Sunday, August 21, 2011

Brain explosion
















Green food colour in the shower, tub blocking the drain, waves of water and joy. Watching it turn clear with an 'as long as you want to stay in there" shower. (its been raining lots, we are on tank water, its overflowing an dripping on the ground)



Your only pair of shoes that I just spent a day drying in front of the fire. Your only pair because you wont try any shoes on and say no to every pair we look at in the shops. But loads of fun walking through puddles...seeing how deep they are.




"rolling up" his pants, but failing to roll up the thermals.



Taking three worm specimens home on a piece of bark. having them in a container in our home untill daddy comes home to see them, then releasing them just before we go to sleep. Wanting to read books about worms and also reading about roots.



trying to make dark blue play dough by putting in more and more and more food colour...then playing with the ooozy texture and dripping it intentionally all over his bare feet and hands. Then adding yellow to see what colour it makes.





Eating a snack on the lounge whilst watching Peter Pan for the billionth time.



Noticing that the water plants have roots like we read in the book, and that "frogs go hop hop hop on the lilly pads".




Enjoying the displays in the huge outdoor museum at our local buddhist monastery where we go for lunch on sundays.




Exploring the jade tree, and remembering from the last visit that peacocks don't like to be scared.







Enjoying the colours of there feathers. This visit really noticing the different patches os feathers and pointing the colour combinations out to me. "Look at that black and white part on the top!"



Listening to Pra mana (monk) give a talk (only for a few sentences), then proudly telling him and the other 20 or so people in the group that he just put the knob on the post back on, then encouraging them all to watch him run very fast! He is getting more confident around people he doesnt know very well.




Checking out the grounds of the monastry and freaking mum out because there is so much that is breakable!
I am learning to "say yes" in a whole new way. Every one of these (and more) activities are initiated by little messyfish. Everytime he suggests something I think "no", "its too messy", "its too fragile", "i am tired", "not now", "please no, dont", "no, I want to do this not that", "it wont work", "its a waste", "it might break", "no you will make a mess", "you have to sit at the table and eat"....etc etc.
But i didnt say any of those things (and if I did I CHANGED MY MIND, by telling him I've changed my mind, its ok, you really want to do that don't you? so lets do it)



It was hard work not to do what came to mind, but push past the "neat and clean and easy" pain barrier and LET HIM BE and do and explore and learn. I did think..."now I know why parents send kids to pre-school! so they can get all messy somewhere else". Then I had a brain explosion too. I realized, that I just needed to let go (AGAIN). And say YES!
And wow...just look at all that natural learning. Art, science, maths, religion, culture, media....and all the rest that I just cant divide into subjects, because natural learning doesnt work that way.
Liking with Owlet's Unschool Monday

4 comments:

Jo said...

Wow! Little Messy Fish looks so big in some of those photo's! It's hard to let go of 'no' isn't it? Get's easier and more natural i think, the more you do it...a few weeks ago Kai was rolling down a grassy hill in bare feet...over and over again, and some other children tried to do the same and their dad told them not to take off their shoes b/c 'it's dirty' and not to roll in the grass b/c 'you'll get itchy'!? I was very happy i'd said yes!

Yeshe said...

my Lil was the same with shoes, and it never changed! It all sounds lovely

Helena said...

Lovely! All of it, the photos, your words, the energy. Mmm, yum, and yes! I know what you mean about the journey to Yes, yes, and more Yes. I've started to love finding the Yes in as many things as possible, and I love looking hard at the No and saying, "what are you still doing here?" :)

I just heard about that Buddhist monastery, literally just yesterday. Serendipity…! We will have to go visit, I think. It looks just wonderful.

Unknown said...

Nodding along here too... Lovely post. It's good to catch yourself and remind yourself of what you are trying to do here, huh? I'm finding a little sunshine helps yes come a whole lot easier too. xx