Education Dissemination

My last post was about school. And more to the point, my being against it.

I’m glad, in the end, that I didn’t just jump up and enrol Littletree in school the minute she said she wanted to go. It didn’t take her long to change her mind about that.

For the record, I would like to point out that the OOSH (after-school care) at our village school is awesome. There’s quite a few kids who go regularly of their own accord. Homeschooled kids, kids from other schools, kids who have parents at home and no reason to stay after school, but they like it because the OOSH is great. The have huge amounts of resources available to the kids, they have some optional activities (last term they had weekly circus skills workshops, this term it’s creative dance), they have a huge room full of games and toys and art supplies. They get healthy snacks. I realise that not all schools have such a nice OOSH as we have – apparently the one in town is basically a shelter shed that the kids sit under, with nothing much to do.

Anyway, I’ve come to a point where I do believe school is damaging. I believe the main purpose for institutionalised education is the homogenising and dumbing down of minds. Children are taught to be bored, to be obedient, that they can’t learn on their own, and most of all, that learning is a chore to be endured. Children’s inherent thirst for learning and creative thinking processes are quashed.

I offer this article as a brief explanation, this as a very long, deep read, and this book which you can read entirely free online, as insights into my philosophy, just for starters.

I don’t for a second go around judging people whose kids are in school. I don’t look at school kids and think their parents are abusive. Though for some reason, that’s how some people take it when I say I don’t want my kid at school.

I’m doing what I believe is best for my family. I don’t trust the government for a single second to uphold the integrity of my child’s emotional and mental wellbeing. And they’re not even pretending to try.

Meanwhile, we’ve been learning a lot about local fruitbats, since they’re hanging around our place a lot :)

Swim School

Littletree announced two weeks ago that she wanted to go to school.

It was a huge deal for me; I’ve always said she’s free to choose if she wants to, but lately, I got more and more on the side of wanting her to not go to school.

We talked about why she wanted to go, we talked about the pros and cons. She didn’t have any reason that she could articulate. We talked about having to get up early, to go every day, to have to do what she’s told, to eat and drink only when she’s allowed to, etc. She just wanted to try it.

I figure she wouldn’t last more than a day or two, especially with the early mornings, but I didn’t want to go through the bureaucracy of enrolling her just for a day or two, and I feel that she’s too young to try it out.

We came up with an idea for a trial; she would go to OOSH (the after-school care) *every* day, without fail and do some work in her homework book every day, for a month. If she still wanted to go to school after that, we would talk about it then.

After two days of going to OOSH, Litteltree announced that she’s changed her mind; she doesn’t want to go to school, she just wants swimming lessons.

So I enrolled her in swimming lessons. There was even a class that was in the middle of the day, with other homeschooled kids in it. We arrived on the first day, and I had a little chat with the teacher, and explained about how Littletree is growing out of a fear of water.

Littletree responded by diving in and dog paddling around the pool!

I guess her water aversion is completely over! yay! She picked up kicking pretty quickly, and was working on side-breathing.

Littletree LOVED the swimming lesson, she’s been talking about little else since.

So I guess I’m officially not an “unschooler” any more – I’ve said no to my kid about something I think is damaging to her. Whatever.

Bubbles

We went to the birthday party of one of Littletree’s friends on the weekend, and the kids all received little jars of bubble liquid. Here’s some eye-candy:

  

Life has been pretty hectic in the last week, with Purple away in Israel!

Left Hand of the Goddess

To update on my latest Life Drawings; I’ve been working last week on drawing only with my left hand.

And I’m not left-handed.

It’s so liberating – somehow, since I have less control of the charcoal the pictures come out much freer, and the effect is great.

You can see more Left-handed drawings here (just trying out the new “album” feature in blogger):

 

View Full Album

And this week I worked on not looking at the page while I was drawing. 

It’s a totally different style than the left-handed thing, but also really great results.

I’m enjoying drawing so much! It’s giving me a completely different way of looking at things as well.

Here’s my final piece for this week – the model sat for 45 minutes for this one; the longest pose I’ve worked on. I love it because the style is so vastly different from my instinctive drawing, which is very timid. This is so bold and confident.

On a Shoestring

Having grown somewhat, Littletree was in need of new running shoes. Really, I blame myself. I *knew* I shouldn’t have been feeding her all that nourishing food. Ah well, live and learn.

Thus we found ourselves in the store of a purveyor of children’s shoes, perusing the aisles.

Until now, I’ve always gotten her shoes with velcro fastenings (well, to be really honest, I’ve mostly avoided getting her shoes, preferring to wait for other doting family members to take on that happy task). Besides, she hardly ever wears them anyway!

I remember when she was younger, I briefly considered buying her shoes with laces, but quickly realised that would mean spending the next few months chasing her around, bent-double to tie them up for her until she either worked out how to do it herself or grew out of them. And the idea of teaching a small child to tie laces while you’re running late to get somewhere (which I perpetually am) sounds like a special brand of nightmare.

I decided that I would support my child to grow up till adulthood without knowing how to tie laces, when it would become her problem, and not mine. Thus, she’s always had velcro shoes.

Only in this particular store, the most aesthetically-pleasing (to Littletree) and least-plasticky (to me) running shoes had laces. They were also conveniently half price. I was entirely reluctant, despite massive savings; images of going mad and strangling myself with a shoelace flitted through my mind.

I subtly (or not so much) tried to steer her interest towards a similar pair with velcro, but she preferred the others. Eventually, I got her convinced, but a little voice in my mind reminded me that we were buying *Littletree* shoes to be her very own, and really, she should get the ones she wanted. I put both pairs on the floor in front of her, and said “you get the ones you really want.”

I found myself a few minutes later, dazed, at the checkout handing over my credit card, and walking away with a small pair of lace-up running shoes.

We got home, and Littletree promptly put the new shoes on, I gave her a 2-minute demonstration on how to tie laces. Which she repeated just fine. Again and again.

Walking home the next day, she said to me,

“Mama, I think my spirit told me to get the shoes with laces now, because my spirit knew I was ready to learn how to tie them. That’s how I learned to do it so easily. If we got shoes with laces before I was ready, it would have been really hard to learn”

What can I say? Who can argue with that; spirits know best!

In other news, this:

was the look on Littletree’s face when I told her a few people had donated her money towards her new computer. She’s been so excited, and wants to send out a huge THANK YOU!

And, her foot is now fine, thanks to everyone who send their well-wishes. :)

Bullrout Sting

Yesterday Littletree was stung by a Bullrout. Ouch! And before everyone asks: http://www.mpatkin.org/surgery_clinical/bullraut.htm

It was horrible. I’ve never seen anyone in so much pain. Ever. The poor little thing. Honestly, I can’t even begin to explain how much pain she was in; it was excruciating just to look at.

The local home school kids were playing down by the creek in the village, Purple was there, and a few other parents, and I had just gone home for a nap, as I had a headache, when the phone rang – it was Purple calling to say Littletree had stepped on something, maybe a piece of glass, and could I come down with the car and bring the first aid kit.

So I grabbed the kit and dashed into the car. I arrived to find a huge crowd of kids surrounding Littletree, who was on Purple’s lap, screaming like I’ve never heard before. She was screaming that the pain was getting worse, going right up her leg, and I could see her foot was swelling.

Apparently no one knew exactly what had gotten her – might have been a snake, or maybe a “bullrush”. I scooped her up in my arms and got her into the car, with Purple close behind, and we rushed to the hospital.

We got to the ER and were brought right in (it’s a small hospital; only 5 beds in the ER). And lucky for us, all the doctors and nurses on duty at that time just happened to be foreigners, so none of them could diagnose that it was, indeed, a Bullrout sting (note the tell-tale 2mm long slit, which is duplicated about a centimetre away. note the excruciating pain).

Littletree was absolutely beside herself with pain, and they all thought “snake bite” and so started doing a snakebite tox screen. Which meant taking bloods from her every 2 hours, and an overnight stay. Naturally, all the bloods came back negative for snakebite.

At some point, an orderly ambled by with a mop and said (with a thick local accent), “ow, that’s a Bullrout sting! Put ‘er in ‘ot water; she’ll be roight!”

The doctor gave her a shot of morphine, which was, for me, terrible to see, and she calmed right down. duh. Then they listened to the orderly and put her foot in hot water, which (of course) helped a lot. But they still had to finish the snakebite protocol, because once it’s started, they’re in the system.

So Littletree was admitted for the night, and we went up to the paediatric ward to wait out the snakebite bloods. I sent Purple home to get us some overnight things – in my hurry I’d gone out without my handbag or even shoes. And I got to enjoy a comfortable, pleasant night on a little fold-out bed next to Littletree.

Waking after about 4 hours of broken sleep, and feeling entirely refreshed and rested, I sat with Littletree, keeping her occupied till they came to discharge her.

Littletree was amazed to discover a Gideon’s Bible in the bedside drawer, which she read happily over her breakfast, which was “awesome, just like on the aeroplane!”

At least the nurses in Paeds were really nice, and in the morning the ER doctor who had been on duty came up to check in on us. Finally, we were set free to go about our merry way, though poor Littletree’s foot is still swollen and painful to walk on; she’s just fine :)

Poetry Jam

This week’s home school group was Poetry Jam; we all got together in the airconditioned comfort of the library and the kids shared poems they’d written, or read out ones they liked.

Apparently the librarians were so impressed with the group for being quiet and respectful; more so than comparable groups of school kids anyways.

Littletree had a couple of poems ready to recite – she’s been so interested in Alliteration ever since she discovered alphabetisation in the dictionary, so we started making up little poems for each letter of the alphabet. But when it came down to reciting them for the group, she changed her mind and made up some poems on the spot.

Sad I didn’t think to film her or write them down – she came up with some nice verses about faeries and magic and forests and stuff.

The most amazing thing is, of course, that this group of children, ranging from about 5 – 13, were all avidly engaged in random acts of poetry, and no one was forcing or coercing or threatening or bribing them to do it. I’m pretty sure I read somewhere that defies the laws of physicks or something…

Cavity-Free and Full of Ice Cream!

I went to the dentist today. Yeah, you all probably cringed a little just reading that, but don’t worry; I ate a whole bowl of ice cream before I went!

Forgive me Dentist, for I have sinned. It’s been over a year and a half since the last time I went to the dentist, when I was told I have eight teeth that are decaying and need filling. At the time, I decided not to get the work done, but to start following the Weston A Price traditional diet recommendations.

I bought the book Nourishing Traditions, and started making bone broths and chicken stock and eating organ meats and raw, organic, grass-fed dairy; I started taking good quality Cod Liver Oil and High-Vitamin Butter Oil. It was quite a diet-shift! But I didn’t give up sugar or acid foods. I still eat loads of cake, as always, and my awesome ice cream, which I believe is actually good for teeth, as well as sinfully delicious.

So today, I went to the local dentist for a cleaning, and he looked at my last-seen-ridden-with-eight-cavities teeth, and declared:

“Your teeth are in perfect condition and I think if you keep taking care of them they’ll last you the rest of your life.”

My jaw nearly hit the floor! I pressed him, “Are you *sure* there’s no decay? 2 years ago I was told I need some fillings”

To which he replied, “Oh, you have one tiny brown spot on one tooth, but that’s nothing to worry about; it should be fine.”

WOOHOO!!! I went skipping out of the dentist happily! Who would have thought ice cream would be better for cavities than getting fillings?