Why my delete key doesn't work

I can clearly remember sitting at my first homeschool conference listening to the speakers as they would casually mention what the amazing things their older students were doing:

"He volunteered at a Christian radio station at 13, and
now at 17 he's a morning DJ."
"The boys taught themselves animation. They've made
several movies that have received a lot of attention."
"She wrote her first novel at 16."

I remember thinking, "Sign me up for whatever curriculum you use, but I'm sure your kids are just freaks with incredible IQs!"

I never thought that real homeschooled children (the kind that forget to do their chores, squabble with siblings, and can never find their spelling book) would do anything outstandingly noteworthy. The super children came from homes where everyone spoke Latin and discussed mathematical theorems around the dinner table.

Now that I am 10 years further down this journey, I might be beginning to "get it." One of the great beauties of homeschooling is the freedom for the children to begin to explore their passions.

Over the past couple weeks, Emelie has been sitting surrounded by encyclopedias and history books. All on her own, she has decided to look up the lineage of famous people we have studied (the Medici family, Catherine of Aragon, etc.). She has traced Elizabeth I back over 600 years. Sure, she could have researched this quickly on the web, but she wanted to figure it out for herself.

Teddy has decided that he wants to figure out how computer macros work. So far, a small Star Wars battle happens at the click of a button. Oh yeah, he also disabled the "delete" key in MS Word.

I'm writing all this to encourage those of you that are just beginning this journey of homeschooling. The most important decisions are not what curriculum to choose or which co-op to join. The greatest benefit to your children's education will be the freedom of time to explore, make mistakes, and ask questions.

And maybe they will be the ones to come up with the big answers.