There were many days when I felt that nothing educational was accomplished, but we made steady progress. Occasionally, one of my children had a sudden burst of insight or showed signs of deep thinking, but for the most part we plugged away like the Little Engine That Could. Around the time of my son's second-grade year, I felt confident in my ability to cover the basic subjects and ventured further afield. In searching for products to enliven our schooling, I managed to waste quite a bit of money. Then one day, as I was reading The Tortoise and the Hare aloud to my children, I was struck by the parallel to home schooling.
Children do learn in giant leaps and bounds, which is valuable.
But my role as a homeschool teacher was to help the children persevere during the slow times. Our small amounts of daily study were adding up. This insight was the turning point in our homeschooling. I could relax knowing that there was no need to rush through our studies. As long as the child excelled academically, we could take our time because intelligence does not go away.