David: Cassie and Neal, eight-year-old twins, were driving home with mom from the homeschool camp-out weekend. (Actually, mom was driving the van.) They were both tired out and perhaps overly quiet and thoughtful, if there ever could be said to be such a thing.

“Mom,” said Cassie, in what appeared to be an outgrowth of a longer, silent thought process, “Kyle is really a whiz at math and he has never done any workbook pages.”

“Are you unhappy with your workbook?” asked Mom, ever-ready to consider changing their homeschooling routine.

“Oh, no, it’s not that,” replied Cassie, “I was just thinking it’s amazing how quickly he can multiply and divide all those numbers in his head.”

“Yeah,” said Neal, piping up from the transformer he was transforming with, “and Suzie, why, she could talk with horses and they really listened and she could tell us what they said back!”

“Oh,” said Mom, having no idea where this banter was going.

“Wasn’t Mikey great on his violin in the talent show?” exclaimed Cassie, now getting more excited about the course the conversation was taking.

“Well, you could be good, too, if you practiced more,” replied Mom, unable to resist the opportunity to get a little dig in.

“Oh, yes,” said Cassie, not recognizing that this could be seen as acquiescing to more nagging on Mom’s part later, “but Mikey, he’s only six and he’s already much better than me. I mean I’m sure I could get better but I’ll never be as good as Mikey.”

“Well, you are such a good artist,” said Mom, worried, mistakenly, that the kids were comparing themselves with other children and might lose some self-esteem in the process. . .

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David Albert is a homeschooling father, writer and speaker. He is the author of a number of books, including And the Skylark Sings with Me, Homeschooling and the Voyage of Self-Discovery and Have Fun. Learn Stuff. Grow. Homeschooling and the Curriculum of Love. He lives, works and writes in Olympia, Washington. Visit David’s website to purchase his books. Joyce Reed is the parent of five successful home educated college grads. She served for 14 years as Associate Dean of The College at Brown University where she reached out to homeschooled teens. After retiring, she began consulting with primarily international and homeschooling families seeking to attend college. Visit Joyce’s website.

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