A moth and a hike

The kids were excited by this beautiful moth that stopped for a rest on our door one afternoon. It stayed there long enough for a couple of shots.

The photo of Sierra, Jalen and I is from a short hike around Willow Springs park, a fabulous place Markus discovered on a bike ride. It's a huge park and only 4.5 miles from our house.

This afternoon I took Jalen into town just to hang out together. He wanted to visit Toys-R-Us to spend the money earned by helping babysit Sammie. It was a great afternoon and he decided that he'd like some "dipping soup" and bread from Panera's on the way home. As we were driving back towards Jonesborough, he asked "Mom, what does the Japanese flag look like?"
"Um....let me think about that."
"Oh nevermind. I know what it looks like, it's a red circle" he says.

I remembered the red circle on white at that point and agreed with him.
"And our flag is blue and white and red with stripes" he adds.

Ok, I can see how he'd know the American flag, but where on earth did he learn what the Japanese flag looks like? I still don't know, because he claims it was some book in my room but that it's gone now. He tells me the darndest things sometimes. What is funny, is we could be all worried that he doesn't know his alphabet yet, or his numbers or any other stupid thing that he'll learn just fine because he's a growing human, and miss out on all the rich connections that are important to HIM.

I was organizing photos last night and he was sitting on the bed with me. I went to move a pack, and he got upset with me; "stop Mom, my eyes were following the letters". He was tracing out the patterns on the photo pack with his eyes. I paused and handed it back. Silently his eyes walk over each letter, then he goes "ok" and we can move on.

Honoring his own way of perceiving the world, of absorbing information is exactly what unschooling is all about. If my own ideas of what-is-important-to-learn get in the way, who knows what the long-term damage could be? Knowing the Japanese flag matters more to him than other things for today, tommorrow it may be something different.