Learning joyfully
Ren Allen
We've had so many really great experiences and happy learning going
on lately, I wanted to write about a couple cool moments.
We live with a wetlands butting up to our property, a smallish pond
with turtles, fish and even occasional herons or hawks dropping
in....yes, right in the middle of town. The pond has provided a lot
of interest all along, but a couple of weeks ago, the pond moved into
our yard in the form of an egg laying turtle.
She hiked all the way from the pond in the back of the house, to the
front yard (almost to the sidewalk) and started digging a hole. Dh
saw her and called us out to watch. She began depositing eggs in the
hole as we observed, really cool! So now we're anxiously watching the
area and hoping to see baby turtled heading for the pond at some
point.
I set up a water garden not far from the pond and the kids have been
happily trying to gater tadpoles and fish to live in our water
garden. It's trickier than it would seem. They've had a bucket, a
pole and a shovel at different times, trying to scoop and scare
things into being caught. So far, mostly failure. But we've had fun
and I managed to gather three tadpoles yesterday. Jared said "those
aren't new tadpoles, I think they're in stage three already". He
knows the stages of tadpoles? Cripes, where do they learn this stuff?
A local storyteller invited us to his performance at Jazzfest on
Sunday, so Sierra, Jalen and I headed down to watch, while Mark and
the boys went up to the college track for some frisbee and golf
practice.
We spread our blanket out under a big oak tree and listened to a band
perform before Mike came on. Jalen was boogeying, running in circles
getting the blanket all dirty and hiding in some bushes behind us.
When Mike started, the kids all gathered around his feet and helped
with the performance. It was so cute to see Jalen and Sierra jamming
on kazoos and harmonicas...I think Jalen got more spit flowing than
sound! :)
Yesterday was a cool moment too....even though we just hung out at
home and mostly stayed in due to rain (except for pond ventures). Our
Playstation had quit working about 1.5 weeks ago, I figured all of
our electronic equipment was going to start dying or something!
Trevor had taken it apart himself and tried to clean it and make sure
it wasn't just dust. Didn't work.
So last night, he decided to research typical Playstation problems
and how to fix it yourself. He was determined. He spent about 45
minutes online trying to find the info. he needed...most of the "fix
it yourself" type guides cost about $35 and he'd decided it was going
to be free. His determination paid off and he went back to his room
and took the durn thing apart again. I saw him in their with about 50
Q-tips, cleaning the laser and various parts he'd read about.
And it worked! The Playstation that they were ready to ditch is
working fine, and he has the satisfaction of knowing that he figured
it out himself. Even my dh didn't have a clue how to deal with the
thing. Unschooling rocks.
Ren
on lately, I wanted to write about a couple cool moments.
We live with a wetlands butting up to our property, a smallish pond
with turtles, fish and even occasional herons or hawks dropping
in....yes, right in the middle of town. The pond has provided a lot
of interest all along, but a couple of weeks ago, the pond moved into
our yard in the form of an egg laying turtle.
She hiked all the way from the pond in the back of the house, to the
front yard (almost to the sidewalk) and started digging a hole. Dh
saw her and called us out to watch. She began depositing eggs in the
hole as we observed, really cool! So now we're anxiously watching the
area and hoping to see baby turtled heading for the pond at some
point.
I set up a water garden not far from the pond and the kids have been
happily trying to gater tadpoles and fish to live in our water
garden. It's trickier than it would seem. They've had a bucket, a
pole and a shovel at different times, trying to scoop and scare
things into being caught. So far, mostly failure. But we've had fun
and I managed to gather three tadpoles yesterday. Jared said "those
aren't new tadpoles, I think they're in stage three already". He
knows the stages of tadpoles? Cripes, where do they learn this stuff?
A local storyteller invited us to his performance at Jazzfest on
Sunday, so Sierra, Jalen and I headed down to watch, while Mark and
the boys went up to the college track for some frisbee and golf
practice.
We spread our blanket out under a big oak tree and listened to a band
perform before Mike came on. Jalen was boogeying, running in circles
getting the blanket all dirty and hiding in some bushes behind us.
When Mike started, the kids all gathered around his feet and helped
with the performance. It was so cute to see Jalen and Sierra jamming
on kazoos and harmonicas...I think Jalen got more spit flowing than
sound! :)
Yesterday was a cool moment too....even though we just hung out at
home and mostly stayed in due to rain (except for pond ventures). Our
Playstation had quit working about 1.5 weeks ago, I figured all of
our electronic equipment was going to start dying or something!
Trevor had taken it apart himself and tried to clean it and make sure
it wasn't just dust. Didn't work.
So last night, he decided to research typical Playstation problems
and how to fix it yourself. He was determined. He spent about 45
minutes online trying to find the info. he needed...most of the "fix
it yourself" type guides cost about $35 and he'd decided it was going
to be free. His determination paid off and he went back to his room
and took the durn thing apart again. I saw him in their with about 50
Q-tips, cleaning the laser and various parts he'd read about.
And it worked! The Playstation that they were ready to ditch is
working fine, and he has the satisfaction of knowing that he figured
it out himself. Even my dh didn't have a clue how to deal with the
thing. Unschooling rocks.
Ren