mobile classroom: the nursery

One of the greatest perks of homeschooling is the flexibility it provides. Learning feels much more intuitive when it's not so scheduled! Whether we do a full school week or take a week off matters very little because we are learning all the time, regardless if we are in the classroom or not.

In the first semester, I was far more concerned with constantly having to catch up any time we'd taken off -- but now I am not so fussed. For instance, the past 6 weeks we went on three vacations plus had family visit us and in that time we did no formal educating. However, we went to zoos and parks, museums and galleries, hikes in the canyons, walks on the beach, we socialized, we tried new foods, we explored the world around us. I can't think of any better way to learn that this.

Life and all we need to know is before us, not just in books.

Today, we spent the first two hours in our backyard. We've been planting veggies and preparing a new garden for the children. At 11am, we drove to the Molto Vegas Farmers Market. This market was started by Mario Batali and Joseph Bastianich to provide fresh, seasonal and local (NV and CA) produce and artisanal goods for their three restaurants here in Las Vegas. Thankfully, they also sell to the public!) Unfortunately, their regular location (a warehouse in the industrial district) was closed, but some of the farmers were set up down on The Strip. Such an unlikely place to be buying fresh produce, eh?

The children and I picked out a nice assortment of fruits, vegetables, honey and eggs. When we got home, we decided to make a frittata out of some our bounty:  the fresh eggs, purple and white potatoes, Tuscan garlic and some Cavolo Nero from our garden! They took turns washing the veggies, cracking the eggs, cutting up potatoes, grating parmigiano-reggiano, stirring, cooking, learning. We ate our lunch and had fresh yellow raspberries and miniature apples for dessert. It was perfect!

What better way is there to explain to your children about where food comes from than by showing them in the garden, at the market, in your kitchen and on your table? They were involved and interested in the process -- and they don't even like eggs or potatoes!

Now they are back in the garden helping to level the space and place the bricks for the new beds. Soon they will plant peas and beans and other seeds there. They will watch them grow and we will talk about sun and water, oxygen and photosynthesis. Their fingers will be dirty and active. They might experience loss but hopefully their efforts will prove fruitful and before we know it, they will be picking and munching on produce that they created all by themselves.

There will be no worksheets or tests. Just the simple act of tending and caring for something so very basic and yet so completely fundamental.