Who's the Teacher?

When you home school something wonderful happens: Your kids get to learn about things they are interested in. AND When you have grandparents that want to encourage their grandchildren every step of the way some thing even more wonderful happens: You get to see real dreams come true. One day last summer my father wanted to put in a little garden, just something small, like a salad garden............His thoughts where he, as a city boy, could teach the kids a little bit about real country life and they would be able to eat the fruits of their labors.
Win! Win! Everyone loved the idea.
We as a group really do not know much about gardening but we all thought maybe we would get a good summer tomato out of the deal. My boys suggested to their grandfather it might be a good idea to build a shed to hold all the tools they would need for the garden. The shed went up and the tools went in. Through the summer they worked and worked on the garden and the shed. Many fruits and vegetables were eaten. However, that was not the only thing that grew the summer of 2008. Huge things developed from these little ideas……Relationships grew stronger. My son’s got to spend real time with their grandfather learning and building and just dreaming… Matthew started dreaming of a muscadine farm. He started reading and researching and talking to my dad about how wonderful it would be to have a real muscadine vineyard. Like any reasonable person talking to a 16 year old kid would say………. “Sure that sounds like a great idea”…..”Let’s do it!’ Did I say reasonable? I meant crazy man would say………….
They went on field trips to the neighborhood farms. They started to research. They went to a convention out of town. They had the small fruit expert from Clemson University out to the land to give them advice. They held business meetings. THEN They started to clear land.
The kids (I mean we) have learned so much about soil, seeds,wine making, clearing land, driving trucks and tractors.………..We have even learned that scientists are using the seeds in research to try to make diesel fuel and are researching uses for the skins for cancer research. We have learned muscadines are the highest known natural resource for antioxidants and for resveratrol…….. What the heck is resveratrol?? SEE This is why you need kids to study hard to teach you things like…resveratrol……Which is a natural compound found in grape skins that slows aging, prevents cancer and something else. Look it up if you really want to know more. I forget! The kids want to grow muscadines and sell them, make wine and earn money for college…..
When we started home schooling 6 years ago I never imagined where it would take us……… I never imagined these kids could teach and give us all so much.