Learning all the time

We love home schooling our kids, JJ age 8 and Tommy age 6. Everything we do seems to turn out to be a learning experience (for the kids and the parents!)

Take Easter morning, for example. It was almost like a flashback from a Numb3rs episode…

We are big fans of the Easter Egg Hunt. Saturday evening, after the kids were asleep, TC and I snuck out with flashlights and hid 30 plastic eggs containing tiny toys around our yard. As soon as the sun came up, the kids were ready to start their hunt.

The first 20 eggs were quickly rounded up. The next 5 came much more slowly. After a little snack break, and an egg count, they hit the yard again, looking for those last few eggs. Searching diligently, they caught 3 more before taking another break. At this point, finding those last 2 eggs seemed impossible.

Then I had an idea! "How many colors of eggs are there?", I asked the kids. They did a count, and discovered that there were 6 different colors. "OK, if there are 30 eggs, and there are the same number of each of the 6 colors, how many of each color are there?"

At first, they complained that this sounded suspiciously like some kind of math lesson, but I promised it really was going to help find the missing eggs. After a bit more grumbling, they pondered, conferred, shuffled the found eggs around a bit, and eventually announced that there must be 5 of each.

"Great!", I said. "Now you can tell me which colors we're looking for." They started counting each of the colors: 5 blue, 5 pink, 5 green and so on until it became clear that both of the missing eggs must be yellow.

Armed with this knowledge, everyone scoured the yard again, this time turning up both of the missing eggs, which had fallen off of a fence and were hiding out in the neighbor's yard!

So the kids learned some valuable lessons about problem solving, set theory and division, and I don't have to worry about picking plastic shrapnel out of my shins the next time I mow the lawn!

What does this have to do with Super Successful Kids? I see it as one tiny step on a long road. You're on that road too, and we'd like to help! Please let me know your number one question about raising super successful kids by visiting our "ASK Page". I'll pass your question on to our experts, and get the answers back to you through email, blog post, teleseminar or podcast.

I'm excited to have you along on this journey to success!

Charles Vollum