Nature Walk--11/11

Every child will draw--he just may not use the medium you expect.




"Mama, is this a dandelion bush?"
No, but it seems to have seeds that blow in the air like dandelions. :)


"Here's something similar."


"Oh! Here's a real dandelion!"




Why sit on a hard park bench, when you can lie on the soft grass beneath it?


He found this frog--part of the underside of a slide.How long have we been playing here? Over a year!There is always something new to discover. :)

Learning All the Time

I am very honored and SURPRISED to have been nominated for Best Unschooling Blog 2009. Wow! Strangely, I always say that we are NOT unschoolers. (I prefer to think of us as relaxed, eclectic learners.) Apparently some people insist that we are unschoolers, though, whether I choose to call us that or not. I think I have felt strongly about not using that label because I simply do what works for us. I'm committed to my son & what works for him--and that does and will always continually change. It may look like unschooling today, but in a year it could look more like the Charlotte Mason method or any of numerous other homeschooling styles.

About this category, The Homeschool Post states,

Life and learning go hand in hand. There are a lot of different unschooling methods, but all of them are adamant about not being tied in to a traditional school method.

Well, yes, that does indeed describe my way of thinking.

Here are some of my favorite quotes from John Holt's Learning All the Time:

Real learning is a process of discovery, and if we want it to happen, we must create the kinds of conditions in which discoveries are made. We know what these are. They include time, leisure, freedom, and lack of pressure.

...what often happens to kids in school is that they are required to repeat, as sense, what makes no sense to them, to the point where they give up trying to reconcile what people say about the world with what they really feel about it. They accept as true whatever authority says is true. They do not try to check or test it. They soon forget even how to test it.

What children want and need from us is thoughtful attention. They want us to notice them and pay some kind of attention to what they do, to take them seriously, to trust and respect them as human beings. They want courtesy and politeness, but they don't need much praise.

...organized education operates on the assumption that children learn only when and only what and only because we teach them. This is not true. It is very close to one hundred percent false.

The idea, the very idea, that we can teach small children how to learn has come to me to seem utterly absurd.

I am in strong agreement with all of the above statements. Does that make me an unschooler? If you think so and enjoy my blog, then click on the button above and consider voting for Living and Learning. But I've got to tell you there are some awesome bloggers on that list and I am truly thrilled to be placed in such company! THANK YOU to whoever cast nominations for this blog!

Zoo Afternoon

We spent more quality time with friends today. The kids disappeared into the Jungle Gym for most of the afternoon, so we didn't actually see many animals. (Good thing we have memberships!) I did get a few pictures, though.







I just wanted to carry this little goat home!