Teachable Moments

One thing I have come to cherish about educating my own child are the little unplanned "teachable moments".

Today I had such a moment during my 7-year-old daughter's science lesson. The science lesson was a basic exercise in observation and measurement, and included the assignment of weighing five small objects on a kitchen scale and recording their weights in a notebook.

One of the objects my daughter selected was a small box of orange Jell-O. The box weighed exactly 95 grams, which in and of itself caused my daughter to gasp in amazement. It weighed so much more, after all, than the quarter or the pencil. Glancing over her shoulder, I pointed out to her the small numbers on the corner of the Jell-O box that indicated a net weight of 85 grams.

"Why do you think the box says it weighs less than the scale does?" I asked my daughter.

She bit her lip. "The box might be wrong?" I have already trained her to have a healthy skepticism of packages and advertising.

"That's a possibility." I said. "It could be wrong. But usually packages are pretty accurate when they tell you how much the stuff inside the box weighs."

Picking up my emphasis on the word inside, she perked up. "The box probably weighs extra!"

"Maybe!" I said. "How much extra, do you think? If the Jell-O plus the box weighs 95 grams, but the Jell-O itself only weighs 85 grams, how much do you think the box weighs?" We had just practiced "completing the ten" in math, along with word problems, so I was really hoping she'd get this.

"10 grams!" she said.

"Let's find out if you're right!"  I tore open the box and dumped the Jell-O powder into a bowl. Anything in the name of education. Besides, if anything deserved a fruity gelatinous dessert reward, this certainly qualified.

I gave the empty box to my daughter to place on the scale and held my breath, hoping I wouldn't be forced to explain margins of error.

Fortunately, as if on cue, the number 10 appeared on the scale. I let out a sigh of relief.

"I was RIGHT!" My daughter squealed triumphantly, her face beaming with pride.

I'm not sure which of us was more excited.

I know all parents can experience moments like these no matter how their children are educated, but home education certainly affords more opportunities.

Aside from increased opportunity, there is also a fundamental shift in mindset that comes with the decision to take responsibility for the education of one's own children. I considered myself a relatively engaged and involved parent when my child attended public school, but I do have to admit there was a large part of me that considered her education somebody else's job. Adding to that the burnt-out exhaustion that comes 6:30 am alarms, buses to catch, arbitrary projects to keep up on, permission slips to sign, homework to do, I can't honestly say I was actively engaging my daughter in critical thinking exercises as much as I would have liked.

Would I have had her weigh a box of Jell-O if she were still in public school? If she for some reason had, would I have extended the experience by reading box weights, asking questions, and stopping to make an unplanned bowl of Jell-O just to prove the answer?

I don't think I would have, and I am so very grateful that today, I did.