Connections instead of Subjects

The following was written by Joyce Fetteroll on a post in UnschoolingNH yahoo group on 3/26/13- "The beauty of unschooling is since you can go to the world unlike kids trapped in school, you don't need to pull pieces of the world out of context to study -- in fact learning works better if you don't :-) Humans are patterns seekers. Our brains *love* pulling patterns out of chaos. If the patterns are pulled out for us, they become less interesting. (Which can then make it seem like these are hard things to learn!) Shapes when they're connected to other things, though, are interesting."

Cara Barlow posted the picture above on the UnschoolingNH facebook group on March 21st https://www.facebook.com/groups/UnschoolingNH/permalink/306425959484041/. That was in my mind when I noticed Joyce's words that went along so nicely with the photo.

Today, my friend Tom sent an email in which his words were poetic and also reminded me the picture and its meaning to me. Here is the part that seems especially applicable:

the artists within all
know how to be
co-creators

our circle ripples go out
and overlap with other
circle ripples sometimes
like colors that merge and
create a new color

like when sun
and rain dance

like when nature
sings in harmony

For further thoughts on learning through connections: http://sandradodd.com/connections/

4/5/2013 - Katie is in Virginia Beach on a school trip.  On my way to drop off Wolf at work, he and Makana went to the post office and to French and Brawn for some groceries.  I also did a quick errand and then to his office we went. Kanoa stayed awake for the whole trip this time.  Usually he falls asleep.  On our way to Jim's office, I told Jim that I texted Katie while he was in the store and she is not going to Busch Gardens until tomorrow.  (The schedule was at home, and I knew she was going, but couldn't remember exactly which day.)  That led to Jim reminiscing about his family trip to Busch Gardens when he was a kid.  He said they spent a lot of time in Bavaria.  That led to talking about where Bavaria is located and what other countries were in Busch Gardens and then there was discussion about other places in Germany such as the Black Forest.  Then Makana realized we just bought Black Forest ham!  Fancy that!