And that the author's younger children are not taking identical pathways suggests that the twins' homeschooling experience was significantly driven by them, and not imposed on them (with, perhaps, the exception of Spanish--although even then, they appear to have taken to it rather quickly).
It could be that the author learned some things with the older ones that he is now applying to the younger ones. I know I gave my younger son (by 6 years) much more latitude in our homeschool than I did the older one.
I suspect it’s a common theme that younger children enjoy a more relaxed childhood.
My eldest, like yours, was an only child for six years. Although I was working full time, I prioritised her extracurriculars (violin, dance and singing lessons, athletics, swimming). Even after the younger two came along in rapid succession, I remained initially committed, pushing and dragging prams & strollers in tow. When my eldest gave up on all her extracurriculars at the start of high school (despite showing great talent in a couple of areas), I questioned why I had invested so much time and energy (although today, she is a very well rounded young adult about to start her med internship, so she’s turned out quite well - she's a great enabler).
As a working parent, raising three kids was busy enough without extracurriculars and I felt burnt by my experience with our eldest, so I didn’t offer my younger two any extracurriculars. My best friend (& their Godmother) insisted on taking my son to martial arts classes and my youngest to dancing and when they were old enough, they walked to these activities (which were fortunately co-located in the same complex) together. I also let them take an afterschool music group class offered by the school simply as ‘babysitting’ time.
My parental apathy led to the serendipitous discovery that when kids take ‘ownership’ of their own activities, they are more likely to become self motivated - my younger ones certainly did and their achievements eventually eclipsed their sister’s. My son zoomed through the material that the music group teacher offered, quickly reaching Grade 3 level (she estimated). Within a couple of years, he was playing A-Mus level pieces (self taught) and won a couple of eisteddfod prizes against a capable field of young musicians.
Organisation skills, self discipline and motivation readily transfer from extracurricular to academic activities. My son is the only student from the nonselective government school sector to reach finalist stage of the mathematics Olympiad program, whilst simultaneously enjoying his social status as a school sports star in athletics. The lockdown, forced by COVID, have highlighted their full independence in self directed learning (they’ve received very little input from their teachers to achieve perfect scores in every assessment task during this period) and has actually given them a taste of the academic freedom which many homeschoolers enjoy.
So, the lesson I learnt is that, within well resourced households that value academia, enabling the child to take the reins can lead to overall very positive and even some surprising outcomes.
