As my children get older, I am often surprised to find that they are learning things that I don’t know. I shouldn’t be surprised, I am the one orchestrating their school year, gathering their curriculum, and planning out the lessons, but it still happens. While engaged in a healthy discussion with my eldest daughter, she respectfully informed me that what I had just said was a straw man fallacy. This isn’t the first time that I’ve been held accountable by her in conversation, and it’s unnerving. But it’s also very cool.

Most of the surprises we encounter as home educators can tend to be unpleasant; “I love math, why doesn’t my child?” or “I always excelled at spelling, why is my child struggling?” These are challenging problems, and they can be discouraging, but when we are up against these struggles, we learn that we have to bend and change and learn a new approach for the sake of our kids.

So when I am surprised by my child surpassing me in something, such as logic, my natural response is “wow, cool, she knows more than me”. But it should actually act as a catalyst for our education. Just because we are done with the twelve formal years, doesn’t mean we are done learning.

I plan on taking logic next year, maybe on the sly, when my daughter isn’t looking, and maybe I’ll win a debate once in a while.

What are you learning?