why? where? who? what? when?

My kids just could not help themselves. 

This past weekend was incredible

with the kids learning, doing, building, making, 

thinking, asking, wanting, 

keeping so very busy every minute of every day.

(And it was kind of insane how they just kept on going, 

so I grabbed an old exercise book 

and wrote it all down as the weekend went by)

This is what they did. A simple list, really!

1. Read about Greenpeace and asked, What are Genetically Modified Foods? (boy)

2. Looked up Genetically Modified Foods and read out information to whoever would listen. (boy) 

3. Wrote a stunning story based on this painting

Paul Ryan
Welcome to the Forest

 and submitted it for a competition at the City Art Gallery. (boy!)

4. Helped her dad do all the grocery shopping 
(while finishing off her ice-cream cone). 
(girl—who couldn't wait to hang with her dad)

5. Researched a Winter Vege patch and looked up Winter crops. 

(girl)

6. Read Youngzine. (boy)

7. Researched who invented the Computer. (girl)

(And did you know it was a dude called Charles Babbage? 

And it all started with the humble Abacus?  

…And then there was this guy who created a programmable loom for weaving, 

and the whole thing took off from there. So interesting!)

8. Learned how to lay a carpet from a DIY video at the hardware store
(and compared carpet, tile and rug prices like seasoned carpet shoppers!). 
(boy and girl)

9. Prepared a beautiful Italian dinner using his own Italian cookbook. 

(boy and Helper Dad)

10. Watched Getaway, a travel program on T.V. and fell in love with the jellyfish of Palau. (travel-hungry boy and girl)

National Geographic

11. On a gorgeous sunny Sunday, 
went scootering all along the foreshore and into town. 

(hmm, I wonder who did that?)

12. Created a design for an iphone app
and 
decided we had to learn how to make iphone apps 
right this very minute! 

(girl)

13. Downloaded an app-making program and learned about LUA, 

a computer programming language. So hard, and yet, so fun. 
(Techno girl and boy)

14. Cooked some more—this time, french toast, pasta, and scrambled eggs (my boy was on fire!) (Chef Boy)

15. Created a Temple for the cat god Bast. 

(Architect Boy)

16. Walked the dog. (Us!)

17. Played with Convertbot and investigated how small nanoseconds were. (boy)

18. Read a book about dragons, a book about world history, 

the Book of General Ignorance, and a book about Everyday Life.  
(my beautiful Bookworm boy and girl)

19. Began writing a story about a dragon and a leopard. (girl)

20. Made a beautiful owl bookmark for her mum. (girl)

and finally,

21. Played with an awesome app that altered jazz songs 'til they sounded like pop songs 

(which made a boy and a dad laugh a lot!). 
(boy and his Silly dad)

All on a single weekend. Amazing, no?

The thing is, kids—it was the weekend! 

Weren't you supposed to spend it lying around and 

scratching your bellies and watching the cartoons?

At least for SOME part of the weekend? 

(just like I did when I was a kid?)

Weren't you supposed to be relieved no-one was making you learn anything for two whole days??  

What was the matter with you lot— were you unwell? 
:)

But they weren't, of course. They were completely Alight.

 They were busy and engaged, and so filled with joy.

And I realised: We are on this path now. This insatiable, delighted path. 

Where learning has blended seamlessly into our Everyday. 

Where my kids have no sense of where learning begins or ends. 

It's simply how and who we are.

We are Life Learners.

And we love to learn. We really, really, really do. 

It's deep in us. Kind of unshakeable. 

As part of us as breathing. As real and warm and good as you can imagine. 

Ah. 


Doesn't that make you smile?

I'm linking this with Owlet's lovely
Unschool Monday. Come see!