M & I recently made a 2 hour drive both ways to & from Brisbane to see “the Fairies” live. M got dressed as a fairy especially.

Had a fantastic chat on the way back to Byron Bay. Started with M (who is 5yrs) asking why we could drive past the other cars and me explaining that the transit lane allowed people who had more than one person in the car.

From there it some how meandered on to evolution (after she argued that maybe one person and one monkey should be allowed in the transit lane because we were discussing evolution a few days before and the whole ape/ people link seemed to stick in her brain). “But not a person and a mouse” she added to clarify her transit lane position. I could imagine her arguing her case to some unsuspecting cop…

From there it got onto laws – ie. “who decides that one person cant drive in this lane?”. Then discussing geography and world comparisons “does everyone have the same laws?”. Then prisons, to courts, “Do they just ask people if they did something wrong?”… and the trial process.

While explaining that laws vary i mentioned that homeschooling is illegal in Germany. Which after M simply asked “why?”, led to discussions of social change, when she asked “how will they change that law?”. Which some how got me onto chatting about Rosa Parks and the civil rights moment. And even Anne’s arrest many years ago when she was at a blockade trying to stop clear felling of a WA forest.

This conversation went for over an hour and meandered through countless different topics and areas. While talking about courts M was just as interested in why lawyers are called lawyers as she was curious as to whether the court would wait if someone needed to go to the toilet.

In between it took off topic detours about why some cars have bigger antennas and have red lights in the back and white lights in the front.

Her curiousity drove our chat and was so inspiring to witness. It made me remarkably confident to of the power of natural learning and curiousity when allowed to foster and grow. I do feel that the school alternative would be making her fit into set lessons, segmenting knowledge into subjects and teaching rather learning. And would have meant that she would not hanging out with us nearly as much

Just for the record… its not that we know half of the answers. We do know how to get them answers… as she does too. At the beach recently M found what i thought was a rock but she insisted was a sea sponge (anne agreed with M). Finally frustrated by my blank stare she marched off to the life guard to ask him about it…

even the other day when she was pretending to be “the Mumma” and i was “the son”, I asked a question about what can make mice sick… M took a stab at it but then said, “Im not sure we will have to ask at the pet shop… or get a book or dvd. Or maybe we can check on the computer.”

which reminds me… id better go and google “sea sponges” (those life guards didnt know a thing about them either!).

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