Its feeling a bit ho hum this week. Finishing bits and pieces, still preparing for Sunday's Market. Still its nice to curl up in the corner and do some hand sewing or read a mag when it gets quiet...
I'm actually looking forward to getting stuck into some more creative things over the winter and after the market is done and dusted. I've been refashioning bits and pieces like this...
Two jumpers that I managed to shrink and in the meantime grew, so have combined the two to make one super jumper, perfect for a growing belly. Hmm... maybe not so much refashioning as just being practical... But there's more creativity on the horizon. Maybe that quilt for big owlet or something for little owlet's birthday...
I'll be popping over to Kirsty's for some inspiration.
Its school holidays in Tasmania right now. What does that mean to an unschooling family? Not much, but the playgrounds, library, museum, swimming pool - all our regular haunts - are busy with children and families everywhere! On top of that there's all the school holiday activity programs available and the owlets schooled friends are ready to play too. Its busy!! I overhear mothers saying how they can't wait to get back to the school routine and get some flow back to their days - us too!! We start to long for those quiet weeks where there's not much on and we can spend occasional days in our pyjamas, reading books, playing board games and puddling along with our craft projects... Ah well winter's upon us so it won't be long I'm sure...
As we're so busy, this post is a tad brief, but we could all do with a holiday from time to time, huh? If you watched the link I put up last week to Sir Ken Robinson's talk on creativity in schools, here's the follow up. Its about starting a revolution in education, personalising education to kids needs and helping them work with their natural talents. Sounds like unscooling to me ;)
I'll be at The Market on sunday week. There's lots to do... My sister will be visiting that weekend too... In the words of little owlet "I'm so e-cited! Lets clean up!!"
We're also taking inspiration from the first frost and the Bridgewater Jerry and remembering to tuck the garden in for the winter.
The ground is easier to dig, the weeds have slowed and its a good time to plan. Its an improvement. We've been dreaming up ideas for an enclosed chook run and owlet treehouse in the walnut tree. We're not builders. It could take some time. But we've been getting loads of inspiration here. If kids can do it, surely we can, right?
Pop on over to Kirsty's and see what other creative types are up to this week.
We're enjoying the short bursts of sun during the day and the warmth of the fire by night... hibernating a little and watching autumn come to an end... Here's something the owlets love to watch and dance to. If you have time, watch the whole triptych. Its lovely. Hauschka is a fave in our little house too. Do look him up.
I'm going to wander with you through my own creative learning, if you'll indulge me for a little while... My memories of time before school include learning to write my name and play kiss chasey at kindy and spending days at the gallery or at home with Mum. She encouraged me to draw, to scribble to experiment, draw patterns, play with colours. Dad worked from home and he reminded me that I could colour inside the lines from time to time if I felt so inclined. A perfect balance. Then came school. My first gold star emerged after a moment of frustration inspired genius. Finger painting. I was relishing the sensation of paint between my fingers, all squidgy and cold. I played with squiggly pattern, beautiful shapes and the faint texture of my tiny finger prints. "I've finished" I proudly announced to Mrs. Green. She was unmoved. "It doesn't look like anything, Lauren. You need to do a picture of something, like a house, or a flower..." Deflated, I sat back down and thought for a minute. With the side of my thumb I drew a circle around it. "Finished!!" I called out again. "What is it?" The teacher asked. " A bowl of spaghetti." She couldn't argue. A creative compromise and most certainly gold star material. I soon learned that houses and flowers and such things are what's expected at school. I learned how to draw houses from my friend Jane. She'd been taught at her kindy. My next gold star came in the form of a painting of a girl with a dinosaur. The dinosaur was tartan. Lots of pattern and colour. More creative compromise. And so it continued...
Mum supported my many craft projects and occasional interest in backyard sketching at home. The various craft and art teachers I encountered attempted to demonstrate the correct way to do things... Leading to my almost fail in year 7 craft... By the time I reached year 11, I felt like the creative wind had been beaten out of me. Then in year 12, we were asked to find our own personal creative style, develop it and make something awesome out of it. With a lot of nursing, suggesting and experimenting, my teacher managed to help me figure something out, eventually. I did well. Really well. Now what? It was expected I'd go to Uni and become an art teacher, or do an arts degree. To my teacher's surprise, I followed my heart and went to art school. I did a year 13 folio building course to help me figure out a direction. I got to spend all day, every day learning about art and design. We did drawing and ceramics and printmaking, photography, 2D and 3D design and art history. I was in heaven. I was supported by an amazing bunch of mentors. I got to play with all these different mediums and look for my passion, then develop it. It was there that a teacher noticed that I always incorporated pattern into my work. Had I thought of textile design? And so began a new creative journey.
I suppose reflecting on that was one of the motivators in choosing to unschool the owlets. All those years of being told how to do it, lead to uncertainty and floundering. The school I went to aimed to turn out academically successful young women and did, but if you were interested in something slightly off the beaten track, you were rather on your own. Such is the case in many schools where there just isn't the time or the space or the facilities to cater to every child's particular interests or needs. You need to work within the system. As such, creativity dies. Or at the very least is suppressed. We feel that our children need to follow their own creative interests and be encouraged in them. They need to be exposed to whatever life can offer them and find their own way.
The pictures are of the owlets creative pursuits this morning. Big owlet is into monsters at the moment, so when I suggested we make some felt monster puppet toy type things, naturally she leapt into it hammer and tongs... and made an elephant. Little owlet also thought it was a great idea and designed a psychedelic rabbit, somewhat reminiscent of Donnie Darko. They drew the characters, chose the colours, cut the felt, sewed by hand and on the machine, stuffed the toys, sewed again and played for the rest of the afternoon... Then made movies on photobooth in which their heads swirled around with said creatures. Had I imposed my own creative aspirations upon them, they'd have lost interest almost immediately. Unless the creative process is their own and they are entrusted with it, the creativity dies right at the start. Think of what we'd miss out on!
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Two of my favourite clips on creativity and kids, in case you feel like watching rather than reading... I know I do sometimes...
It began with a quiet house. Just two people, a cat, a long winter and a need to make something for the first belly babe. Huz and I knitted squares each in pinks, purples and blues. We sewed them together to make a blanket with lots of character, made with much love and anticipation. She loved it. Its still her favourite thing, along with the red cardigan knitted by her nanny. She loves it best cold and wet... not something us mere mortals can understand. It needs fixing...
When there was a second belly babe, the house was different, on an island far away and not so quiet. We found the time though, to knit. Different colours this time, greens and blues for our new green and blue home. Huz didn't quite finish. There's a square missing. This twosuh is loved, but not a part of her. What is loved now is the tradition and that we made it. For her.
And now there is a third. I've had the yarn for a while, waiting for the right time to begin. Looking forward to working with the red, navy, grey and cream... I got very close a couple of times. Now the time is right. This week we begin work on the new twosuh.
See what lovely things others are up to at Kirsty's. x
Yesterday we held the annual owlet fungi fossick. A tradition we started a few years ago and now that the world is our classroom, one that we intend to continue..
I'm forever surprised at the variety. I mean why do they all grow so individually, so beautifully? Some delicate, others strong and tall or like plates in the side of a tree...
We marvel at each one and imagine the kind of faeries that might live nearby. We walk and talk and look at the little things, down around owlet eye level, or lower.
There's lots of time for observation... and questions!! Oh the questions!! I'm sure every parent alive knows about the questions and this is the magic of a day wandering outside for an unschooling family. "How do rocks form?" "What started the first fire?" " Why do trees fall down?" "What did it look like when all the trees were very tiny?" "How did the trees get there?" Some require some imagination. Others are fairly easy and some we have to google when we get home. Sometimes we'll find a new area of interest through conversation, borrow a book from the library, watch a documentary and learn what we can.
It works differently to school, this style of learning. There is no checklist. There's no list you can look at and tick off to make sure the subject is covered. The subjects that are relevant to the child will be covered. But perhaps not in the traditional order. They'll be covered when they are important to the child. They'll grasp whatever they can if there's an interest. Sometimes they'll come back to it over a period of years, or just learn it through further reading when they are ready. The same way we do as adults. If we want to learn about something, we ask, read, watch, find out. We don't wait for it to come up in conversation or class in a few years time when its no longer relevant.
So far big owlet knows more about evolution than I did when I was 12yo. She asks the questions, we answer as best we can. We read and learn with her. Sometimes she asks again maybe a year, aweek or an hour later and we know we need to be clearer, more specific, or more interesting... I'm glad we're there to answer the questions as they do come up. I'm glad she doesn't have to compete with a group of 30 kids for our attention. I'm glad we have the time to explain things as she needs to learn them. I'm just so glad we can be there to guide her and little owlet along this journey and help them maintain that interest, the desire to learn, that awe for nature.
This last photo is an oldie but a goodie. Its my favourite from a few years ago taken by Huz when he and big owlet went camping together. It captures that awe that is one of our reasons for choosing unschooling. We never want to lose that.
Its feeling a bit ho hum this week. Finishing bits and pieces, still preparing for Sunday's Market. Still its nice to curl up in the corner and do some hand sewing or read a mag when it gets quiet... 
