This post is for Ren’s September Blog Carnival over at Radical Unschoolers’ Network.
“That’s our topic for September…natural learning.
Some ideas (but anything that inspires you on this topic is fair game!):
~How did you, as the parent, start to see the learning in everything?
~If your children went to school, how did they respond to letting go of the subject idea and learn to trust their interests?
~Show your family learning joyfully without the baggage of subjects.
~Talk about the rich and varied learning that happens when you don’t try to separate the world into individual,tidy boxes.”
When did I stop thinking about life in terms of ’subject areas’? Once I tried to shove everything into them for a solid week. It became blindingly obvious after just a couple days that everything we do leads to learning something and almost everything we do covers at least two subject areas if not all of them! I stuck with it though and finished an entire week of the nonsense and then wised up to reality. Thankfully, I learned my lesson way before I ‘have to’ report to anyone on the matter…now I am prepared, because I am living life.
We’ve found that our lives do not conform to or fit neatly into tick boxes labeled: mathematics, science, language arts, history and so forth. It is both extremely difficult and artificial to try and label our life moments accordingly. We are learning all the time. Everything we do causes us to explore ideas, use or develop skills and make meaningful connections to the bigger picture of our existence. Our ‘classroom’ has no artificial boundaries, forced agendas or cute bulletin boards. Our ‘classroom’ is our life — the life WE lead.
When I have a conversation with someone, even a traditionally schooled child, I don’t ask them what they did for math or science today. I ask them if they enjoyed their hike in the woods, mention that I heard they baked their own birthday cake or I ask them about the comic books they are reading. I ask them their feelings on something that has happened in their family, community or the world. We talk about our ideal vacation spots or what kind of food we could eat forever. Sometimes when I am talking to a person, they might mention something that inspires me to try something new – to learn about something. Which of these things is not learning? Isn’t baking math and science and even social studies and history when food relates to specific cultures or time periods? Is reading not reading, regardless of the materials chosen? When did we stop living and start dissecting the joy right out of life, by over analyzing every aspect of what we do?
I know many friends around the world who have to cram their lives into these very subjective tick boxes in order to satisfy their local homeschooling laws. While it might be difficult and artificial to do recite all that we have done in any particular subject area, I can offer tons of examples of major and minor learning and exploring moments that are relative to areas of life and living — the subjects that each of us relate to on a daily basis. These could be labeled as: listening, reading, watching, creating, doing, visiting/exploring, writing and playing.
When reflecting back over the day, week, month or year and trying to fulfill law requirements, it seems so much more natural and authentic to use these alternative ’subject areas’. Instead of trying to remember everything and then cramming it into educationese, list off books that were read; letters, stories & emails that were written; clothes or costumes that were made, handmade birthday cards and nature collages; altering recipes, house remodeling/repairs & experiments with dry ice; touring the capital building, volunteering at a local preschool and weekly romps at the children’s museum; building forts, mud pits and fairy house; playing house, never ending games of chess and taking apart the computer (‘just because’)…these are all things that kids have done or will do in their daily life, if they are given the freedom to do them and if they are included in life just like all of the adults who surround them. You can still go back over this list and grab out examples of math or history and so on to satisfy even the pickiest of homeschooling laws. When you treat it this way, you are less likely to be worrying about whether or not you covered math today or worse, you won’t be tempted to try and plan anything to specifically stamp it with a subject area! Just live life and pause often to think back over all the fun and exciting things you have done.
When you allow yourself and your children the freedom to live ‘real’ lives, then fantastic things happen spontaneously and have so much more meaning than when you try to cut everything up and make a diagram of every moment. You will enjoy yourself and your children so much more when you take that family vacation to Washington, DC and you have fun and enjoy yourself, instead of trying to fit as much ‘history’ or ‘citizenship’ into the mix — how could one visit Washington, DC and not learn about some of those things?
I love watching E spontaneously think up an idea for some crazy experiment or how he’ll add in little bits of information about topics while we are talking — I usually have no idea where/how he ‘learned’ these bits, but that does not matter. The best moments are when I see him making connections; how he realizes that everything and everyone is connected. He’s a imaginative kid and I’d hate to take that away from him. Thanks to him and his imagination, I have been able to rekindle my own imagination. Living life as though school (or any of its trappings) does not exist, is so free, joyful, organic and rewarding.
