I’d like to brag about how awesome my kids are at academics and how it’s all part of my master plan. Except that couldn’t be farther than the truth. When she was still a baby I insisted that my daughter wouldn’t be pushed into academics. My daughter wouldn’t begin reading instruction until she was six years old. Fast-forward three years and she was memorizing the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse song (which she only saw at her grandparent’s house), obsessing about maps, making up elaborate theories on the history of the world, and driving me crazy in general.
That inquisitive personality— not to mention my need for sanity— set us on a path of early academics that even surprises my friends in Asia. But nobody is more surprised than I am. And I’m thankful that I gave up my Charlotte Mason educational theories to encourage and embrace who my daughter really is. Still shy of her fifth birthday she delights in reading, loves to master math facts, and loves to listen to historical stories.
I still don’t believe that learning to read early will make her any better able to handle what life throws at her a decade or two from now. But I do think learning to see and use her God-given abilities, in His timing, will shape her life and touch many others.
Leave a Reply