Living With Live Wires

The aspect of adventure is something that really deserves a session of it’s own. I include it here because it is a context that can be used to teach most, if not all, of the creative strategies I have presented, and several I haven’t. Adventure can be a learning and practice tool that you use in many contexts of learning. Adventure allows us to develop and hone the skills we learn on a path of mastery and creativity.

Adventures do not have to be rock-climbing or hang-gliding or mountain climbing. It can be adventures in the classroom, as part of a lesson, a project, or through the imagination.

Adventures are exciting to children.

Adventure stories provide a useful framework. I use them as a device to frame stories that I want to tell children in the context of teaching other skills. You can use adventure stories and experiences to teach creative problem-solving. Especially: overcoming obstacles, but also, allowing mistakes, redefining problems, encouraging sensible risk-taking, idea generating,

Adventure stories are always a hit with kids, they can relate to them, they create energy and enthusiasm and kids are almost always up for engagement with you when you begin to tell adventure stories. And, discussions based on the adventures of others can also serve this purpose. The discussions can lead to writing assignments, the creation of games, creating a storytelling culture, making videos, doing plays. The projects possibilities are endless and can be interdisciplinary.

When I use adventures, real or imagined, I like to keep these aspects in mind:When you are on an adventure you must do a few things:

• Going in to an adventure, You must prepare, plan, research, talk to others, predict what your experience will be and what you will need to insure your success.   And, you must practice if this adventure requires skills

• While you experiencing your adventure, you must realize that the very nature of an adventure is exploring and experiencing the unknown..  And, wrapped within that unknown package are varying degrees of risk, uncertainty, and dealing with chaos at times. You have a challenge to overcome. You struggle and keep trying because you want to succeed. And you must, at all times, OBSERVE yourself, others and the environment closely.

• Coming out of a successful adventure, you have hopefully dealt with overcoming fear, anxiety, nervousness. You can see how important it is to continue trying and not give up in the face of challenges. You realize that sometimes you fail, but the most important thing is to keep trying.

In terms of social and emotional issues, going on small adventures help gifted children to experience those kinds of feelings in a safer environment, so they can practice their responses, discuss them and normalize them. Then, the bigger unexpected events in life will not be quite so overwhelming.

Besides, life is an adventure, developing our own creativity is an adventure and teaching gifted children is an adventure.

Nature is a great context for adventure!! For us, one of our long-term adventures is getting out on nature hikes and we’re working our way up to camping. We have managed to do nature hikes for a couple years. We spend the days out at the parks and riding bikes. I think we managed to get past the stage where I thought we were going to have to buy a screen house to stay at the park for the day – to avoid bugs. That almost happened last year.

Camping may be an easy way of life for many of you, but for us it will be a big deal. I camped a lot as a kid and never had a complaint, even when my girl scout camp got hit by severe storms and was flooded. But MANY years later, with children, I feel differently. You get used to a certain level of comfort and security. And, I’m not going to say who, but a couple of us have extremely severe arachnophobia, or really, anything that crawls – phobia. Being from Iowa, then going up north in Minnesota, we can also come down with – big-animal phobia.

We are working our way up to camping for the day, then into the evening. Maybe give it a try at home or at campgrounds near home.

In terms of adventure, dealing with the emotional aspects, takes the most time and attention for all of us. Talking about fear, anxiety, worry, taking risks, being prepared in the face of the unknown, having confidence in yourself and others is an important exercise. Increasingly I take the opportunity to discuss these issues in relation to all of life’s experiences, and what we need to learn and do to cope with these feelings. I refer to the hero’s journey, since our children are into knights, Star Wars, Harry Potter and myths.

Hopefully, it will all serve as a good opportunity to normalize these challenges in life and realize that all of life is an adventure.  Even if you don’t know what is coming next, you can still be confident and know you can survive and thrive. 

Going on small adventures in our lives helps us to experience our feelings in a safer environment, we can practice our responses, discuss them and normalize them. Then, the bigger unexpected events in life will not be quite so overwhelming.

[excerpt from my Minnesota Council for the Gifted and Talented State Conference presentation: Don't Fence Me In - Mastery, Creativity, and Adventure in the Home Education of Bright Children]

What exactly is Adventure?

Why add adventure – just for fun?  We are not exactly the most adventurous family.  

Adventures allow us to develop and hone the skills we learn in mastery and creativity. It is our real-life classroom.

Why is it important?

We all want our lives to have some adventure – it is the fuel, the motivation of our lives. But, like mastery and creativity, there is much more to it.

Going in: Preparation, Practice
Experiencing :  The unknown,  Risk, Uncertainty, Dealing with chaos 
Coming out: Overcoming fear, Self-confidence

When you are on an adventure you must do a few things:

Going in to an adventure, you must prepare, get ready, plan, research, study, talk to others, learn what you need, predict what your experience will be and what you will need to insure your success

And, you must practice if this adventure requires skills.

While you experiencing your adventure, you must realize that the very nature of an adventure is exploring and experiencing the unknown..

And, wrapped within that unknown package are varying degrees of risk, uncertainty, and dealing with chaos at times.

Coming out of a successful adventure, you have hopefully dealt with overcoming fear, anxiety, nervousness and the feelings that are associated with going into the unknown and taking a risk in an unfamiliar situation. You can see it is important to keep trying and to not give up in the face of challenges.

You also may realize you have more confidence in yourself, to find the resources to succeed, both within yourself and within the situation.

How to actualize?

Adventures do not have to be rock-climbing or hang-gliding or mountain climbing.

Everyone starts at a different point. The point is to keep trying new things, different situations, different people, and create challenges – small or large – even going out to local events and activities, or learning new skills.

Each family member has a different degree of sensitive and risk tolerance. Our adventures have become our greatest opportunities for conversations and discussions about dealing with our feelings of frustration, fear and nervousness, perfectionism, and anxiety as well as our sense of wonder, awe, joy and fun.

[excerpt from my Minnesota Council for the Gifted and Talented State Conference presentation: Don't Fence Me In - Mastery, Creativity, and Adventure in the Home Education of Bright Children]

Today we were supposed to go into the cities to the Minneapolis Institute of Art to have a tour lead by their art teacher. But, the trip was canceled. An Alberta Clipper has been immobilizing most of the U.S. It was 20 degrees below zero and roads had black ice . Tony broke his all-time record for longest commute time yesterday with 3.5 hours on the way to work and 2.25 hours on the way home. His commute takes 45 minutes in good weather without traffic jams. The arctic cold is really taking it out of us. We have had several weeks now of 0 and below zero temps since the beginning of December. Where is that global warming when you need it?

We started our day slowly with our usual chores and breakfast. Sean and Sophie finished up some math assignments and were very happy to complete another math book. They both did a happy dance.

Today I decided to get motivated to do some of the lessons and projects that have been repeatedly put off due to our busy schedule and illness during the last few months. We started a geography program last year that they like, and it is finally time to get back into it. It is called Geography Matters. (do a review of this and have links to the website) We only made it through the units covering, the world and North America lessons last year.  I added a lot of supplemental materials to make more comprehensive and interdisciplinary lessons. We supplemented with Earth science units and U.S. History and cultural studies covering Canada, United States and Mexico. Today we reviewed the work that we did last year to get ready to continue with new units. Our Discovery Education United Streaming subscription is now over, so I signed up for a 30 day trial of United Streaming Plus, Discovery Science for Elementary School and Discovery Science for Middle School. This will help get us started before we have to pay for an entire year subscription. They watched videos about different kinds of maps and how they can be used. It was a helpful review to begin thinking about geography again. They also watched the Magic School Bus goes Cellular for a fun video to support our cellular biology lessons from yesterday.

Lunch and playtime were spent making fudge and preparing for our afternoon activities. I have wanted to do more with our TOPS lentil science books. The experiments are easy, but I usually find that they are very engaging and fun for the kids.  I found one experiment that will combine the subjects we are studying today. It is creative and active, so Sean and Sophie will love it. The experiments in lentil science are done in job boxes. This is cardboard boxes to hold the lentils.  We use (clean, never used, of course) cat litter pans. The exercise involves a review of landforms, creating landscapes and townscapes, drawing a map of their worlds, writing out directions to their map, telling imaginative stories about what happens in their lentil worlds, and writing the story.

We managed to do a little science, art, creative storytelling, mapping, spelling and writing in one afternoon activity. They enjoyed the entire activity including the writing assignment because they were able to write about something meaningful to them – their world that they created. We also prepared for experiments tomorrow by planting wheat and bean seeds and getting everything ready for chemistry experiments.

The tastiest part – we had fudge for a snack! A very special treat. Sean and Sophie kept asking what fudge was because they had never had any.  We talked about the differences between how various candies and cakes are are made. I shared with them the stories of my Mom making fudge at Christmas time when I was young. All the Christmas candy was stored in a breezeway where my nephew and I spent time sneaking candy before Christmas dinner.

Cooking and preparing projects and experiments can take a lot of time, but the payoffs are REALLY worth it!