Unschooling Diary

It’s been a week since we started our second travel. We missed the food we usually eat, and we went to a western restaurant to have it. But today, I am suffering from the stomach problem…

My daughter was disappointed when I told her I couldn’t go swimming. She had been excited about it from yesterday. We were in a bad mood.

I lay myself down on a bed. And she made this .

It’s sweet. She also gave me this.

This is about things I should do to recover.

She expressed what to do and what not to do. For what to do, she also mentioned where we can find the things.

She said it’s base on her experience and some knot on YouTube.

After I follow her instructions, I felt better.

I am amazed with her drawing to explain something in a simple way.

We home-stayed on the island of Kratie Province.

The family at the house was so kind that their mother treated Hina like a grand daughter. She invited Hina to join a community party and a prayer at Buddhist temple.

Hina greets with everyone she sees. She even said she would like to overcome fears of talking to non-English speakers.

Before Hina went out with their mother, she told me that she felt uncomfortable to speak Khmer and that she would like to stay at a hotel, where only English speakers are there.

But when she went out with the family without me, she said she enjoyed talking to new people. So I let her go out with a host mom again. When she came back, she shared how she communicated with the people who speak only Khmer.

She used gestures and she learned some new words from them. She talked about the experience happily.

through this experience, she has found some joy after overcoming fears.

I think that she was able to know how much she can do without help from her parents as well.

Hina used to be shy with people who don’t speak English. However, she is getting rid of the fear day by day.

While traveling in different places, she always meet new people. She takes it as meeting “new friends.”

Once she realizes that they don’t speak English and they speak to her in their language, she feels a bit uncomfortable with it. But communication is not only about languages. I usually ask her to guess what they mean and to find other ways to communicate with them.

If she needs to talk to them, she checks how to say it in their language.

Even in the same language, we are not always successful in communication. If we only focus on the language, I think it’ll make it hard for us to understand each other. Language is just one of the tools to communicate.

By going through such experience, she feels fine with new people and new places. She can sleep everywhere we travel without too much stress.

She even slept on an ox cart.

Cambodian people are so friendly and children are so curious about what Hina does although they don’t speak English. When she was trying to find things from sand under the Mekong river, they joined and gave us what they found.

Thanks to their kindness, Hina is also kind to children. When she sees little children, she plays with them.

We have traveled to another part of Kratie, Cambodia. This province is famous for river dolphins. Only during dry season, we can see them.

Hina was excited about a new adventure to see river dolphins.

Hina has kept saying that she is happy. We were so lucky to see many river dolphins.

We were able to see a group of dolphins and also a child dolphin.

She swam in the river and we found gold sand.

On a tuktuk with a kind and knowledgeable local guide.

We also climbed up to the mountain to see a Buddhist temple. Hina counted the number of stairs, which is more than 100.

She took pictures and videos when she got inspiration.

Hina loves to find shapes that look like something. She said (1) tile had a stain looking like a peanut and (2) looking like aliens. She shares her thoughts like this when she sees shapes made by nature.

Today, I would like to share about our memory. This was shown as my Facebook memory from last year of today.

—-April 15, 2018—-

We as a family living in the capital of Cambodia, it’s a great experience to visit villages.

One day, one of my Cambodian friends told me that Cambodia has two different countries, one is cities and the other one I’d villages.

When we talk about a country, we need to care about from which view we talk about it.

My daughter asked me to take her new places in Cambodia.

New adventures!

She is sometimes so excited that she can’t sleep. When she interact with other children, she has a fun and she sometimes also feel that what other children do to her is not reasonable. This is a learning for her how to understand others and make them understand her. I don’t mediate but I let children do it by themselves by giving some ideas.

When we join a traditional ceremony, she doesn’t know why she has to be there. It’s not reasonable for her.

I think it is common for children to feel that way. Even adults sometimes feel that way. But in reality, not everything is entertaining. Even so, I think we can learn something from it.

When she comes to me and ask me for a reason why it is like that, I share my thoughts with reasons I can think of. If she likes to disagree, I feel glad that she expresses her feelings without hesitation.

The other day, I happened to say to her “follow my instructions” when she didn’t like the way I told her. I was in a hurry, and I was careless about the way I spoke to her. Then she said “I will follow your instructions for my life”. It’ll be problematic if she really believes so. It also made me understand such attitude would be a cause of learned helplessness if we repeat it.

When we have a new experience, I ask her about her findings. We can share our learnings and develop our understanding.

This kind of simple tablet for note taking is very useful to share ideas anywhere and anytime.

We traveled to the countryside in Kratie Province, Cambodia for Khmer New Year. For Hina, it’s exciting, adventurous, and challenging.

On the first day we arrived, we saw a big wooden house, where we will stay for one night. Hina was hungry after a long travel, and she expected to have white rice. But what they prepared was Khmer porridge. It’s tasty to me. But Hina is not a fan of Khmer food.

She tried a bit, but she couldn’t eat. This is a good learning for her. We follow their house policy if we stay at their house. She met a new culture.

She was so hungry that she started to ask for alternatives. The family prepared hot water and she ate instant noodles. She was very thankful and she smiled, saying thanks for hot water in Khmer.

Every family has their own culture just like we do. Homestay can give us opportunities to know about other cultures and respect them.

She enjoyed drawing with other children. She also showed her artwork to the family after she drew about their village and house.

One of Hina’s favorite cafes asked her opinions about their new item. As we know, children are very sensitive to tastes and they can give honest feedback.

We always appreciate that this cafe is friendly to my daughter, talk to her, and share their thoughts with her.

The other day, one of the cafe team members, who is also a designer, told her that artists don’t sell their artwork for free when she said she would sell her artwork for free. Then she started to think about values of artwork, which inspired her to create more artwork with different techniques and to learn more about art on YouTube.