Lifelong Learners

I want to teach my children a love of learning that carries through their life.  I want them to find a way to say they learnt something new each and every day.  I want books to be a haven of things they can explore, science to be a wondrous place where explosions occasionally occur. I want them to get messy and play with everything to never lose the wonder at the world before their feet. I hope they always look for questions, to ask and to answer, as there is always something worth doing when your learning is never done.  

Time-Lapse Troubles

I began working on a time-lapse project this week and I’m finding it a little more difficult than expected. As I’ve mentioned before I love the area in which we live and one of the leading reasons for that is the forest across the road.   

Watching as it has slowly become greener and greener these past couple of weeks gave me the idea that I would love to see this change in a few moments and decided I’m going to do a picture a day for a year and then put it all together into one short video.

Well easier said than done.  The problem I’m having is that I would like to do this picture from somewhere along the walking path I use each morning.  I choose this area because it is my favorite place and somewhere in the forest that I am guaranteed to visit every day at about the same time even in winter.  The dog is always going to need his morning walk.

The problem with this is that I had hoped to find a branch that I could set the camera on and somehow mark so that I would get the same angle and location each day. Well I’ve yet to find a suitable branch.  The forest is made up of mostly ash trees which are very straight, very tall trees with very few low hanging branches.

I’ve never realized just how similar each little section is, although I can identify about where I last took a picture “about where” is not very helpful.  All the trees look exactly the same. What this means is although I’ve taken a picture each day I haven’t gotten the exact same spot twice.

Even when I pick the right tree first shot I can’t get the angle right. Despite my best efforts each one is a little bit further off than the previous one and so Monday’s picture is nowhere near the same angle and spot as Fridays.    

Now even if I could get the angle right after fiddling around for awhile eventually the seasons will change and I’m not going to be too willing to stand around outside for ten minutes with my camera trying to get te right shot.  Say sometime next January.

I know there has to be a reasonable solution and so that’s my goal for today.  Anyone got an idea? 

Lessons

I see a lot of information offered on what I as a parent can teach my children in life but rarely do I see the idea presented that sometimes your children teach you just as much as you teach them.  After all nothing has taught me more in life and about life than being a parent has.

I’m not talking about the everyday learning of how to soothe a squalling baby or how to remove grass stains, or even the concepts of 7^th grade math.  When it comes to those things I certainly know more than my girls do but what I’m talking about is the more abstract things that having children can teach.

Being a parent reminds you of the wonders and perspective of childhood that as an adult we’ve long forgotten.  Perhaps all of the things that having children teaches us we did all know at some point but it was left behind with our own childhood.

Children teach us, or perhaps remind us, of the value of new experience.  Children love to explore and learn and they serve as a reminder that we ourselves still have a lot to learn about the world around us.  A child can teach us (or remind us) that learning is fun perhaps even something to love.  

They also tackle new things without the same fears that often stop us as adults from exploring them.  We’ve learnt to be cautious and to fear the unknown.  While some fear and caution is certainly prudent we should not fear them simply because they are unknowns.

Remember for a child everything in life is a new thing. Imagine if never having seen or heard of snow in your life you did. Imagine walking out your front door to see such a dramatic change, the world completely coated in a substance you had never seen before.  

What do you suppose your reaction would be?  Certainly not to go out and explore this new found wonder, yet this is exactly what children do day after day.  Much of the world is unknown to a child yet they continue to explore it without fear.

Take also that absolute wonderment in the world that children see.   My children have taught me to be curious about the world again, to look at the bugs and plants and creatures of our shared world and amaze in it.

They have taught me to play again, to not worry what anyone else might think of me, to love unconditionally, and to love myself in any way shape or form.  They have taught me to adapt on the fly, to do things spontaneously to be creative and just have fun.   

So while I take them by the hand in order to teach them I will also try to remember to watch for the lessons they still have to teach me.