Learning without schooling does not mean isolation from the rest of the world. On the contrary, families dig deep into the community to create learning opportunities through joining or organizing events, workshops, courses and field trips.

Starting from January this year, we dedicated 1 day of a week (Tuesday) to run events related to independent learning. The venue is at Love18 Chocolate Cafe at Setia Walk, Puchong. This serves as a platform for unschoolers to share their learning experiences through talks and workshops. It is also an excellent opportunity for parents to network and make connections with the community. To get updates on our activities, please go to FB Page ClicCafe at Love18. https://www.facebook.com/ClicCafe-at-Love18-407688876072420/

Here are some of the activities that took place in March 2016:

1st March – Drawing & Cartooning workshop conducted by brothers Sheldon and Emmerson Chong. They taught everyone how to draw faces with different emotions as well as how to draw a car with trees in the background. In the end, it is all about having fun with drawing!

Follow their artistic journey on https://www.facebook.com/treehouselearn/

8th March

A talk by 18-year-old Karen Leong titled “Adventures of an Unassuming Unschooler”. This event packed the whole cafe with eager listeners, including a van-load of students and parents all the way from Melaka! Here’s a gist of what Karen had shared on that day:

On tackling procrastination & taking action:

“It was when I had one of those frustratingly boring days and my parents weren’t pushing me to do anything or even seemed concerned. That was when I came to realize that my life was actually in my own hands and that I couldn’t rely on anyone else but myself to give me the future I wanted.”

The way her parents unschool:

“We just guided her to meet the right people and be in the right environment because she learns best when she believes that she discovered it all on her own.”

On her personal ups and downs of unschooling:

“One of the main advantages we have as unschoolers is extra time and time enables us to have such a great edge in building ourselves and our perspectives of the world because we just have so much extra time to simply sit and ponder. But this also means your priorities and what’s important to you is going to be very different from your peers which makes forging deep friendships quite a challenge for those of us who crave such bonds.”

On having time to experiment:

“Your teen years are the best time to do so since you’ve got the advantage of being fully supported by your parents, so it’s definitely a great idea to experiment and fail as much as possible because those are the times where you’d grow the most. I love how I welcome failure because I’d have to find a creative solution and/or I’d end up learning and understanding so much more which definitely helps to broaden my horizons.”

On freedom to pursue her passions:

“It just makes me a happier person! It also allows me to open my mind up to other things I could potentially do outside my specialized field (Cake artistry) or what I learn undoubtedly benefits me to become a lot more well rounded and I’d also be able to get a lot more fresh inspiration for my work.”

Follow her on FB: https://www.facebook.com/thekarencuppycake/

9th March

Visit to the National Planetarium to view the eclipse of the sun.

Everyone got up before the break of dawn and headed to catch the eclipse of the sun! The kids had a lot of fun running around at the top of the hill, together with many other families and friends who had gathered there amongst over a thousand school students who went there by the bus loads.

14th March

Visit to the Faber Castell Pencil Factory organized by the National Association for Gifted Children Malaysia. The kids had an educational tour of the factory and even had a hand in making their very own pencil during a workshop there!

15th March

About 10 families in all from our community and friends visited the art exhibition titled Little Kingdom by 2 sibling child artists Xin Yue and Xin Le who had over a period of just a few years, produced hundreds of art pieces that consisted of drawings and paintings of cats and dogs and toys and cars and other pictorial reproductions of their childhood. Absolutely amazing!

https://www.facebook.com/littlelittlekingdom/

26th March

The most anticipated science fair of the year – the MHSN Science Fair 2016 was held in Bangsar Village and had attracted over a hundred visitors to the 40 allocated science booths run mainly be kids who were truly passionate about science! The judges were extremely impressed by the knowledge and presentation skills shown by the kids, and commended the parents for supporting such scientific minds.

So the month of March had been a busy month for art and science which make a perfect combination!