Summer Loving, Loving Summer, The Learning Never Stops.

The tip of my nose has been getting cold at night. I pulled an extra blanket onto the bed last night. My mother tells my off every time I wail at the thought of a receeding summer. But wail I do. I’m sitting, with a steaming cup of coffee, rugged up in bed. The more-watery autumn light is coming in through the windows and I’m wearing a merino top. Summer seems to be over. This summer has been sensational – I haven’t posted much (at all) because I’ve been enjoying it so much. We’ve been swimming almost everyday and sometimes more than once – in the river, in the sea, in various swimming pools. We’ve been boogy-boarding, body surfing, pipi hunting, sand-castling, eel-rescuing, river walking – so many aquatic related activities this year.

Water play holds a dear place in my heart as the “thing” that demonstrated unschooling in action to me. If you haven’t read that story, read it here. And now, again, still, it is that.

Louis has progressed this summer to swimming with his arms circling above the water (freestyle strokes). He can go for metres and metres underwater, and this week, he learned to dive.

Joss is now putting her face underwater and just having a whole lot of fun in the pool. A couple of years ago, Joss and Louis were playing in the water at our local beach, which isn’t safe for little kids to actually swim in, and a big wave came and dumped on them. Louis very bravely hauled his sister out of the water and we all tramped home sopping wet. Since then, Joss has been petrified of even the sound of waves. This year, she has become comfortable sitting up on the ridge (where she can still hear them, but knows she wont be “got” by the waves) and watching Louis and I, and our dog Isa muck around in the white wash.  Then we were at a beach round the corner from us, which is a little bit safer, and Louis was playing in the waves with his boogy board, and Joss was really scared to go down to the water, which I’m used to, so I thought we’d just play in the sand. But after a while, she started pulling me towards the water – very slowly. It maybe took us 10 mins to get there, but she ended up playing in the water, in the WAVES, and then went back to get her boogy board and while I held onto the cord, she caught the waves in. She absolutely loved it. I was so happy that she was happy. I was so happy that I hadn’t crowded into her need for the space for being scared, that I’d honoured that space and respected it. I was delighted to see her delight.

Louis has been meeting his needs for interaction with adult males with ease and grace. He can now have conversations with people, and becomes interested in things they’re interested in, gets involved, and goes off on adventures with them. At a recent camp, with other lovely unschoolers, he learnt how to make coffee from a lovely unschooling dad who does that for a living. And he spent a good hour swimming in the rough west coast waves with another lovely unschooling dad. He really gravitates towards people who are going to respect his spirit.

Joss has discovered a love for dancing… and let me back this truck up so that it becomes an illustration of unschooling in action.

In January, we went to a gathering in Port Waikato called Heart Politics (HPX), which is a coming together of people who explore different ways of living. We went, because it was suggested by my lovely friend that I might fit in there with my talk on Connection Parenting, and because part of my unschooling philosophy is that it’s important that we go to lots of “things” like this, and that the kids have all the opportunity to hear about all kinds of different things, and that I connect with people, and nourish my own need for community. So, we went, and on the Concert Night, on the last evening, a young girl did a Scarf Dance, and we loved it, and then, we came home.

I bought my mum the Adele 25 CD – she was listening to it all the time at work off the internet but didn’t have a way of listening to it at home, and would never buy it for herself. So I did, and Joss happened to go and hang out with my mum for a couple of hours one Sunday, and my mum turned on the Adele CD and Joss busted out some very clearly Scarf Dance Moves. She LOVED it. And now very clearly asks for ‘Dele Song, and Dancing Dress. She is totally lost in the music, and buoyed up by it, and expressing whatever is coming through her. It is pure joy to watch.

Unschooling, strewing, in action.

It’s been a glorious summer, with lots of relaxing, lots of television watching, lots of delving into the world of gaming, lots of aquatic adventures, lots of camping, and even some number and letter work.