Conversation

"I have to go see the Dalai Lama." Tad says as he walks past me towards the basement stairway.

"Why?"

"Because he is a spiritual guru."

"Where are you going then to see him?" I ask this as he is still on route to the basement. Nathalie is in the living room on the floor cutting out pants for a doll and looks up at me as if I have lost my mind.

"Um, mom, he is in Tibet." She says, as if she feels sorry for me that I dont remember this fact. Tad has now gone downstairs with no addition to the conversation and I guess he is in Tibet now bc he DID say he was going to see the Dalai Lama and as Nathalie pointed out, he isnt in our basement.

Now as I sit here I think, well, I am glad my children know who the Dalai Lama is. Not because he is OUR spiritual guru, but because he exists. Outside of our yard, our town, our state, our country. Because how many 6-8 yr olds in public school (no offense please) are offered the chance to learn about the Dalai Lama and how many of them know that Tibet exists, that it is a different country, that one cannot walk/drive to from the state they live in. Ask a regular child on the street in America, how would go to Tibet? What type of transport would you need? I guarantee you many of them have not been given this information, much less found it worth remembering.

The last thing I have to add on this, I did not teach my children about Tibet, the Dalai Lama or Ireland. Ireland is what they have moved onto during this blog post. Tad has made a kilt out of a paper bag, he is wearing my knee socks, dancing and pretending to play bagpipes. He is speaking some gibberish and calling it gaelic. They know that Ireland is an Island, they know many things about it. And they can speak in an Irish accent. Again, I didnt teach this. They learned it by listening, reading and asking questions. And by the huge amount of puzzles and games that we play. This year we have unschooled, due the deployement of daddy they needed more fun than workbooks. And they have learned more this year than ever before, from any workbook.