Growing up

An interesting thing happened today. Connor blogged about his homeschooling, and remarked that he thinks he might be trying to grow up too fast. He came to this conclusion because he realized that maybe he bit off more than he can chew with the online college computer programming class. He's been struggling with the course material, and now he finds it burdensome. I am, of course, thrilled. Finally, he has realized that he can't possibly know all there is to know at age 10. In fact, being 10 and just going outside to play is sometimes enough. He doesn't need to excel at everything, and he can give himself permission to just be a child. I am not going to let him drop the class though. I also want him to see it through to the end, and if he doesn't pass the course then that is the natural consequence of his actions. I didn't want him to take the course to begin with (it was almost $1000) and now he won't insist that he can do college level work. Yes, Connor is advanced academically, but emotionally he's just not ready for that kind of pressure and commitment. The course ends at the beginning of December, and we will NOT sign up for another one. Lesson learned.