The Joy of Teaching Joaquin
We’re using this month to find the right mix of Sudbury school and homeschool time to maximize Joaquin’s overall development. Both provide different things, and we want it all.
Today Joaquin was planning to have one of his 4-hour pretend art camps (i.e. four hours of self-directed art around a subject) which is something hard to do at school, so for today we planned a day at home: Tennis, independent study practice, self-directed art camp, and of course one of our lessons.
And the point of all this is to share my celebration for how amazingly gifted this kid is at Math. In less than 30 mins he learned the concept of Lowest Common Multiple, and was able to complete a sheet from our Fraction workbook testing his ability to find LCM and compare two fractions with different denominators. Of course now he also knows how to add and subtract such fractions, reduce them, and express them as mixed numbers.
I haven’t missed lesson time with him during the last two weeks—have been happy and busy working on my projects while he learns social skills, independence, and more at school. But today, after finishing our math lesson I experienced again how much fun it is to teach Joaquin. It’s not just about where he shines. Even in things that challenge him more, the passion and joy he expresses when learning something new is priceless!
