Ready... or Not?

 This post is linked to "Trivium Tuesdays - Classical Link-Up #62" at Living and Learning at Home.

Do you struggle with something in your home school that you so badly want your child to accomplish?  Well, I hate to break the news to you, but sometimes...they are just not ready!  My son is a perfect example.  He has a strong will and knows when he is not ready to do something.  When he was much younger, he was just not ready to ride his little bicycle without training wheels.  I think he was 8 years old and the kids were out in the front yard when a neighbor girl, who was younger than his sister, came by with her bike and NO training wheels!  Well, the next thing I knew, my daughter rushed into the house to get me and told me that my son was riding a bicycle... without training wheels!  I did not push him, coach him, or help him back up when he fell down because he was already flying by on the neighbor girl's bike (and had not learned how to turn, yet)!  I did run inside and get the video camera so that I could tape this monumental experience for his daddy, who was at work.  Daddy was thrilled to see our son's new accomplishment that evening immediately after returning home with a live demonstration, of course.

He did not potty train ... until he was ready,  he did not snow ski alone ... until he was ready, and he did not pick up a book to read "for fun" (beyond his scheduled reading time during our school days) until a couple of months ago when he decided to read through the entire Percy Jackson series of all five books in less than two months (and I am still playing catch-up), and the list continues.  This boy knows when he is ready to tackle something and succeed.  He does not want to try and fail, he has had to deal with that too many times in his 12 years with challenges that he has faced from a legally blind eye to dyslexia and dysgraphia.

So, this week, I was reminded again of the beauty and confidence that this young man possesses when he really is READY to try something new.  He refused for the last three summers to try wakeboarding, spending many hours on our boat watching other cousins, friends, and family members ski and wakeboard.  Last summer, he jumped on a knee board and quickly learned how to not only ride it, but how to do multiple consecutve 360 degree turns while remaining on the slippery thing!

This week, on his first attempt he stood up on the wakeboard and fell over the front of it, but on only his second try, he got up and rode until he decided to let go, several minutes later when his arm muscles were getting sore!  Most other kids his age that my husband has worked with took many, many attempts to just stand up on such a board, let alone ride on it for more than a few seconds.  This truly was an amazing accomplishment. The next day, he was already going in and out of the big wake behind his uncle's boat on that wakeboard, another accomplishment!

J's very first time getting up on the wakeboard!

Wow!  That look says it all.

I am writing about these events to remind you that sometimes, our children really know that they are not ready to tackle something new because they don't have the confidence ... even though we may think they are just trying to get out of hard work! Then, once in awhile, our children surprise us when they are ready to do something and they just do it all on their own.  It is with great pride and satisfaction that I watched this occur with my son this week.  It is so fulfilling to see this child become just a bit more of a young man, tackling his fear head first and meeting it with success!  I hope he continues to build confidence in other areas of his life where it is still lacking, but this is the time to capture this moment and celebrate and encourage his independence and bravery.  I have seen too many hard crashes on those wakeboards to ever want to jump onto on one myself, but if I had let my son know that I was afraid for his safety, then he may have never tried! 

Why write about wakeboarding here on my blog about home eduation?  Well, let's look at why this worked so well for him.  In this case, our son had the repetition of hearing and seeing others model the skills of learning how to ride a wakeboard probably thousands of times now.  He also took instruction from his father, and watched an instructional wakeboard video ahead of time.  The clincher was that his cousins, uncle, and parents were watching.  He finally wanted so badly to be like the "big guys" that he jumped in the water and did it. So he had a repeated experience that was both audio and visual, he used instructional tools, and he just developed such a strong desire to want to tackle this skill.

Bottom line:  keep on working on those trouble spots in your home school, and don't give up!  This happens in academcis, too.  Diligent practice with repetition and instruction will eventually lead to skill development, which will finally increase confidence, until one day your child will be tackling that troublesome topic all on his own!  Until then, keep working, praying, and giving your children grace in the process.

Rachel