One of the things that popped out during my first read of Project-Based Homeschooling is Lori’s advice not to take field trips just for the sake of taking a field trip. We were definitely in the habit of slotting in activities just because we could, and because I felt I should. I thought of the week as a series of blank spaces waiting to be filled, even while I was careful not to sign up Esmé for too many formal classes, lest I over-scheduled her. We had plenty of down time at home, mostly because I value it very much myself, but I was still looking for things to do, more often than not.
So, I methodically unwound my ideas about slogging around the city for the sake of exposing my kids to as much as possible in a frenetic way that felt — at times — like a bit of a traveling carnival. It’s simply not necessary. It’s more important to tailor our days to meet our kids where their interests are, and to give them long stretches to occupy themselves and develop their own interests, and to work on their projects. Time to wonder, imagine, dream, scheme, and make. And to be honest, I didn’t ever enjoy the Mondays = this and Thursdays = that way of shaping our weeks.
But we do still go on field trips. Less of them though, to be sure. We love the Beaty Biodiversity Museum, for example, which I wrote about here.
As most of you know, Esmé is all about snails. There are many varieties to look at the Beaty. Our discoveries and explorations there have been a jumping off point to other, related interests; nature studies, life cycles, exoskeletons, biology, bones, food chains, photography, drawing & sketching from life (or death, as it were), labeling research, and the value of cataloging for the sake of learning and sharing knowledge.
I have a feeling that Esmé’s next project will grow out of the things that fascinate her at the Beaty. Birds, perhaps. Or whales. Or plankton. Or perhaps photography? I really can’t guess. She has a lot of interests and a lot of curiosity, so who knows.
For now though, she asks to go to the “whale museum,” and so we do, on occasion, with our membership in hand. The last time we went we brought Auntie Ruth with us. She was suitably awed by it too. While Esmé and Hawk and I ran around looking at all the beautifully displayed creatures and such, Auntie Ruth watched the short documentary called Raising Big Blue. If you ever have a chance to watch this film about how they first buried the carcass for twenty years, and then moved the 26 metre whale skeleton 6000 kilometres clear across the country, do. Utterly fascinating.
It’s no wonder that Esmé finds so many things interesting. There are so many things to be interested in!
