Workbooks

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There was the familiar inward groan in my nether regions, the gorge rose in my throat and I, “Mr. Homeschooling Know-It-All” that I sometime masquerade as, was about to go for the jugular.

“Why would you want to deceive him?” almost poured forth from my fingertips (this was an e-mail conversation), “Math worksheets ARE boring. Why confuse him into thinking otherwise?”

I managed to restrain myself just in the nick of time, bit my tongue (actually, the tips of my fingers) and felt virtuous for the rest of the day.

Boring is in the eye of the beholder. I have friends who are accountants, and happy ones at that. They take pride in the books balancing, and are quite willing to spend days, weeks, or even months to gain that satisfaction which comes with a job well done. They have wives and husbands and sons and daughters, and are involved in their families, churches, and communities. I can’t imagine it for myself, but then most of them get paid more than I do. My wife balances the checkbook. And my younger daughter now thinks she wants to be a CPA!

But, hey, at age 11, I would sit for hours alone in my room with my stamp collection – two huge volumes, with more than 35,000 stamps. And I would count them! (would you believe?) I engaged in a census twice a year. How boring is that! The side benefit, unbeknownst to me at the time, was that I became an expert, relatively speaking, in the historical geography and emerging nations of mid-to-late 20th Century Africa, and the changing geopolitical face of Europe during World War I. To this day I can regale you with the transformation of Upper Volta into Burkina Faso (in the 1920s, “Haute Volta” was overprinted on stamps from Upper Senegal and Niger; it became the “Republique de Haute Volta (replete with new stamps) in 1960; it metamorphosed into Burkina Faso -“Land of the Incorruptible Men” in 1984, – but for 11 days, from August 4th to August 15th, 1984, it was spelled “Bourkina-Fasso”, though I don’t know if any stamps were sold in this period; the first “Burkina Faso” stamps were from November 1984. What would a Name-Change Day first-day cover, with the old spelling, be worth? And would it even exist?) (What is this man talking about it?) If you are not snoring yet, let me tell you about Bosnia-Herzegovina stamps from 1915, or, if you allow me, we can discuss the stamps issued by the Sultan (whatever happened to him?) in pre-Independence, pre-Tanzanian Zanzibar. Having a good snooze? I expect many of you are ready to cry “uncle”, but those with similar fascinations should come see me at the next homeschooling conference and we can form a support group to extol the relative philatelic virtues of San Marino or the Malagasy Republic.

Anyhow, my next thought was to inquire whether Mrs. Homeschooling Mom found math workbooks boring. If not, was she working through any herself? I know lots of folks who seem to have inherited a love of crossword puzzles from their parents, even if they don’t do anything for me. Chances are if you want your kids to become interested in baking pies, you should bake some pies . . .