Subjects Hiding at Sea
Unschoolers Find Subjects Hiding Everywhere!
I know it’s hard to visualize HOW learning happens without curriculum.
How do they learn subjects when all they do is play?
HOW do they learn what they need?
So I have the perfect example for you from our beach trip this weekend.
It’s June in Texas. To say the least - it’s hot.
SO my unschooled daughter, now grown, her 8 year old son and his best friend and I, were off to Port Aransas. The four of us.
I have the PERFECT example of how learning happens from our encounter with a Portuguese Man-O-War.
I want to use this little jelly as an example of how it can be the portal to all the learning your kids will need.
But, if this is your first time here, welcome! If not, thanks for coming back. Go ahead and subscribe at your favorite podcast platform - or you can always listen to any of the
Unschooling Mom2Mom podcasts over at the Unschooling Mom2mom.com website.
Each week, I pop into your ears to help you see that unschooling works. Just something quick - because i know you’re busy.
Reassurance, practical tips, a little guidance from someone who’s done this. Unschooling is not theoretical for me.
I’m past the stage of crossing my fingers and hoping this works!
My own grown unschoolers are 34, 32, and 29 - all happy with their childhoods - that did NOT include curriculum. They own homes, businesses, have college degrees and families - all those worries that keep you up at night. They were mine too - but none of those fears happened.
It’s all just leftover from the conditioning you had with decades of school (and society) telling you to
- stay in line,
- don’t get off the path,
- follow directions
Instead of
"Explore your curiosities!"
"See where they take you!"
"Learn more about yourself, your interests, the world!"
So, when we have a lot of fear like that, we still have a lot of deschooling to do.
I have a ton of resources to help you with
deschooling or
understanding unschooling better, so reach out, I can walk you through it.
But back to my beach story.
We’re in the water and Jackson, my grandson, thinks he sees some plastic trash floating by. We’re only knee deep, so he starts moving toward it to fling it out of the water. The wave crashes, and takes it under. Next thing, we see it washing up onto the beach. And it is NOT plastic trash! It’s a Portuguese Man-O-War!
To be honest, I didn’t realize that until I sent the photo to my husband and he told me it was actually a Portuguese Man-O-War. Honestly, I thought he might be being dramatic so I wasn’t terribly concerned. I grew up in Texas and we have always had jellyfish off the coast. But I wasn’t that well-informed about these creatures. Still, my lack of knowledge was showing when I posted it on Instagram and referred to it as a jelly fish. Stay with me, because this all matters.
When my kids were growing up, we were forever bumping into little experiences like this. Tarantulas or snapping turtles crossing the road, solar or lunar eclipses, injured barn owls. It wasn’t always animal related, but in my house it often seemed to be.
We’d encounter something randomly, and then we’d want to know more about it. Back then, we didn’t have immediate access like we do now - googling our questions on our phones can open up deeper dives and all sorts of information. Why I’m bringing this up because these are perfect examples of how unschooling works.
When you have curriculum, even gentle sugar-coated pre-determined lesson plans, you miss the cool random opportunities that PROVIDE the learning you’re so afraid they’re going to miss! AND, your fear makes you cling to all this totally irrelevant information that the kids have no interest in. So it doesn’t stick. And they mentally wander off. And then you get frustrated because you have lots to do and you’re trying to check this box!
But with unschooling, you shift your priorities.
Completing the Curriculum isn’t what matters.
Your Real Life, present moment with your kids, takes the top spot for attention.
When you can set aside your
fears about gaps or people judging you or your kids, or fear that you’re ruining their chances for a successful adulthood, you can see the learning that’s all along the path - yours for the taking! No extra money. No brow beating to stay focused.
What about the Subjects??
So let’s circle back to the the beach weekend example.
I want to show you the SUBJECTS that we touched on just by living our life, going to the beach, and coming across this jellyfish.
I know, you’re like,
"Sure Marine Life...Science. ✔️ Check. But what about OTHER subjects?"
And I want to reassure you that they’re all there.
Language Arts
Language Arts is happening when we have some vocabulary expansion.
They’re not Really CALLED jellyfish - they aren’t fish! They’re not vertebrates. They correct term is
jellies.
So when you go to look up what you’ve found on the beach, new words like tentacles, bell sacs or bladders, waves and currents.
Just to kind of riff off that... how interesting is that word, “current”... ocean current, electrical current, current events, raisin-like currents... all various uses of the same word. If you mention the word "current," they might associate it with curry or cure.
You don’t have to think,
“Ok, what are the homonyms or various uses of the words?”
But it can work its way into your life. Maybe not right then at the moment, but over time, your child’s vocabulary is expanding - all because you’re having conversations that expand the vocabulary here and there.
Maybe later on, we’d talk more about it, and wonder if that beautiful beached creature had a family - or if they float alone solo. Maybe we’d make up a story about his life. Or is he a she? How would we know? Or maybe next time we go to the library, we notice a book about jellies or Portuguese Man-O-War - or simply see a graphic representation on the cover, maybe myths or folklore...research, literature, ... more language arts.
Geography
I might tell him, when I posted this on Instagram, someone said these are called Blue Bottles because that’s what they call them in Australia. And my guess is he’d still be thinking,
“that’s what I thought it WAS, floating around, someone’s plastic blue bottle!”
But I could show him on a globe where Australia is - and where Port Aransas is... and we could wonder if the same animals could live in such different places. Geography ponderings.
Math
As we’re looking at this Man-of-War in the sand, we’re looking at it’s size, and how many we are now seeing along the shoreline. We’re eye-balling the length of some of those tentacles and realizing how easily it could be to get stung, even if you’re several feet away from the floating part. We might wonder if the temperature of the day or the water effects whether they come to the shore, as we notice the patterns and shapes...all math.
Health
We talked about first aid options for stings, and how some people believe things that aren’t scientifically proven. We wonder who the predators are for the Portuguese Man-Of-War and we watch to see if the seagulls will risk the venom (or maybe be immune?) - all playing with the scientific method in our heads.
Science
I started learning more about the Portuguese Man-Of-War, and they’re really fascinating. Did you know they are Colony organism - multiple living beings merging together for survival. So it’s not even an “it”, it’s a “they!” And it produces it’s own gases to keep that bladder-like thing floating on the surface. AND, as I read more, I probably should have gotten the kids out of the water sooner when we saw several of these guys on the beach. Their venom sounds pretty awful. It almost seems like it should have been included in a couple of horror stories or murder mysteries - if you know of any, let me know!
But see how subjects all weave through here?
We didn’t look up jellyfish ahead of the trip. And we didn’t look it up afterward either.
I may mention some of the things I found out or show Jackson the YouTube video I saw about Portuguese Man-of-War - not to create a Teachable Moment, but more to share something he might also find to be interesting. His learning, is his. His choice to retain or not to retain. But when we remove the teaching part, the random manipulation to be SURE the information has been conveyed and received - when we stop doing that to them, so many more experiences are just... interesting.
It all becomes part of their life experiences. A growing pile of knowledge that they’ll be able to tap into when anyone mentions something that reminds of them of that beach trip and the marine life that was washing ashore.
No need for worksheets to remember that.
Or math calculations to make mental estimates.
It all adds up. It all counts.
One of the things that I love to do - besides this podcast - is create PDFs and videos for my Creating Confidence Membership group.
I was exploring all the subjects that weave in when you discover of a Portuguese Man-of-War in the Gulf of Mexico because it seemed like a great way to show you how Real Life really does cover what you need.
One little experience after another - it all adds up.
I created a one page pdf for anyone who’d like it.
I’ll have it for free for you to download, over at the website.
I’ve included more examples of the subjects - not because you need them - but because sometimes it helps to see how they’re always there.
Then when you see something else, you can think about these, and see the similarities.
Or maybe it will just reassure you and keep you from buying that expensive (and unnecessary!) curriculum.
Or, maybe you have to do a progress report for your state or your umbrella organization - I’ve created the lists for you.
We do these kinds of things in my membership group all the time - so if you need more hand-holding on learning is happening and unschooling works, you should join us! I’ll help you! And so will the fabulous community that’s over there! I’ll put links in the show notes - and links to the blogpost so you can get that pdf I just made today for you.
