Homeschooling Under the Apple Tree
Dec 1st, 2009 by Marnie Saskin
This is Safiya leading the way to our first Not Far From The Tree pick in 2008. Safiya is my five-year-old daughter, and if you’ve been to a ward 31 pick, you’ve most likely met her. She has been my right-hand girl all season, and I’ve been privileged to have found meaningful work to share with her, and privileged to have her help.
We are a homeschooling family. One of the reasons why my husband and I have chosen this path for Safiya (and if one day she wishes to choose another, that’s certainly her decision), is that, as a friend of mine put it; “we homeschool to expose them to more of life, not less of it”.
She saw a lot of life this season: connecting with her food, learning how to pick the differing harvests, what happens to that fruit after you pick it, properly storing it, why we need to be gentle with it to prevent bruising so it lasts longer, subtraction (weight of person + bag of fruit) – (weight of person) = amount of fruit in bag, respecting other people’s property, experiencing work with others, preserving to extend the harvest, practising patience (ahem – mine), working joyfully, working hard…
Sometimes I wondered about the wisdom of dragging her along, as there were a couple of instances when her enthusiasm waned (to put it politely), and I found the discussion turning to “obligation” and “this is just part of what we do as a family” and “commitments”. That was the exception rather than the rule, as she happily trudged along, chatting with the volunteers, sorting fruit and memorably showing off her aptitude for the word “foliage“.
There were signposts along the way that let me know this was the right path for us; for her. Like the picture above that she drew during an apple pick. It’s her, picking apples with an apple picker, and that’s a ladder beside her. I like how all the apples are on the inside of the tree – so hard to get when you’re five!
And final reassurance came at the last team meeting with Laura and the other hub coordinators when we discussed plans for next year. As I’m due to have another baby just before the season starts, I was chatting about how to stay involved in some capacity other than a hub coordinator, when we all heard Safiya’s rather distressed voice from the other part of the room, where she had been quietly preoccupying herself; “but what do you mean we can’t be the hub coordinator next year? don’t I get to do any more picks – will there be more picks?!”
Don’t worry honey, there will be many more picks, for you and any other kids who want to come and help – under the apple tree is the best classroom anyone could wish for.
Just to add —- as the Parkdale – High Park Hub coordinator, I LOVED the picks where there were wee ones along. It made things more fun, more exciting, and more enjoyable to see someone really (REALLY!) getting into the spirit of the pick.
Too often (and especially when we are children) are lives are segregated based on age …. which is ridiculous when you think of human history prior to the last 100 years. Studies show that kids need to be around grownups to develop properly — and I bet that you could do a study showing that adults of all ages need to be around kids of all ages to become a whole, fully-developed person. Seeing Marnie homeschool Safiya definitely changed the way I look at homeschooling — my perception of what homeschooling “is” has changed dramatically.
….and it helps that Safiya is AWESOME and WONDERFUL to be around. I think that’s because of the homeschooling, and certainly not in spite of. (well, I’m sure she’s got AWESOME genes, too!)
I’ve had the opportunity to see Marnie and Safiya in action at a homeschooling program they attend and, in the same way, I’m inspired. I’ve had far more interesting discussions (and felt far more confident about my parenting abilities) with my 4-yr old while we were picking raspberries at our community garden or wandering our Parkdale hood. The hours that I spend at work and she spends at daycare (plus the fact that she splits her time 50/50 between her home with me and her home with her dad) means that what little awake time we have together is spent stressed out over preparing and eating dinner and daycare pick-up and drop-off and the other daily tasks that eat away at the time I’d rather be reading with her, or discussing why the man outside the video store is asking for money, or laughing at her bizarre knock-knock jokes.
I appreciate Marnie’s use of the word ‘meaningful’ and pointing out that she and Safiya work together and share the experience of fruit picking. I certainly don’t think of my elementary school years as ‘meaningful’. Neither do I feel that I ever shared a learning experience with a teacher.
Here’s to re-defining homeschooling as it suits each and every family and student.