Well I’m finally hosting my very first linky up fun and I’m very, very excited! Woo hoo! I so hope it works….I’m so hoping you’ll join in the fun with me. Will you?
Oh, I guess you may want to know what this little linky up is about? Well, as many of you would already know, I am the mum to a child {Lewi, 12} who has never gone to school. Never, ever. So we home school. Actually, we consider ourselves to be unschoolers or natural learners. That means that the learning that Lewi is doing very rarely looks like that of a child in school. Sometimes it does, but that’s always a matter of choice from Lewi’s part. Unschoolers know that learning happens everywhere and all of the time. Essentially, living is learning. We breathe, we learn. That sort of thing.
But, I don’t want this fun to be limited to unschoolers alone. No, no, no! Everyone is learning. You may be home schoolers or have children in school. You may be a teacher or a mum at home. You may be learning at uni or TAFE or surfing online. You may be learning a skill that is new to you or rehashing some old stuff. You may be playing or working or dreaming or chatting or planning or swimming or walking or ironing – well, hopefully you’re not ironing! Urgh! The point is that we are all learning all of the time. The learning really is EVERYWHERE!
So here’s a space where we can share the learning that’s happening in our nests. Sometimes I might have a theme for the week. Other times it’ll just be a general sharing of what’s going on, learning wise, in your nest. You might want to share your child’s interests, their art works, a skill they’ve been working on, a musical instrument they are learning, swimming lessons, belly dancing, elephant riding, alien chasing – whatever, please join in. Oh, and you may want to share what you’ve been up to on the learning front yourself. Please, please, please, share, share, share!
I might, from time to time, have a little unschooling rant. You’re very welcome to contribute to the rant, debate what I’ve said, ask questions, agree, disagree. Whatever you feel you’d like to share is fine by me. No slagging on each other though – but I’m sure I didn’t need to mention that.
OK, well here’s what you need to do:
Share the learning that’s been happening in your nest lately. Link it up to the linky below and go and have a little visit at some other sharers to see what learning has been taking place in bloggy land.
Easy Peasy!
OK, well let me get the learning ball rolling!
.....................
Lewi and I have had quite a bit of discussion lately about how our year might be spent. We’ve both been feeling a little out of sorts since we moved house and find ourselves living in a very different surrounding to what we a have been used to. Lew is normally an outdoor kid. He’s always needed to have regular bouts of outdoor activity – hunting for wildlife to investigate, jumping on the tramp etc, while we’ve been at home.The tramp has been a huge part of his life since he was 18 months old. He’s always regulated his own computer/gaming/TV time and found lots of things to do that interest him throughout the day. It's always been balanced and positive and healthy.
Lately, though, there’s been a lot of XBox playing and very little outdoor activity when we have home days. The XBox is the newest addition to our nest and it’s something Lew’s wanted for quite sometime now so I was prepared for some heavy duty gaming time over the few months ahead. However, what I have noticed is that Lew’s not been having the balance of outdoor/sunshine time that he’s so used to having. We are out and about a fair bit so he gets it then but he’s really, really missing that ebb and flow of indoor/outdoor time that helped keep in feeling balanced and OK.
He’s not felt comfortable in this rental nest’s yard. It’s very small and there’s no real privacy from the neighbours {though there are ample trees and fencing around}. I realise that Lew’s trampolining was about relax time and by-himself time. He used it to refuel and dream and think and imagine. I used to hear him talking to himself while he was jumping. Conversations with himself and playing out imaginary scenarios as well as actions were often what he’d do while jumping around. He has felt really frustrated at not feeling like he can jump comfortably here.
I’ve been trying to help him with all of this lack of space by taking him to big open places and the river and the beach and lots and lots of catch ups with friends but for Lew, he needs his home to feel balanced and comfortable as well and it’s just not been that way for him here.
We’ve been talking about what we can do about it and finding more to do than just the XBox. There’s nothing wrong with XBox playing or any screen time. Nothing!!!! They are wonderful learning tools and they are fun, fun, fun. But for Lew, he’s finding that without the balance of outdoor time, he’s feeling zapped and unable to move away from the XBox. He’s even been saying that it’s making him feel a bit sick. He’s asking for more. And, to be completely honest, I have not been as available and enthusiastic over the past few months. My facilitating has been poor – if I am going to be real about things.
And let me just add, before I go on any further - this is not an anti-XBox thing. Far, far from it. As an unschooling mum I see all things that Lewi does as learning and important and valuable. There's absolutely no judgement on screen play or TV or XBox or computers right there I'd be the biggest hypocrite under the sun, if I was to go that way . I've been there, done that when Lew was around 5 and I'm totally OK with all of these sorts of learning experiences. And they really are learning experiences!
OK, now that's off my chest we can venture back to the main part of my post....
So, last night, after quite a few weeks of discussion and negotiating and working through these issues, while I was making tea, Lewi organised a white board,
which I’d recently purchased and begun using a week or so ago, himself. He slotted in activities that we have already planned for the week as well as some other fun things to do together, other than the XBox. He’s slotted in things like: blogging, drawing with mum, writing in his journal, doing some fun stuff out of some books we’ve recently bought How to Be An Explorer of the World and This is not a Book – both by Keri Smith
love her books!
It’s a little scheduled for us – not something Lew’s ever really done before, but I think it’s a great idea for moving forward out of this little slump we are in. It will make me more accountable as well and give me a bit more focus. I’ve been consumed with nest building of late and I need to be able to find a good balance so that I am as available as possible for Lew this year.
I’ll keep you posted as to how this works for Lew. I’m hoping he’ll feel better about things and get a new lease of enthusiasm and excitement. And it really won’t be that long before we’ll have 3 acres of peace and quiet to jump around in all day long!
So, that’s our little
Learning is Everywhere post. Now, it's your turn. Add your post to the link below and share away.
I can't wait to read about your learning everywhere!
Kim xx
