When Andrea was here, she used to write a series about reasons why she was glad she home schooled. I don’t want to steal her series. . .but this is one of my reasons why I’m glad I home school. It allows my children to think outside of the box. . .way outside of the box.
My four year old, who by the way is not officially home schooling, was recently asked her favorite color. Her reply? Colorful. “But,” said the adult in charge, “which one of those colors is your favorite? Do you like pink, or maybe purple?”
“No. I like colorful.”
Concerned, the adult came to me and suggested that perhaps Meghan doesn’t know her colors and perhaps I’m too busy with the twins to properly focus attention on my children and maybe. . .just maybe. . .I want to consider putting her in preschool so that she can learn her colors. Hmmmmm.
As is my custom with well intentioned but ignorant comments, I smiled, nodded, and said, “Thank you for your concern over our family.” There is no use explaining to her that I‘m thrilled that Meghan‘s favorite color is colorful. But I am.
All of our children have unique gifts and talents. While my oldest is compassionate and is a great people person, and my son is gifted intellectually, Meghan is a natural born leader. Meghan refuses to be swayed by popular opinion or by the cajoling of others. In fact, while I know lots of children who would’ve chosen a color simply because an adult was telling them to, Meghan would not because her personal conviction is that colorful is the best color in the world. Even if every other girl in that room said that pink was the best color, she would stand firm in her belief of ’colorful’.
Why Home is the Best Place to Nurture the Love of All Things Colorful
I think that had we put her in school, she would not experience the freedom to think outside of the box. I’m sure she still would be a leader of some sorts because that is who she is by her very nature. But she’s schooled in an environment where she doesn’t need to pick one color, she can think creatively for herself. She’s schooled where conformity is not expected, where she’s free and even encouraged, to have original thoughts of colorfulness. I am guessing that there are many great men and women who went before us, who metaphorically speaking, thought that ‘colorful’ was their favorite color too. The ability to stand on a conviction and follow it through is a great, and often forgotten quality of leadership.
And just as a side note, she does in fact know all her colors.