Our Path Back to Nature
By Dina Erskine
The choice to focus on child led learning, especially outdoors, wasn't planned. Our life choices led us to nature based learning and we are so thankful.
RV LIFE HERE WE COME
Five years ago my husband, myself, and our 4 year old daughter packed up 90% of our belongings and moved into an RV full time. My husband’s job involves a lot of travel, so it was the best choice for our family. I was new to the concept of homeschooling and to how I would accomplish this while traveling. Looking back I think, how crazy that thought was!
Living in a confined space gave us the push we needed to spend our days outside and traveling the US gave us plenty of places to explore. I immediately noticed a difference in my daughter’s joy, so I decided to do some research on alternative learning styles. This led me to books by John Holt. His ideas flipped my thoughts on education upside down. The idea that children are capable of learning to read, write, and do math without textbooks, worksheets, and being in a classroom was so eye opening. I was seeing evidence of this daily watching my daughter, but I did not truly make the connection. On a drive to Niagara Falls we heard her talking to herself in the backseat. I look over my shoulder and she is reading words off of our travel guide. She was four years old, and other than reading with her daily, she had no formal reading lessons or instruction. This was our moment that confirmed what we were already being shown… Learning is always happening!
Life and it’s many changes brought us back to Kentucky. At first I was worried about how I would continue our learning experiences. I knew I still wanted a majority of our time to focus on learning in Nature. I found some great outdoor programs, but was really wishing for a forest school, or regular outdoor meetups with like minded people. This led me to POP, a weekly meetup of parents and kiddos who practice child led learning. I immediately fell in love with the people there and was so happy to find this group. Then Covid happened! Unfortunately we were unable to meet up anymore. This was a big concern for me as a mother. I needed to figure out a way to keep my family safe, but also allow my daughter to have the experiences she was used to and needed. . As time passed we came to the conclusion that a small group, meeting outdoors was the best choice for us. This is another decision I will never regret. We were able to get back to a normal rhythm of outdoor play with friends.
All of these learning moments have cemented the fact that we need nature time, we need to be free to roam outdoors, to imagine, to play. It is essential to our physical and mental health and spending it with friends is the icing on the cake. It is an honor to be working with Lizzy France And Janelle Vaesa to bring Forest school meetups to more families. I am so excited to see what the future has in store for The Outdoor Collaborative.
January 9, 2021