It’s not for everybody, but I’m glad it’s for me!

There are many choices I’ve made in my parenting career that I think are “right for everybody”. I think every mother should breastfeed. Those who don’t have been let down in some way, by society or by the medical profession, or by the simple fact that we don’t have sufficient milk banks to serve those who need them. I think every child should be raised without violence and emotional abuse, and I think corporal punishment should be outlawed. I think attachment parenting provides the best and most natural start to a child’s life and I honestly think the world would be a better place if every parent practiced it. It can be difficult, when you are very passionate about the reasons behind a decision, to sincerely respect those who choose differently or don’t hold to your reasons. I strugggle with this, trying to be less judgemental, more respectful, and to “lead by example”.

But there are some choices that I readily appreciate aren’t for everybody. Homeschooling is one of them. I do think that unschooling is the most natural, effective way for a child to learn. But it requires more than just keeping them out of school. The parents are a critical ingredient in the recipe for homelearning success, and not all parents are able to provide what is needed or may even have the inclination to do so. My blog friend, AnnaB, wrote an excellent post on this very subject. To quote:

I think anyone who is willing to work at it CAN homeschool, but not everyone should. The idea that we need to eradicate public schooling is ridiculous and pulls a large safety net out from under a lot of kids.

Certainly there are a million ways to homeschool. Unschooling is not even a method so much as lifestyle. And for us, it’s the lifestyle that best fits our personalities and our values. There are children, like myself, who fared just fine in the school system. For some families, it just isn’t realistic for them to homeschool and I think for alot of them it will be okay. For me, however, now that I know about this option, I can’t imagine doing anything else. Instead of feeling better than those who school, mostly I am just incredibly grateful that we found out about it and that we are doing it. I am so excited about the future, so happy for myself and my children, and feel so blessed that I’ll have so much time with my children before they are grown. I know that our lifestyle is not for everybody, but I am so happy that it is for us!

Mahvellous Mushrooms

Today we went to our local botanical garden for the Mushroom Show. I had read about it in the paper and told DD who was very excited, given her recent interest in all things fungi. It was put on by members of the local Mycological Society. As DH put it, “long before there were computers, there were geeks”. However, my 4 year old DD counts herself among them these days so I guess we should be more reverent, lol.

There were two long tables, one of which is shown in this photo, with specimen trays full of interesting mushroom varieties. The red ones in the foreground are Amanita muscaria, or “Fly Agaric” mushrooms. They are pretty, but poisonous.

As we walked from tray to tray DD would ask me to look up each type in her Mushroom Book (which, of course, we brought to the show) and see which representative species we could find in there. It was interesting to see that the photos in her book didn’t always look much like the real thing, which might explain why we’d had such a hard time identifying them on our mushroom walk. All in all we stayed in there for about half an hour (while DH chased DS around outside), and DD remained quite interested the whole time. After we were done in there we went outside and took a lovely walk through the gardens, which were quite spectacular with their fall colours. Another day of enjoyable, effortless learning. Gotta love it.

Snow Geese

This past Tuesday we visited a Pumpkin Farm to get some jack o’ lantern subjects. I wrote about it in my other blog. Afterwards, we went to the Reifel Bird Sanctuary for a picnic lunch, followed by a walk through the reserve. We were delighted to witness a large flock of Snow Geese circle around in the sky and eventually land in a nearby field. They constitute the long white patch behind DD’s head in the photo here. These birds spend summer on Wrangel Island in arctic Siberia, then in the fall some of them migrate along the Pacific Flyway, where many of them setttle in our very own Fraser River valley to ride out the winter. Apparently, there are still many more geese to come, and we are planning to come back next month to see them – they say that when the population reaches its peak it looks as though the field is covered in snow. The kids were as amazed as we were with the sight of so many birds in flight, and then at the contrast between their white feathers and the green grass of the field after they landed. We talked about migration and how far these birds had flown. It was a lovely day all around, a unique experience to witness the birds, and an educational experience for all of us.

As we headed back to the city I thought to myself how incredibly lucky we were as homelearners to have this as our classroom. This wasn’t a field trip (which, when I was in school, everybody always looked forward to for the main reason that it meant no class that day), this was just everyday life for us and the homelearning families we went with. I felt so incredibly fortunate to be where I am today, and to have met the families who inspired us to choose homelearning, and with whom we will surely spend many more such wonderful adventures. I am so glad that we are on the path we are on. One of the families that came to the pumpkin patch with us had to leave there early, missing out on the picnic and bird sanctuary visit. The older son had to get back to town for his afternoon kindergarten class. As she rushed her two boys and her newborn off to pay for their pumpkins, I wondered to myself if that boy was going to learn anything more, or in any better way, than he would have learned had they stuck with us for the rest of the day. Well, I guess I don’t really wonder – I already know the answer, lol.

Defending the universe is a family affair

Yes, my kids play video games. And I don’t mind.

A few years ago DH bought a used Nintendo 64 for us to play with. DD was not much past the age of 2 when she started showing an interest in it. Before long she was able to use the joystick. Over the next several months she showed an aptitude for “virtual world” games that was quite impressive. She started with Banjo Kazooie, a game where you go through several levels, solving puzzles and beating the bad guys (very cartoonish in this case, and not scary or overwhelming). You also learn new moves along the way, so that towards the end you are dealing with at least half a dozen different key combinations. DD deftly maneouvered her character, memorizing all the moves effortlessly and also showing a great mental map aptitude – she could find her way around the fairly complex virtual world without any trouble. From that game she moved on to Banjo Tooie, and then Zelda and the Ocarina of Time. The latter was interesting because the characters spoke in text. Thus, she needed an adult to play with her. However, in the game you have to learn 12 songs and play them using four keys on the controller to perform various magical feats. She had no problem learning the songs, and showed a remarkable ability to remember them even after not playing for a while.

A few months ago, we upgraded to a Nintendo Game Cube. DD and DH conquered Zelda, Legend of the WindWaker. This game had more puzzles than the previous Zelda game we played, and once again we were impressed with DD’s ability to solve these puzzles. Sometimes she figured them out before we did!

Video games have a bad rap, and I’m sure that me and my kids are going to Waldorf Hell for indulging ourselves. But I have no problem with them playing Nintendo. We have not had any issues with our kids wanting to play them to the exclusion of any other activity, and it is not something that is played with on even a daily basis. I’ve been impressed watching DD play and feel pride in her ability to succeed at them. I fail to see any reason why this shouldn’t be treated as anything other than just one of a number of kinds of activities that my kids (and the adults, I should add) enjoy doing every now and then. Besides, in our family video games are rarely played in solitary. Instead, two or more of us tend to gather round and cheer each other on. DS has been showing an interest in the games for a while now, although I wonder sometimes if he thinks it’s just another cartoon. Clearly he understands that the person holding the controller is interacting, however. He likes to hold an inactive controller, and has started experimenting with the toggles and buttons. I’m sure it won’t be long before he starts playing as well. In the meantime, he’s happy to watch his sister defending the Universe. The two of them set those chairs up themselves, and I just couldn’t resist taking their picture. 

Mushrooms!

This past weekend DH took the kids for an outing and ended up at a bookstore where DD fell in love with the Audobon Society’s Pocket Reference Guide to Mushrooms of North America. Today, with a totally open slate and a gorgeous fall day, we headed off to Pacific Spirit Park, an amazing 1000 hectares of forested trails, to hunt for Mushrooms. Like all true ecologists-at-heart we had no intention of picking them (even before we saw the signs prohibiting mushroom picking), but instead came armed with our book and a notebook and pen for recording what we found. I’m still kicking myself for not recharging the camera battery last night – I could have posted some lovely photos (but we will do this again and will bring the camera next time). The picture at left is one I found on the Web. It was taken in the same park, and in the same area of forest that we were in (being such a large park, there are several forest types), just on a different trail. We found a huge variety of mushrooms on our relatively short walk. We didn’t go too far because I had a 2 year old on foot and a 4 year old with a hacking cough (she desperately wanted to go, has no fever, and had boundless energy this morning, so I’m not a horrid mother, thankyouverymuch, lol). I’d say almost half of them we were unable to identify. The book is not exhaustive; next time we’ll take photos and then look them up on the Web. But we were “pretty darned sure” that we found the following: the Jack O’ Lantern, the Gem-Studded Puffball, the Pigskin Poison Puffball, the Chicken Mushroom, and some Sulfur Tufts. We had a lovely time, and decided that next time we go, we’ll use our photos to put together a little book about the kinds of mushrooms we can find in our part of the world. I find great peace and a lifting of my spirit when walking through the forest. I’m so happy to be sharing it with my own children now, and plan to make this a regular activity. 

My DD the marine biologist

This past Wednesday I took the kids to the Aquarium. In one area is a desk where there are often staff members who bring out a variety of neat objects and specimens to show visitors. On that day, the display included whale baleen, a shark’s jaw, some salmon eggs in various stages of development, and a collection of dried krill. DD stopped there with a few other kids while DS ran up and down the adjacent ramp that led down to the dolphin viewing area. I was able to keep an eye on both of them and DD stayed there for some time until the other kids had gone. I then noticed the lady going over to a cupboard and bringing out some more items to show DD. When I went over to see what they were doing, they were obviously having a lengthy and interesting discussion about marine life. I want to say that I was very proud of DD, but when I think about it, I suppose that’s a bit silly. She’s not better than anybody else just because she happens to love Nature owns the Blue Planet series. Being a big fan of the movie Finding Nemo also helps. I suppose pride is not the appropriate description, perhaps it’s more that I was just thrilled to see DD engaged in a learning opportunity that she was truly enjoying, and how her enthusiasm and knowledge was making it equally enjoyable for the lady who was working at the table.

The lady told me that she was impressed with how much DD knew. DD had correctly identified a sperm whale, a humpback, and an orca from a chart. DD knew that some whales ate krill, while other whales ate meat. At one point the lady brought out a little jar of dried husks – she called them “deep sea shrimp” but the label on the jar said “copepods”. I told DD what the label said and she was immediately very excited. DD is a big fan of copepods, having seen them many times in her Blue Planet DVD’s. It was very cute hearing a 4 year old say “I love copepods!”. Another fun part was when the lady brought out the salmon egg display. The stage where you can see the eyes of the salmon embryos looked just like a creature we’d seen in one of the movies, and DD said with excitement “Look mama, an ostracod!”. The lady at the desk seemed confused, so I explained that we’d seen one in the Blue Planet episode “The Deep”, the largest known ostracod, Gigantocyprus, which did look alot like the salmon eggs in the display. The lady had not heard of an ostracod, so it was quite funny. Anyways, eventually we headed off for lunch. DD had had a wonderful time, and told the lady when we were leaving that one day she wanted to take a ride down to the deep ocean. I have no doubt that one day, she will.