unschooling is messy

This morning, Camille flipped through her history book and chose a project. Not surprisingly, based on what’s she’s been up to the past couple of weeks, she chose a cooking project. Not a cake, but a multi-course Japanese Tea Ceremony. The authors of the book suggested fruit loops or Lifesavers for one course; we decided to substitute rainbow goldfish crackers.

Camille did it all on her own, except for a few steps. I taught her how to steam rice and helped core the apples (they had particularly tough skin).

The menu was symbolic in some ways:

• Rice and lettuce
• Noodle soup
• Sauteed zucchini (instead of fish)
• Hot water and lemon
• Rice and pickles
• Apples and wavy chips (the mountains and ocean)
• Pretzels sticks and goldfish (autumn – sticks and leaves)
• Two courses of hot tea

After dinner, I sent the girls downstairs with yogurts and went to work cleaning up the disaster.

Before:

After: