A breakthrough!

I finally go through to Little-A yesterday.  We were sitting down for a nice Ramen dinner (which he fixed for us) and I casually asked him a simple question.

"If you could learn anything in the world you wanted...what would you want to learn?"

He said he wanted to learn how to take care of animals to help him in college when he's studying to be a Veterinarian.  When I told him we could learn everything there was to learn about it I saw that spark in his eyes.

You know that spark....your kid gets it after days/weeks/months of fighting you on something that you know is a good idea and you'd bet your life that they'd enjoy it but they disagree with you either on principle or simply because they can't see the bigger picture.  You try every way you possibly can to get their interest.  You beg, plead, cajole, threaten, put your foot down, ignore, and even bribe...but they still won't give in.  

Then comes that one innocent moment.  You probably didn't even plan it.  It just happened....and it finally clicks in their head.  "Wow!  Mom might be right....this could be fun!"

That's the look I was waiting for and I could see his brain working and thinking about all the possibilities that one answer held.

He's totally into my idea now ;)

He did ask how he'd know if he was learning and if he'd get grades so I agreed to give him tests and grades if and when he wanted them.   Oh, and we've decided to not call it home"schooling" and instead we're calling it home "learning".

On a side note,  I'm really looking forward to starting D's learning.  I think he'd love learning how to do computer programing so I'm going to start him on that.

This is me excited