Intentional . Self Directed . Curiosity Based Learning

Last year we tracked hours outside as part of the 1000 hours outside challenge. We loved it! We reached well past 1000 hours outside too. This year, for something new, I decided to track intentional & “accidental” (natural) “Learning Hours”.

To me, you cannot separate living and learning, but If I was to extract the skills and knowledge development focused time from our school aged little’s life, I have done so… simply by being mindful of what truly represents self development, or what some might prefer to see as educational.

In Australia, there are 800 hours of school each year. This year so far, I have tracked 200 hours of “educational” time. That’s actually how many hours roughly a school student would have completed by the end of this first term!

If we consider that one-to-one education is more catered and individualised, then we can imagine that you would need only a fraction of the time it would take to “teach” 20 or 30-1, as would happen in most classrooms.

What does this “education” look like in our lives? I’ll share this… as I feel there is a lot of curiosity around this for people. Well, instead of just reading about pets, we’ve had them. Learning all about the diets, habitats, health, behaviours and needs of particular insects and reptiles including butterflies, lizards and frogs (before releasing them back into the wild).

Instead of simply reading about gardens, growing food and sustainability, our daughters plant seeds with us, even germinate them if needed, plant them on a new or full moon and learn about “why”. We’ll watch youtube videos on how to grow certain foods, when to plant them and what conditions are best for them.

We’ll read about the world (geography) and history because it fascinates us, not because we are told what to think or what should matter to us. We explore endless questions together, and learn “together”, so that our children can see the “how to” learn, and build their own resourcefulness.

We spend endless hours in nature, observing the environment, encountering wildlife and the seasons, rather than merely reading or being told about it all. We’ll fall in love with characters from classic movies and seek out all their books… devouring them together, whole chapter books in a week, and then the children ask to read them again!

We’ll cook together and talk metrics and measurements, time and chemistry… because it interests us (the children and both of us). We are excited about learning, not doing it because we are directed to, but because we want to. We are not told what to think or learn… we simply don’t stop.

Throw in the occasional online Art Class or tutorial, activity book, documentary on a subject that our daughter has asked questions about… and you get quite the colourful life “curriculum”, that is wholly organic. This is something our children take ownership of and we love it that way!

Our daughter (6) initiates writing letters (snail mail) to friends and family, and keeps a journal scrapbook. She reads books at her “grade” level independently (often to her little sister) and has known her Auslan alphabet for about a year. She will often also sign to me when we are out in noisy places, which can be quite handy;)

Nothing is forced, because learning doesn’t happen that way… and when it does, it’s temporary, soon forgotten and wasted time…not joyful at all. This is why we love what we do and are so grateful for it!