Joyfully Making Learning Connections

We had our second meeting of Joyful Learning Connections last night. I just love that little group... and it was nice and small so we got some good talking in until almost 11pm....

We talked about all sorts of things... structure or no, how to give up the schooly model, strewing, high school, joy.

I was telling the others about Leonie's idea for pegs. Melissa Wiley wrote a wonderful summary and application of summation of pegs on her blog. Then I just got lost in Melissa's wonderful blog. I just have to be careful when I read it because it is so beautiful, she writes so well that I start wondering how she does it all...but it is good practice for me to ground myself and not compare.. :0 and enjoy being encouraged and inspired by her ideas.

But, otoh it also got me thinking about the rich world we do have on the Internet. I go back and forth, thinking I spend too much time here, or writing or reading about ideas. But then I realize that is part of my vocation and if I can seperate out when I am in information overload, or start to venture to the comparing mode... so much is gained by these on line connections.

Anyway, I got to reading (again) about her Tidal Homeschooling. I found an excerpt that really describes well what I was trying clumsily to say last night at the meeting. Here is how Melissa puts it..

Then it occurred to me that I've overlooked an aspect of
my beachcombing scenario. I'm the one strewing the beach with treasures for the children to discover. You see, this is where the metaphor breaks down. Sometimes, yes, I am simply the person bringing the children to the metaphorical strand and turning them loose to explore. But other times—a lot of the time, when I think about
it—I have visited the beach in advance and filled the tide pools with
interesting creatures; I have hidden the treasures behind the dunes.

This strewing is something unschooling parents talk a great deal about.
It is the same thing Charlotte Mason meant when she said, "Education is a life. That life is sustained on ideas...we must sustain a child's inner life with ideas as we sustain his body with food," urging parents and teachers to provide hearty feasts of 'living' books and firsthand encounters with the natural world.

Of course, Miss Mason recommended regular and orderly mealtimes, while an unschooler would probably say that the human mind thrives best when allowed to graze. But in both cases, we see a committed, thoughtful parent doing the shopping and preparing the food. I am doing just as much preparation (to jump metaphors again) during our low-tide times as I am during high tide.

Whether I am piloting the boat on a fishing trip—as I am doing now with our studies of German and Shakespeare—or whether I am hiding bits of sea glass in the sand for a wandering child to discover (or not), my role is indeed that of "guide, philosopher, and friend."

You can read the whole post here.