Unschooling is a term coined by John Holt who advocates that children are natural learners and learn best when they learn what they want, when they want with minimal adult intervention. Laura from Speargrass is a strong advocate of this and seeing how successful the system has worked for their family, I decided to do a little more research on the subject. First and foremost, Education and Learning are different things; doing well (or not) in school has little to do with learning. The earlier is about being able to answer questions in exams, the latter is about understanding and applying knowledge. According to John Holt and other research done on literacy, it takes 30hrs for a person to learn how to read; both adults and children. That is less than 2 weeks of school! The problem nowadays, is that we introduce reading to children at too early an age with "dumbed-down" material that may not be of interest to them. On top of that, we add on the complication of learning phonics and rules, and make everything so complicated that it puts them off. If we waited for the right time, the children would naturally seek to read as it is a means to an end; to be able to read things that interest them. After the basic 30hrs of instruction, they will learn to read & understand words contextually and this is later enforced through frequent exposure to the same words. I largely agree with the above. Stephan is dyslexic and we had struggled to teach him how to read since the age of 3. That was probably way too young! The therapists used phonics based methods; sounds-write program, orton-gillingham approach…. And to be honest, I don't understand any of the rules. Basically, there are too many rules and too many exceptions! By the time he had worked all that out in his head, he'd lost interest in what he was reading. About 1 year ago, we started using audio books with book support. Stephan would listen to the stories and follow the words on a hard copy book. He was able to read interesting books that would normally not be accessible to him at his reading level. This coupled with reading glasses (an optician specializing in learning difficulties found that his eyes had difficulty focusing) and Stephan is now an avid reader! Natural School of learningIn the month we spent at Speargrass, I saw how our own children have become more independent and how the older children learn and have been very impressed.
Personally, I remember little of what I learnt in school. History of the Industrial revolution? Calculas? Accounting standards? Tax Laws? I did relatively well in school but the reality is that none of what I learnt is relevant to my life now. Would I have turned out "better" if I had been given the freedom to learn on my own? I am not sure.
Even though I do not utilize the knowledge I learnt, I believe that the process of going to school and taking exams teaches us discipline, focus and the tenacity to get through whatever it takes. Life is after all not only about doing the things we want to do, and often, persevering at something that doesn't, at first glance, seem appealing often gives us an even greater sense of accomplishment when we succeed. I also fear that if our kids were unschooled, they would become too much like us. Children are products of their environment and if our kids do not go to school or have other avenues of garnering information, all the materials and information given to them will be governed by our interests and beliefs. Wouldn't this be limiting for them? There is a Democratic school movement that sounds very interesting. Children are in a school environment, but the children decide what, when, how they want to learn with the guidance from teachers. Sudbury School, Summerhill School are 2 well known schools that I am going to look further into. …
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Dave has been patiently explaining his farming techniques when we are out in the field. His family has been working their land this way the past 30 years; building soil fertility and maximizing harvest. Zucchini has one of the shortest crop cycles; it takes just 4 weeks from seed to harvest. 1. The soil is prepared with soil additives about 6 weeks before planting - lime (zucchinis require a ph of 6.5), blood & bone and old bird Poo (phosphate) is added. 2. Weeds are hooked out, irrigation lines laid. 3. seeds are planted about 70cm apart. 4. New plantings are watered with soluble Nitrogen and potassium. 5. Seedlings can be seen in a few days and seasol solution (phosphorus) is given to help root production. 6. At 4 weeks, the plants are ready to be harvested and will bear fruit for approx 10 weeks. 7. Fruits have to be picked daily as they grow very quickly. The process is scientific with almost 100% success rate. I am currently inclined towards following Fukuoka's No-work farming technique so am a little at odds with the system here. That being said, we are very grateful to Dave for all he has taught and shared with us. His passion for farming, dedication and hardwork has been inspirational. Notes from the field (I am recapitulating this from memory, so it might not be correct…..) 1. watermelons require a ph of 5.5, pumpkins 6, zucchini & the cucumbit family 6.5, nightshade family (tomatoes, capsicums, chilli, potatoes) 8. 2. NPK in short : Nitrogen -> big green leaves; Phosphorus -> deep roots; ; K Potassium-> flowers & fruit 3. Grow green manure in between planting seasons using Sorghum (mass) and cow-pea (nitrogen fixing). Super Dave & his cattle
We finally mustered the courage to leave our little bubble in Speargrass. We were supposed to be learning about farming, so decided that a stint in a real commercial farm might be necessary. David & Theresa make a living growing and selling vegetables, but the operations are in no way industrial. They have a 160 acre property outside Batchelor but only a small area is being utilized and the crops are being rotated every 4 years. We did our first few days in the fields harvesting Zuchinni, tomatoes, watermelon & Kale. It is back-breaking work and I am in awe at how courageous and hardworking they are. Theresa is 7 months pregnant and they are juggling looking after Emma, their 2 year old, farming and building their house. It is overwhelming. The "not perfect" vegetables are given to the animals…. Boxes and boxes …... A good watermelon – sunburnt on the top, turning yellow at the bottom with a slight tinge of grey dew and makes a musical "thump" when tapped. During our afternoon off, Benoit, Stephan and fellow wwoofer, Marion, built a shelter for the generator. Swimming in nearby Florence Falls and Bulley Waterholes.
My relationship with meat has been put to the test these past few weeks. Our friends at Speargrass Farm are Hunter Gatherers; They eat what they grow and kill and are pretty heavy meat eaters. I had not been eating meat for a while and there are countless reasons for not doing so; It is cruel to kill animals, farmed animals are kept in deplorable conditions, it is unhealthy to eat meat, it is environmentally unfriendly to rear animals for food, meat has large amounts of antibiotics and hormones, eating meat makes me feel heavy, bloated and unwell and so and so… On a micro-level at Speargrass, eating meat makes sense though. It is an ethical intelligent healthy process that is essential to them living a sustainable self-sufficient life - Animals that are reared on the farm are happy, healthy and loved - Only good-sized adult male animals are hunted - A “prayer” or thanks is given to the animal - The animal is killed quickly and cleanly - Every part of the animal is utilized - And Laura cooks deliciously….. Making LeatherI decided that I would work on the skin of the kangaroo that we killed last week and make some leather under Luke’s guidance. It is quite a yucky process; The rotting meat, the smells, the flies… But I overcame my initial revulsion and fleshed a kangaroo & goat over 4 days.
We are currently at Speargrass Farm, an off-grid sustainable farm 200km south of Darwin. Luke & Laura have a 6 acre property in the bush that they have spent the past 12 years converting into a living testament of natural living. I was very inspired by some of the reading material in the Speargrass library and am going to work on scenario Project Do Nothing over the coming weeks. Natural Living, Natural Farming, Natural Diet, Natural School……... The farm is isolated but there is a constant flow of visitors and the 3 children, Ginger, Wren, Chilli have an abundance of animals to keep them company; 45 goats, 50 chickens and ducks and an assortment of pet animals including Barney, the bull; Bethany the kangaroo; Jump & Dusty, the dogs, the guinea pigs, the tree frogs etc… Our own children absolutely adore it here and don't want to leave. The girls are “unschooled”. Learning is led by whatever interests them and from what I can see, is a huge success. They teach themselves and the parents are there to provide guidance. They are well-spoken, sociable and knowledgeable on an amazingly wide array of topics. Before we decided to take this year off, I spent quite a bit of time researching Homeschooling techniques. Basically, there are 2 main methods; on one spectrum, we have the Free-schoolers who adopt a democratic system and let the children decide what they learn, and on the other spectrum, we have Distance Education. There were outstanding results from Free-schoolers and I was tempted to give it a go, but being risk averse, we went with Distance Education and signed up the children with SIDE (School of Isolated Distance Education) and CNED. To be honest, Distance Learning is difficult and we are struggling with it. Benoit is considering several new career options : Bread-maker, Poultry Farmer, Goat Farmer, Bee-Carer, Hunter / butcher The Family Ariston went away and we played farmers for a couple of days…. Benoit is very attached to the goats now!
Birdwood Downs Station (BDS) is owned by a group of philanthropic Americans and is run as a not-for-profit social enterprise. The history of the place is quite interesting. Birdwood is the grass that was used to regenerate the soil and turn useless bushland into pasture for cattle. At its peak, the pastures were able to support 250 cows and a business producing hay and seeds for export. The government then sold the company 2,500 hectares of land on which the station is situated for a small price. This has inspired us to work on Project Scenario B (Details below for reference) and Benoit is already doing research on grants and subsidies available in Europe for land regeneration. BDS is run in the form of a quasi-community. Workers are not paid but receive food, lodging and a share of returns from projects they launch. Business includes cattle rearing, horse breeding, horsemanship training, tourist accommodation and last season, when they had a volunteer chef, they ran a restaurant and also sold fruits & vegetables. Volunteers stay in huts and take communal meals in the homestead. Hans, the manager, was a Dutch Management Consultant who came to BDS 8 years ago, volunteered and loved the place so much, he never left. He is now director of the company and is looking at building a house on the station. We had wonderful discussions on ideology, philosophy and our various wacky projects. Currently, there is a need for the station to have an additional member to help run the tourist operations and manage the vegetable gardens. The kids want us to have horses at our new place. Apparently, a horse can produce 22kg of poo a day. Can you imagine how much compost we can make with that! Well, we would probably have to produce 22kg of grass to feed it, so maybe it isn't such a good idea... Some Observations & lessons learnt from BDS
Mark Nelson, the wastewater gardener, is one of the founding members of BDS. Black & grey water from the homestead is filtered through gravel then goes directly into a garden. (We had planned to do a simplified version by running the grey water from our washing machine at our house in Oceanic Drive into a gravel pit in the front gardens.) He was also 1 of 8 scientists who lived in a sealed, closed-loop Biosphere dome for 2 years. Project Scenario B (Peri-urban Farm)
Identify a need for redevelopment & regeneration of land in the vicinity of a large city (eg : abandoned industrial zones) and obtain subsidies / grants to start up a project consisting of
Our Needs : To create something that contributes socially (regenerating the environment / rehabilitating people in need / supporting healthy food production / small business creation / providing community space) Local Government Needs:
Market Needs :
Meimei is not afraid of horses, but is still terrified of dogs! We started our first WWOOFing (Willing Workers On Organic Farm) project 1 week ago at Birdwood Downs Station. It is pretty hard work, waking up at 5.45am, working from 6.30am-12.30pm, then having to school the kids. We are doing Pasture Management in the paddocks (aka weeding ) cleaning and building maintenance. Fellow Wwoofer, Kevin, is an Agronome (specialist in plant genetics I think) and we are hoping to get to work with him in the nursery and gardens in the coming days. Stephan is now quite the specialist in planting Boabs, irrigation and looking after the chooks. The great thing about being here is sleeping in a real hut, in a real bed and cooking in a real kitchen. I think I needed a break from the camper trailer!
We are in our third week at Embalgun and are still in awe of this beautiful paradise. We have worked out a little routine that seems to work well. The greatest challenge is finding “Alone time”. It is intense having the kids 24/7 and we have the local kids who often join us for school, play and meals so I now know what it would be like to have 15 kids!! It is a little overwhelming and tiring so we called time-out today and I had my first child-free rest day.
Stephan's classroomBenoit is searching for a new career ...
In the spirit of the trip, we have done a little analysis on whether it would be possible for us to live in a community such as this somewhere. (The work is documented below for reference.) There are many reasons why it won’t be possible, and going through the process has helped us understand better the things we want and don’t want. Project Scenario A
Long-Term engagement within an indigenous community – Invest & create a financially viable & sustainable tourism site in exchange for a long-term sub-lease of a piece of land which can be our home (with access to the sea and fresh water bore on the land). Our Needs : To create something for our future that can also help others : working with children & young adults; living a simpler & more authentic life with space to grow our own food, build our own home, educate our children and give them a healthy & meaningful environment to grow-up. Local community Needs:
Market Needs (Tourists) : To have an authentic experience in a peaceful remote environment with access to good food, simple but aesthetically pleasing and comfortable facilities. Project Objective : To provide know-how to support a local community that wants to kick-start a commercially viable activity by creating a site that welcomes mid-long term visitors in search of a genuine experience.
Stakeholders
Threats + reasons why it will not work
We wanted to stay longer in Karinjini for the beautiful hikes, but it was really too cold, so we headed up North in search of somewhere warm and calm to start a new chapter. No more holidays…. It was time to get started on a routine and schooling the kids!
After a few failed attempts, we finally settled in Embalgun, Middle Lagoon in the Dampier Peninsular. Embalgun is about 200km North of Broome. Most of it along unsealed dirt road. It is pretty close to paradise though; Deserted beaches, pristine waters, fish galore, whales, dolphins, turtles… Will Smyth started welcoming visitors to Embalgun a few weeks ago, so there isn't very much of a set-up yet, but the place is full of potential. Will is a "half-caste" from the stolen generation. He was taken away from his mother when he was 4 months old and brought up by Irish nuns and German priests. Will, his wife, Colleen, their 9 children and 29 grandchildren are the Embalgun community. They are warm, hospitable and tell the most amazing stories. We spent an amazing first 3 weeks. The camping we did was probably a little too hardcore for our visitors, but they did really well; Dug their own shit holes, drove in mud, corrugated roads for kilometers on end, set-up in rainstorms, suffered extremely cold temperatures, 6 days without a shower, no running water, electricity or internet…. I think we put them off camping for good. We did get to see some pretty amazing places though! Wagoa Bay, KalbarriNotes : a. Wagoa Beach Campsite (***) : Great views, Dune walks, Hot showers, Camp Kitchen $35/night. b. Finlay's Fish & Barbecue (****) : Genuine Food for Genuine People. Must try the Thai Curry Fish Wings. Bush Bay, CarnavonNotes : a. Bush Bay Campsite (***) : Difficult access road, 4WD mud, sand & corrugated road. No Facilities, bring water, dig own toilets. $5.50/adult & $3/child. Quiet secluded. Not a good swimming beach, but wild and beautiful. Kilos of cockles to be picked in the sand. (When cooking, remember to rinse and soak in fresh water overnight. We didn't and had very very salty & sandy vongole!) b. Gary’s Refrigeration in Carnavon (*****) : Nicest refrigerator repairman I have ever met. The fridge broke down again 1 day later, but he gave us enough crabs & fish to feed the whole family so it was well worth it! NingalooNotes : a. Ningaloo Station (*****) : Difficult corrugated access road. No Facilities, bring water, chemical toilet required, rent a firebox, bring own firewood, (neighbor snitched on us when we picked up twigs from the beach!!). Amazing beach & marine life, well spaced out sites– request to stay at South LeFroy Beach. Many rules, but well worth it. Lobster permit required. Great walks around the station with hundreds of kangaroos and goats. Beware of snakes in the bushland. Look for Mudpools in the station and treat yourself to a natural mudbath. $35 per week per adult & half price for children. We could have spent a month here! KarinjiniNotes : a. Dale’s Campground (****) : Nice grounds but you will need to arrive early in the day to get a spot. (If not, you can camp in a temporary site until the next day.) Camp compost toilet, water 10km away. Beautiful hiking & swimming in the pools. Very very cold nights (4degrees!). No fires allowed. $10/adult & $2.50/child. b. Karinjini Eco Retreat (-) : $20 per person per night. A bit of a scam in my opinion. This is supposed to be owned by the local indigenous community but there were no aboriginals working at the retreat. It cost Rio Tinto & the Aussie government $9million to build this place, and one wonders where all that money went….. Someone needed some fancy CSR project to put in the Financial Statements?? c. Use the red soil & yellow stone to make natural paints. d. If driving from Exmouth to Karinjini, remember to stop for gas @ Nuantarra Gas Station. We still had more than half a tank, didn’t pay much attention and ran out of fuel 120km south of Tom Price!! THANK YOU K-PA, K-MA, NANA, MAT & KIT for being so patient with us on the first part of our journey. We miss you!!!!
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