Combining Science and Life Lessons

As a homeschool mom I try my best to make sure my kids are learning every day. Some days the learning is less focused on Math and Language and more focused on life lessons. In my opinion, these lessons are just as important – maybe more important – than the three R’s.

Josiah recently learned a very important lesson in a simple science experiment gone wrong. We had a few helium-filled balloons Grandma had brought by just for fun. Samuel, our three year old, decided to take his balloon in the backyard, and let it go. Up in the sky and into the Pecan trees went the Minion balloon. Of course, he was upset at the fact that he lost his balloon.

Josiah is science-minded, and after learning that it was supposed to rain, he developed a plan. “Mom,” Josiah said, “If it is supposed to rain, the balloon will be pushed back to Earth, and Samuel will get his balloon back again.”

I told him it was a great concept, but the balloon might get unstuck and blow away before it started to rain. He was adamant that his idea would work. Like any good homeschool mom, I turned it into an assignment. I had him write out his “if and then” statement, and predict what would happen when it started to rain. Josiah went out every ten minutes and checked on the Minion balloon.

Just like I anticipated, the balloon finally broke free and floated away. I figured at this point Josiah would see that no matter how logical the hypothesis, sometimes the results are different than we expect. He was not that easily deterred. While I was cleaning or chasing Samuel around the house, Josiah ran into his room and grabbed his balloon. He took his balloon out to the backyard and released it. The balloon floated up and got stuck in the Pecan Trees just like Samuel’s had done.

When I realized what was going on, I was a little frustrated. “Josiah, you realize you let the balloon go where there are not a lot of leaves and branches. The balloon will probably blow away before it rains.”

The balloon stayed in the trees for about forty five minutes. About the third time Josiah went to go check on the balloon, he realized it was gone. He came back into the house in tears. My first thought was to have a conversation about natural consequences and why he shouldn’t have let his balloon go. His tears, however, let me know that particular conversation wasn’t necessary, but there was a life lesson here.

Josiah took a risk for the sake of science. He put something he cared about on the line for an experiment he was not sure was going to work. In this particular instance, things did not turn out in his favor. He took a risk, and he lost the balloon. The lesson here was that he was not prepared to lose the balloon. He assumed it was a sure thing and was shocked at his loss.

I told him that in life we are going to take risks. Whether it is trying a new sport, starting a business, or going off to college, we all take risks. Sometimes those risks pay off, and great things happen. Sometimes they go badly, and we lose. The thing is, we have to be willing to lose when we take the risk. We also have to be willing to take the risk if we want great things.

As his mom, I easily predicted the balloon would get lost, and he would be upset. I could have attempted to stop him from taking the risk and saved him the heartache. If I would have done that, I would have also kept him from learning the lesson about taking risks. I also could have kept him from being successful because even though I predicted the balloon would float away, there was always a chance his experiment could have worked.

As his mom, it is my job to protect him. It is also my job to allow him – no – encourage him to take risks. It is my responsibility to raise him to be prepared for the possibility of failure, and rejoice with him when he succeeds. Someday when he considers taking a bigger risk, I hope he remembers losing his balloon, and he counts the cost before he decides to take the risk.

Erica Sirratt and her husband, Jimmi, live in a growing city in Arkansas and homeschool their three young boys. Erica graduated from the University of Central Arkansas with a Bachelor’s Degree in writing and journalism. She worked as a published journalist for five years before leaving the newsroom 2014 to become a homeschool mom. Erica volunteers as Communication Coordinator for a local non-profit organization and writes regularly about homeschooling and parenting on her blog, www.momodyssey.wordpress.com.