What Kind of Life is This for Kids?
Boat work has felt all consuming lately. We have been working on the boat a lot. As I was looking at pictures for our last several blog posts it made me wonder, what kind of life is this for kids? Actually it is one that teaches competence and hard work… but that is another point. It is a different kind of life than we had in a house but it feels better.
The kids help with work on the boat sometimes but only because they want to help. We haven’t asked them to do any boat work, other than basic cleaning up after themselves, but we always try to make room for them to be involved when they want to be. They have seen how much we have been doing and sometimes it sparks their curiosity so they come over and want to help.
Though we have done a lot of it, boat work isn’t all we have been doing…
In the same time period as all the work, the kids have learned a lot! Not just math and English but life skills.
Deirdre has learned how to swim, and swing across monkey bars. She has become more confident in who she is and what she can do. Osiris has learned how to swing. We have played in the ocean and cleaned up trash from the beaches. Osiris likes to save the world anytime she sees plastic on the ground or in the water now!
We’ve gone to parties. Met kittens. Made friends. Made friends with kittens 🙂 Both kids are a bit obsessed with cats. So we have been learning all about cats and kittens over the summer!
We have gone to children’s museums, parks and the zoo. We regularly visit libraries. The kids enjoy making friends with the librarians and participating in art programs and other activities like summer reading program. We have read LOTS of books! Though the kids do play on tablets and watch shows, we don’t make them readily available so when the kids are bored they either play or read books.
We have fed lettuce to the geese that live nearby and we have watched their goslings grow up. We have investigated ladybugs, snails, other water birds, frogs, lizards and so much more!
Virtually none of these learning moments came from a curriculum or even from stuff. Much of our learning grows organically from the things we do not the things we own. Don’t get me wrong the kids still have plenty of toys to play with but even the things we own are used differently on the boat.
We have had to narrow down the possessions in our lives by quite a lot to move onto the boat. The kids had to pick just their favorite toys to bring and they regularly go through what they have to decide what is worth taking up their limited space. This is teaching them to find what is most important to them and to weed out the clutter.
The kids have picked their favorite toys and now they often play with them for long periods of time. It helps that we mostly kept open ended toys like Lego, play food, dress up, and stuffed animals. These toys all allow the kids to imagine their own story. Imagination fuels play. Too many toys acts as a distraction and rather than engaging the imagination they shut it down.
While we have been busy getting the boat ready to sail the kids have learned to play happily with each other, sometimes for hours at a time. They have become much closer and really enjoy doing things together. They play with each other a lot more, even when we aren’t working on the boat. In fact as I was writing this post they were happily working together making fake poop out of mud…
I believe that having a small home is forcing us to do something that we never needed to in a house. We have to put thought and intention into everything we have and how we use it. If it doesn’t add value to our life or bring us joy we get rid of it. This is an ongoing process but it is one that the kids are learning to do also!
So what kind of life is this for kids? One that allows childhood to be simple and free from distractions. It is a life where we can engage in and enjoy life in more meaningful ways. You don’t have to live on a sailboat to live this kind of life but the smaller space has really helped us to see what really benefits our lives and what doesn’t. What activities or things in your life are causing unnecessary clutter and stress? Try getting rid of them!
