Everyday Educator - Putting on Your “Wonder Hat”
00:00:00.000 | (gentle music)
00:00:02.580 | - Welcome friends to this episode
00:00:07.000 | of the Everyday Educator podcast.
00:00:09.720 | I'm your host, Lisa Bailey,
00:00:11.560 | and I am excited to spend some time with you today
00:00:15.120 | as we encourage one another, learn together,
00:00:18.880 | and ponder the delights and challenges
00:00:21.880 | that make homeschooling the adventure of a lifetime.
00:00:25.360 | Whether you're just considering
00:00:27.560 | this homeschooling possibility
00:00:29.560 | or deep into the daily delight of family learning,
00:00:33.880 | I believe you'll enjoy thinking along with us.
00:00:37.080 | But don't forget,
00:00:38.640 | although this online community is awesome,
00:00:42.520 | you'll find even closer support in a local CC community.
00:00:47.520 | So go to classicalconversations.com
00:00:52.780 | and find a community near you today.
00:00:57.640 | Well, listeners, I have a treat for you,
00:00:59.600 | and actually it's a treat for me too.
00:01:02.800 | I have with me today, Amy Jones.
00:01:06.300 | Amy and I talked several weeks ago about finding wonder,
00:01:11.300 | especially as we begin this new school year
00:01:15.880 | with our children at home.
00:01:18.440 | How can we do more to find wonder
00:01:22.720 | in the world that God has given us?
00:01:24.800 | And how can we bring that wonder into our families
00:01:28.700 | and into our schooling?
00:01:30.840 | And Amy and I didn't get finished talking.
00:01:33.640 | So I invited Amy to come back today,
00:01:37.480 | and we are gonna talk about finding wonder.
00:01:42.000 | And so I put out the podcast as putting on your wonder hat,
00:01:47.000 | because that's something that Amy encouraged me to do
00:01:51.120 | as we prepared to talk together again.
00:01:54.640 | This is just gonna be an hour of encouraging you.
00:01:59.440 | And specifically, we are, as we go,
00:02:03.680 | gonna look at how do we find wonder
00:02:08.680 | with our youngest children?
00:02:10.840 | And we're gonna talk to you a little bit
00:02:13.000 | about how you could use the Scribblers resource,
00:02:17.960 | the brand new Scribblers at Home recipes
00:02:21.200 | from Lifelong Learners resource,
00:02:23.880 | not just with your littlest learners,
00:02:25.680 | but with your whole family.
00:02:27.180 | And it can be a real tool for finding wonder in your day.
00:02:32.180 | So Amy, thank you so much for agreeing
00:02:35.820 | to talk with me about this again.
00:02:38.280 | - Oh, thanks, Lisa.
00:02:39.120 | This is one of the most delightful things I do for my day,
00:02:43.700 | is to contemplate wonder.
00:02:45.840 | - And you're so good at it.
00:02:48.640 | Every time I talk to you about how to find wonder,
00:02:54.640 | for our families and our homeschooling journey,
00:02:58.960 | what I discover, Amy, I'll be really honest,
00:03:02.480 | is a new way that God is calling me, Grandma,
00:03:06.480 | to find wonder in my everyday world
00:03:12.200 | so that I can connect with Him.
00:03:14.140 | And so moms and dads who are listening to this podcast,
00:03:19.140 | we're not encouraging you to find wonder just
00:03:24.040 | so you can show it to your children,
00:03:28.600 | so that you can find wonder that ministers to your soul,
00:03:35.100 | that draws you back into deep fellowship with the Lord.
00:03:40.900 | So hey, maybe it'll be just kind of like a revival
00:03:46.560 | for all of us today as we explore this.
00:03:49.560 | I wanna ask you first though, Amy,
00:03:52.280 | how can we encourage wonder in our families?
00:03:58.440 | What can we do every day to chase the wonder?
00:04:02.600 | - Oh, that's such a great question.
00:04:04.920 | I really love the way the Scribblers lays out
00:04:09.920 | that play, pray, read, explore, serve,
00:04:15.200 | because it's not just for, it's just like you said,
00:04:18.200 | it's not just for our children,
00:04:20.200 | that the rhythm of our day and recognizing in that rhythm
00:04:25.200 | God's presence and having that awareness,
00:04:30.760 | I was just reminded that the scriptures,
00:04:33.520 | like the Psalm about the heavens declaring the glory of God
00:04:38.340 | and Romans telling us that He reveals His divine nature
00:04:44.240 | and eternal power and through the creation.
00:04:47.520 | Those texts were written for adults.
00:04:51.320 | They weren't written for little children to discover.
00:04:54.600 | They're written for us because God knows
00:04:57.080 | that we respond to beauty and that beauty and wonder
00:05:02.080 | draws us into relationship with Him.
00:05:05.480 | So I would say that the way that we can incorporate wonder
00:05:10.480 | is the awareness of God's presence
00:05:14.400 | and how He reveals Himself.
00:05:17.080 | And I know the natural world is a calling card,
00:05:20.400 | that's really, we walk outside and He's,
00:05:23.840 | the beauty of His world wherever we are
00:05:26.560 | just reminds us of Himself,
00:05:29.840 | but also just in the everyday rhythms of our home
00:05:34.840 | as we incorporate praying and even the idea
00:05:40.040 | of playing, of just being open to God's presence in our home.
00:05:45.040 | And I think it really does start with where our minds go.
00:05:50.080 | If they, if Philippians tells us to think on these things
00:05:55.720 | and they're not things like worry or prayer,
00:06:00.120 | they're things that are lovely and praiseworthy.
00:06:02.880 | And I think just having that, beginning that habit
00:06:07.520 | of drawing my mind to a higher thing,
00:06:10.640 | to recognizing God's presence,
00:06:14.120 | that's one of those rhythms that we can incorporate.
00:06:18.120 | And I think that we, in scribblers, it describes,
00:06:23.120 | let's pray every day, play every day, read every day,
00:06:26.640 | explore every day, serve every day,
00:06:29.040 | that I guarantee that if we as adults
00:06:33.360 | incorporate those things,
00:06:35.480 | that it would open us up to an understanding of God
00:06:38.520 | that we don't really experience in my head down,
00:06:42.680 | get to the next thing sort of day.
00:06:45.720 | So I think it's just, for me, it's a real attitude,
00:06:49.440 | an intentional attitude of the heart.
00:06:51.920 | And it's also incorporating rhythms in my day
00:06:55.120 | that are kind of reminders,
00:06:57.200 | like a little tap on the shoulder of God is here,
00:07:00.320 | God is present here and look for Him.
00:07:04.360 | - I love what you just said,
00:07:06.320 | because I think it speaks to how we all homeschool,
00:07:10.680 | especially at the beginning of a year,
00:07:13.700 | that we have so much on our plate
00:07:16.360 | and so many good things on our list of to-dos
00:07:20.440 | that we start every day, hit the ground running,
00:07:23.880 | and we're just moving from thing to thing.
00:07:26.320 | And in our mind, that is a good thing
00:07:30.200 | because we are cramming so much good stuff
00:07:33.580 | into every day.
00:07:34.980 | But your call to us
00:07:41.120 | to maybe change our rhythm
00:07:46.760 | to a more restful rhythm.
00:07:49.360 | I wrote down plan rest into your day.
00:07:54.480 | So maybe get your list of all these things
00:07:58.520 | and take, I don't know, 50% of it off the table
00:08:04.100 | so that you can develop a rhythm
00:08:07.940 | that is governed by smaller principles.
00:08:12.620 | Like the scribblers pray, play,
00:08:17.620 | read, explore, and serve,
00:08:21.440 | things that allow you to slow down
00:08:26.420 | and develop a more restful attitude
00:08:30.660 | so that you have time to look around
00:08:34.500 | and see what it is that God has brought
00:08:38.400 | into your orbit today,
00:08:41.120 | instead of blowing past 10 good things
00:08:45.600 | to get to the good thing that you put on your list.
00:08:48.960 | I wonder, I was gonna ask you
00:08:52.800 | if you think there are any prerequisites
00:08:57.200 | for finding wonder, because I thought of one
00:09:01.240 | that I might write down, but I wanted to ask you,
00:09:04.980 | do you think there are any prerequisites
00:09:07.920 | for us to finding wonder?
00:09:10.360 | Oh yeah, I do, because I think it's our anticipation
00:09:15.360 | that God is present, that He's here.
00:09:17.700 | I think recognizing that, wow, God is present with me
00:09:22.700 | and He has something for me today.
00:09:25.940 | And what I recognize about in our relationship with God
00:09:29.700 | is that He always treats me like a human being.
00:09:33.540 | He doesn't treat me like a human doing.
00:09:36.500 | He doesn't give me those lists.
00:09:38.620 | He really calls to rest,
00:09:40.980 | and that really is an act of faith, Lisa, isn't it?
00:09:44.360 | We have to kind of turn our back
00:09:47.220 | on the way the world measures, or even success,
00:09:53.300 | or the way the world expresses value.
00:09:58.300 | It does kind of express the value of being a human.
00:10:02.020 | It expresses value of always the outcome.
00:10:06.560 | There's this franticness of activity
00:10:11.560 | that supposedly brings about a meaning in your life,
00:10:16.780 | and some people measure their life
00:10:19.200 | by how frantically busy they are.
00:10:21.540 | They must be accomplishing things, and that's very worldly.
00:10:25.020 | And with the Lord, He says, "Wait on me, wait.
00:10:29.760 | "Be still, acknowledge me, and rest."
00:10:33.820 | And that's a real act of faith.
00:10:35.620 | But a prerequisite to me is just a natural curiosity
00:10:39.140 | of the world and a willingness to poke around and ask,
00:10:43.740 | what, why, how does that work? (laughs)
00:10:46.380 | - Yes, yes, that is a great prerequisite.
00:10:50.300 | I was thinking that one of the prerequisites to wonder
00:10:55.300 | is allowing yourself and your family time to contemplate.
00:11:00.780 | It's just being still.
00:11:02.980 | Because when you're not still, like you said,
00:11:05.500 | when you're just rushing and on to the next thing,
00:11:09.740 | you're not being still enough,
00:11:12.540 | you're not waiting for God to show you something.
00:11:18.300 | So I would agree that the prerequisites for finding wonder
00:11:23.140 | are being still and being curious.
00:11:27.740 | I like that, I like that a lot.
00:11:30.020 | So let me ask you this, I do wanna,
00:11:31.660 | we are going to dive into a Scribbler activity
00:11:35.740 | and look specifically at how that will take us
00:11:40.740 | as families toward finding wonder.
00:11:45.300 | But I wanted to ask you, we talk so much
00:11:48.260 | in classical conversations about the value
00:11:50.780 | of a classical Christian community
00:11:55.780 | that I wanted to ask you about those attributes.
00:11:59.900 | How does a classical education promote wonder?
00:12:04.900 | - Oh yes, I feel like I've learned so much
00:12:08.900 | from being in classical conversations.
00:12:11.220 | It's just sort of opened my understanding
00:12:14.780 | to the beauty of classical education,
00:12:17.780 | even though we know it's not, quote, Christian,
00:12:20.300 | but it very much is a natural reflection of humanness.
00:12:25.300 | And I think those questions, Lisa,
00:12:30.500 | are probably the tools, those classical tools
00:12:34.700 | of those five common topics and those core habits
00:12:38.500 | of grammar, and they're in the Scribbler's Guide,
00:12:40.980 | so you're right there, they're in the catalog,
00:12:44.360 | they're so available.
00:12:45.820 | But I find that wonder starts with questions,
00:12:50.660 | but not just any question.
00:12:53.840 | I feel like what the classical education does
00:12:57.020 | is it gives us good questions to ask.
00:13:01.260 | That's where those tools come in.
00:13:03.980 | So when you're asking even simple questions
00:13:06.980 | like what do you see, what do you hear,
00:13:10.540 | just helping them recognize, our children recognize,
00:13:13.460 | wait, that requires stopping and achieving.
00:13:17.940 | And then incorporating that into what's the definite,
00:13:22.420 | what is this thing, what is it not?
00:13:25.100 | I remember reading that for the first time
00:13:27.340 | and thinking that is brilliant,
00:13:28.980 | because so many things we define in those terms,
00:13:33.580 | this is what a flower is, it's not a tree,
00:13:37.900 | and that we naturally move to comparison.
00:13:40.440 | And those tools, those classical tools give us ways
00:13:45.440 | of looking at the world and helping us discern
00:13:52.040 | how to learn about the world.
00:13:53.700 | It's like a connector of questions to me
00:13:58.500 | help guide my thinking, but they also help guide
00:14:02.860 | my children's thinking, where it's not just random
00:14:05.800 | and they're never yes and no answered questions,
00:14:09.200 | they're probing, they're probing questions.
00:14:12.420 | And I just, I love that.
00:14:15.200 | It really has been, for my life with CC,
00:14:20.200 | it has been phenomenal in the way I think.
00:14:24.660 | It's just, it's a form that I can follow
00:14:28.020 | that helps me begin to understand something
00:14:33.020 | that I didn't know before, and it helps my children.
00:14:37.540 | I'm not fumbling around, so that is probably
00:14:42.400 | the most helpful that I've found.
00:14:44.660 | - I love it, I love the whole, the classical model
00:14:48.880 | of grammar, dialectic, and rhetoric is so beautiful.
00:14:53.880 | And you think, well, what does that have to do with wonder?
00:14:56.800 | I think what you said, asking all those good questions,
00:14:59.940 | what do you see, what do you hear, what is this thing,
00:15:05.100 | what is this thing not, is it like, what's it like,
00:15:09.820 | what is it, how is it different, all those good grammar,
00:15:14.820 | those are good, building the knowledge,
00:15:18.300 | building the knowledge of that thing
00:15:21.020 | allows us to just kind of explore the ooh,
00:15:26.020 | that's so cool aspect of it, but then the dialectic,
00:15:30.900 | where you're asked, where you are comparing it,
00:15:33.900 | and you are seeing what it will do,
00:15:35.980 | and what it doesn't do, and how does it behave,
00:15:38.380 | and where did I find it, and putting all those pieces
00:15:42.620 | together, the dialectic that is designed to help us
00:15:47.060 | think more deeply about that thing is awesome,
00:15:52.060 | but then the rhetoric, to me,
00:15:55.060 | is where the celebration comes in.
00:15:57.060 | It's like, wow, God has revealed this to me,
00:16:00.780 | and I have explored it, and I have actually come
00:16:04.660 | to understand God a little bit more,
00:16:06.660 | or realize that I'll never understand God all the way,
00:16:11.220 | and isn't that amazing, but just to celebrate.
00:16:14.580 | So for me, that classical model of grammar,
00:16:17.860 | dialectic, and rhetoric really does promote wonder,
00:16:21.940 | and the best part is that celebration of wow,
00:16:25.460 | we serve an amazing God who clearly was way more creative
00:16:30.260 | than I'll ever be, and who gave us a world of light,
00:16:34.460 | and color, and beauty, when it could all
00:16:37.780 | have just been functional, and grayscale.
00:16:41.980 | You know, that really promotes wonder.
00:16:43.940 | Well, let me ask you this.
00:16:45.060 | How does a Christian education promote wonder?
00:16:49.340 | - Oh, you know, it's what it's all about.
00:16:54.340 | It's just what you said, that at every turn,
00:16:59.140 | God uses his creation to point to even greater majesty
00:17:04.140 | of himself.
00:17:05.780 | Every work brings us into worship.
00:17:10.580 | I find that if I, even simple things like going outside,
00:17:16.500 | and look, the moon right now has just been so beautiful.
00:17:20.580 | - Oh, yes, yes!
00:17:22.420 | - And I look at that, and I think, the Lord,
00:17:24.740 | you made this rhythm of these, you know,
00:17:28.820 | it's full, it's new, and it marks time,
00:17:32.860 | and it's a mystery to me still.
00:17:36.060 | And yet, you put that in the sky for me to think about.
00:17:41.060 | It reminds me of his sovereignty over creation,
00:17:46.660 | his trustworthiness, his faithfulness.
00:17:49.860 | It's never, we're never gonna go outside,
00:17:53.060 | and the moon just disappears today,
00:17:55.900 | and it's gonna go up to mark.
00:17:57.820 | It's never like that.
00:17:58.940 | He gives us that security of our world,
00:18:01.900 | of that predictability as a reflection of his faithfulness.
00:18:06.140 | I, it just, it always brings me to higher thoughts
00:18:10.740 | about him.
00:18:12.380 | - I think it is so cool that God uses the beauty
00:18:17.380 | of creation to woo us.
00:18:20.420 | He is using it to woo us, and for our children,
00:18:23.900 | when they see how beautiful it is,
00:18:25.940 | or how tiny something is, or how complex it is,
00:18:30.260 | it woos them, and we can lead them to think
00:18:33.780 | how great a God we serve.
00:18:36.540 | It woos us into relationship.
00:18:39.500 | - Exactly, that's a beautiful way to put it, yes.
00:18:42.660 | - I just think that's the coolest.
00:18:46.580 | And you know, the only way that we'll ever see
00:18:52.220 | what was intended by the world
00:18:57.140 | is to get to know the author.
00:19:00.260 | I mean, the author, the creator is the only one
00:19:04.340 | who knows what he intended,
00:19:07.300 | what message he intended to send
00:19:10.180 | when he created this world.
00:19:12.300 | And so the only way for us to get to the bottom
00:19:15.500 | of our curiosity is to get to know the Lord.
00:19:19.020 | And so it's such a great circle where he woos us
00:19:22.740 | because he loves us, because he wants us to know him.
00:19:25.820 | - It's remarkable.
00:19:27.340 | I mean, it's so humbling, isn't it?
00:19:30.140 | It's just the thing, no one will ever pursue me that way.
00:19:34.700 | And as much as others love me,
00:19:37.300 | they will never pursue me in love that way.
00:19:40.900 | It is, yeah, it's beyond me.
00:19:47.100 | - I think that that's a beautiful thing
00:19:49.860 | to transmit to our children,
00:19:52.500 | how deeply God loves you
00:19:55.580 | and how much he wants you to know him.
00:19:59.620 | So let me ask you this,
00:20:01.940 | how does or how might community promote wonder?
00:20:06.940 | - Oh, that's a great question.
00:20:09.660 | I think that if in my own CC community,
00:20:15.820 | I believe that because there's this gaggle of people
00:20:20.300 | that are like-minded and we all love the Lord
00:20:23.180 | in our own ways, that just rubbing shoulders
00:20:26.220 | with people who are different and have different wonders.
00:20:29.060 | And I think that that just expands my understanding of God.
00:20:35.020 | Someone, we had a director who just was phenomenal
00:20:40.180 | at understanding geography.
00:20:42.580 | And she just, I would just look at rocks.
00:20:45.300 | I mean, I'm confessing here and go, "That's a rock."
00:20:48.460 | - Yeah, it's brown, it's another brown rock.
00:20:52.820 | - But after spending time with Hannah, our director,
00:20:57.140 | she just opened up this world of beauty
00:21:01.540 | that God has hidden in rocks and strata.
00:21:06.540 | I mean, she could explain things.
00:21:09.500 | So just being around other people
00:21:11.860 | that have their own recipe of wonder,
00:21:16.860 | so to speak, they have something in their heart
00:21:19.980 | that God has designed that draws them into creation
00:21:23.460 | that they can share.
00:21:24.700 | And really just the simplest things
00:21:26.780 | my granddaughters go to CC here in our community.
00:21:31.780 | And I just love hearing what they're gonna present.
00:21:35.740 | You know, the presentations of children help us see again,
00:21:41.820 | the wonder of God.
00:21:44.860 | One of my granddaughters shared about her,
00:21:47.180 | she had a giant praying mantis in a jar.
00:21:50.300 | And another one had her favorite,
00:21:52.900 | she recited her favorite little poem.
00:21:55.540 | And of course, David brought his Spiderman outfit.
00:21:59.140 | They all have a taste of wonder.
00:22:06.740 | And I think in community,
00:22:09.100 | that's what we can share with each other.
00:22:12.300 | And that, I mean, that's the body of Christ.
00:22:14.740 | It's really proclaiming his nature to one another
00:22:19.300 | and praising him through just that sharing with each other.
00:22:24.580 | Oh, did you know about this?
00:22:26.100 | Did you see this?
00:22:27.420 | And that's why community is so important.
00:22:31.180 | It really builds that in us, doesn't it?
00:22:33.980 | And I feel like for our children,
00:22:37.180 | my children were very different from me, surprisingly.
00:22:40.940 | And they had their own wonders.
00:22:43.300 | And so they could find a community
00:22:45.060 | with like-minded wanderers, you know,
00:22:47.620 | that everyone, oh, this group of people loves insects,
00:22:51.100 | you know, and are drawn together.
00:22:53.540 | So I just found community absolutely essential
00:22:57.940 | for just for myself,
00:23:00.060 | but also just to really encourage my own children
00:23:04.180 | to see that there were people
00:23:06.180 | that really had proclivities that they matched with them.
00:23:10.100 | And that was kind of a neat,
00:23:13.180 | that's just an extra, I don't think we promote that.
00:23:16.500 | - Yeah, I know, but it's really true.
00:23:19.340 | That's very beautifully presented, Amy.
00:23:22.380 | I think, yeah, that that's really true.
00:23:24.380 | One of the beauties of community
00:23:27.020 | is that we can find kindred spirits.
00:23:29.340 | And our children need that because you know what?
00:23:32.580 | We're not always the kindred spirit for our child.
00:23:36.700 | Their passion is not always what we're passionate about.
00:23:40.860 | And so we can't chase it
00:23:43.100 | as well as a friend they may find in community.
00:23:46.940 | That's lovely.
00:23:49.100 | So you and I have talked about Scribblers before
00:23:52.220 | because we worked on Scribblers together,
00:23:54.860 | and we've discussed those pillars of a homeschool day
00:23:59.380 | that you've already recounted for us.
00:24:02.380 | In Scribblers, we talk about,
00:24:04.220 | if you have done these five things every day,
00:24:08.660 | it's been a good day.
00:24:10.460 | Yep, if you pray together, play together,
00:24:16.220 | read together, explore together,
00:24:20.340 | and serve together every day, it's been a good day.
00:24:24.620 | So how can we embrace wonder as we pray, play,
00:24:29.620 | read, explore, and serve?
00:24:33.060 | So I ask Amy to choose one of the Scribblers activities,
00:24:38.060 | and I don't know which one she's picked,
00:24:40.940 | to choose one of the Scribblers activities
00:24:44.180 | and help us see the wonder.
00:24:47.340 | So Amy, tell me which one you picked,
00:24:49.940 | and I'm gonna look it up in my book.
00:24:51.940 | Well, it was really hard to narrow it down.
00:24:54.620 | But I chose a science page 207 called "Turn Over a New Leaf."
00:25:01.900 | But I'll tell you, Lisa,
00:25:03.900 | when I was going through this a few days ago,
00:25:08.100 | I was thinking there is wonder in every one of the strands,
00:25:12.660 | because we start off with poetry,
00:25:15.460 | and there is such beauty in language that there's a wonder.
00:25:20.460 | Like if we just read the poetry,
00:25:23.660 | there are people that find that so beautiful.
00:25:26.180 | And of course, history and arithmetic.
00:25:29.580 | And I was thinking, I even looked into Latin,
00:25:32.860 | I was like, okay, that's me, the true test, right?
00:25:36.340 | But I thought here again is the regularity of God,
00:25:40.420 | that a language that was spoken hundreds of years ago,
00:25:45.100 | I can understand because the commonality
00:25:49.500 | of the structure of language,
00:25:52.020 | and that's a gift from the Lord.
00:25:53.740 | And here again, every time you uncover this beauty
00:25:58.740 | and that he incorporates in all aspects.
00:26:02.420 | So it was hard for me.
00:26:03.980 | But I thought, okay, I love being outside with the children.
00:26:08.980 | And sometimes that was the last thing on my list
00:26:14.060 | is to get outside.
00:26:17.500 | And I thought this is an invitation.
00:26:19.300 | So, and I love this activity, because anybody can do it
00:26:23.180 | if you're just for three year olds or 23 year olds,
00:26:27.500 | you can all do it.
00:26:28.340 | And it's super simple, because basically,
00:26:31.980 | it's going outside and you equip yourself,
00:26:35.500 | especially young children love instruments, right?
00:26:38.820 | So the purpose of this is to find a tree
00:26:43.820 | or a bush is a little tricky,
00:26:47.460 | but if you can find a tree that you are going to focus on,
00:26:52.300 | and so I would say, grab a towel,
00:26:56.380 | and the way you're gonna get some like,
00:26:59.060 | I think of scissors and old spoons,
00:27:01.700 | and you don't have to buy things.
00:27:05.740 | Get some masking tape.
00:27:07.140 | I say if you have a string, like children can handle,
00:27:11.780 | that's pretty handy for this activity.
00:27:15.020 | And a magnifying glass, just get them to gather things.
00:27:19.100 | Oh my goodness, children just love that.
00:27:21.100 | And then get in a bag and choose a tree.
00:27:25.820 | And then what I loved about this activity
00:27:28.460 | is that you look at the tree from three points of view.
00:27:33.460 | You have, you lay on the ground,
00:27:40.740 | you, I say, okay, the three points of view
00:27:43.460 | is you're gonna look at it from eye level
00:27:46.140 | from down on the ground, and then you're gonna,
00:27:49.180 | well, ground floor, and then you're gonna look at eye level,
00:27:52.060 | and then what I call your head back, looking up. (laughs)
00:27:57.060 | So you're gonna just take some time
00:28:00.460 | and around that base of the tree,
00:28:03.340 | just what's growing around there?
00:28:05.940 | What kind of dirt does it have?
00:28:07.300 | Dig up some dirt, put it in a bag,
00:28:09.580 | start gathering your specimens around the tree.
00:28:12.980 | That's where a masking tape comes in handy.
00:28:14.900 | You can stick it, the sticky side out,
00:28:17.220 | you can stick it down on the ground
00:28:18.940 | and pull it up and see what you get.
00:28:21.300 | And then around the base of the tree,
00:28:23.380 | you can stick it around there and pull it out.
00:28:25.780 | If you wanna get a piece of bark
00:28:27.780 | or look at if you can see the roots,
00:28:29.940 | you can kind of take a look at the roots
00:28:32.180 | and kind of feel them, just really kind of engage
00:28:36.740 | at that level where you're touching things,
00:28:39.140 | you're digging things, you're looking at things.
00:28:41.020 | Even if you find dead stuff, stick it in. (laughs)
00:28:46.020 | We were always finding dead stuff.
00:28:48.700 | And if there's a bug, you might have to talk about
00:28:51.500 | if we're gonna bring in the house or not.
00:28:53.420 | - Right. (laughs)
00:28:55.940 | - But then if you can, then get your child,
00:29:00.900 | one of the things that we've done too
00:29:02.380 | is just take a piece of string, this is wildlife string,
00:29:04.940 | and get them to measure the base of the tree.
00:29:07.220 | Like what is, how big is the trunk?
00:29:10.380 | And a string is nice because you can measure
00:29:14.260 | around the trunk and then just clip it
00:29:17.660 | and then stick it in your bag
00:29:18.900 | so you can come inside and measure it
00:29:20.860 | because sometimes it's unwieldy to do a tape measure,
00:29:25.620 | you know, that--
00:29:27.100 | - I agree, especially for little hands on uneven surfaces.
00:29:32.100 | Yeah, that's good. - You wanna make it
00:29:34.220 | really hospitable for them.
00:29:35.980 | And then have them stand up and start looking
00:29:38.740 | at where their eye level,
00:29:41.180 | which is gonna be different than yours,
00:29:42.780 | but compare those eye levels.
00:29:44.580 | Like they may see lower branches
00:29:48.180 | or they may see particular leaves or buds,
00:29:51.060 | it depends on what time of year it is,
00:29:53.300 | and they can just notice
00:29:54.740 | and you can just start helping them compare,
00:29:57.140 | like how is this different
00:29:58.780 | than what you saw at the base of the tree?
00:30:00.460 | How is this, what do you anticipate?
00:30:02.900 | Why do you think things are here?
00:30:04.420 | And just start asking those questions
00:30:07.300 | of helping them start exploring really
00:30:10.580 | what you're gonna do.
00:30:11.460 | And one of the places that I find interesting,
00:30:14.620 | if you have a low enough tree,
00:30:16.020 | it's a look at the branch coming off the trunk
00:30:19.060 | and just sort of looking at how is it shaped?
00:30:22.620 | What's this form?
00:30:23.620 | What's this pattern?
00:30:24.620 | What do you recognize?
00:30:26.180 | So getting them to sort of think about,
00:30:30.300 | oh, this is interesting because this tree goes up and out
00:30:35.300 | and this tree, you know, other trees like Christmas trees,
00:30:38.660 | you know, they're just like triangle.
00:30:40.860 | So helping them, is this a leaf or is this a pine needle
00:30:45.780 | or is this, you know, is this kind of a small shaped leaf
00:30:50.780 | or does this look like a maple leaf?
00:30:55.060 | What does this look like?
00:30:55.900 | And in this, for this chart that goes
00:31:00.060 | with this section is a leaf chart.
00:31:02.460 | So you can actually take it outside and get them to say,
00:31:06.300 | oh, well, are the leaves arranged?
00:31:08.260 | How are they arranged?
00:31:09.380 | And what are the parts?
00:31:10.780 | It's so cool to get to have some language
00:31:14.220 | that you can share with them.
00:31:15.620 | And then I say the head up.
00:31:17.380 | I just say, look up, step back, look at the tree.
00:31:21.100 | What's the overall shape and get them to draw it.
00:31:23.940 | They don't have to be perfect.
00:31:25.340 | You know, I can draw a triangle or a big circle,
00:31:28.420 | but get them to see the shape.
00:31:29.940 | And then what is their circumstance, so to speak?
00:31:32.860 | What's around the tree?
00:31:34.340 | Are there other trees?
00:31:37.020 | Is it out in the field?
00:31:40.020 | Do you see any animals in the trees or have you,
00:31:43.940 | is it like birds or a little butterflies?
00:31:47.380 | Right now we have butterflies over our trees.
00:31:49.660 | So what do you see?
00:31:51.620 | And again, from the big picture and then,
00:31:54.460 | and then just come inside and kind of parse out,
00:31:57.140 | you know, dump all your specimens and then just sort,
00:32:01.300 | you know, what's different, what did we learn?
00:32:04.180 | And I would say, you know, asking, well, what did we,
00:32:09.500 | and this would usually be something we can start with.
00:32:12.140 | What do we know about trees?
00:32:14.740 | And then what do we hope to know?
00:32:17.180 | What do we want to discover?
00:32:18.740 | Starting that before you go out and kind of anticipating.
00:32:22.100 | And then I used to write that down.
00:32:25.700 | And then when we came back,
00:32:27.140 | hey, did any of these questions get answered for you?
00:32:30.860 | And there was always something that we,
00:32:33.540 | yeah, I didn't know.
00:32:35.380 | We had, you know, the root system look, you know,
00:32:40.380 | look like that, you know,
00:32:43.020 | or I didn't know that the trunk was that big around.
00:32:46.020 | Sometimes we've been with trunks
00:32:48.220 | where two kids would have to like, you know, hold hands.
00:32:51.820 | Hold hands to go around.
00:32:53.180 | Yeah, absolutely.
00:32:54.820 | But yeah, like that is just a very simple thing
00:33:00.860 | you can, activity you can do right outside.
00:33:05.660 | And I just find that's your field trip for the day, right?
00:33:10.660 | Yes.
00:33:12.620 | One of the beautiful things
00:33:14.700 | that I think endeavor trips like that,
00:33:19.700 | one of the beautiful things that you show your children is
00:33:23.340 | when you're outside and exploring
00:33:26.460 | and you're just having fun
00:33:27.820 | and you're just following your senses
00:33:31.060 | wherever they take you.
00:33:33.500 | But when you come back in and think about it
00:33:35.700 | and retrace your steps,
00:33:37.140 | you realize that all of that observing
00:33:41.100 | and testing answered some of your questions.
00:33:45.500 | And so that begins from a really early age to teach them,
00:33:50.500 | I can learn about the world
00:33:52.700 | and that the way that I interact
00:33:56.380 | with what God is showing me,
00:33:58.660 | how I find the wonder actually helps me know creation better.
00:34:03.660 | And the really wonderful thing is that you can do this
00:34:10.380 | with four-year-olds and five-year-olds and 10-year-olds
00:34:16.780 | and 12-year-olds and 16-year-olds.
00:34:21.300 | But I wanna tell you, Amy,
00:34:22.580 | that you can do this with 15-month-olds.
00:34:25.420 | Now I know that we did not market scribblers necessarily
00:34:30.420 | to 15-month-olds, but one of the joys of my heart
00:34:35.420 | is my grandson, Gideon.
00:34:38.140 | And I had the chance yesterday
00:34:41.380 | to spend some time with him outside.
00:34:43.780 | We were strolling around, walking and walking and walking.
00:34:48.300 | And when he was ready to have a deep drink of milk
00:34:53.020 | and get out of the stroller for a little while,
00:34:55.220 | we were sitting on a bench together
00:34:56.620 | and he's a very observant kid.
00:35:00.180 | Of course, I feel like he's the smartest 15-month-old
00:35:02.940 | that ever lived.
00:35:04.700 | But he was very interested in,
00:35:06.420 | there was a bush sitting beside our bench
00:35:08.380 | and he kept pointing to the bush
00:35:10.740 | and he kept looking at me
00:35:12.300 | and then he'd point to the bush.
00:35:13.780 | And I said, "Do you want a leaf?"
00:35:16.740 | And he kind of nodded.
00:35:18.180 | And so I pulled off one of the leaves and I gave it to him.
00:35:23.540 | And he felt it and he traced it with his finger
00:35:27.820 | and he crinkled it and he shook it
00:35:30.100 | to see if it would make a noise
00:35:31.220 | and I showed him how to twirl it.
00:35:32.860 | And then he started pointing.
00:35:34.820 | On the ground were some of the leaves
00:35:37.480 | that had already fallen off
00:35:38.860 | and they were a different color.
00:35:40.020 | So we talked about, okay, it's a smooth leaf,
00:35:43.580 | it's a green leaf, it came from this tree
00:35:47.860 | and I pulled it off.
00:35:48.940 | And we talked about in the fall,
00:35:50.860 | the leaves will turn brown and they'll fall.
00:35:52.820 | And he pointed to the ground and there's a brown leaf.
00:35:55.420 | And so I gave it to him and he held one in each hand
00:35:59.140 | and I said, "Okay, so does it feel different?"
00:36:02.620 | So he rubbed him and he's 15 months old,
00:36:05.700 | he's not telling me things, he's not talking,
00:36:08.320 | but he can point and when I say feel it, he would feel it.
00:36:13.320 | And so he twirled both of them
00:36:15.540 | and he walked around for a while
00:36:17.260 | and then he pointed to another bush that was also green,
00:36:20.260 | but it was a different kind of bush.
00:36:22.740 | And so I said, "Do you want one of those?"
00:36:24.540 | And he nodded and I gave it to him.
00:36:25.900 | I said, "Okay, now it has a sticker on the end.
00:36:28.200 | "If you poke your finger with this, it might hurt."
00:36:31.060 | So he took the green leaves and he held them out.
00:36:34.140 | He actually held one in each hand and he was looking.
00:36:36.820 | I said, "Okay, so this one is long.
00:36:39.140 | "This one is big and long and thin
00:36:40.900 | "and this one is short and round
00:36:43.060 | "with the sticker on the end."
00:36:44.540 | And so even a 15 month old can be interested
00:36:49.540 | in the world that God's created.
00:36:52.520 | And find things to marvel at, the feel of it.
00:36:57.080 | And I will say, he did lift it to his lips
00:37:00.360 | and he looked at me 'cause we had been singing a song
00:37:03.680 | about all the senses and God gave us eyes
00:37:06.320 | and nose and fingers.
00:37:08.000 | And so he put it up to his mouth and I said,
00:37:09.500 | "No, no, it is not for taste.
00:37:11.400 | "It is just for looking and touching."
00:37:14.780 | And he was like, "Okay, Lolly, that's fine."
00:37:18.340 | But I guess I share that with you
00:37:21.220 | because there is wonder even in what you can do
00:37:26.220 | with a 15 month old.
00:37:28.400 | It doesn't have to be a verbal child
00:37:31.260 | and it can be a child that could write a paragraph
00:37:35.040 | about what you're observing.
00:37:37.180 | The point, I think, for me, the point is,
00:37:41.460 | can we find wonder alongside our children?
00:37:44.580 | Will we allow the Lord to woo us
00:37:47.880 | with the beauty that he's provided for us
00:37:51.320 | into a deeper relationship with him?
00:37:54.260 | And will we make finding wonder the linchpin
00:37:59.260 | of our homeschooling for this year?
00:38:04.320 | I would love that.
00:38:07.400 | Hey, Amy let me know, well, actually,
00:38:10.700 | I had not discovered it yet, but Amy discovered something
00:38:14.240 | that you guys might really want to know,
00:38:16.820 | especially since we've talked about scribblers at home,
00:38:21.160 | recipes from lifelong learners.
00:38:24.460 | For this next month, so starting today,
00:38:28.240 | starting today and going to mid-October,
00:38:32.240 | Scribblers is on sale.
00:38:34.320 | It's a buy one, get one.
00:38:36.260 | It is an amazing resource.
00:38:40.360 | No matter how old your children are,
00:38:42.760 | there are lots of activities that your whole family can do,
00:38:47.300 | but every activity comes with a chart
00:38:50.660 | that shows you as the parent where these activities
00:38:55.660 | are taking you and your student
00:38:59.040 | as they grow and mature and learn.
00:39:01.520 | So I've had hundreds of families say to me,
00:39:04.980 | hey, I don't have a preschooler anymore,
00:39:09.160 | but I'm buying scribblers 'cause I want all the charts
00:39:11.900 | in one place.
00:39:13.260 | And I would not say no to that myself.
00:39:17.640 | So I want to encourage you,
00:39:19.000 | if you've been curious about scribblers,
00:39:22.560 | but hesitant for whatever reason, this is your moment.
00:39:27.240 | This is the opportune moment.
00:39:29.200 | Buy one, get one is an awesome opportunities
00:39:33.560 | for families to share this.
00:39:35.440 | And if you're like me, I have multiple young moms
00:39:39.840 | that I would like to share this with.
00:39:42.020 | And this is a great build my Christmas list
00:39:45.840 | and check it off opportunity for scribblers.
00:39:50.840 | Amy, you mentioned that your grandchildren
00:39:53.460 | are loving the activities.
00:39:55.060 | - They do.
00:39:55.900 | And Lisa, that is great because I gave both of these to,
00:40:00.560 | I bought two for my daughters-in-law
00:40:04.760 | because it's just so wonderful
00:40:09.620 | to be able to have a resource like this
00:40:11.760 | because not only you have activities,
00:40:15.560 | which are really fun and they've designed them in ways
00:40:18.560 | that you can just, like I just did,
00:40:21.080 | just get a towel and a butter knife
00:40:23.800 | and you're good to go, right?
00:40:26.000 | But also those charts,
00:40:28.440 | and even if you're not in the challenge world yet,
00:40:33.160 | but they educate you so well.
00:40:35.680 | Like they have all that with the English grammar.
00:40:40.060 | I was referring to that the other day
00:40:42.060 | and I thought, man, this is so rich
00:40:45.120 | because just repair you as an adult,
00:40:49.580 | as the educator of your home that you can go,
00:40:52.820 | okay, I need to learn that part of speech
00:40:57.400 | or the arithmetic part.
00:40:59.980 | They have so many cool activities
00:41:02.620 | that incorporate higher level thinking about math
00:41:06.400 | that I would never go flipping through a book for that,
00:41:11.400 | but it's right here.
00:41:13.600 | That's what I like about it. - It's right there.
00:41:15.360 | - It's already designed for you to,
00:41:19.180 | it's like your own curriculum.
00:41:20.680 | - Yeah, it really is.
00:41:23.840 | It really is.
00:41:25.240 | The basics of what you need to know
00:41:27.560 | about all of these subjects
00:41:29.480 | kind of in an orderly fashion,
00:41:32.600 | from simple concepts to more complex concepts
00:41:36.780 | that you will really sink your teeth into as you learn.
00:41:40.200 | I love that, I love that.
00:41:42.080 | Well, so we encourage you guys to check out Scribblers,
00:41:47.060 | and we encourage you to put on your wonder hat
00:41:51.720 | and go out and find the wonder
00:41:54.180 | that God is using to woo you and your family to himself.
00:41:59.680 | If your family is looking for another occasion
00:42:04.680 | to think heady thoughts or to talk about good books,
00:42:10.280 | I have a reminder for you.
00:42:15.120 | There is a Words Aptly Spoken book club
00:42:19.460 | that's led by Classical Conversations founder, Lee Borton.
00:42:24.280 | You could join weekly this book club.
00:42:28.120 | It's hosted online.
00:42:30.200 | And every week the meeting centers around a new book.
00:42:34.460 | So some are exclusives like selections
00:42:39.060 | from the Copper Lodge Library.
00:42:41.360 | It's also literary classics like Tom Sawyer
00:42:44.860 | or C.S. Lewis's Mere Christianity.
00:42:48.080 | There's some really good thought-provoking conversations.
00:42:52.080 | Sometimes you just need somebody else
00:42:55.240 | to prime the pump of your deep thinking
00:42:58.360 | or somebody else to encourage you to grab a book
00:43:01.920 | you've always been curious about
00:43:03.920 | but never really dipped all the way into.
00:43:07.000 | Words Aptly Spoken book club is probably for you.
00:43:10.600 | Visit leebortons.com and you can find the link
00:43:15.600 | to join the live Words Aptly Spoken book club.
00:43:19.660 | So that's leebortons.com, okay?
00:43:24.580 | Amy, thank you so much for chasing wonder
00:43:27.940 | again with me today.
00:43:29.580 | This has been fun.
00:43:31.780 | - Oh, it's just been so delightful, always.
00:43:34.260 | So thank you, Lisa.
00:43:35.540 | It's been fun.
00:43:36.480 | - Yeah, families go and be everyday educators
00:43:41.480 | with your family and get to know the world
00:43:45.720 | that God has planned for you to draw you to himself.
00:43:50.320 | I'll see you guys next week.
00:43:52.520 | (gentle music)
00:43:55.100 | (music fades)
00:43:57.600 | [BLANK_AUDIO]