How to learn. and maggots.

Not long after we first moved into this house we had a potato issue. I pulled out the bag of potatoes we had purchased just a week before to find maggots all under the bag.
The smell was atrocious. I had to run to the bathroom while my knight cleaned it up for me.
It was so gross. We keep potatoes in the fridge now.

Fast forward about a year.

I never, ever, not in my wildest dreams thought that I would allow my children to harvest flies. Not ever.

I’m beyond mad. But not angry mad. Crazy mad.

My kids have lizards and have been trying everything to get their crickets to multiply so they don’t have to keep shelling out money for lizard food. Apparently, it’s not all that easy to breed crickets and it appears that they die really easy.
So they decided to try flies.

And that’s the story of how I got a small aquarium maggot farm right outside my back door.

There came a point in my life not very long ago when I realized that I am a true homeschooling mom. Not many kids who get sent to school – public or private – get to experience this kind of science. It’s too bad, too, because it’s right in their backyards – literally in my case.

A few years ago I made a conscious decision to not only allow my children to pursue their interests, but to encourage them. We allowed Kait to have her own dog when she turned 11, she’s got a passion for animals. There was once a time that oldest son had an aquarium of insects in his room, he’s an entomologist in the making (although has expressed an interest in being a pilot lately – though we will not be getting him a plane anytime soon). Gabe often concocts crazy lunch, dinner, or desert dishes in the kitchen, he wants to open a kitchen where kids can learn to cook, and assemble take home meals for their families.

In all this I’ve learned so much. Not just what my children love, but about how children learn. It isn’t just the the book work, tests, drills, etc… Those things may get a kid through school but they usually won’t nourish their true God given talents. In encouraging my children to run with their interests I’ve unknowingly taught them how to learn, which is a tool they can and will use to pursue any subject they want, whether it comes from their school books or not. In school they would just be taught what to learn, which is fine and has its place in a well rounded education, but alone it misses an essential element necessary for a child’s full potential to be found.

When I notice a spark in my child I do what I can to light the fire. Once it’s lit I fuel it with books, experiments, encouragement, Google, and whatever else I can do to help it burn hot. Even if it means allowing a controlled maggot farm in the backyard.

Maggots. I shudder.

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