A weekend trip to the Botanic Gardens was filled with a few lessons.
One, when going to the botanic gardens with a toddler, don’t expect to see much.
Second, if you give a child time, unfettered, to interact freely with their world, you will see amazing things.
Let me show you.
One of the first things that we happened upon was this large fountain.
And a large expanse of rocks beside it.
It didn’t take long before things clicked and he began to combine the two.
It started one-by-one. Rock-by-rock.
It didn’t take long before Ewan was frustrated with the inefficiency. Changing strategy. Handful-by-handful.
Then he started to bypass climbing onto the edge, opting for pitching them in instead.
You can stagnate, you can move on, or you can innovate. And did he ever.
Entirely independently Ewan decided to level-up. He sat down in the rocks, took off his hat, and began to fill it up. I bet you can guess what happened next.
I’m always surprised by what these little ones will come up with. Whenever I feel guilty about spending a morning doing chores while letting this little guy find his own entertainment, I remind myself of these times. These situations.
These times are important. Boredom is important. Boredom is motivating. It motivates us to innovate and create our own fun. Our own work. Our own entertainment. Those are good skills to have.
I relish in those moments, like that at the garden, where it is so clear that learning is taking place in the everyday. That growth is happening. It reminds and reassures me that we are on the right path for now, me and these boys at home. And that the path we are leaning towards in the future, homeschooling/unschooling is likely one that will work for us as well.
There I said it. That is the path we are likely on. It is something I hope to talk about more in this space in the future as our plans develop and take shape. For now, it is just a joy watching the everyday. Watching the growth that happens. These little ones are amazing, I tell ya.
