Our neighbor - my son's childhood friend - sat at the computer to  watch one of my son's video creations.   Our neighbor was clearly  impressed.  At the time, I remember this neighbor friend mentioning how he wished he had more time to pursue his interests.  This was a few years ago, when our son (Ricky) was about  14.  They are close to the same age, with the neighbor planning to graduate  public school at the end of this coming school year.  Ricky will have  another year of school after him - he's never been in public school.  We  have homeschooled him since day one.  "You taught yourself to do  that?" the neighbor asked.  Ricky looked a little surprised, as if to say  "What's the big deal?"  To Ricky, it was just what he did - what he loved to do.  He answered in the affirmative.  "Wow," the  neighbor replied.  "That would have taken me a whole year in a video  editing class."  I stood close by listening to the conversation.  I  thought to myself how incredibly frustrated Ricky would have been to  do what he'd been doing in 40 minute increments of classtime.  I  pictured it being like when he took guitar lessons and went way ahead  of the whole class right off the bat, and patiently waited for the  teacher to then catch up to where he was with the rest of the class.   Homeschooling gave Ricky focused, concentrated time to give to his  video editing.

Last summer, our church had a baptism.  Nine people were baptized.   Ricky video taped everything, and then captured it perfectly in his  edited version.  How did he make a video less than four minutes long,  that managed to see all 9 baptized, get all of the most important parts of the Pastor's message on baptism as he stood in the water, and  put in some takes of the crowd standing around, babies crawling, etc.   The song he chose was "Be Thou My Vision" and it was perfect.  He  quieted it just enough during the message time that it was perfect background.  I don't understand how he does it.  We were able to show  it in church because it was so short, it took up very little time, yet  you felt like you were there for the whole baptism.  When we finished  watching it, you could hear a pin drop.  The Pastor was on next, and  he had a hard time finding his voice.  When he did, he stated "Ricky,  you've got a gift there.  I don't know how the Lord is going to use  it, but there's no question, you've got a gift."  I agree.

Our neighbor's younger brother, who is my son Robbie's age, wrote a  story earlier in the summer, and asked Ricky to video tape the "acting  out" of it for him.  Both neighbor boys and my three sons all acted  out the story while Ricky video taped it. Ricky will have others tape  him, or set up the tripod.   His edited version was great, and we had  the parents in to view it the other day.  The neighbor boy Ricky's age  told me "He's really changed since he first started this.  He hardly  cut anything out at all.  He video taped just the cuts he would need."   Ricky is away right now, so he was not here to hear all of this, but  I know he would have been pleased.

Public school demands our teens' time, not only during the day but the  evenings as well.  To do well in high school, and keep your GPA up,  you need to spend several hours a week (sometimes 3 hours a night)  either doing homework or studying for tests.  It interferes with family life, and it robs our teens from pursuing their interests and honing their giftings.  True education and real learning can take  place without all those hours spent memorizing facts that will be soon  forgotten.

We really do not know what Ricky will do with this gift of his.  I  believe God will lead, as we've seen Him do all through the years.  I  am glad that we have him here, at home, and that he's had the  opportunity to move forward in areas that he is truly gifted in.  His  "gift" is such a blessing, and it would have been truly sad for that  time to have been stolen from him, and given to a system that I  do not believe gives back to the child.


Deb Turner (Homeschooling from the Heart)
The Old Schoolhouse Magazine
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