Poison Ivy (continued)

A JOURNAL ENTRY: Day 3 - Cabbage Key
At Cabbage Key we leased the Tarpon Research station. The original buildings on Cabbage Key were built in 1929, by Alan Rinehart and Grace Houghton Rinehart as their winter estate. The Rineharts financed the research lab in 1940. It’s a rustic place and a good place to study Botany. Even though it was clear the effect of hurricane Charley remained, the island was managing to recover...

Well I am pretty sure it isn’t poison ivy

A JOURNAL ENTRY: The whole point of Cabbage Key was to study Botany and do nothing. That’s what we did for seven days. Cabbage Key is directly across from marker 60 on the Florida Intercoastal Waterway. That’s due west form Pine Island, Florida, USA. . Sanibel and Captiva islands are 8 miles to the south. The high point of this morning so far was watching Chip the dockmaster at Cabbage Key replace the Channel Mark signs stolen away by hurricane Charley. This high point however was soon replaced by our sighting a lone dolphin scoot by the dock. We debated if reading "A Farewell to Arms" by Ernest Hemingway is considered doing nothing. But we decided reading was an activity, especially when it’s Hemingway, so we went back to watching the dolphins and the Osprey. My student was learning that it was very difficult to do nothing.....

Our “school days” on Cabbage key begin on our dock reading. Along with studying Botany, we’re finishing "A Farewell to Arms" and “Sophie’s World” by Jostein Gaarder. When you travel to an Island that you can only get to by boat you choose your school materials carefully. We thought Botany, Philosophy and Hemingway made an interesting accompaniment to learning the art of doing nothing.

News Flash - Homeschooler plays tiddlywinks

So I asked my student today if he was going to participate in our kayak lesson. He wants to stay on the dock and watch. He apparently has the whole kayak thing worked out. I asked him if he was going to read or play tiddlywinks. After the giggle, he asked what tiddlywinks were. I told him we would go to the toy store to get a set so he would be prepared for his wait while I enjoyed my kayak lesson.

Unfortunately the toy store did not have a set of tiddlywinks, so I did the next best thing. I googled “tiddlywinks”. You can get a set at a place called www.sillyasstoys.com and there is an entire website dedicated to the sport: www.tiddlywinks.org. We read about the sport, we read the strategies and the history. I think my student will giggle too much to actually get down to a real game of tiddlywinks on the boat dock.

One of the things I have found that is very important to an education is how to fine tune your skills at doing absolutely nothing. In our busy, schedule driven world, the art of doing nothing has disappeared. A while ago, I told my student that doing nothing really is a lost art. We spend so much time fussing over our Math lessons, our Science projects running here and there and planning our next trip that doing nothing never happens. So, this past February I decided it was time for my student to learn how to do nothing, but not just to learn how to do nothing, get good at doing nothing - in style! And that's what we did.

I wrote earlier about Cabbage Key and this was the place where my student perfected his art of doing nothing. To refresh your geography, Cabbage Key is accessible only by boat, helicopter or seaplane and is located 20 miles northwest of Ft. Myers and 5 miles south of Boca Grande. (For sailors, Cabbage Key is directly across from marker 60 on the Florida Intercoastal Waterway. Sanibel and Captiva islands are 8 miles to the south.) There are no cars on the island, not even a paved road. You find winding nature trails, picturesque views and relaxation.

On Cabbage Key, I have to admit we did nothing - most of the time and there were no tiddlywinks involved - really. As homeschoolers it really is hard not to turn events into teaching moments. One good thing I have found with homeschooling is that your student eventually turns his own events into teaching moments without you and that's one of the fringe benefits you get with homeschooling. Your student learns how to educate himself. When we weren't doing nothing, we were studying the plants on the island because apparently there are mangroves (and other plants) there that aren't many other places in Florida. Unfortunately, the hurricane did a pretty good number on the island and much of the nature was disturbed, but not destroyed. Mother nature truely is amazing in how she repairs herself.