing fiddle for two months and two weeks won’t change my playing significantly enough to hide that. That’s the way it is. Still, it’s hard to shake everything I absorbed at music conservatory, and I made myself rather miserable. Thanks to our good Lord for Sabbaths and yesterday really helped me come away from my myopia and rest again in the palm of God’s hand. I’ve had some enjoyable practice sessions as well. Unfortunately, Randy could tell in my lesson Friday that I was uptight and said so, but I guess it’s good for me to know that being uptight does not help my playing! So I’ll try harder not to be so uptight . . . right.
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Growing up I'd often be working and just shout out a question to mommy. If she didn't have the answer she'd look it up and get back to me. In hind sight I see she could have encouraged and helped me more to look up stuff on my own, but I also see how giving me the information was better than letting me not bother to look it up. Homeschooling (and parenting for that matter) is just one big balancing act, which happens to be a ton of fun.
Taking the time to listen to a child's question, opening your mind to understand it, and putting the energy into answering it just as much or little as the child is ready for is the crux of unschooling. It's lovely to be taken seriously. I asked the pastor of BCF yesterday about his sermon at the inconvenient time of his eating at the church picnic. I didn't get a short quip, I got a 30 minute conversation that included a diagram on real paper (not just a napkin). Enough people like that in a child's life and there's no fear he'll grow up ignorant, stupid, or incompetent no matter what kind schooling he has. Who heard of a kid that wasn't full of questions before he learned that most adults don't take them seriously enough to be bothered to answer them?
