Application for exemption from enrolment at
a registered school for Louis Kessels
Our Family
Our Family is currently made up of me,
Trudy Kessels, my husband, Ron Kessels, Louis, my six-year-old son, Joss, my
two-year-old daughter, my mother who is very involved with our lives, and Isa
our black Labrador.
Our Careers
I am a homeopath with my own clinic where I
see clients for 17 hours every week. My skills as a homeopath include observing
people, active listening, assessing, and monitoring. These particular skills
are transferable to my role as an unschooling parent.
My husband is a sound engineer working in
the live music industry, so he travels a lot with bands on tours both
nationally and internationally. We try to maintain the same rhythm whether he
is at home or not so that there is consistency for the children. Ron’s skills
as a sound engineer include monitoring people’s needs, responding to them,
thinking quickly outside the square to problem solve, and remaining calm under
pressure. These skills are transferable to his role as an unschooling parent.
Our Approach to Parenting and Learning
We have been parenting in a consensual
manner, which for us means respecting each person in the family as much as we
can, since the children were born and have found that home education, and in
particular unschooling, fits in best with how we relate with our children.
The first “evidence” I had that children
will learn something by themselves was when we were on holiday in Australia in the
summer of 2013-14. We had hired a holiday home with a pool. Prior to this Louis
had been quite nervous about swimming, and unable to put his head under. Well,
that holiday he asked to go swimming about four times a day, and just by that
exposure, enthusiasm, motivation and proximity to the pool, he learned to
float, to swim underwater, to jump in from the edge and to enjoy swimming – all
with minimal instruction from anyone else. I had been skirting around the edges
of unschooling for some time, but that experience made me delve deeper into it
and find examples of people who were doing it in a way I could relate to.
On our journey to unschooling Ron and I
have been inspired by education experts such as John Holt, Alfie Kohn, Sir Ken
Robinson, and the experienced unschoolers in the Shine with Unschooling community, namely Pam
Larrichia, Anna Brown, Anne Ohman and Kirsten Fredericks. These people and
their writing provide support for us as we navigate this journey. The
collective knowledge of local unschooling families is a resource that we tap in
to every time we meet up, and the collective knowledge of the world-wide
unschooling community is a resource that we can access through email groups and
groups on Facebook.
I believe that an extension of our
parenting is providing an environment in which education/learning is a rich and
lively experience. This kind of education has at its heart a goal of ensuring
that Louis has all the tools he needs navigate the world in any way that he
chooses to. Ensuring that he has the knowledge, or the tools to obtain more
knowledge, to do anything he sets his mind to. It is my job as a parent to
ensure that the Louis that navigates the adult world in as healthy (in all
aspects of the word: physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually, academically)
manner as he wants to be. This means that I have made a commitment to parent in
this manner indefinitely.
Curriculum and Assessment
As an unschooling family, we will not be
following a set curriculum. Louis will learn things every day that excite him
and engage him. Louis is a strongly independent learner, as was evident in his
approach to learning to swim, and is evident every day. I see that he becomes
immersed in something that he is working out (learning) and if someone were to
try and direct him (teaching) it stops his natural flow, and it seems to
irritate him that he has been disrupted. However, if he gets to a point where
he needs help and asks for it, he is ready for external influence and
incorporates this easily into his learning trajectory, ready once more to
immerse himself in the flow. Because Louis regularly demonstrates this to me, I
have become confident in his ability to self-direct his learning
I have complete trust that he will learn
everything he needs to learn by following his curiosity. I intend to support
his natural curiosity by providing materials such as books, experiences, information,
and more (see Our Learning Resources) as and when he needs it. Because I am
with him everyday, talking with him and engaging with him, I will be able to
identify when those things need to be introduced. Because of my near-constant
involvement with Louis, formal evaluations of his learning will not be
necessary – these evaluations will be informal: every day interactions to see
where he is at and where he’d like to go. We often talk about our day as we lie
in bed together at night, winding down. He will often use this time to ask me
questions about things which he is pondering, or things which he can’t quite
reconcile. For example, before Christmas we went to an open-air cinema
screening of the nature documentary One World. Last night I was saying “good
night, my daughter” to Joss, and “good night, my son” to Louis. Louis stopped
me and asked me,
“What’s the
other word for daughter?”
I wasn’t sure what he meant, so I asked
him, he said
“When we went to
that movie, that was outside, about the animals, they had a different word for
daughter… what’s another way to say that Joss is a girl?” he asked.
“Oh!” I said,
“Do you mean ‘female’?”
“Yes!” he said,
and, “what’s the boy word?”
“Male.”
“Yes” he said,
satisfied.
Records
Records will be kept in an ad hoc manner,
as and when we naturally feel like recording something. This often happens when
Louis would like to send a photo to Ron (who works away from home a lot), or
his overseas grandparents. I often keep the examples of Louis’s “firsts” – for
example I have kept the picture he drew that was his first drawing of
“something” rather than abstract designs. He often wants to sit at my laptop
and practise his typing and these documents also get saved.
Learning Resources
Below is a list of the current resources we
have available in our home. These will swell as Louis’s capabilities grow, and
his interests expand.
Large book collection of children’s books. (both English &
Dutch), travel books, atlas, dictionaries, encyclopedias, non fiction, cook
books
Library membership.
Toys: Lot’s of Lego, Duplo, trucks, cars, wooden train and train
track, wooden blocks, stuffed animals, dolls.
Games: Pictionary, playing card, Uno, Snakes and Ladders, Domino,
Monopoly, different set of memory.
Large collection of puzzles.
Globe and maps of the world.
Brainbox electricity set.
Music Instruments: drum kit, piano, different percussion
instruments, ukulele, harmonicas, bongos, microphones.
Large collection of music: IPod, CD’s, radio, sheet music, YouTube,
Pandora, Spotify
Computers with broadband, printer, music recording software.
IPad with games, online learning apps for math’s, reading, and
music, drawing.
Art Supplies: pencils, pens, markers, crayons, paint, stickers,
paper, cardboard, cello tape, glue, chalk, glitter, stamps, poster board,
scissors, play dough, colouring & activity books( English & Dutch),
ribbon, lace and other fabrics. Binder for art and other works. Dedicated wall
space for art work
Television with Netflix membership which has extensive collection of
movies and documentaries. YouTube, ITunes. DVD player with DVD’s
Kitchen Equipment, kids and adult cookbooks, measuring cups.
Sandpit with toys and water toys. Balancing bike, ride on toys, lots
of balls.
Carpentry tools, wood, bungee’s, rope. Measuring tools.
Gardening tools, vegetable garden.
Sewing machine, fabric.
Parks with playground, BMX track, bike track, rugby field,
basketball court and Beach 500m from our house.
Swimming pool within 2km from our house
Nation Aquarium, Museum and Art Gallery within 500m
Outings to beaches, forest, farms, walking tracks story time at the
library, bike track, playground, walking with the dog, horse riding classes,
gymnastics, rugby, swimming pool, camping, grocery store, markets.
Community events: Art Deco Weekend, music concert, theatre shows,
sport games, movie theatre.
Our Rhythm
It is our intention to integrate learning
into our every experience. For example, chores are done as a family and thus
things such as learning about colours happens when we choose pegs with which to
hang out the washing.
At the moment most weeks have a similar
rhythm for us. There is a lot of doing things as a family to assist in the
running of the house – chores – and activities (listed below) that Louis
currently enjoys, and these are punctuated by more formal learning experiences
such as boxing, swimming, horse riding and rugby. Although our rhythm is
dynamic and always in response to our changing needs, I thought I would provide
a guide of what our week might look like, and then give an example of one
recent Sunday using this particular day to go into more detail about learning
in our everyday lives.
Activities
The activities which Louis is currently
interested in include, but aren’t limited to:
Creating with Lego or Duplo
Creating with the BrainBox electronic set
Drawing
Crafting
Writing,
Reading books, individually or with me.
Listening to a Book-on-CD
Playing with the trains
Skype-ing with his father, their extended
family
Building forts in the lounge,
Climbing in the back yard
Making ramps in the back yard
Playing in the sandpit
Playing with water in the back yard
Playing with Isa
Gardening,
Watching tv, or engaging with other
technology.
Some of these activities need my
involvement, and some of them are done independently.
A Week Might Look Like
Please keep in mind that we are a
bi-lingual household: both English and Dutch are spoken.
Monday
– chores, any activities that Louis wants to be a part of, a trip to the
bike track, community boxing class, one and a half hours with Rose, our home
help.
Tuesday – chores and any activities that Louis
wants to be a part of, swimming – it’s technically a toddler session but they
have all the toys and equipment out and don’t mind that Louis is there, a trip
to the bike track/beach, my mother looks after the children while I go to work.
Wednesday – chores and any activities that Louis
wants to be a part of, a trip out to an unschooling meet-up where Louis has the
opportunity to do gymnastics, rock climbing, crafting, cooking.
Last
Wednesday we had a trip to the farm from where we buy our raw milk. The owner
of the farm showed us around, talked about their processes, showed us his herd,
where they’re milked, how the milk is bottled, and how he takes it to town.
In the afternoon Louis has horse riding for
an hour, and my mother has the children while I go to work.
Thursday – chores and any activity that Louis
wants to be a part of, grocery shopping where we try to buy as much as possible
direct from the producers, so it takes us a few hours to get round everything.
Ripper Rugby training. My mother has the children while I go to work.
Friday – chores and any activity that Louis
wants to be a part of, library story time, swimming with the home education
group, my mother has Louis for a few hours, then movie night where we usually
have company.
Saturday – chores, rugby, activities.
Sunday – adventure day. See “An Example of
One Typical Day” on page 5
Their time with my mother:
My mother looks after Louis and Joss while
I am at work. She usually does one physical activity with them, going to the
bike track, or gardening, or walking to the butcher. Often she will offer to do
something like painting, or puzzles, reading, crafting, writing. Then she does
what we call the “evening shift” so cooks the meal, bathes them and gets them
ready for bed – reading stories is a passion of both hers and the children, so
this happens a lot.
An Example of One Typical Day
So as to illustrate how we integrate
learning into our everyday life, I have chosen to write about an outing that we
had two weeks ago. As you will read, it was initiated by Louis and it engaged
the whole family.
On Sunday Louis said at breakfast that he’d
like to go on one of our Big Long Walks. Last winter we did this every Sunday,
and I think the recent drop in temperature reminded him about them, and
prompted him to say that he’d like to do it again. So, after breakfast we got
ready to go – getting dressed, packing a picnic, a change of clothes, getting
the dog ready, choosing bike or scooter, bundling up nice and warm, and
eventually leaving the house.
On our way we had continuous discussions
about everything, and mostly these conversations centred on what was happening
in the environment as we walked through it. We discussed why the leaves turn
different colours and eventually fall off the trees, why Granny likes to
collect them for the compost, how the trees know to grow new leaves at the end
of winter. Louis picked a dandelion seed head and passed it to me, telling me
to make a wish, and then telling me it was a dandelion, and then asking me why
a dandelion made a wish maker.
We got to the top of a hill and turned and
looked back at the five-kilometre path we had taken. Louis oriented himself by
using local landmarks, Te Mata Peak, the lights of McLean park, the Norfolk
Pines along Marine Parade. We discussed maybe getting some binoculars so that
we could try and see our house, which was too small to see without them.
Both Louis and Joss found many fences along
the way upon which to walk and practice their balancing, and jump off. They
navigated each other, helping each other when needed, and leaving each other
alone to get on with it.
Numbers along the way were identified: on
letterboxes, on road signs, on parked cars. Letters were also identified – a
“No Parking” zone has a corner line that looks like an “L” – “look Mama,
there’s an L for Louis”.
When we were nearing the playground that
was our half-way point, and the destination for our picnic, both children were
hungry and their legs were getting tired, so we talked about how having our
picnic lunch would give us more energy for the walk home, about how we needed
to make sure we eat enough when we’re doing extra physical activity, and how we
need to remember to drink water to keep our cells happy.
The playground was positively teeming with
children of all ages, all sharing the equipment as children are naturally drawn
to doing. Both Joss and Louis took off and independently found things that
interested them. At some point they were both drawn to the see-saw and Louis
carefully helped Joss onto her seat, then went down to the other end and
carefully pulled it down, knowing that Joss would go up to a height that was
probably uncomfortable for her. He gently hopped on and for the first few times
helped Joss get used to the feel of the see-saw. And then, when he was sure she
was comfortable he had a bit of fun bumping her down. There was a lot of
excited laughter. When Joss bumped a bit too far and bounced off the seat and
onto the pole, Louis lowered her gently and gave her a moment to get back on
the seat. She was very clear that she wanted more!
On our return trip we took a different
route and went along the shoreline. Louis and Ron spent a long time watching
the waves and counting the sets while Joss was getting sorted on her scooter.
We watched as one unsuspecting man stood watching the waves and got SPLASHED
and soaked. We were all laughing hard at that one. We walked past the port,
which has a functioning railway track and Louis asked lots of questions about
the difference between a car and a train and why cars don’t need tracks and why
trains don’t need steering. This train of thought (pun intended!) took about
3km to work through. A lot of questions, some repeated until he understood it,
and a lot of discussion.
We walked past an ice-cream store and he
asked for an ice cream and we said we didn’t have enough money for an ice cream,
and so ensued a discussion about how much money we have for food each week, and
how much the groceries cost, and how I volunteer at an organic vegetable
growers so that we can get paid in vegetables to save us some money, and about
how much money we have for extras, and about the takeaways we’d eaten the night
before using up our “extra” money for special things.
Louis got to choose our route when we were
close enough to home for him to recognise all the different ways we could get
there. He chose the way past the Aquarium and we saw children playing in the
fountain – they had made a mountain of bubbles in it and we talked about how
adding soap to the water makes the bubbles by making a “reaction”. And about how when he’s doing the dishes at
home he likes to make a mountain of bubbles too.
And then we arrived home at about 2pm, had
some home-made icecream and rested our weary legs by sitting on the couch
watching a movie together.
Our Obligations under section 21 (1) (b) of the Education
Act
I realise that in order to ascertain
whether we are teaching “as well as in a registered school” you will want to
see evidence of the some of the learning areas and key competencies that the
Ministry identifies as important. So I have highlighted how literacy, numeracy,
science and physical education were learned during this walk, and also how the
TRUMP competencies can be identified.
Learning Areas
English
and Literacy
There were many moments along the way that
the focus was on letters and how we use them to navigate our way through life.
Louis is easily able to identify the letters in his own name, because these
letters are most relevant to him they engage him and motivate him. Noticing the
corner line of the “no parking” zone is illustrative of his constant “making
sense of the world” through his particular lens. It is indicative that his
brain is making connections between what he learns on paper, or on the
computer, and what he sees in the environment around him. His identification of
the letter L is not limited to how it looks in one particular font, or written
by one particular hand. I think this is a brilliant example of how meaningful
learning permeates everyday life for us.
Louis is starting to be interested in what road signs say. STOP, or Give way, or the names of streets. He identifies that there are letters painted on the road that match the letters on the sign. He asks about why we have to stop and some intersections and just give way at others. He asks meaningful questions about why these things need to be on signs, “But why don’t people just stop when they need to?”
Louis is starting to be interested in what road signs say. STOP, or Give way, or the names of streets. He identifies that there are letters painted on the road that match the letters on the sign. He asks about why we have to stop and some intersections and just give way at others. He asks meaningful questions about why these things need to be on signs, “But why don’t people just stop when they need to?”
Maths
and Statistics
Numbers have always been interesting to
Louis. Long before he could identify any letters, he could identify that his
name and mine both had five letters. He often groups things in this manner.
On our walk he was happy to identify
numbers on letterboxes and road signs. Sometimes he would mix them up – a 36 he
would say was a 63. He is left-handed and I think that this helps him mirror
things. On our walk I would correct him and move on.
Our discussion about budgets have become
interesting for Louis in the last few months. He often asks Ron how much money
he earned on his last gig, and what that money would be used for – is it going
into the food budget? Or the house budget? Or the Card (paying off the credit
card)? He understands, through these conversations that the money is finite,
that each time we spend money we deduct that from the total we have available.
He understands that Ron trades his time and expertise for money for us to live
on, and he is appreciative of that.
This didn’t happen on our walk, but I
recently was working on my computer while Louis was playing with his lego. I
was impressed to hear him work out that because he didn’t have an “eight”
piece, he needed to use two “four” pieces.
Science
There were many moments of learning about
science on this outing. Balance on the fences and on the seesaw. Physics on the
seesaw and other playground equipment. Biology, of plants and also of people
when talking about being hungry, or thirsty, or tired. Chemistry when seeing
and talking about the bubbles.
Health
and Physical Education
We were engaged with our physical bodies
all day. Louis was learning about his balance and limits and exhilaration of
pushing them. As he does almost every day.
Languages
We were talking both English and Dutch
throughout the day.
Key Competencies
Thinking – when he asks probing questions for example why do dandelions grow
”wishmakers”
Relating
to others – when he played with Joss on the seesaw
Using
language, symbols and text – talking, discussing
letterbox numbers, the road signs
Managing
Self – communicating when he was tired, self
managing eating lunch, self managing what clothes he needed to wear, or when he
was cold and needed a jersey, self managing drinking water, unsupervised play
at the playground
Participating
and Contributing – engaging Ron and I in discussions,
engaging with Joss and other children at the playground, deciding which route
to take home.
Our Commitment
Parents who choose to learn with their
children at home are undertaking a major commitment to support their children
in any way that is available to them. We are conscious of this commitment, do
not enter into it lightly, and also look forward to spending many years with
Louis, facilitating his journey.
