Category Archives: Adventure

Life is a Path, not a Destination

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I want, most of all is for my children to enjoy the NOW, to enjoy the process of learning and becoming, to enjoy each other NOW, and every NOW in the future and to be prepared to meet change as it happens without worrying about the future.

They will encounter things that we could  never dream of. We need to focus on their education in new ways than the educators of our past. Just learning the basic subjects is no longer enough. Being a fast learner, a talented person, or a gifted intellectual is not enough. We need to embrace a path of mastery and creativity. We need to become more adaptable, flexible, adventurous and resourceful. We need to make sure we make connections with each other and teach our children to do the same.

We need to take on the challenge of developing a new mind and to guide our children, who may be much further along that path than we are, to do the same. And, we need to guide them to live a life of balance.

Each family has the ability to more consciously create a family legacy that is of their own choosing and one that will insure the future happiness and fulfillment of everyone in their family.

As we do – we become better people and our children benefit – we can’t lose.

[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]

Adventure, some examples

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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]

Adventure

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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]

Using Adventure to Create a Context for Creativity

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Hang glider launching from Mount Tamalpais
Image via Wikipedia

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.

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