…about a natural learning family by Robyn We are a natural learning family, with 11 y/o DS. Since before he was born we had decided on this path, and when he was 3 we packed ourselves up, left Sydney and started travelling. We chose 3 ys/o, as his immune system was stronger and he was out of diapers, which made life much easier when travelling. We spent the next 5 years travelling between the UK, USA & Canada, Europe and north Africa. For about 6 months while in England, DS wanted to try things out at a nearby school run by the local Buddhist community. This was a bunch of fun - more like a big playgroup with incense, yoga and meditation. By the time we returned to Sydney, DS had never come close to a school textbook, a curriculum or any sort of formal classroom like lessons on anything. Friends and family, who knew of our family choice and lifestyle were surprised to find that he could speak, read and write. They fully expected that he would be ignorant and illiterate. They were amazed to find DS was pleasant, respectful and interesting, that he didn’t obsess about TV, that he had opinions and was comfortable about expressing them. He had picked up an enormous amount of general and specific knowledge as we travelled, and had none of the attention or behaviour problems so often found in classrooms today. All this - happy child and parents - from never having set our minds to any specific course of study. Now he is 11 - and things are different. DS is now after specifics - he attends Spanish class at night school, piano lessons with a local natural learner mum, plus takes trampolining and weightlifting classes at the local PCYC. This is because of his own desire to know more about these things. He is a voracious reader and loves puzzles. As he now wants to know exactly what he knows, I prepare puzzles and quizzes so DS can test his own knowledge on his favourite subjects for the month: Greek mythology and philosophy. We have recently discovered a great book on math tricks by an Australian bloke called Bill Handley - how to do lightning fast math calculations. We found this because DS was asking how to do math easily and quickly. So was asked around and low and behold: there it was. I learned years ago that if I thought it was important for DS to know it, then that was my problem. If he didn’t think it was important, then he wouldn’t remember a scrap of the information, nor would he have any enthusiasm for finding out more. I often wondered how he would turn out - and he is always better and more wonderful than I could ever imagine. I used to think - what will he do when he is older? But now all I think about is, isn’t it wonderful that he is honest, thoughtful, curious and peaceful. He can do anything his heart desires and it will turn out right - because he is right on the inside. If DS comes to me with an interest in something, then it is up to us both to facilitate his learning. I help with resources and ideas and car rides to the library. He does the rest - the reading, the thinking, the research. The things which he knows about most are the ones where his reaction has been ‘hey wow - look at this!’ That is when I know it has caught his imagination and he will be absorbed by it for the next while - which could be 3 hours (as in reading every sex education/physical development book in the library in one session) or 6 months (learning about scorpions since he caught one in the back garden, then found her a husband. They did the wild thing, she killed him and now she is all broody and secretive.) This is all just to get to the point of our natural learner/child lead philosophy: follow, don’t lead; love, don’t shove; listen with an open heart; and protect your treasure from the nasties (unless they want to keep those nasties in a well sealed container). Robyn Western Australia