Learning in Our Own Time

I was reminded of one of the joys of homeschooling today by my daughter.  Anna is seven and has wanted to learn to sew all summer.  So to get her started I taught her the beginnings of how to crochet.  This is partly because I need to have a little repair work done to my sewing machine and partly because well Anna is very short for her age and I don't think she could reach the foot pedal and the machine at the same time, so crocheting bought us some time.

It also brought a new challenge because her hands are also so small she had a hard time holding the yarn.  However she was determined and has been practicing with all her heart on chaining stitches.  The best part came today when I looked over and she was wrapping her chain of stitches into a ball.  She must have made three feet of perfect little stitches in her chain.  When she wrapped it up she had a ball about the size of a tennis ball and a huge smile on her face because she realized that she had mastered the first step in learning a new skill.

Which reminded me that on of the joys of homeschooling is seeing your child's hard work and diligence pay off.  It also reminded me that because I home-school I can give them all the time they need to learn the skill. I set the schedule and I can adjust the schedule as needed. So just like it took Anna three months to learn her chain stitch, I learned that we all learn in our own time if given time.