One of the things that annoyed me about my iPhone was the 800×600 camera resolution… Oh, the embarrassment I felt when I realized that this was just because I was “transferring” photos by emailing them to myself — and when I plugged the phone in directly via USB cable, there was a folder full of nice big photos with six and a half times as many pixels apiece in comparison to what I had begrudgingly accepted. Well, people learn at their own pace.
On that, I recently added a couple of books on unschooling to my Kindle and have been giving a lot more hands-on thought to treating life as the school. Today at the park Caitlin and Nefarious discovered the carcass of a big fat cicada, so I told her what I knew about them, and when we got home we looked them up on Wikipedia and read the entire thing and then some, discussing the interesting points, and then spent another half hour reading other interesting entries, and lots of worthwhile side paths (for example, “is it louder than a crying baby?”, leading us not just to the comparison, and then various other noisemakers, but some specific use of the technical term “decibels”). It was highly enjoyable for both of us — the joy of learning together — and educationally productive without feeling like work. I feel like it’s something that deserves a great deal more thought, because it felt very “right”.
It was very nice to see our old friend the heron, standing just a few feet away from us in a heavily trafficked pond that I rarely see it in — although I am not sure if it is the same heron that we photographed two years ago (a photo which Nefarious has framed in her room). There were also some teenager ducks.
Finally, I saw (on the web) some very cool upcycling of cheap wood furniture that I want to try out, but I have some fear as to weakening the legs and me crash landing on the floor as Nefarious cackles in glee. There are so many interesting themes one could tackle…
4 Comments
PS. I feel a little bad because I haven’t properly credited them, but I must finally give credit to the free textures that I have used on a few recent photographs: https://www.flickr.com/photos/borealnz/sets/72157610307314214/with/2549518639/
Reading about the home-is-a-school idea, I find it fascinating to realize how significant the internet now is as a key element of it.
Perhaps I wasn’t very inquisitive as a child, but if I’d wanted to know about something I’d seen while we were out, I’d ask my parents and if they didn’t know, then that would pretty much have been the end of it. We didn’t have any books to speak of at home, so “research” would’ve entailed trying to get a book from the village library or writing off to somewhere – by which time the impetus was lost and whatever interest I’d had would have waned.
It’s true Don, unschooling would not have been as easy when we were kids, or as fun. It’s nice to be able to look up whatever it is we’ve seen or been discussing. Having unschooled for years now, I would never consider another way. Totally free to learn! Free as in not restrained, the internet, etc isnt free but close enough.
You guys seem to be doing great, which is wonderful.
<3
Forgive me if I’m posting something you already know about, but have you checked out the MDC forums at https://www.mothering.com/discussions/ ? In addition to seriously awesome conversations on natural/green living and parenting, they also have active forums, with resources, on homeschooling and unschooling. Dads hang out there, too, so don’t let the name put you (or any other interested dads) off :) There are a lot of other controversial topics, like vaccination, but most of the parents are pretty cool, and at least able to ‘agree to disagree’. It’s by far one of my favorite resources when it comes to almost anything.
Post a Comment