learning
by one of the children’s primary educators
Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, about to travel north
Before we set out, one of the frequent questions was, “What will you do about the kids’ schooling?” It’s hard to answer that question honestly without looking careless. You see, other than knowing we would miss books, I had no concerns. I was certain the learning would take care of itself. You cannot stop children learning.
What I did not know is that ER2 would still be saying “Thank you” in Khmer to every non-white face when we had already been in Vietnam a week.
(Note to self: teach her to switch to the Vietnamese “kum-ing”)
I did not know this would be the year academics-averse-son would wake up one day wanting to know how to do square roots and then over the next few days learn all his times tables.
I did not know the little bodies would get Dadda drawing in their journals and that they would then enjoy scratching over his sketchings.
I suspected everyone would miss cooking, and I guessed Kgirl10 would be the one to pay careful attention to the ingredients going in to our meals. This turned out to be true, especially for the meals prepared on the street in front of us.
I had an inkling they all might write more, but I had no idea just how much.
Jgirl14 has recently completed the final draft of a multi-page business proposal (including a ten year plan) for establishing a farm.
Kboy11 has also worked through a number of business proposals, none of which returns enough profit to be considered worth his while pursuing 🙂
With his older brother, he has designed some watches and written advertising campaigns for them. At Mr H’s suggestion, they designed new-and-improved tuktuks in Cambodia too.
The four eldest have each designed a house for if we buy a block of land after the trip! (inspired by J14’s business I think….and perhaps even the different houses we have seen).
Lboy8 has stopped sprinkling capital letters randomly through his writing.
He and Mboy6 continue to converse almost daily in the little Lao they picked up. We didn’t know we would all end up liking Lao. We certainly had no idea just how much we would learn. And that we would remember it. (M6 and Tgirl4 still sing a song they learnt at the book party, not that they know what it means).
I didn’t know T4 would become an expert at UNO and SET. Neither did I know just how long it would take them all to learn that if you cry out, “Cheat” the game will be stopped and everyone declared a loser. But perhaps I should have 😉
I didn’t know that ER2 would charge everyone 20 baht in her shopping games for a couple of months and then switch to “50,000 dollars or kip, you choose, 50,000”.
So I sit here writing this just before we hop on a train at 10pm. We will travel all night, tomorrow, a second night and another full day. We will disembark in Hanoi. It will be winter. The children have learnt about tropical thunderstorms and monsoon and dry season and 40 degrees Celsius….now we will move on to learning about cold and snow. We have learnt about chitchats and monitor lizards and elephants. Coming up will be horses and cows. We have learnt about Pol Pot and French conquests….it’s nearly time to remember our readings of Genghis Khan.
Communism, war, worship, consumerism, town planning, poverty, pollution, racism, food production, societal structures, sustainable living, eco-systems…..we’ve engaged with all these ideas in the past nearly-four months.
See why I wasn’t worried about learning?
And I’m not worried about spending the next two days on a train doing nothing with the kids, even if they don’t get out the maths textbook.
I’m sure they’ll learn something (maybe how to say thank you in Vietnamese).
Tags: children, learning, postcard: Vietnam, transport
rayres
Our children go to a regular school at the moment, but I am really looking forward to the ‘travel schooling’ aspect of our planned rtw trip. As a family we already spend a lot of time reading and visiting museums so I’m sure it will be more of the same. One of our favourite London ‘field trips’ includes a trip to an ice cream shop where they make the ice cream on site and you can watch – sounds like your daughter would enjoy that! Best wishes Victoria
In my early years I was an itinerant learner: starting in England, going to India (2 different cities), back to England; 4 primary schools, 4 secondary schools; (and a war) Later, 4 technical Institutes and 3 other countries and my ‘formal’ education was nearly done. I grew up in a world where ‘children were seen but not heard’; where it was deemed a priveledge if Dad actually spoke to you as an individual, and where your opinions were definitely not to be considered or even heard.
What a fantastic opportunity your kids (my grandchildren!) have. May they appreciate the loving concern that goes into their ‘painless’ education. Wish I was one of them!
Fantastic. I love hearing about true education. I especially am enjoying hearing how ER is growing up. She will be so very changed when we see you…if you ever come back…you’d better…at least for long enough to catch up with me!
Love
K
x
Ah, Karen will need help. Best I am there to help out with … helping 🙂
I love this post! It is so wonderful. We often have in our hearts beliefs around ed philosophy and live by what we believe as best as we can … but this is wonderful! What a privilege!
I loved Grandpa’s post. What a blessing.