HS #274   How My Kid Taught Me to Teach Him…   Computer programming (or get out of his way)! with Jennifer Cabrera

HS #274 How My Kid Taught Me to Teach Him… Computer programming (or get out of his way)! with Jennifer Cabrera

Links and Resources:

Show Notes:

D1 is one of my 16yr old twin sons who loves all things computers and retro-gaming. He is a whiz at math, leader of his CAP CyberPatriot team, a true guitar hero, and enjoys long cutthroat games of monopoly. He is a self-starter who genuinely loves to learn and excite other homeschoolers to follow their curiosity and take the reins of their own education.

But How Do It Know? by J. Clark Scott
Make: Electronics by Charles Platt
Python For Kids by Jason R. Briggs
Javascript for Kids by Nick Morgan
Murach’s Beginning Java by Joel Murach
C++ All-in-One For Dummies by John Mueller

Show Transcript:

HS EP 274

Wendy:

Hello and welcome back to another installment of the Homeschool Solutions Show.

My name is Wendy Speake, and I am one of the many hosts we have here on the podcast. Each week you'll hear from one of us inviting one of our friends to join for a conversation about this busy blessed season as we educate our children at home.

Now the title of the show is Homeschool Solutions. While we don't have the answer to every question, we know that all the solutions to every stress in every struggle can be found in the Person and presence of Jesus Christ and His living and active and applicable Word. We're so glad that you're here to join us for today's conversation.

But before we start the show, I'd like to thank our sponsor. Medi-Share. An affordable and Biblical healthcare alternative. Find out more at mychristiancare.org for their ongoing support of homeschooling families just like yours.

And now on today's show.

Jennifer

Let's just jump right in with the obvious, here. I can program the coffee, pot, the crockpot, and the DVR, but I can't begin to tell you how to code or program anything involving a PC, a laptop, or a video game. Plus, my brain puts up this wall and my eyes glaze over anytime I try to learn this kind of stuff, or one of my children starts to talk at me about it.

But wait, introductions first.

Hi, Jennifer Cabrera here again with another highfalutin homeschooler episode of truth and humor.

Now, this episode is all about how to get out of our kids' self-motivated way. How homeschooling can lead to self-guided learning. But before we get all into the mom memes and coffee talk, as my teens like to call it, let me tell you that this is going to be an extra special episode. Because first, we're going to interview my very best student. Yes, of course, I have a best student. I also have a best helper, a best leader, a best coffee maker. Don't judge me.

So, we're going to interview my best, most motivated, inquisitive student today and find out how my kid taught me how to teach him. And also, how I became a computer science professor without lifting an inch of code. Yes, yes, I have a website and thank God I also have a wonderful lady that lives inside my computer. And I also think she lives somewhere in California, maybe. But she hosts my site and fixes things and the emergencies that occur when I suddenly get cocky and creative and try to look behind the curtain.

But my oldest son, who I lovingly referred to as D1, because he's one minute older than his twin D2, and because they like to remain mysterious and well, we have to avoid the paparazzi. So D1 is my resident geek squad, my hacker in chief, my Cyber Superman. And even though I'm his homeschool mom, I can't take a curtsy on this one. He taught me how to teach him to be a tech genius.

So basically, I'm a computer science professor who still thinks control-alt-delete, and blowing on the disk, well, just take care of most computer issues, right? And though I'd like to take credit for teaching him all he knows and be seated on the board of his tech empire someday and give you the syllabus and insight into teaching your kid who might be interested in computers to do the same, I can't even begin.

So, I've ordered D1 here today as a home school assignment. I mean, I've invited him here to talk with me about how he taught me to teach him computer programming. And then we'll lay out a code or path to help your techies understand and learn to program at their own pace.

And then when we're done talking all that techie stuff, we'll get back to the mom memes and the coffee talk and what it's like to get kids motivated to teach themselves because that's where the true learning is. When kids find their own path and their own interests and use their brainpower to move themselves forward in the direction of the careers or study that they hope to achieve someday.

Alright, for those that don't know, D1 is one of my brilliant 16-year-old twins. He loves all things computers and retro gaming. He's a whiz at math leader, of his cyber patriots team with Civil Air Patrol, a true Guitar Hero, and enjoys steak for breakfast and long cutthroat games of Monopoly.

Welcome D1 to my studio. Or back to our home school room, music room, reading room, and well, basically curriculum storage unit. To begin, let's get some answers to those burning questions I and other homeschool moms may have.

First, who is your favorite teacher in the whole wide world?

D1 -

Mom.

Jennifer -

Good answer. Now the second. Who taught you to talk?

D1 -

Mom.

J -

Who taught you to read?

D1 -

Mom.

J -

And color.

D1 -

Mom.

J -

Write your name, multiply, cook an egg to perfection. And who taught you how a computer works? How to program, read and write code, and do all that really cool techie cyber stuff.

D1 -

Yeah, that would be myself.

J -

Awesome, now why are you interested in computers and techie stuff? What excites you to learn more about programming and creating instead of just using and consuming what others produce?

D1 -

Well, I like solving puzzles and I like learning how something works and when I put my mind to it, I kind of want to go all out. I want to learn exactly how everything works inside and out.

J -

On computers are all kinds of things.

D1 -

Well, just pretty much computers for me.

J -

Okay. And when were you first interested in learning to code and all about computers and programming?

D1 -

So I used to play Minecraft back in the good days when it came out, and looking at the code for the game, and how you could type code while you were in the game, into the chat bar, I always wondered how to use that and what that meant, and just looking at the code for the game, like, I would open one of the files for the game and I'd see all these random numbers and symbols and I was like how does this make the computer play Minecraft and that got me curious.

So, I asked my mom all these questions, but she couldn't answer it. So, she...

J -

Of course not.

D1 -

She bought a book to inform us. It was a published and made by DK Workbooks. It was called Computer Coding, An Introduction to Computer Programming.

J -

His mom likes to buy curriculum. And then did you read it right away?

D1 -

No, we didn't it.

J -

It turned into a coffee table book that we had to dust.

D1 -

Yeah no one read it because no one wanted to take the time to. And then one day, maybe like few years later, we decided that, I decided that, what the heck I'll just learn one of the code listings in the book, type it into my computer and then run it. Even though I didn't know how it worked. I just wanted to show off, you know, and look like a really smart guy, right?

So, I typed it into my computer and I run it for everyone and it prints hello world onto a console.

J -

And a computer programmer was born. And then?

D1 -

And then I decided, hey, that was kind of fun. How did that work? And I wanted to learn more. And not just to show off.

J -

Okay. So other than the coding and seeing the cool things come up on the computer, are there other related subjects or fields that you're interested in too, like maybe electrical engineering or...

D1 -

Yes, I like...

J -

Communications...

D1 -

Yeah, electrical engineering. I actually bought a few books about that too. I bought Grabz electronics.

J -

Okay. So, we'll get to that more in a second. So, after you got that first book that your mom bought you because she's your computer science professor and she bought you that book. And did you finish that book? Where'd you go from there?

D1 -

I don't think I finished it completely. Once I typed in the first code listing, I read a little past it and then some of the stuff got really repetitive. There's not a book I'd recommend. And I...it didn't teach me enough and I kind of wanted more.

J -

So the questions started growing and you needed answers. And did your mom start making worksheets and curriculum and writing it down and sending you to classes? Is that what happened next?

D1 -

No.

J -

No, of course not. Because who taught you all this stuff?

D1 -

Myself.

J -

Okay. So, then you went, I mean, you thought the knowledge that you wanted? What did you want to learn next?

D1 -

Well, the book was on this coding language called Python. And I kind of want to go deeper into that. So, I bought a thicker book about Python, called Python for Kids, A Playful Introduction to Programming, by Jason R. Briggs, and it was honestly really good. And I learned a lot from it. I learned how to make my first video game, draw graphics and with a high-level language, and even learn, like, object-oriented programming, it was a lot of fun.

J -

So, Python...sorry, we get on these big techie terms, you're gonna lose Mom and other moms, and maybe some kids, but kids probably know more than we do. So, Python is a programming language. So, basically, you're learning a foreign language called Python, but it's really to code or program on a computer?

D1 -

Well, it is a programming language, but I know if there is a techie person listening to me right now, I probably, he's probably criticizing me because technically Python could be considered a scripting language. It's not the same as programming. Programming is telling the computer what to do. Scripting is more like telling another program to tell what the computer, you want to do it.

J -

So, it's like a middle man.

D1 -

Yeah, sort of.

J -

Okay, so then you did the Python thing, got tired of snakes, and you moved on to...

D1 -

I moved on to a JavaScript.

J -

And is that another scripting language?

D1 -

Yeah, it was...I mostly used it to create video games and stuff on websites, actually, cause JavaScript, usually, you compare it with HTML Hypertext Markup language to build, like, programs on websites. And the book I bought for that was JavaScript for Kids, A Playful Introduction to Programming, by Nick Morgan this time.

J -

And so, you said you created some things. Tell us what you created.

D1 -

With JavaScript, I created what they had in the book for me Like, in the book, they had a snake game, and I made that snake game. Snake is technically where you control a snake around a map with borders. You try to eat apples and your tail grows longer, but if you run into your tail, you die. And I made that game with JavaScript.

J -

Okay, and then from...so then Python, then you moved on to JavaScript, and all this time you just learned about new different programming methods and languages and scripts and all that. And then you went out and thought out these books, right? Cause mom certainly didn't know what she was looking for, and I remember a few times we'd go out to Barnes and Noble, or we get on Amazon and we'd look up stuff that you wanted to learn, and I mean I could play pin the tail on the donkey, eeny meeny miney moe, pick one. But you were the one that chose these books, right?

D1 -

Yes.

J -

Where the wormhole took you?

D1 -

Like, the Python book, even in the back, recommended, had recommendations for more to go on, and I think one of the recommendations was that JavaScript book I got.

J -

And so, then we moved on to?

D1 -

I moved on to the coding language, Java, because it definitely, you could do more, and the reason I picked Java is because Minecraft. Minecraft was built in Java, so that got me way hyped to learn Java.

J -

So, Java is different than JavaScript.

D1 -

Yes, it's a lot different. Java usually doesn't run on a website or on no JS. Java is almost like a virtual machine. In fact, I think it is a virtual machine. It converts your code into bytecode, runs it on the virtual machine in your computer, and then that virtual machine converts it to binary code to run in...

J -

Woo, y'all getting all this? He's so smart. He's smarter than me. I don't know who's homeschooling who here. So, okay, JavaScript, then on to Java. And then what did you do next?

D1 -

So, after Java, I actually...or to learn Java, I got this book...

J -

Murach's...

D1 -

Murach's Beginning Java...

J -

With Eclipse...

D1 -

...with Eclipse, by Joel Murach, and my...

J -

And y'all, I'm looking at these books and they're like, I don't...door stops. There's so thick and huge, like, you could break windows with them or make blanket forts out of em, but apparently, they could be put to better use for techie kids who one day you're going to run the world.

And so, then he moved on to what I'm looking at now, which is another ten-pounder. Java All-in-one for Dummies.

D1 -

That's funny you say that because actually, in a lot of these books, it's in the beginning, it actually, a lot of these books make jokes about being used for doorstop, and all that. Like, if you don't want to program, I hope this book becomes, you know, good for a doorstop, or you...

After that Java book, I never, I didn't really get tired of Java. I kind of wanted to know more. So, then I got Java all-in-one for Dummies, which was a book with eight books inside of it, so it's quite thick here. It's by, you know, For Dummies a Wiley brand.

And this one gave me a lot, a ton of information, so much information that I made my first video game that wasn't a code listing, out of this book. It was called, I called it Asteroid Dodge, cause it technically was a spaceship and you would dodge asteroids. That was the game.

J -

And I played it, it was really fun. It had cute little graphics. It was like, throwback to Atari. That's pretty awesome. And he made that all by himself. That's my baby.

And moving on, then you moved on to what coding language next? Did I say that right?

Is it a coding language?

D1 -

Well, I didn't move on to a coding language next. Next, I went on to, I wanted to learn about electronics, cause I was, I got interested in electricity as well, because I got this RadioShack equipment that I didn't know what to do with it, so I wanted to learn how to use it, and I got interested once I started reading the book that came with it. And that was called Make Electronics by Charles Platt. After I made the first circuit in the book, I was like, wow, this is honestly super fun. I can make LEDs light up...

J -

Little tiny Christmas lights.

D1 -

Yeah.

J -

I remember when you got this set, you were so proud to show us all the little conductor things and I don't even know if I'm using the right terms, but he had all kinds of things he was playing with and electrocuting something.

And so, it came with a book, and he had a little kit with all these tiny little lights and boards and he could put them together and if it didn't work he could rearrange it. So, he's kind of started some electrical engineering at that point.

D1 -

And then I, with this book, I actually made...inside the book, they had how to build an alarm system. So I made an alarm system for doors with this book. And then I kind of got tired of electronics again and sort of switched back to coding. And that's what I want to go really deep. And so, I got a book called C++ All in One for Dummies by John Paul Mueller and Jeff Cogswell. And wow, it had tons of information. And C++ is a great and powerful language. You actually in C++, it's one of the languages, the few languages where you manipulate memory. You're set, so in the memory inside of a computer, you can actually access it yourself, like in the higher-level languages. Like Java and Python. You can't actually see the memory physically. You can only interact with it, with, like, variable names. But in C++ you can literally get memory addresses and it was so cool.

J -

Okay, and then, is this is the language that you used...in science fair last year he actually built a maze video game straight from coding and it was almost kind of 3D and you could turn corners and it was pretty complicated code that he wrote. He got a first-place ribbon, Mama's so proud. Again. Is that the language that you used to do that?

D1 -

Yes, because C++ is, in fact, one of the fastest object-oriented programming languages out there. And C++ is also very good to program on Windows 10 computers, because you can access all the Windows 10 libraries and API's like the windowing library that makes Windows. And...

J -

And see, this is all that stuff that you've read and we can't even, you know, eyes are glazing over. It's awesome.

D1 -

Sorry.

J -

No, no, no. No. That's what I want. The point of you getting on here and talking about this is, I wanted people to know that I don't get it either. But he does. Because he loves it and he learned it and he sought it for himself, because it was something that interested him. What I want to ask is, do you think that it would help to have these types of topics given in a curriculum form, and day lessons, and experiments, and mom handing it out? Or would it kill the curiosity?

D1 -

No, because when I got bored, I just wouldn't played video games like every other person.

And then, when I got bored of video games, I was like, okay, let's code again. If I didn't have that break in between, and if I'd do daily lessons, it'd feel like a chore. Yeah, I don't like that.

J -

Yeah, kinda feel like school?

D1 -

Yeah.

J -

And I mean, who wants to do school, right? But yeah, to keep it fun and don't turn it into a chore, then it made it more fun. Cause if I'd stepped in, then it would have been mom's thing, right?

D1 -

Right.

J -

So, it's best that I play stupid. But the problem is I'm really not playing stupid. I just don't get it. But I'm so proud of you that you do.

And he's got one more book, I think, here, to tell us about. What's it called?

D1 -

So, this is honestly the best computer book I have ever gotten, because, after I learned C++, I learned about these things called memory addresses, which, it's a really techie term and I got confused about a lot of things. And I just learned about electronics and I was like, how do these things come together? How does a computer actually work inside? How do the wires add numbers together? And then I looked over the Internet and I could never find the answer. And everything was way over my head. And I got this perfect book that taught me all of it. It's called, But How Do It Know, by J. Clark Scott. And wow, it was amazing.

It starts you out learning about one circuit, and then that that circuit builds upon itself until you get to a whole computer that works. CPU and RAM and everything. And...

J -

So, explain the title to us. But How Do It Know. Well, that's kind of a funny title. What does that mean?

D1 -

But How Do It Know. There's a joke in, that they talk about in the book, where a salesman is selling a thermos to a bunch of people. He's trying to give it away. Well, not give it away, but sell it. He says, oh it'll keep your cold food cold and your hot food hot. And this really dumb guy comes in and goes, but how do it know?

And that's the whole joke of the book. How does the computer know to add numbers?

And at the end of the book, you figure out it doesn't know. It's all just a perfectly, set it up, a circuit of wires that had stuff...

J -

So, it's only as smart as the man that programmed it?

D1 -

Exactly, yeah.

J1 -

You can't really program a thermos.

D1 -

No, that's why it was a stupid, it was a stupid joke. It was funny though.

J -

Okay. So. Alright. So, tell us how has homeschool benefited you in this area? Do you feel that you are homeschooling yourself in a way?

D1 -

Yes, I do, especially since, you know, when you're homeschooled, you can wake up at like, six in the morning, get your schoolwork done, and then you can do all that fun programming stuff you wanna do. We know that, with public school, you gotta wait like, I don't know most school's like eight hours. And yes, I do feel like I'm homeschooling myself in a way, cause once I'm done with the regular school, I go teach myself about coding and computers.

J -

So, would you say that you have learned how to learn?

D1 -

Yes, I think I have, yeah.

J -

And what would you say to other moms looking to fuel or foster their child's interest in computer programming, or any area that may not be part of the usual reading, writing, and arithmetic?

D1 -

Don't make it a lesson plan. Don't force it to them. Maybe give em a book to spark their interest, and if they want more books, get em more books. But don't make it, like, worksheets and lesson plans, cause that would just ruin the whole excitement.

J -

Does it help when I, when you get to show me how to do something? Do you feel like you've learned more? Do you feel like you've advanced your own interest and it's okay that Mom doesn't know?

D1 -

Yeah.

J -

Well, what advice would you give to homeschool kid, directly, about taking the reins of their own education?

D1 -

Well, if your mom can't teach you, go learn it yourself. Go to library, get some books watch YouTube videos. and you know, like Michael Stevens would say from, BeSoft, stay curious.

J -

Right, so chase your own dreams. You don't have to be graduated from middle school, even, or high school to start learning and keep learning, cause learning's a lifelong skill, right?

Okay, I'm going to give you a free pass to say anything that you like without repercussions or loss of dinner tonight. What do you not like about homeschooling? And do you feel being homeschooled has held you back in any way?

D1 -

Well, maybe it's made me a nerd.

J -

In a good way though, right?

D1 -

I guess.

J -

Okay.

D1 -

Yeah, and you know, I just, you know, a programmer who got a Commodore 64 for his birthday. Yeah, that's a nerd, okay? And I'm one of those.

J -

Yeah, but they say the nerds get the best paying jobs later.

D1 -

We'll have to see.

J -

So even when you have kids of your own, do you want them to be homeschooled too?

D1 -

Yes. Yes, I do. Like if that means that I'm going to be, like, the stay-at-home person, then I probably...

J -

Or you can pay your mom, who's got great years of experiences, and also, she...computer science professor now, even though she doesn't know how to do anything.

So, and my last and most important question, who do you love?

D1 -

Mom.

J -

That a boy.

And there you have it, straight from the mouth of my best homeschool student, who incidentally makes me look like I know what I'm doing in this homeschool gig. So, thank you D1 for being here in your house for this interview today.



Now Mamas, I realized that this almost grown self-starter of mine is a rare specimen and that not all kids have an intense interest in an area of study. And that some haven't discovered their interest yet and, well, others aren't even looking.

But if and when an interest sparks, resist the urge to run out and buy a related curriculum and unit studies. You may think you are fanning and fueling that spark into a roaring fire of learning, but usually, moms end up smothering it out by turning it into school. It's tough 'cause we love to buy curriculum, don't we? We like to plan field trips, get in on the learning with our kids and feel like we are doing everything we can to ensure they reach as high as they can and that any of our skeptics see us doing it.

It's hard to sit back and wait for them to do it on their own too. Some may never and we'll have to force-feed them what they need to know and and let the consequences teach them that the rest of the necessities have to get done. But most kids have a spark of something in them and when they feel it, we need to get back and give it some oxygen, let it breathe, let it be there little smoldering coals to decide what to do with.

Now we can be there waiting to toss them a log for their fire and help em out when they ask, and they may put it out and look for another spark. Or they may turn it into a bonfire that spreads like the London fires, changing the world, ending a plague, and leading to the next great app or program that ends the monopolies of power of the overbearing big tech giants. Can I get an amen?

Ahem. Which brings me to my fanciful visions about homeschooling. Fantasies you may have had over early morning cups of coffee and kids that won't just do the dang math warm-up already. So, a few years ago, my dream when I got this homeschool thing all figured out, was to be the kind of homeschool mom who can wedge herself in between Webster's dictionary and a selection of references and encyclopedias, sipping coffee, and overseeing self-propelled learners. I'd hop down from my shelf to run out and buy pre-sharpened Ticonderoga's, arrange field trips, keep the Wi-Fi running, and set out tea and scones for the college recruiters.

One can dream. In truth, almost everything my children have learned to do really well they've learned on their own. Okay, obviously, they're potty trained and that was because of me. And they recognize their ABCs and one-two-threes, which led to some sounding out of syllables, writing their names, and counting random amounts of Cheerios that I flung into the toilet to help their aim get better with the potty training. I think I take full credit for those genius learning hacks.

But I'm talking about the type of learning that comes with the want and will to learn something because they themselves see a need or have a want to learn something. When they see the effort as a means to a desired goal or a rung on a ladder of goals that leads to an ultimate conquest, the knowledge gained along the way stays with them. And if and when they first experience a self-motivated moment, well, forget it door opening. A whole freaking wall comes down, and then they'll run to show you, explain every detail, and even if you have no idea what they're talking about because you haven't finished your coffee or because they passed your abilities last March, you will beam with pride. And a tear will streak down your face and they'll roll their eyes, and you'll think to yourself, perhaps they'll move out someday, after all. Snort.

So, yeah, don't decorate their room and put an ad out for renters just yet when this happens. I've yet to see any self-starters working on grammar and world lit around here. I mean, even the hyper-focused go-getters will neglect what they don't enjoy. I too read all the amazing stories of homeschool success. And when we first started homeschooling, I read these great stories of kids who were teaching themselves second and third languages, college-level math at age 8, memorizing the Constitution upside down and backwards, neurosurgery on the family pets and inventions and new appliances that made even GE jealous. I was sold. And what was the homeschool advice from the parents of these prodigals?

Just let them learn what interests them. Ha! For language arts, I envisioned my third-grade twins learning every synonym, pun, analogy, metaphor, and rhyme pertaining to the word "poop". We could have rounded out that year with driveway astronomy, art with excrement, swimming, and video games, which was hardly a recipe for college by age twelve.

Now, being a type-A control freak, I knew I had to force-feed the reading, writing, and math as I saw fit. Lesson by lesson, I explained, gave examples, read the text, quizzed, forced the practice, graded the work, and tested the results. It was a successful first year. I was completely worn out by May, albeit, satisfied and excited to continue our journey.

In hopes of a spark of self-motivation, I did fill our house with great novels, references, learning toys, science kits, art supplies, and educational computer programs. We made everything about learning and we took lots of field trips. And then I hope for the magical moment when one of them would decide to take it upon themselves to figure something out without being forced. To learn what interests then, right? Like those parents claimed? So that I could retire and live off the royalties of my kid's genius.

Apparently, you have to provide the opportunity and freedom to learn what interests them. Cashing in a little with my pride, I will admit, I was teaching some of the fun out of the learning. Like public school streamlines and tests the fun out of learning. But do you know what is the most fun part of learning for kids? It's when they figure out something for themselves by chance or effort or magic. Now, before anyone starts clapping or crying and thinking I'm about to go into unschooling, let me say, nope, not going to happen. I'm still a control freak.

The magical changes have slowly happened around here over the years. As you can tell by talking with D1. Now it's, it's like what they say about getting a toddler to eat his veggies. If you just put it on his plate every night and don't force him. Just have it available, eventually, he might try it. Well, my twelve-year-old still won't eat squash unless under threat of a videogame apocalypse. But he will collect 476 rocks and fossils if you ask him not to bring them in the house. And if you continue to act indifferent and dumb when he asks you what they're made of, he'll go on to sort, type, and categorize each and every one. And all you have to do is provide the buckets, leave a few earth science and geology books lying around, and threaten to throw all the mess back in the creek.

Now during that hopeful first year, I also bought that beginner computer coding manual that D1 mentioned. The twins were nuts about video games and had asked me, in passing, about all the programming and coding. Of course, being the brilliant professor that I am, I explained that I didn't have the slightest idea, but that they should look it up.

And they, of course, scoffed and moved on.

Y'all, it was barely a spark. It was more of a weak glow in the dark sticker. So, naturally, being a good homeschool mom, I ran out and bought that cute little coding book and I was all excited to show it to em. The moment had arrived for me to watch the learning happen from my perch next to Webster. Nope. It sat for many months, while my imaginary tech empire stocks began to plummet. Questions still flew at me, but... about coding...as they burned their cute little retinas further into Minecraft. I still knew nothing and had no desire to learn it. But here's the key. They did.

D1 began playing around with what he thought he knew, testing codes, and after two years, two years, two years, did you hear that? These things don't just happen overnight. But finally, curiosity got the best of D1 and he sat down with my laptop and that manual late one night and began teaching himself to code. And I'm proud to say that I still know nothing about coding. And I swear that is what makes him enjoy his self-attained knowledge that much more. It's cherished because it's all his.

There is no getting around it. There are still the have-to subjects that we'll have to insist we get done for most kids. But we can leave out the busywork, drop the hoops that we don't have to jump through, and set them free to move at their own pace. And as they grow, they will notice that they don't really need mom to teach a lot of the lessons and that things can get done quicker. That they take some initiative to figure it out on their own. And then they can get to the free time. The part where they learn, what interests them. And as they get older, they will begin to look down the road at what it takes to achieve some of their speculative career goals and understand why it's really up to them to make it happen. Because Lord knows Mama has led that horse to water. Slowly, the reins are shifted in the direction of their own map, and as they take control of their own education, we then start sweating the day they really don't need this at all anymore.

You know what's better than getting to take credit for your child's home school success?

Knowing all that credit belongs to your self-motivated homeschooled child. So, my advice when you see a spark of interest, resist the urge to run out and buy curriculum and plan lessons to smother out that flame. Admit or pretend you don't know much about it. Tell them to figure it out and that you'd like to know what they find out. Point them in the right direction and let them impress themselves. If they really want to know, they'll act, or they won't, or they'll ponder it some more and act on it in a couple of years maybe. Or move on to something else. And when the light bulb comes on, climb up on that shelf next to Mr. Webster, Mama, and have that cup of coffee.

Now, if you have any questions about the programming and coding books or programs that my son mentioned here today, please email me at [email protected] and I will do my best to get that info to you. And I'm going to list some of the links and books for the coding languages and techie stuff that he mentioned here on the Homeschool Solutions podcast page for this episode at Homeschooling.com.

If you aren't already subscribed to my newsletter, you can do so at the bottom of my website, highfalutinhomeschooler.com. And please look for me on Parler now, at highfalutin hs. And I'm still on Facebook and Instagram, and on these sites, you can stay in touch with me and a great homeschool crowd who loves to laugh and lean on each other through these harder days.

So, until next time, stay weird and homeschool on.

Wendy -

Thank you for joining us this week on the Homeschool Solutions Show. As always, you can find show notes and links to all the resources mentioned at homeschooling.mom. I hope you'll take a moment to subscribe to the podcast, and if it was especially meaningful to you, share it with your friends via email or social media. This is just another way we can all encourage and love and support one another.

Speaking of love and support, we are so grateful for the support of our sponsors. Have you joined us at one of the Great Homeschool Conventions? The Great Homeschool Conventions are the homeschooling events of the year, offering outstanding speakers, hundreds of workshops covering today's top parenting and homeschooling topics, and the largest homeschool curriculum exhibit halls in the US. Find out more at greathomeschoolconventions.com. I hope to see you there.

But in the meantime, let's gather together again here on the podcast next week.


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