I’m going to create a food recipe blog. It’ll have gorgeous photos of mouth-watering desserts and dinners. I’ll make eye-catching graphics. You’ll be able to download my attractive and easy-to-follow recipe cards. But wait, I don’t especially like cooking. What if I get fed up baking cakes and whipping up easy and economical meals?
A book blog? I’ve always got a book on the go. I could recommend the books I enjoy. There’s only one problem: I’m not very good at writing reviews.
I know. I’ll have a handicrafts blog. I’ll crochet cute bags, stripy socks, and blankets that everyone will wow over and want to copy.
Or I could embroider stunning red stitch pictures of angels and quirky people in pretty gardens and tea-dye them before framing them.
How about salt dough? I know how to create ornaments using only salt, water and oil. I’d stain them with coffee and varnish them so they’d last a long time.
I’m excited for a few minutes, turning possibilities over in my mind. But then I remember I don’t have much patience. What if I never complete any of my craft projects? I won’t have many posts on my blog.
“Document your life,” I tell myself. “You can tell stories and take photos.” But I have hardly any family left at home. My days are full of me and dogs and not much else. Who’d be interested in hearing about my copy and paste ordinary days? I want to do something inspiring or helpful. I don’t just want to fill in some online space.
I run out of ideas, and conclude with a sinking heart that maybe I should stick to doing what I know best: writing and speaking about unschooling. I head back to my unschooling blog and scroll through a few pages. Yes, I love all my stories. But no, I don’t want to write more of them now that my kids have all grown up. I need new adventures.
One day, I hear someone talking about their Little Book of Experiments. Then I stumble across Anne-Lauren Le Cunff’s book, Tiny Experiments. Experiments? A delicious feeling flutters through me. I might enjoy doing some little experiments. I could chase my curiosity, try new and wondrous things, and see where they lead instead of standing still, thinking so hard that my head aches, waiting for answers about where to head next. Who knows? One of my little experiments might turn me in the right direction. At the very least, I will have fun.
I could try a new kind of exercise, visit a different cafe, watch a Korean movie, draw something simple each day, use a prompt to write a story, read a new novel genre, start a Life List of birds I see locally, listen to a new podcast, or compose a poem.
And I could buy a copy of Tiny Experiments. Is it the kind of book that will help me find my next big thing? I don’t know. I will need to do a tiny experiment to find out: I will read the book.
Suddenly, I realise that doing little experiments is very similar to unschool strewing. Now I’m curious: will I find lots of unschooling ideas between the covers of Tiny Experiments? Perhaps I won’t be leaving unschooling behind. Maybe it plans to follow me all through my life. Now that’s an interesting thought.
Image
Is this great egret searching for something, too?
David Clode, Unsplash
So, do you do little experiments? What new things have you tried recently?
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Hi Sue, so this sounds pretty interesting . I’ll be excited to see what you find out moving forward. Probably my newest thing to try would be Peruvian chicken. There’s a place in our town that makes made to order Peruvian food that’s quite delicious. Nathan and I have tried it several times. And then in the last probably year or two I have been frequenting a Korean coffee shop and have tried a coffee drink weekly with my son Nathan the one time a week called dabang. And that’s quite delicious as well so those are my new things.
Nancy,
Trying new foods? Oh yes! We’ve been cooking a lot of Asian meals using a new RecipeTin Eats cookbook. We had to stock our pantry with Asian ingredients like sauces and oils. They were all easy to find in the supermarket.
I’ve never had Peruvian chicken. I wonder what it’s like. I might have to Google a recipe to find out!
Andy has been watching Korean movies on Netflix. I shall have to tell him about Korean coffee!
Thank you so much for stopping by. I always enjoying chatting with you! 😊❤️
Oh, I love this idea! Unschool strewing for us, the parents…yes! I have been chasing my curiousity as I have had to drive my kids to ballet intensives in different parts of the country where I have not been. At first, I said, well, I must just get them there and I must drive back and then again after 5 weeks do the same, and again do the same back and forth for another intensive across the country in another direction later in the summer…17 hours one way… which ultimately will be done 6 times this summer, 4 of which I will be on my own. So I decided to strew those drives and search online for interesting things to see and visit and photograph just for my curiousity. It has been fabulous! Nothing huge, rather tiny really, but for me, what an adventure! I have listened to different podcasts as well that I do not find the time for at home. Happy experimenting, Sue!
Staci,
What a lot of driving you’re doing! I love your idea of strewing the drives and visiting and photographing interesting things you see.
Recently, I’ve been watching videos about photo essays. I saw some wonderful ones that a photographer had put together after visiting new places. She looked for small things and big, people, buildings and nature to photograph. Then she chose some of the photos that she felt captured the unique flavour of each place and put them into a photo essay video.
I’ve been enjoying the little videos that my iPhone puts together using the photos on my camera roll. If I make special albums with particular photos for my phone to turn into videos, I end up with photo essays!
Are you a dancer, Staci? Did you do ballet like your kids?
I hope you and your family are well. May God bless you! 😊❤️
Hi Sue– long-time reader and podcast listener and fellow unschooling mom (8 + 10 year old kiddos) over here in Western North Carolina, USA. Your writing is so beautiful and inspiring! It always feels like we’re having an honest conversation together in the back garden of a tea house. Even though we are in different seasons of life, your writing feels spot-on for me too. I love the idea of strewing little experiments for yourself and seeing what takes flight rather than imposing a big-big-big thing onto yourself. It feels very playful and freeing (especially in this season of life for me). I’m curious to hear more about the little experiments you do and how you support your own interests. Thanks for sharing all that you do. It means a lot to me!
Katie,
I was so delighted to receive your beautiful comment. Thank you for stopping by and introducing yourself. I now feel like I have gained a friend. I love your image of chatting together in a tea house garden. Imagine if we could do that!
Your kind words encouraged me to write a blog post yesterday. I had planned to do something else with my day, but when I saw your comment, I suddenly wanted to write a cooking experiment story that I’d been thinking about for a while. In case you’ve read the post and are interested, my fish and coconut dinner was a huge success. I grin every time I think about it. It was a meal worthy of a feast day!
Oh yes, I will share some more stories about my experiments. Thank you for your interest in my writing! ❤️