One of the biggest blessings of homeschooling is the time we get to spend with our kids.
Time, which creates bonds and gives birth to beautiful discussions.
Discussions, which are the biggest tool in transferring values, getting an insight into our children’s world, and giving them a glimpse to ours.
Umar is a sensitive kid. Can’t see an animal in pain kind of kid. While we were watching this BBC Earth video where a pod of young boisterous male dolphins are playing catch with a pufferfish, Umar was feeling really sorry for the poor pufferfish.
This started our discussion on empathy, sympathy, and other such traits. Like humans’ innate sense of justice, right vs wrong, and feeling sorry for the weak, and a complete lack of it in other creatures.
I believe that our ability to empathize and sympathize is the greatest proof against human evolution.
You see empathy for your fellow creatures is a flaw in the theory of survival of the fittest. Humans, on top of the evolution chain, should never have developed empathy. It’s a hindrance to their own survival.
If you care for a sick member of the family, share food with needy, you are technically making the weak ones strong, who will compete you in the resources and race for survival.
Yet we see that empathy for others, and the resulting sense of moral justice is deeply ingrained in humans, regardless of their ethnicity, their religion. It is present even in young children.
I presented all this to Umar at a level he could understand, and I could see that he understood it, and what’s more, he agreed to it!
This small discussion will live there inside him. He may forget it on the surface. But he will remember it, بعون الله, when science tries to feed him the human evolution theory.
Most of the people, when thinking about homeschooling, are focusing on teaching academics. They measure the success of a day in terms of how many new bits of information they could cram inside their children’s head.
For me it’s these small slices of time that define success.
What do you think?