Non-study-time Lesson

Last February, we went out on a meetup with our cluster mates in our homeschooling provider. They are the closest thing to classmates for my kid. They are different ages, some are younger, some a bit older. And that's fine because in real life, in life after school, there really is a very small chance you get to be in the same room with people the same age as you.

We did a nature scavenger hunt where the kids were tasked to look for different things of different colors they can find in nature. My kid found the colors and since she had so much fun, she took home the items she found and wanted to. keep them. Thebonly problem is, the items she found are natural objects, which means they will decompose eventually. The flower did, the mango did, the twig did. The only thing that's left is the pod of seed that she found.

I'm not sure what tree it was. It looked like Ipil ipil, but then it is much thicker. It also looked like a sampaloc but the covering is much stronger. But that's not what my daughter and I were arguing about. I ws wondering how the inside looked like. She was wondering what would happen if she put it in a plant pot without opening it.

Her reasoning was that she found it on the road. She thought that if no one picked it up and remained there, would it have just rotten away, or would it grow another tree. I still am wondering what it looks like on the inside. But she still did not want to open it. We ended up putting it in a plant pot. I figured I should have gotten my own pod if I wanted to dissect one.

Then just yesterday, as I was tending to my little garden at the terrace, I saw a weid looking green thing right beside the pod. When I examined it closely, I saw that it was a seed rmthat had germinated. Since it grew right next to the pod itself, I can only assume that it is from it.

I called my daughter to show the little thing that has sprouted from her curiosity. There was such a look of fulfillment in her eyes. It was a look that said "I'm so glad I fought for you."

There are a few takeaways in this non-study time lesson we had.

1. It's okay to argue and the best results are gained when it is done respectfully. We had a lot of back and forth of ideas as to why we should do what we wanted to do. Similarly, it is also okay to agree to disagree. I still stand by what I want to do, she does too.But since it's hers, we did what she wanted to do with it.

2. When there is something you are passionate about, you should really fight for it. I admire how she stood her ground that the experiment we should do was to plant the pod. It kind of shows how we react on things, my daughter and I. She is more concerned of what will it look like in the future, while I on the other hand wants to know where it came from and how it looks like on the inside. Both outlooks are not wrong, that's just how we process things. She's looking into its future, I want to dive in its past.

3. Nature will always find its way to prosper. Humans just need to make sure they don't interfere with mother nature's natural processes. We are once again in awe with how mother nature prospers on her own. This nature study taught us to respect mother nature even more.

4. Lastly, since I am also naturally getting curious of things my daughter studies, I really should have joined in on the scavenger hunt myself. Lol.

Technically, our lessons were already done when we had this little non-study time lesson. We have already finished our exams and have submitted the grades and portfolio. But the world is a big classroom, and nature is a whole-year-round kind of teacher so schooltime or not, we are just happy thag we let ourselves be mother nature's curiiys little