Thursday, September 17, 2009

What do the Jonas Brothers and Thomas Edison have in common?

Homeschooling!

I don’t know about you, but I “LOVE” to hear about famous homeschoolers. Though we’ve been making a come back, homeschooling has been around for a LOOOOONG Time! We don’t need “professionals” to tell us the benefits. We can just look back in history and see all the famous people that were homeschooled by their parents.....,

Benjamin Franklin, James Madison, George Washington, John Adams, John Quincy Adams, James Garfield, Andrew Jackson, Albert Einstein, Leonardo da Vinci, Joan of Arc, Alexander Graham Bell, Thomas Edison, Agatha Christie, Laura Ingalls Wilder, Jonas Brothers, Barlow Girls, Jennifer Love Hewitt..., even Condoleezza Rice was homeschooled for one year!

Of all these great examples (and there are many more) my personal favorite is Thomas Edison. His mom is my hero. I want to be just like her. After teachers and a principle told her that her son was “Addled” (which means stupid or confused) and that he could never learn, she pulled him out of school and homeschooled him. She believed in him when no one else would.

Many people have speculated that Thomas Edison was the poster child for ADHD. He couldn’t sit still, he talked all the time, he constantly did things that seemed destructive such as, burning down his barn! He was hired and fired more times than you can count on one hand, but through it all his mom only saw who he was going to be! She kept on believing in him, cheering him on! Did you know that by the time he died he had 1,093 patents!? I’ve often wondered if those teachers who had been so quick to pass judgement on him ever got to see how much he changed our world?

How about you? Even on those tough days when you look at your child what GREAT things do you see about them? I heard a quote last week that has stuck with me. She said, “I”m not raising my little boys to be little boys or my little girls to be little girls. I’m raising my children to be STRONG men and women”. I think Thomas Edison’s mom never looked at who he was at the moment. I believe she viewed him through the prism of who he would grow up to be, and that’s what kept her going even as he had to work through his immaturity.

How blessed we are in this day and age to have the modern technology available to us that Thomas’s mom never had. I love the POWER of the computer and on-line learning, I love that we have the technology to travel and film places all over the world so that my children can learn about other cultures through pictures. I know that if all those famous presidents could learn with the limited resources they had, OUR CHILDREN have even more opportunity!

Moms and dads we hold an incredible power in our hands. It's the power to believe in our children when no one else can see their potential. My hope and prayer is that I won't look at today, but that I will see who they are going to be tomorrow, five years from now, 25 years from now!

Today, I am going to ask you to share with us what you see when you look at your children? Even if it's something that others can't see "yet"! (Warm Smile)

1 comment:

  1. I am not surprised when I hear that kids like Dakota Fanning have been home-educated. Their ability to seek their personal interest is obvious in their work. I credit parents for recognizing these abilities and nurturing their children to grow in their true skill. I see that my own child is able to grow and work in her skills because she has the TIME to do so. What I see in her is JOY and that JOY is obvious to all who know her.

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