Teachers

My children that went to public school before we started homeschooling have very fond memories of their teachers. They were great.

I love teachers!

I especially love teachers who are passionate about the subject they are teaching. I remember in high school that I wasn't very interested in history. I mean, not at all. But I can tell you everything you want to know about the JFK assassination because we had a history teacher that was so passionate about it he made sure that we learned about it from all angles (no pun intended).

Here is my point.

My kids (and your kids) have passionate teachers all over the country.

Before we started traveling, Addison, Taylor and Alyssa learned more about farming from the Williams family next door who were passionate about organic farming than they did from the botany text we studied for a whole school year. Dacia taught them about composting and let them help her plant and harvest the vegetables. When someone is excited about what they are telling you....you tend to listen and absorb it better.

So after we took to the road about 9 months ago, it only got better. We suddenly had teachers everywhere we looked.

At the Padre Island National Sea Shore we learned about sea turtles while talking to a park ranger who was releasing them into the gulf.

In Corpus Christi we learned about Indonesian culture while spending a few hours with two Indonesians who were smiling the whole time as they shared a bit of their language, their art and their history with us. On the USS Lexington we sat and listened to stories from a veteran who was actually stationed on the ship. He had been brought there by his grandkids to see it. We learned new art techniques from an artist who wanted to share her love for art with children.

In San Antonio we stood in the room of the Alamo where the women and children had huddled together during battle and listened as a man retold to us the story of how they were all marched out afterwards and given money and a blanket by Santa Anna's forces. We walked through caves and listened intently as a tour guide, whom you could tell was happy for this to be his job, taught us about the natives who lived in them years ago. At Cibolo Nature Reserve an employee stopped us to introduce himself and we had an impromptu lesson about area birds. Another employee later on talked with the girls about other area animals.

While driving towards Fort Stockton from East Texas we happened to look over and see this:

 

AAaaahhhh!!!! Stop the truck! (which was pulling our house behind it) Once, many years ago, James refused to stop at a multi-block long garage sale in the middle of a quaint little town somewhere in New England. He's never lived it down. But I digress. Anyway, he knew better than to pass this up. Since high school I have somehow morphed into a crazed history consumer. I just can't get enough.

 

So this had educational opportunity written all over it. After pulling in we learned it actually had a visitor's center which leads me to our next passionate teacher. We learned that Fort McKavett was a military post during the Texas Indian wars. Our teacher that day was someone whose job it was to know everything there is to know about the one thing we were learning about at that moment. You could see that she enjoyed interacting daily with people who were eager to hear stories of what had happened here.  Here are a few more pictures we took and a link to their web site.

http://www.visitfortmckavett.com

 

 

 

A few other examples of the people who help me teach our little girls-

 

 Taylor learned how to play basketball for the first time in San Antonio-where everyone is excited about the sport. Her coach was a patient guy.

If you are a traveler or a homeschooler you can check out National Youth Sports here.

 

 

In Tacoma, WA there was an older lady who kindly welcomed my kids into the Washington State History Museum and checked on them later on during our visit, offered information and asked if they had any questions. Here they are pretending to be volcanologists.

 



 

 

 A worker here at our current campground took a few minutes out of his day after a heavy rain to teach the kids about how earthworms breathe through their skin when he saw the girls collecting them.

 

 

 

Here Taylor is being taught about anatomy from a very well-trained museum worker at the Witte Museum.

 

 

 

We learned about music from San Antonio Symphony Associate Conductor Akiko Fujimoto as she welcomed an audience of children to enjoy THE PLANETS and took time in between movements to explain different musical terms.

 

 

 

We are on our third year homeschooling and first year traveling. We don't "unschool" because I am a box checker and I have to have our stacks of books and instructor's guides so that I feel like I didn't miss anything. But I can certainly see how unschooling families do it. There are educational opportunities everywhere you turn when you are out in the real world.

 

I'm so grateful for all of my kids' teachers and I look forward to meeting the rest of them.