A Day in the Life of My Gifted Homeschoolers is Like Fireworks Display

Surprises. Stories. Songs. Struggles. These are four words that usually characterize a day in the life of my gifted homeschoolers. But if I put them together (which is actually what really happens each day), I would choose to describe our typical day as a fireworks display because it's a combination of many explosive things that happen during the day. Sometimes, it's yellow. Other times, it's green or orange. Many times, it's pink or red because of the intensity of emotions displayed. The sound would usually range from loud to very loud! ;)

Let me first talk about Surprises and Songs.

My two older sons whom I homeschool are 6 and 3. They are very musical kids who burst into songs without warning. Because they are music smart, they do not run out of songs in "their playlist". They are either belting out a song that is their current favorite or they could be singing a new song they recently heard. That's one area where I usually get surprises from my boys. They surprise me with the new songs that they learned. They do not surprise me on purpose like they call my attention and ask me to listen to them sing a new song. I just get surprised during the day, at home or in church, when I hear them sing something new that I did not expect them to know.

Last year, my eldest son took a serious interest in learning how to play the piano. He started studying how to play the piano by simply watching the pianist in our church. Then, he progressed to playing the piano oido. Since that time when he decided that he will learn to play some songs in the piano, every day has been more exciting in our home. He would surprise us with new songs he has learned mostly on his own. In less than a year, he learned to play the songs typically sang during daily Masses and a lot of them he learned to play on his own. A few weeks ago, my younger son who is 3 years old, surprised all of us also when he started playing a song in the Mass as well. He also learned to play part of the introduction to one of the songs in the Mass. I love these pleasant surprises from my boys!

When my eldest son was younger, he would surprise me with the new words he would learn to say. This progressed to new words he learned to read. Eventually, this progressed to new things that he learns. Mentoring or teaching a gifted child is definitely an exciting adventure.

Now, let's move on to Stories and Struggles.

My little homeschoolers love stories. We tell stories to them a lot of times during the day. They also like telling stories. Our stories mostly come from the books that we read each day. A lot of them are a product of our imagination too. Even my children's food or plate have a story! Now, that makes it Story plus Struggle! It has been a struggle for us to make our eldest son eat fast enough so that he would finish his food in less than an hour. So far, we have been successful and most days, he finishes his meal in less than 30 minutes. In the not so distant past, finishing his meal in less than an hour would fall under Surprises. I have slowly learned how to play along with their meal time stories in such a way that I could make them eat faster. My strategies are not 100% effective though.

The other area where our Struggle comes is from the fact that my kids and I are all strong-willed. Yes, it's a trait that I struggle to deal with in my own kids and I sometimes (or should I say many times) forget that they inherited it from me. Because they are strong-willed, I need to be extra creative in getting their cooperation and in persuading them to do the activities I have chosen and prepared for our homeschool. These struggles happen usually all throughout the day and not just when we have structured homeschool activities. I think God is sharpening my negotiation and persuasion skills as I struggle countless times a day in dealing with my two boys. They surely make my days filled with adventure!  

Oh, I almost forgot that another area where I usually get surprised is when my two boys show their very sensitive and sweet sides. They would give me flowers or a note. They either give me a real flower or draw one for me just because. One time, my eldest son wrote me a note. It's not an easy task to homeschool these boys but I definitely get "rewarded" daily as well with beautiful surprises from them. 

  

This post is part of the GHF blog hop.
Read more stories here.