Mmmm... potions and experimental recipes...

Rhiannon has maintained for years that she wants to be a wizard when she grows up. In preparation, she is potion-maker extraordinaire. Often I lose sight of her, and find her tucked into a corner of the kitchen, the dining-room, or the porch with an assortment of ingredients and receptacles.

While Tal enjoys potion-making, too, his activities are more goal-oriented. Rhiannon has very little concern for the chemical theory behind what she does; it's all about having fun. Games. Oh yes.

Games!

Uncle Lee and Jenn are thankfully good sports, and were perfectly willing to participate in potion games with Rhiannon. Witness the bottle-squirt game, and blowing balls of dog-hair and water out of a bowl! Absolutely thrilling experiments, all of them!!!

Among the many experiments are also food experiments. Sometimes she makes them for all of us (like one particularly peculiar dessert of honey, nuts, and raisins... in a bowl of water), and sometimes she makes them just for herself. This one is from this morning's breakfast: cornflakes, pepperoni, snap peas and lemon-juice... in a bowl of milk.

She discovered that sometimes experimental cooking is best done in smaller quantities, in case the outcome is less appetizing than expected... But she followed through and ate it anyway.

Rats!

Taliesin wanted pet rats for his birthday. He is certainly getting old enough to shoulder the responsibility of a pet, so we let him do the research and planning for his intended pets. But the litter he registered for wasn't due until after his birthday, so he had to make do with chocolate-cake rats!

...but we ate those rats. He served them to his friends at his birthday party. That crown on his head is his very special 10th-birthday crown. It is our family tradition that children receive a crown for their "crown year". Taliesin's is a golden circlet with fluorite beads worked into it.

Taliesin had registered for a litter of rats that were due on or about his birthday. When he hadn't heard anything by 2 days after his birthday, he emailed the breeder, and received the devastating reply that the doe had died in labour, along with all of her babies. He was so very sad; this is him replying to the breeder with his condolences.

The breeder he'd originally chosen didn't plan any new litters, so I got on the internet and looked for new breeders. As luck would have it, we did find a lovely person on the mainland who had a litter of rats almost ready to be adopted, and one male still unspoken for. She had another male that she'd intended to keep for herself, but after hearing Tal's disappointing story she offered to sell him both together. She had originally named these two brothers Harry and Ron, but Tal changed their names to Mercury and Star. Here they are at only a few weeks old.

And here they are as teenagers! There have been a few little bumps in the road as we get to know them (rat-lice, right off the bat, and then stress-induced respiratory illness, and potty-training woes), but Tal has so far overcome each hurdle with grace and dedication. He is a very responsible rat-owner, does all the care and cleaning himself, and luckily still smitten, as they are with him. A few months ago I knew next to nothing about keeping rats, and wasn't particularly excited about the idea, but they've definitely grown on me. They're incredibly personable, intelligent, and entertaining, and I think an excellent choice of pet for a dedicated 10-year-old boy.

This is What Democracy Looks Like: Kids for Climate Action Act Out Against the Pipeline

My kids participated excitedly in this action with three of their friends. It took me a long time to post this, but thanks to the person who shot the video.

Kids for Climate Action was founded by Sophie Harrison, who also organized this flash mob, and led the progress. The children divided into "oil" and "animals", and sang as the oil marched down upon the animals, where they frolicked on the beach. Then then attacked them with water guns, until the animals died dramatically, and they sang their way back up to the laughing men sculptures.

The voice singing (first) is Ta'Kaiya Blaney, who blessed us with her beautiful song, Shallow Waters.


Kids For Climate Action

Everybody Make Tracks! Why open-ended exploration is vital to learning, progress, and evolution.

My family has a lot of Brio train tracks. Yes. A LOT. I had quite a bit when I was a child - nearly enough to reach from one end of our 40-foot-long house to the other, and my husband had a similar amount, although his was somewhat thicker due to being from the early as opposed to the late 1970's. When we had children we put our sets together and added a few new pieces (those great tight curves that didn't exist when we were little, some fancy 'skytrain' supports, and a few non-Brio compatible track pieces that are much more affordable, and just as good). Having this much Brio means that we have a great time as a family building extensive rail-systems in the livingroom, or sometimes into other rooms. And working together means that we often have issues where one person's plan is impeded by another's. This is where things actually get creative. This kind of system-building is open-ended. There are infinite ways to solve any problem, which inspires creativity, creative exploration and (when working in groups) group-problem-solving.

Even the (admittedly large) limit of our collection is a good thing, because it promotes a different kind of problem-solving: making the best out of a specific set of resources. Running into obstacles (shortage of track; cranky sister; dog knocking over hills) is one of the best motivations for finding a creative solution. And what solutions we find!!


Imagine if we all accepted that for any given problem or question there were infinite possible solutions? That any time we get stumped we can continue along the old path and keep trying again, but we can just as easily take things apart and make a new beginning on the same good path, or make an entirely new concept. We can exchange a curve for a switch; a straight for a hill, or even run extensive tracks into closed spaces and then escape them with hills, cross-tracks, and tunnels. We can run tracks up onto the couch; connect broken links with blocks, paper, or our fingers; we can turn the tracks upside down to use them differently, and create sculptures with them, sideways! There is always room for change; always opportunity to make new roads; always the possibility of a failed plan, and infinite ways to adjust those plans!

There is a huge difference between doing research on a problem where a particular answer is already commonly accepted and the research consists only of finding others' answer and documentation, vs. researching purely by postulation, observation and exploration, where either there is no commonly accepted solution, or the querant does not know of or believe in any. The first is not creative; the second is. And in my opinion, only the second holds much merit.

I just took the kids to Science World, where we saw the Da Vinci exhibit, and their newly-renovated diggs. I wasn't that impressed. I've been going to Science World since it was the Science Centre, downtown, and it seems to me that most of the actually interesting features have not changed much in the past 15 years or so. There have been plenty of additions, but many of them are more gimmicky than interesting. Or, at worst, they're just cash-grabs. For example, how does a child learn about the drawbacks of our consumerist lifestyle by sliding down a plastic slide in the middle of what appears (only from the outside; not inside the slide) to be a molded-plastic garbage-heap? No. Not good. There are a few great features, though; things which allow for open-ended experimentation and observation. Some of these are the 'golden hands' electrical circuit, the infra-red camera, which allows us to experiment endlessly with heat and cold, the water-play and damming area, and the bee exhibit, which allows us not only to watch the bees' behaviour inside, but then to go out and look at them on the outside of the building. This kind of open-ended opportunity for experimentation is what inspires the scientist in each of us.

I am routinely disappointed by "science experiments" designed for kids, where the object is simply to teach the kids some particular "fact" or "theory". What does this say of the creators' or presenters' respect for the childrens' abilities? Not much! And children know this. They know that their research is intended only to help them achieve a particular preconceived bit of learning, and that they are expected to accept and trust in the "fact" they are having demonstrated. Many children might feel patronized or even (in my case) completely insulted. At worst, they feel inadequate as scientific minds capable of discovery.

My son came back from a play date recently, and told me he was disturbed to learn that his friend was being mislead: "We played his science quiz on the computer, and one of the questions was 'God made the crops to give us food -- true or false' ... and I could only get it right by answering 'true'!!" He was rather horrified about his friend's welfare. Never mind the religious issue; what are we teaching our children by presenting them with "facts" and expecting them to learn such absolutes? My son wanted an alternative! He wanted to get the question right by answering from his own thoughts! Is that too much to ask of his world? Yes -- we all have to be tolerant of others' methods of teaching, but I really can't accept that we box our children in by expecting them to believe instead of to explore.

As an art teacher, I have taught so many students (both children and adults) who feel that they "can only draw" such-and-such, or who strive to be like other 'artists' they know of. I feel like this is a tragedy. In measuring up to others, or to others' standards, we can never reach new heights. Innovation comes from reaching outside the known universe and into the vastness of our own individual creativity. A coercive approach to teaching, even when we set up circumstances that lead our children into believing that they're discovering an idea that is in actuality preconceived (how convoluted is that?!), is disastrous to all learning, progress and evolution. Please let's give our children the best we can; let's give them the freedom not to follow us, but to lead us in their explorations. Let us ask them what they can teach us!

As Mister Rogers says, You can grow ideas in the garden of your mind!

Science Fair and Unschooling Learning Opportunity

Thomas' dancing blob! It was a mixture of cornstarch
and water which, when blasted from below with
music, actually got up and danced!

We are members of a 'learning community' that has two parts: a classroom program for 1/2-time schooling, and a full-time-homelearning program for those of us choosing complete homeschooling or full unschooling (our family, of course, fits the latter description). But we still join with the rest of the 'schooling' community for field-trips, non-competitive talent-shows, celebrations, and of course... the science fair!!

Island Discovery Learning Community's science fair was a lovely chance for children and teens to develop projects and share them with their community. Most of the projects were developed entirely at home, and many without specific direction from parents, so the children were free to research, experiment, plan and report according to their own interests. Some whole families got involved, together. Children, parents, and visitors were treated to rocket-launches, chemical reactions, running-on-goo (!), musical vibrations, and even Thomas' wayward dancing blob (directly below)! For the second year running, this non-competitive exposition of wonder and learning was a true delight. Thanks to all those who took part, who cleaned up afterwards, and to science teacher Amy for spearheading the whole thing!


The Economy of Joy
Rhiannon's project was her "Economy of Joy", which is basically a form of gift economy, and which she's been writing about on her own blog, http://economyofjoy.blogspot.com. She created a free market at the science fair, and had a few donations, a few things taken away, and of course her dandelion chocolate cupcakes were very popular. All 50-something of them vanished before too long.

This is Rhiannon's sign/poster for her free market table at the science fair. If you'd like to
read it more clearly, just click it for a bigger version!

Uncle Adrian brought a DVD to give away; it was scooped up quite quickly by some happy
Mr. Bean watcher! To the left you can see an assortment of things brought by Rhiannon and others.

Chocolate Dandelion Cupcakes! No soy, no gluten, no eggs, no dairy, no corn, no nuts (and no icing because Mama didn't want to have to wipe all the walls of the school, afterwards). She baked them all by herself, including harvesting the many many dandelions that went into them, and of course they were a big hit. It makes people happy to make other people happy!!

And of course it also makes us happy to share our hard work with other people. Rhiannon took lots of time to share her blog and her ideas with both loved ones and people she'd never met, before. And she even had encouragement to put on more free markets! Of course she was thrilled about this. :--)

Space Ship for Interstellar Space Travel
Taliesin's project was a collection of his research and inventions for a spaceship that would be capable of long-term (multi-generational), interstellar space travel. He's been working on this idea for years, creating drawings and just planning in his head, but this year he actually tried to pull many of his ideas together to show people. No small feat. This is the distilled part of years' worth of thought and energy:

Proud? Oh yes. He was proud. Click to enlarge if you want to. You could zoom in to see the project a little better -- or just to revel in the total joy on his face!!

Again -- click to enlarge and read his calculations on the dial.

Tal proudly told us after that people had asked him all sorts of questions, but that he usually had a paper somewhere to show them the answer on! It must have felt great for him to go from random messy piles of papers to such a well-organised display!

Unschooling Fail
OK -- that's not really appropriate terminology - it's more like a learning opportunity. I made a big mistake and I hope I've learned from it. I got wrapped up in my own fears.


It went like this:
As is Tal's nature, he got rather distracted with this, as each idea he researched seemed to lead him in many new directions, most of which he tried to follow up on, and there were some tense times when I forgot my unschooling intentions and started to stress about his project. The whole thing is technologically over my head, so I just let him use my computer, and checked in once in a while to be sure he'd not been co-opted by some morally repugnant google-finds. But as the science fair approached and all he had was a few disorganised heaps of paper (from which things he had spent lots of time working on just seemed to vanish, once in a while, to his dismay), I became more and more concerned that he'd have nothing to actually show at the science fair.

He claimed he couldn't make a diagram because he didn't know what sort of propulsion he wanted to use, despite the fact that he had numerous diagrams of researched and invented rocket systems. So I said 'fine -- decide that, then!' And off he went googling, again.

An hour and a half passed. "Tal?" No answer. "What are you doing?"

He was staring intensely at the screen, and I heard the droning of a man explaining something. "Sh. Mama. Sh."

I came over to look. He had tabs open about the theory of relativity, Einstein, and was watching a video about special relativity. "Tali -- I'm glad this is interesting to you, but what happened to working on your project?" (Mama is trying really hard to keep her cool, here, while her blood-pressure mounts and the flashing red NOT READY FOR SCIENCE FAIR!! lights are going off in her head...)

"Well," he says, matter-of-factly, "I'm just figuring out warp-drive."

I lost my cool. "WARP-drive?" You've been researching all kinds of rockets, and now you take a giant tangent over to WARP-drive???! That's a whole new project by itself!! You already have research on a bunch of other propulsion methods; can't you just choose one of those?!!"

A familiar look of hurt and frustration crossed his face, and I felt instantly SO so guilty. "OK." He said.

I watched my son's crushed spirit slip away back to his antimatter drive. I just killed something in him and there is no forgiveness in me for this kind of trespass. "I'm sorry. Please. Just do whatever you want. There's nothing wrong with warp-drive." I tried to redeem myself by spending the next hour or so actively engaging us both in warp research, and actually, for the first time in my life, understood relativity to some meager extent, with the help of my 10-year-old son. Then I took the opportunity to show him some science-fair photos on google and explain that a nice tidy-looking display can really help people to navigate the information, especially when there's so much of it. He listened. But then I stepped back and decided not to involve myself in the project anymore.

I know my stressing over this goes against everything I want for my kids, and I just can't seem to let go of my own fears. So I let them lead. Sure enough; Tal got going about 3 days before the science fair, and managed to pull off a pretty awesome display in those 3 days. He had a facebook conversation with our friend Besh (who also happens to be a very cool scientist, and interested in colonizing Mars), and this inspired him so much that he decided to turn his project into a book so he can send it to Besh. This helped a lot with getting the thing done, and readable.

So yes. Not for the first time, I messed up big time on the unschooling front, but my son's tolerance saved the day.

New Blogs of Loved Ones!

Here I present two beautiful new blogs for you to peruse (and seriously, this blog's not gone -- I'll get the photos into all belated posts and post them here soon -- I promise!!!).

The Wet Edge:
"The Wet Edge" refers to the most-recently-brushed edge of wet varnish - a point of high concentration (zen??) when applying the seemingly infinite layers of varnish to the bright-work of a boat. Watch as our very dear friends Suki, Jon, Kai and Hunter travel down the west coast on their 44' sailboat. They've pulled the kids out of school and are fully life-learning, now. And this amazing adventure is just the way to do it. It's a fabulous read, so far, and they've only just begun!

The Economy of Joy:
Basically this is Rhiannon's new term for a gift-economy.
I can hardly express how proud I am of my daughter for her blog! She not only conceived of this idea herself, but has put enormous effort into researching, studying, inventing, and expressing her many discoveries and ideas on the topic. With a little guidance from me on how to set up a blog, she set it up, designed it, and conceived and made every part of it herself. Now all I do is watch the posts come in!
In some ways it's obviously the blog of a 7-year-old, but it's heartwarming to see her positive outlook to a peaceful future for humanity, and her ideas (both collected and invented by her) are encouraging for all of us.