Banana Split Approach to Homeschooling

Yesterday was the second truly hot day of the year!  In honor of the return of warm weather, I share an article I wrote a very long time ago, originally published in LDSNHA's The Sentinel.  

I know some of you have been looking at the pages on the blog and getting disappointed at the lack thereon.  I have been adding things here and there, bit by bit on some of the pages.  Keep checking back!  

The Banana Split Approach to Homeschooling

Sasha N. Takis

It’s coming on summer.  At my house that means no more homemade bread or soup or, well, not much of anything cooked.  It’s just too hot.  In fact, during the summer months our dinner menu consists of a lot of (ahem... slight blush here) ice cream.  Hey!  It’s milk!  Over the years I’ve done a lot of experimenting and innovating to add more nutrition to our ice cream dinners.  You know, if you do it “right,” the classic banana split can become a prime example of getting the food pyramid into one meal!

Now I’m not really here to tell you how to make a banana split, or even to tell you what constitutes making one “right.”  I’m not here to tell you exactly how to homeschool, either.  Just like our tastes in desserts and ice cream brands, we all have different tastes, talents or needs that influence our choice in curriculum or methods.  But that’s the beauty of the banana split and homeschooling.  There are so many possibilities!  So what I am here for is to compare the classic, traditional banana split with the basic fundamentals of homeschooling.

 Now, what’s the first ingredient of a banana split?  Bananas, of course!  For me, (this is my analogy, after all) the bananas represent the values, character, morals, and religion in our education. Theodore Roosevelt said, “To educate a man in mind and not in morals is to educate a menace to society.”  Amen.  You see if you leave the banana out, it ceases to be a “banana split” and you’re just left with some sort of ice cream sundae.  It’s still good, but it’s not the real thing.  If you leave out a belief system, whatever it is, and devoid your education of values and morals, you’ve “devalued” the education in more ways than one.  The banana is the foundation.  It doesn’t matter if you slice it, dice it or leave it whole.  It just needs to be included.

After the banana, the main part of the dessert is ice cream.  Traditionally, a banana split comes with 3 scoops of ice cream:  one of vanilla, chocolate and strawberry, each.  These three scoops we’ll compare to the “Three R’s.”  These are obviously essential.  When a child is taught to read, write and calculate mathematically, whatever else may get left out can be found out later.  As ice cream is to the banana split, so is literacy and math to education.

The next ingredients (nuts and pineapple, strawberry, chocolate and caramel sauces) add color, flavor and crunch to the dessert, just as other subjects (history, science, art, music, physical education, etc.) add design, variety and texture to our intellect and being.  Oftentimes, ice cream is just an excuse to eat hot fudge.  Likewise, reading is a vehicle for satisfying our curiosity of how things work or any number of other things we want to try or find out about.  And while it’s sometimes nice to just have plain ice cream, most of the time it’s just the basic palette for something far tastier.

Have you ever asked someone, “Pretty please, with whipped cream and a cherry on top?”  That’s the ultimate way to ask a favor, the preeminent way to top a banana split, and (not surprisingly) the best way to homeschool.  What’s the whipped cream and cherry, then, you ask?  Well, that’s for you to figure out!  It’s the special touch that only a devoted and affectionate homeschooling mother can dish out to those she loves, to make homeschooling – and life – extra sweet.