Not Just School, But a Way of Life

As we were consulting with Ryan's eye doctor last week, she was very surprised to learn that he is reading already at four and a half years old. I told her that it was her fault! Because we had to begin patching Ryan's eye for three hours a day while doing close-up work 18 months ago, I decided to make some of that time constructive. Ryan had been expressing interest in learning to read, so I started teaching him during his patch time. He was reading on a basic level in just three months at three and a half years old! She said she had never heard of another patient learning to read because of having to patch, and it made me begin to think about the whole experience.

To me (and hubby), homeschooling is more a way of life than a schooling preference. I don't think it started out this way, but it certainly has evolved into that. We originally just wanted to ensure academic achievement and protect our children from some of the influences found in public schools, but after years of praying and researching it, we have found it to be a lifestyle that we embrace. We are always teaching our children as we go about our daily lives: pointing out flowers and plants as we hike, teaching them to count and measure as we cook, on-the-spot Bible lessons as situations arise, etc. Homeschooling is just the natural extension of that.

Reading is huge part of our chosen curriculum, and thankfully it is also a huge part of our everyday lives. Ryan reads aloud to me daily and frequently to Abby too, he reads on his own periodically throughout the day, I read aloud to them several times a day, and we have a family read aloud time in the evenings where we enjoy a good book as a family! I have always loved to read, and this part of homeschooling has come as naturally and smoothly (so far) as I could have hoped for. It's just our way of life.

It was interesting to me that if Ryan hadn't learned to read last year, we probably wouldn't be having another surgery this year. Because of some interesting things I had noticed as he read to me, the doctor suspects that he's not transitioning well between usage of his eyes. If he wasn't reading, we'd just assume the problem was a minor cosmetic issue and probably would not have put him through another surgery, but now that it appears that the issue is actually going to improve his vision, he will have the second surgery.

So we have come full circle. He learned to read during his patch time before his first surgery and during his reading we learned we need to have another surgery. We are now patching again to see if it corrects the problems he's been having transitioning his eyes (it seems to be). While I'm not excited to put him through another surgery, I am grateful that we caught this and can give him the best possible outcome for his vision.