A Peek into Our Homeschool: Personal Interests
We believed it was important to give our children the time and resources they needed to pursue things they found interesting. Ray earned some extra money one time by preparing a manuscript for and speaking at a Christian seminar. He used the money to purchase our first computer, a Commodore 64. Through that simple computer, John discovered that he had a keen interest in computer technology. When we made our weekly homeschool trips to the library, he headed for the computer books and magazines and taught himself to program.
John turned this personal interest into a blessing for the whole family — while he was still a little boy. I remember the Christmas that he shared his simple computer-generated videos with us all.
Later, when our church participated in an annual Bible Bowl, he created a computer game to teach our church’s Bible Bowl team members the subject of that year’s Bible Bowl. Naturally, he learned the Biblical material while creating the game.
While homeschooling in high school, he helped the Spanish teacher at the local public high school in setting up a computer system there.
The blessing of John’s computer knowledge continues today. I can’t find the words to say how important his computer knowledge has been for the last 25 years in what we do in Notgrass History. A great deal of what the rest of us have been able to do in Notgrass History has been possible because of John sharing his computer knowledge with us.
The mind of the prudent acquires knowledge,
And the ear of the wise seeks knowledge.
Proverbs 18:15