Self-motivated to learn...

We are homeschooling our kids. I look at the educational system, especially here in L.A., and I can't imagine sending my kids to public school. But then I think of the responsibility of educating my kids, and it's overwhelming to me.

Fortunately, Little McGyver is really self-motivated to learn. He wants to learn so badly, it's scary. Last summer, when he was 4, he decided he had to know all the alphabet. I mean, he HAD to know the letters. He would burst into tears, crying, "I'll never know my letters!" I, being Father of the Year material, would say something comforting. Something like, "Would you get serious? You're only 4. You've got plenty of time." As you might imagine, this was not helpful at all. He would just walk away from me sadly. By now, he's learned that daddy is mostly good for driving him places, and lifting heavy things. (The same things my wife learned about me long ago.)

In case you're wondering, he did learn all his letters, even though I was next to useless to him. Now, he's learning to read at a truly frightening pace. I think that for him, our job is going to be facilitating his drive to learn. We can encourage him, but he's motivated all on his own.

By the way, the picture at the top of this post has nothing to do with homeschooling. But it is an awfully cute picture of my Little McGyver sitting in our tree...