Whole Life Learning: the real deal.

I am sitting here feeling quite contented, the house truck is in the throes of chaos, as we build new drawers and shelves and fine tune existence in the 5m x 2.5m space, on the back of a truck, that the four of us live in. we are continually refining to make life special in our little space, so that all our needs are met.We just flew home to Oz after 29 days travelling in Bali, Indonesia. We travelled really light, taking one simple backpack that we stuffed two changes of clothes each in and Moss's scooter, ready for anything, we didn't make too many plans. We wanted to immerse ourselves in the flow, find our way on a pretty tight budget and follow whatever felt inspired!

Travelling with children is so exciting, It was interesting being monsoon season, sometimes we were a little trapped indoors! The four of us loved the freedom of all of us piling on a motorbike, which just isn't allowed here in Oz! Choosing a road to follow and discover its secrets was such a pleasure. Lotus loved the wind in her hair on the bike and often fell asleep on me, Moss would ride up front leaning on Peck, we all squeezed together. veerrrrry fun! here we come cacao farms, coconut groves, volcanic beach hideaways, water temples, mangosteens, dingy warungs, bright flowers, rice terraces, colourful markets.....

This is a bit like what we looked like on our bike!

It was on this trip that I came to realise a few things about my children's eagerness to learn, autonomy, syncronicity and passions. Moss was thrown into an entirely new country and was really really emotional, it was challenging for me to be with these emotions~ with Bali belly, it was monsoon, it was hot, yet really recognising and holding space for him felt so important.

As Moss adjusted, he immersed himself in the kids play with fireworks. Every day for two whole weeks before, during and after xmas, and up to NYE, he would carefully select his fireworks and eagerly anticipate the evenings return so that he could play with the Balinese kids, setting off really loud and bright fireworks!

Moss was so passionate, we did not limit his fireworks passion, in fact we were able to safely and easily facilitate this new passion and take it seriously with him. Moss grew so much in his confidence as he interacted with many age groups and cultures, felt into his own limits as he explored the many varieties of explosions, he was able to gauge by observation (not being told but us being present ) how far was a safe distance to stand from the little detonators. He connected so much with his self awareness, not to mention his adventurous daddy over this new interest as well!

Moss was able to figure out how much currency he would need for an icecream and take him self down to the store and purchase what he wanted. He grew in confidence and started really relying on his inner resources so much more. Free range in Indo.

We have had such a strong attachment with Moss while really learning to facilitate and assist him in his autonomy, encouraging his choices etc, yet at the same time being more than willing to be there when he needed us! which was often and for a really long time... at the moment, he is realising his incredible abilities and letting us know that he can do it! and do anything at that!

What really surprised me was Mossy's questions. It was like the world opened up and EVERYthing has become fascinating, he wants to figure it out and the constant questions are SO MUCH FUN! Moss has shown me many subjects that I personally would like to get deeper understanding of, through his thoughtful questions. It is such an exciting time for me as a mama choosing this path because I feel so honoured to witness this little being be here in his absolute wisdom and newness.

Which brings me to this little exerpt from the site "The Natural Child Project"

http://www.naturalchild.org/jan_hunt/evaluation.htm

"Unschoolers are often described by what we do not do; we do not "teach"; we do not impose an arbitrary, artificial curriculum; we do not structure the hours of our "school day". But there are so many things we do:

• Answer questions. Many of us believe that this is the most essential aspect of unschooling.
• Encourage creative and cooperative solutions to problems as they arise.
• Find resources and information to support whatever interests the child is currently exploring.
• Attempt to illustrate, through our own actions every day, such personal qualities as kindness, honesty, and responsibility.
• Model the joy of learning through our own discussions, reading, and research."

What I am really excited about is everyday, since their births, my babies have expanded more and more, touching new things, feeling new textures, tasting life's many offerings, and that is without me in their way.

Life and learning are one, life simply begs to be explored, pondered, dreamed of, questions asked....

Moss who has only ever typed his name, picked up chalk yesterday and WROTE it. I have never coached him with letters or their sounds, he simply learns by looking at letters, asking me to read signs, books, menus, App instructions, youtube video titles and comments. He is, as are all of us constantly immersed in life, it seems to just rub off...

This is all nothing new for many of us, yet I find it so exciting to relax, trust and get out of the way while my children discover their capability and creativity thru their inquisitivity.

I have nothing to teach them and everything to remember.

How are YOU sharing your gifts with the world?

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I want to say a huge thanks to Goddess Leonie for all her beautiful passionate joyfull soul~love~filled giving. Baby you rock. Thank you for the difference you make!

Just say "Yes!"

One thing I have learnt from our totally in the moment kids, living each moment to its fullest potential, is that saying yes, or meeting a need, is the ultimate connection. Dayna Martin of www.daynamartin.com says that a child's wants ARE a child's needs.

Meeting a need with love and connection for me is really, really important for me. I want my children to know that their needs/wants are as important and valid to me as they are to them, and assisting them to meet that need/want is a really, really beautiful thing.

What if our children grew up knowing that they are powerful creators AND worthy of all that they dream of? What if we gave them that message with our interactions rather than the alternative?

I come from SUCH different conditioning, and I am allowing myself to be open to new ways of saying Yes! daily. As a mama who is choosing this path, of Radical Unschooling, every day I find ways to give my children really positive messages about abundance, about their connection to their own feelings, to their own needs and wants and to their own truth.

That openness to responding with wide open "Yes", helps me know that we can find a way to meet that need together, if not now in this moment then we make a plan to help that or even more importantly ALLOW the energy to flow so it CAN manifest. I believe that because of that knowing that it can happen, it invites really interesting ways for the desire to manifest, for example:

Not every time we are in a shop, can I meet Mossy's need for a product right away, instead of thinking "ho no! here we go again" I stop and check in to see if it feels "authentic" for me to meet that need right away by buying it, there on the spot. Breathing, checking in, and validating his needs are important steps for me. Sometimes finding other interesting ways to meet that need are important too.

A week ago, due to my monies being allocated to certain places that week, I was in a situation where M was quite adament that a certain new wooden toy would be a great and fabulous life enhancing experience, he expressed strongly his desire for this toy.

I got down on his level, kneeling beside him and said, "Moss, I know that this is something you greatly want to bring into your life, your needs are really important to me and I want to help you find a way to bring this into your experience." I expressed that

I was really open to ways to meet this need, and because I knew that he is a powerful creator, that I believed beyond anything that he could and would have this toy. (Just not right at this moment)

BTW, I am really open to other ways of expressing this, I was met with tears, and a little guy that didn't want to leave the Post Office, we DID stay a fairly long time in there talking quietly, comforting, allowing tears to flow. I sat with him the whole time. Letting him know I really understand his feelings. I guess, Validating needs and responding compassionately.

Mossy got up and was able to put the toy back, when he was ready, while i waited, and we strolled out, I felt confident we would attract a circumstance that would meet the need in the end and because of my ability to stay open to solutions, ideas really started to flow within me.

Soon, Mossy was in high spirits again and we played as we usually do on our errands and walks.

Just a few days ago, we had a market stall over a whole weekend at a sustainability fiesta. This was a wonderful event, Mossy strolled the market with his friends, had fun trying out different foods and smoothies and scouring the stalls with second hand toys! (awesome score of a crazy cool nerf gun!)

Then, as it happens there was a tent allocated to woodworking, kids and parents were in there banging in nails, gluing wood and creating great new toys! Mossy and Peck spent hours over the weekend creating planes (not at all unlike the ones he had wanted so much in the Post Office) and really enjoying the time they had together, creating, banging nails, choosing just the right pieces of wood to create battle planes.

I love that even if something can't happen right away, by fully allowing and having a belief in the potential for things to manifest, the Universe will always bring things about in surprising and delightful ways!

I have also come up with a few other exciting ideas for Mossy, so that his "rockets of desire" so to speak, things that interest him and excite him and inspire him can be truely brought into his life, still by nurturing his ability to believe that anything is possible, that he is actually the centre of his universe, and that it will find the path of least resistance to get it to him.

Breaking through my own psychological barriers of lack have been well and truely mirrored back to me in my interactions with a little guy who truely knows he is worthy of anything he wants. I am eternally appreciating the expansion Radical Unschooling and saying Yes offers.

I love the exciting ways life reveals itself to us daily, I love that we constantly rendezvous with abundance, creativity, caring people, happy smiles, interesting gatherings, like minds, exciting new toys, brilliant Apps and wonderful parks to play in and so, so much more.

I love that saying yes is a great place to start connecting, it offers creativity, expansion, love, authenticity, beaming smiles and I especially love when Moss looks deep into my eyes and says "This is gonna be so cool , Mum!"

Eat Your Greens!

I just love that I trust my children with their food choices. It is a pleasure to watch M explore and love some foods, find he doesn't like others and revisit after a while, only to find that he does feel like them today. It is quite beautiful to watch the stages he goes through and how his body intuitively picks a balanced diet, I love that he really tunes in and listens and I am thankful that we have so much to offer him!

Through his continuing exploration, he discovered that he didn't like greens so much anymore. At first, yes I was a little, hmmmm, perplexed, how could i get this great food into his spectrum of choices with fun and make it tasty?

When he was 2ish I purchased some Kale Chips to taste them and see if I could copy the flavour at home with my own dehydrator. Moss loved them from the very first time he tasted them, and it was wonderful to see him really enjoying this delicious food and it was a green food too!

This morning mossy asked me for Kale Chips, I love that it is something that he loves to eat, I love that it is something we can prepare together. One day he said "Mum, is this salad?" I said it was a green food that I love to put in salads, he seemed to think that even though it was a salad, it could also be fun to eat!

My Kale Chips are always different variations, today i added zucchini to my recipe.....

My basic recipe that I pretty much always do is :

2 bunches of kale, the leaves torn from the stalks

1 cup cashews (any creamy nut would be fine)

1 capsicum

1 tomato

splash of olive oil

pinch salt

pinch of paprika

juice of a lemon

2 T Goji berries

I blend up the ingredients aside from the kale, and pour it over the kale, mix through , coating everything generously and then i devide the mixture into three dehydrator sheets and pop them in the D overnight (or all day) at around 40 degrees c.

They end up tasting quite cheesy and paprika I love!

Kale Chips are easy and quick and we love munching them so much.

Other ways I put greens into foods or smoothies is introduce Moss to green powders, he has a taste and usually loves it, so i ask him if he would like it in a raw choc smoothy, which i make with almond milk, dried figs, bananas, avocado, honey, cacao, pink salt and a heaping spoon of green powder. So much yummy nutrition in a glass and all tasting sooo velvety chocolaty.

Love it! I truely believe that there never has to be power struggles over food, we can find ways to help our kids enjoy the wonderful experience that is food, by trusting them completely, listening to them, helping them get involved if they choose, and giving up the need to be right. Of course if you have allergies in your family and must have restrictions on things, I have found the raw recipe movement quite cool , because often you can make delicious recipies without things that you can't have in your home right now.

Get creative! have fun with it. There is such a huge world of flavour out there! enjoy!

What am I learning Right now?

There is such a focus on if our kids are learning daily, as an unschooling Mama one thing I know to be true is that you cannot live without learning, it happens ALL the time! Even to me! So I started to think about my own passions at the moment~mainly to get my focus off what my son isn't doing!!! HA! and it has really helped me see what is happening for him!!!

Learning hasn't stopped since becoming a mama, in fact it has just shown me how much there really is to life on Earth, gosh, the whole Universe!!! It is this amazing unravelling expanding spiral, i guess like a vortex of creation! it is so cool, to be here now, with so much we can dig our heels into!

For me, I am utterly fascinated with flavours. I absolutely love trying out new combinations, getting the alchemy, the energetic flow spot on, so people who try my foods, just melt in deliciousness. I am constantly creating, making, refining recipes so I can learn more and more about it, then it leads me onto something else and I get so excited because it spurs me onto making something even more amazing! Researching the ingredients we have at our fingertips now is so fascinating, i love researching the how things are made, like ~ how is the mesquite pod ground into a sweet powder?

I love to draw, admittedly it happens in spurts and starts, and stops. I love texture, feeling different mediums on different papers, blending and feeling the flow again that energetic flow of lines, shapes, its delicious to think about drawing as i write this! I love keeping a little book to capture a moment, and i love flicking back thru the pages to feel what i was feeling on the days i drew sea scapes, trees, people.....i am also keeping an appreciation journal.

I dip in and out of things, one thing I love to do daily is listen to an Abraham Hicks excerpt. It brings me home, into that knowledge that I am responsible for the connection between me and myself. Love that. From that place, all interactions, all action is inspired and authentic. That's a place I want to master with ease. it feels awesome to be there, in my vortex, living in flow.

I can never know where someone else's passions will lead them. I have a family in which we do our best to allow all passions to be nurtured. Peck knew from a young age he wanted to Climb huge trees, work for exciting environmental causes, and that has lead him to so many other new inspired passions that he may not have matched up with if he didn't follow those impulses from his younger years.


I cannot know the true relevance of all my sons passions either, now 4, M loves his ipad, it has opened windows for him in all sorts of directions, {as young boys in my own experience) love, he is exploring planes, fighter jets, paper airplane models, ships, cannons, battles, racing cars, pirates, trains, animals, sea life, boxing, Dora, Diego, making smoothies and fresh juices, figuring out what kind of dog he wants in his life, icecream, timezone, money, numbers, letters and clocks, tumbling, his physicality like doing stunts and acro.

There is probably HEAPS more too, he is sporadic in all of these things, at the moment there is no consistancy, no drawing, certainly no painting, not much interest in puzzles, books, even libraries, but all these other things are exciting him!

I sometimes get a spurt of, holy crap "What am I doing????" but I just breathe and remember what I am learning about being, allowing, appreciating and feeling the joy unfold in our lives, because we can be in control of only ourselves, that's something we really foster in our home.

Tend to your own happiness, then you have truely remarkable remarkable relationships. That is for another post I guess.

I am so happy we unschool!

I have been playing all day today with my kids. We flick in and out of modes, ipad, i do a little washing, picnic on the garden table under the trees which turns into climbing and throwing balls, Dora the Explorer, creating interesting raw puddings, Angry Birds, walking and running with the dogs in the park, pointing out interesting things, talking and we always meet someone interesting, all on our hands and knees as Lotus props herself up ready to crawl....we play with what we want and M(4) feels no pressure to do anything he doesn't want to do, and no judgement on any way he chooses to spend his time.

Our lives are all about choice. We have chosen as a family to endeavor as best we can to meet everyone's needs on any given day, Mossy is part of the decision making process as much as Dad and Mum. If Peck isn't off to Arboriculture school or work, we figure out ways we can make the day fun and interesting for all or also, if something has to be done, we find ways of giving that person the time and space to achieve his/her plan.

Today I loved linking in with the ReThinking Everything website, among a couple of others it is a blog/site I lurk around and listen to leading edge thinkers speak about the New Paradigm and fresh ways to co create with life. I get a buzz high when I am hearing things that so totally resonate and can easily see that I am on a huge journey that just keeps getting more and more and MORE exciting! I feel aligned when I am living this way, this way of no schedules, this free form life where we choose our own adventure daily.

I wanted to share some sites that make me smile, feel aligned and empowered on this path. There are heaps out there, I am really preferring to sit on the latest thinking and so I will share things that I find fun here:

http://werhumansbeing.com/

http://www.clanofparents.com/


A beautiful interesting blog about a travelling unschooling family.

http://www.rethinkingeverything.net/learning-from-kids#!__freedom

A place I like to hang out and tune in to the wicked podcasts that are SO exciting. For example today I listened to Barb Lundgren interview Oren Harris:

Topic: Living at the Speed of Spirit

Oren is a Life Transformation coach and flow master. He has helped thousands of people transform their lives. He currently mentors spiritual and personal development leaders/coaches, aspiring teachers, and those who are ready to harness the incredible power of THE FLOW.

Oren is one of the most natural, diverse, and talented speakers in the world today. He has shared the stage with many well-known thought leaders such as Neale Donald Walsh, Dr. Demartini, and Dr. Dennis Waitley.

His ability to take universal truths that can be difficult for the mind to understand and communicate them in a way that is profoundly simply is astounding. Although his words can penetrate straight to your core, its even more powerful, the space that he holds that allows individuals to have a direct experience that goes beyond understanding and belief into KNOWING.

Oren is an avid explorer of consciousness who is constantly exploring and bringing forth-new paradigms and potentials from the infinite field of possibilities to assist in evolving humanity.

Despite his impressive accolades and abilities, his greatest asset is his ability to fully be himself and see others in their full potential!

You can listen here:

http://recordings.freeconferencecalling.com/mp3/537274/537274/MN2124_04272011131205451_1050741.mp3


I am so excited to be sharing my life in partenership with my kids. I am learning more and more everyday, expanding myself so much. I am grateful to them for showing me whole new ways to be.

Mumprenuers

It is my pleasure to introduce Tara Mauger http://taramauger.com/

Tara is an *inspired* Mumpreuer, a new term used to describe stay at home mamas who are making an example of living an empowered life, Living a totally heart led, Law of Attraction in Action existence that extends to their parenting, their lifestyle, their self made careers, their partners and children and the legacy they want to leave in this world!

Tara has just launched her website and is offering 50% off her regular price for Self Empowerment Coaching, assisting you to become more empowered in all areas of life. Tara is truely an awesome example of a woman with a vision, and I am so pleased to know her! I can honestly recommend her Mentoring, as she is so easy to speak to, so positive and encouraging, warm and clear in her vision! Which is to help you get clear on where you want to be and how to get there!

Tara offers awesome tips on getting More of what you want into your Life experience!

Tara will also be at this years Unschooling Conference Retreat in Airlie Beach QLD,

www.unschoolingretreat.com/

This retreat is an awesome opportunity to explore new ideas about educating kids, parenting, Law of Attraction, the New Paradigm of thought about work, parenting, consensual living and simply being in the moment with your kids, basicaslly empowered living upgrade at this magnificent retraet. It is not too late to register, so click on the link and explore the possiblities! It may just be for you!

"This conference is a wonderful opportunity for families who are new to homeschooling and those considering it to learn more about natural learning as an option, it is perfect for experienced homeschooling families who would like to know more about natural learning and radical unschooling, and it is an incredible opportunity for those already living a radical unschooling lifestyle to spend time with other like minded families and enjoy a unique and memorable time together!"

www.unschoolingretreat.com/



Blessings, may you be ever expanding!

Holly