Impressive – Featuring guest blogger, Jeff Barneson

We left Cambridge yesterday and drove to DC to celebrate Christmas with my family. As of this afternoon (Christmas eve), Jeff is officially not working so I invited him to be a guest blogger.  Go easy on him, he’s not had coffee this afternoon.

It’s tempting to take this opportunity to suck up.  Right?  Here goes…

If you’ve read her blog more than once, you may have been impressed by Tara’s little homeschool blog.  If you’re impressed, I am doubly impressed.  For one thing, when she sits down at 11 pm to write these notes she usually spends about 20 minutes and then pushes, “Upload.”  How is that possible?

Our first term as homeschool parents (a phrase I never thought I’d write) has been a stretch but I’ve sort of settled into it.  My role has largely been limited to opening exercises (reading to the boys in the morning, leading a song or two) and to the two afternoons a week when I fix lunch and do dad things with them (take them swimming, meet Guo Rui for their badminton lesson, and work on our puppet theatre or the bee hive project). All of that is really fun and comes pretty easy for me.  Not so what I had to do last week – two mornings of bonafide homeschool instruction…

Tara and Kia were spending a couple days away on a work retreat.  My mission was to stay home with the boys and do the teaching.

“It’s gonna be easy,” Tara said.  “I’m only leaving you a third of what we normally do.”

I had a feeling I was being set up.

She made the lesson plan and lined up all the materials for me. All I had to do was get them going after breakfast and work the plan.  Easier said than done. Tara has written about the boy’s inability to focus.  Let’s just say that I don’t need any scientific studies to know that there is a genetic component to it.  I think we accomplished 1/3 of the work Tara set out for us.  So, 1/3 of 1/3, 1/9 of the homeschool value when the boys study with Dad.

On top of that, I did some of it incorrectly.  After looking over the whiteboard that the boys and I filled in per Tara’s instructions, I heard her say to Zach, “Oh, well, some of this right.  I think we need to teach Daddy the definition of noun before you all try this again.”

She has such a rigid definition of nouns – no action verbs allowed.  Like I said, I think she was setting me up.

But the truth is that what Tara and the boys accomplish really is impressive. I listened as they took an oral exam last week on the history of ancient China.  The rattled off names of dynasties and emperiors.  They talked about natural resources, the environment and the history of trade with the west.

She really is impressive.

Which I also think must be genetic.  Her youngest sister Jenny, who is driving up from North Carolina at this very moment, is a doctor at Duke Medical Center – ‘nuf said.

I spent part of the morning with her middle sister Brenda today. Working on her own, Brenda has taken out the bathtub, the toilet, and all of the walls.  She has removed the vanity and the sinks, and has reconfigured the plumbing.  Her plans include new doors and glass blocks.  I kid you not, she has her own wet saw.  Impressive, right? When I spoke with her this morning she was installing the floor tile and wanted to talk with me about pocket doors and installing the shower pan.  All by herself.  Her house and yard put the guys at This Old House to shame.

So tonight, as we head out for a Christmas Eve service to thank God for sending us his son, I’m also going to thank him for sending me to be part of a family with such impressive sisters.

Tara will be back with more on Monday.  In the meantime, go enjoy your families, impressive in their own rights I’m sure.