Things that are simply parts of our lives sometimes – often- have been the things we’ve learned the most deeply from.
Over the years, we have certainly accumulated many things! We have consciously chosen some really great resources and often managed to access them for very good prices if they were companies whose items we carried. Sometimes we simply bought great puzzles, games, books, etc that seemed like they would be a great addition. Other times, we were gifted some neat things. Other times yet, we borrowed or swapped. Children do need to have some things to manipulate, experiment, play with. Those resources aren’t the end all and be all though.
I have been to people’s houses and spoken to others who have an abundance of life learning/unschooling resources and supplies. We had a period of time where I would have put ourselves in that category as well. It can feel almost like a Waldorf or Montessori setting except with the principle that children can choose what they engage with (I’m not suggesting those two philosophies are the same. They’re not. It’s just that each tend to involve their own, specific materials). I think that’s absolutely okay. It can actually be wonderful, but I think it’s helpful for people to know it’s not necessary.
I’ve heard people say that they wouldn’t be able to home educate or life learn/unschool because they don’t have access to enough space, money or materials and I wonder if we have just replaced the idea of needing lots of traditional homeschooling curriculum and a designated homeschool room with the idea of needing room to create inviting learning spaces and buy high end resources. Again, if people have that and lean in that direction, those things are fantastic and can lead to really rich learning. However, life is rich on its own. Our families will learn and explore from relationships and everyday things whether or not we have subscription boxes, own an expensive microscope or have Waldorf-inspired play silks.
As much as it’s wonderful to be surrounded by a rich environment of resources (and it is!) – puzzles, books, games, toys, memberships, creative supplies … the everyday items, decorations or things that come up spontaneously in our lives are often even richer.
So, some of the most unexpected items and everyday opportunities have prompted us to delve deeper.
Our handmade wooden analog clock with Roman numerals has led to conversation about …
Well, time:). And Roman numerals:). It’s also led to interest in different number systems of past times and to figuring out higher and more complicated numbers in Roman Numerals. Because it is in the same room as a digital clock, it’s led to comparison of the two methods and just a natural checking of each against the other; the little digital clock on the way out the door is often checked with a quick glance at analog time on the larger wooden clock mounted on the wall.
It has led to conversation about the wonderful man who built it, my friend’s grandfather, and gave it to me while my friend and I became roommates for a time when we were twenty. When we moved into our apartment, he had built her a clock and to my surprise, had built me my own as well!
Of course that led into a conversation about surprising people with generosity and thoughtfulness.
And, if you read the links above, you’ll see why the conversation turned to WW2, service and sacrifice, 70 year marriages (which, in turn, became discussion of the odds of being married that long based on age of getting married, average lifespans, high divorce rates …) and the joy of family and community.
If you look deeply into the possibilities for conversation, you can see opportunities for math, more and different math, ancient history and geography, wonderful character traits, nostalgia, 20th century history, philosophy, critical thinking, probability and most importantly to me, the value of family, community and a simple, but deep, life well-lived.
That’s a whole lot from a clock!
Sometimes it’s turning on the TV.
I sat down on the couch to ask my daughter if she’d like to watch something together and my husband just happened to be turning on Road to Olympics. We watched athletes from several countries in speed skating. We noticed the flags of different nations, talked about certain physical attributes that might correlate with different countries, compared times and distances. We heard many snippets about the science of how the speedskaters’ bodies are likely feeling at certain points in the race – we heard about lactic avid, adrenaline, certain points where leg muscles might be getting particularly tired, the position that an arm often takes on in the fatigue at the end of the race. We learned about the stories of various speed skaters from different parts of Canada.
Hockey Day in Canada, being hosted from Yellowknife, Northwest Territories came on next. It was so good. We watched bits and pieces of the NHL hockey games through the day and the games were interspersed with featured pieces about different players, professional as well as amateur from so many communities across Canada. We found out so much about the culture within different small communities, the excitement of indigenous communities when young men from their communities make their way to the NHL. We tuned in to games here and there. We watched a big part of the Canadiens vs. Leafs game and before the anthem, saw players joined by young hockey players, boys and girls, different ethnicities, a young sledge hockey player, and talked about the efforts the hockey world is making to become more expansive to who has an opportunity to play.
Last week, we watched an episode of Murdoch Mysteries that was filmed in Kingston Penitentiary, as well as by the City Hall and Market Square. We made a point of watching that particular episode because our oldest son lives less than 2 km away from the location and we had had a tour of the penitentiary just a month before the filming happened so were interested to recognize some of the prison sections.
In addition to the episode being filmed in another familiar location, the plot revolved around members of Irish clans in the prison and murders and plotting happening between the Ulster Irish Protestants and Irish Nationalists. So, that became a whole source of deepened conversation, that actually is relevant to my Irish background. There were a few notes written in Irish so some questions came up about both the language and then the concept around groups of people maintaining and rebuilding their culture. That looped around to Indigenous people. The Irish language conversation led to talking about Scottish Gaelic which is interesting because of my Scottish background. This took us over to Duolingo as well as to websites and videos that compare the two languages.
Just tonight, L and I tuned into Still Standing which is a unique stand up comedy/documentary type show. Original small town Newfoundlander, Jonny Harris, travels from Canadian small town to small town, highlighting what makes them unique, the challenges they’ve faced as a community and what makes them funny. They all have a good laugh at themselves and we learned lots about the culture, geography and community spirit neat little towns right here in Ontario and beyond that we didn’t really know anything about.
Sometimes it’s baking.
I’m hesitant to mention baking because it seems to be such a cliche around natural learning of math skills as well as practical skills when it comes to natural learning, lol. So, yes, although there is certainly practical math involved in substituting two 1/2 cups for one full cup because your cup is all peanut-buttery and who wants that in the sugar bag, lol, and yes, the teaspoon says 5 ml in metric as well, this isn’t the main way that baking was a resource when L and I got a bit peckish yesterday and decided to bake cookies.
Those sorts of things were great learning in earlier days but not new discoveries at this point. What was more relevant was chatting about which of our cookie recipes was likely most cost-effective. We were comparing the different recipes based how many eggs, amount of sugar and additional ingredients each took. We talked about whether these would have been less expensive than buying cookies and realized that it depended on which cookies we were buying but also which store we were buying ingredients in and in which quantities. We thought it through from a few angles. It was not a “teachable moment” about math but a real conversation, because we are working on budgeting differently in small ways right now in order to do some other things, so it was an interesting conversation for both of us.
And this past year, it was as simple as chocolates and tins of cookies at Christmas.
As our collection of chocolates continued to build over the Christmas season, we would have one from here and there, and in looking at the information on the box, realized that over the season, we had accumulated chocolates from here in Canada, USA, UK, Switzerland, Turkey and Germany. Over time, conversation turned to companies that had bought out other chocolate companies and which lines of chocolates are manufactured in different ways of under names in various countries. We also had packages of cookies that were selections from different European countries so that opened up chatting about our preferences.
Things that are the source of frustration can be the greatest tools.
For example, our bathroom window has taught us a great deal about condensation and evaporation:). We can gauge a moderate temperature change based on the state of our bathroom window and also decide how much to open the window based on how hot the shower water is going to be.
So, yes, it is frequently said that living a rich, interesting life is an important basis for life learning/unschooling, but sometimes you may not have to look too much further than your regular surroundings. You definitely don’t have to look further than life. Look deeply, broadly and carefully at life, yes – but good living and learning might be right under your nose.
As you can see from the photos, we had a walk in the woods late in the day yesterday and it wasn’t even a particularly nice day – cloudy and blustery. The ground was icy but I knew we were expecting a fair snowfall today and that tomorrow is to be cold and windy, so we decided to go out just for a while. These were just the things we noticed or came upon in a half hour – literally right under our noses.
Have you had simple things in life surprise you with how interesting they can be?
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