When I dreamed of having kids, there were many things I was hoping to teach them and a few things that I hoped they would take from me naturally : My love of nature, my need to create, my sense of optimism and my absolute LOVE of learning.
I was always one of those kids that was happy when summer vacation would arrive, but was truly done with it after a few weeks. Buying my school supplies was the thrill of my life. And as I grew older, it just got better. In high school and college, I would spend hours thumbing through new textbooks, anticipating lessons. That is right, I was one of those annoying eager students that actually DID the recommended additional readings.
When I finally stopped school after University (in Quebec, college and University are two different things), I couldn’t quite handle it. After a few months, I felt stale, like time had stopped. My brain felt cloudy, the “real world” wasn’t really as challenging. Before long, I felt like a slug, creeping across the floor of my apartment. This couldn’t be it.
I went online.
Before long, I was browsing online learning programs offered by my old University and ended up enrolling in a horticultural introductory course. They were studying plant biology, etymology, life cycles, it was truly fascinating. Now that I think about it, it was the start of a love affair with plants. It opened the door to gardening, to bonsai art, wild crafting, foraging and finally, to herbal studies.
I enrolled in my Intermediate Herbal Course from the Herbal Academy of New England this week-end. The curriculum is so exciting. They are expecting a much more in dept participation this year : Creating your own Materia Medica (herbal monographs), filling out “recipe reports” after trying the various recipes, participation in online discussions through the student forums and much more. The introductory class was amazing, but this really feels like school and I’m just giddy!
I had shared before how always learning was how I stayed young, but now, I’m seeing this next step as the start of a life for us. Who knows, maybe something to aspire too later as a career, when the kiddos are full-grown.
And through it all, I just might be getting my wish : Watching my daughter pick red clover, yarrow and St John’s wort, coming home and drying them, speaking of her magical potions, offering borage flowers and oxalis leaves to taste to anyone that enters our yard. Through all this, I am passing on my love of learning, my love of the natural world, the desire to create and my love for this life we live.
Family, Faith, Food and Fabric 
Enjoy the journey and welcome to class, Yanic!
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Thank you so much! 🙂
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I love this! What great opportunities. Can’t wait to read more about what you accomplish in this class–love the materia medica idea. Having just finished graduate school and a master naturalist program, I’ve been afraid I would panic with no formal education to keep me going…I’ve been too busy for the panic to hit yet, but I wonder what will happen when the winter slump sets in!!
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Yeah, the first time the school-days-blues hit for me, it was during a particularly heavy snow-fall winter with not much to do but stare at my walls. 😛 Hopefully you’ll be too busy still. 🙂
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love how you mention there is a difference between college and university, my husband (canadian) loves to remind us all the time. I to thirst for knowledge and I loved when my kids were learning, we would spend hours at a library researching what they wanted to know (and they were in public schools!) I learned a lot about bugs, ponies, other countries all through their eyes. Once the wedding is over this weekend and fall is in the air I’m thinking of learning watercoloring….just an idea..
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Which part of Canada is your husband from? Got mine in the states. LOL! Oh, learning any type of art is a worth while endeavor as for as I’m concerned. You’ll have to share if you decide to do it.
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How exciting! Good for you! I’m the same way, always have the drive to learn more. My husband says I’m exhausting :)…but I thrive on it.
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Many tell me I’m exhausting as well. But luckily, my husband is as ambitious. We are usually learning new stuff left and right, side by side. LOL!
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Ah…my friends often call me a perpetual learner. Since college I have been back to school in person three times, and online five times. Yup! I love learning. And that doesn’t count the self learning that goes on a regular basis as I dive into other things that interest me.
It is an interesting path to watch our little ones gather and collect information and make sense of it, in their own way and in their own time. I love that my little man picks up on the continual learning that goes on in our home, and takes it upon himself to try and learn more about the things that interest him. Such a wonderful example of life long learning that I hope he carries with him when he leaves our home one day.
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Same here… Watching them absorb all that is going on, making it their own, finding themselves in it and teaching us new things right back… Such a wonderful circle. Continue learning my friend, there is never a lack of knowledge to be gained!
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That’s just wonderful!!!! I usually love learning by books, but I might begin some day an online course, it seems so interesting!
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They have a wonderful curriculum. I recommend it to anyone that is interested in herbs really. But like you, I’m also a big book-learner. Most of my crafts and passions have been self taught. The freedom of it is wonderful, but I also find I tend to not be as rigorous when I’m self taught. But that is just me, I’m a born procrastinator.
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oh how exciting! i self-studied herbal medicine for a few years. i came very close to taking a course.
like you, i’m a perpetual student. mostly self-taught but also enjoying structured courses. although, courses tend to leave me wanting. my learning style is so expansive that i often find courses stifling. so the idea of attending university (uni and college also different here in the UK) is more appealing than the actuality. and school was the same. gathering the stationary products and the anticipation of returning to books was better than actual school, which bored me lol
my daughter has the learning bug, which is in part why home education suits as so well. i think it’s innate and thrives o my support of it. really, as sharing a curiosity of the world with her.
have fun!
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I do a lot of my learning on my own. It,s just easier really cause you can go in any direction you want, expand what tickles you the most… but there is something for me about a more structured setting. I think it is the sense of “classroom” or community. Even online. To have that web of like minded people is very inspiring.
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I think it must be one of those things that if you’re taught to love learning when you’re young, you never loose it. My last official qualification sort of learning was my professional ones a good few years ago now but I read voraciously, and so often find that hearing something about English History will send me down a complete wormhole until I’ve read everything I can about it, or my latest flurry of gardening. I love that you’re passing it on to your daughter and it’s going to be fascinating to see where her curiosity takes her.
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Learning happens in so many different ways! As long as you keep at it, your brain will be healthy. And really, that is all that matters. 🙂
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I’m with you on this love of learning! I took care of it, during my career, by staying in school as a university professor and, now that I’m retired, I’m always looking for new things to learn (like weaving!) You’re setting a wonderful example for your children–life-long curiosity!
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Living by example is truly the best way to inspire your kids I think. They learn by watching, imitating, figuring people and things out. You can”talk” all you want, but at the end of the day, it’s what you do that will make an impression. 🙂 What did you teach?
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My field was communication. I taught a lot of public speaking and courses in the analysis of public persuasion, trying to get students to think more critically about the messages they get from politicians, advertisers, etc. It was a great job!
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Oh I bet. That sounds amazing. I would have loved to have a class like that in University. 🙂
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How perfect that you’re doing something that obviously fulfils you so much, fits so amazingly with your lifestyle and values, and at the same time reaches your daughter like that too. Win, win, win situations are good!
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Yes, the wins are just amazing. Last night, we went out to our favorite spot to pick yarrow, St-John’s wort and red clover. She could have decided to just continue biking around, playing with her brotehr and dad, but instead she started walking up the path, calling out to me when she found “clover flowers without any brown” or “star flowers that just opened”… Such an eager learner. You ask her what she wants to be later and she has come up with everything from astronaut to zoo veterinarian to massage therapist. She just makes my entire soul smile.
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I’ve looked into the herbal program! You are going to learn sooo much! Stephinie of Gypsy Forest is in that school too. She’s posted about it a few times and loves it. Good luck, I can’t wait to hear about the things you learn.
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I will share I promise. I’ve already read up to my first “recipe experience” and am trying to decide what to make. So much to choose from. It,s a wonderful school. I so enjoyed their intro course.
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Hi Yanic, I’m visiting from Ben and Heather’s Harvest class – enjoying your questions/comments over there. And now reading your blog and enjoying your thoughts, and although my children are a little farther along than yours (6, 11, and 15 years), I feel a connection to a lot of what you are writing.
I am currently enrolled in an herbal class at a farm, learning the herbs from soil, seed, harvesting, medicine-making aspect. Last year I completed a 10-month foundations course with some pretty amazing teachers, and hope to go on to clinic (I am really fascinated by diagnosis and treatment modalities). Anyway, my next step, once my current class ends in October is to enroll in the same Intermediate Herbal Course to deepen my knowledege. It looks like an excellent course, and I look forward to a different, more “academic-like” approach. I might email you with questions, if you don’t mind.
Michelle
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Hello Michelle! So nice of you to visit. I actually added your blog to my Bloglovin’ feed just a few days ago but hadn’t really had a chance to check out anything since the workshop started. Honestly, my feed has exploded to about 50 unread posts now, but I’ll make it through the backlog soon I’m sure.
I’ve been enjoying the workshop so much and like you, I find the comments/discussions so energizing. To be in such a small “close” place with so many like minded people has always made me feel part of something bigger. Truly, the internet can be a magical place when you know how to pace yourself and make it work for you.
See, I’m a little jealous of your class. I wish there was a way to get real person-to-person training around here. We only have one class in Quebec and it has a very bad reputation for being incomplete and not in depth enough. It’s why I was so excited to find HANE and am planning on going all the way now that they offer the advanced course online as well. I’ll be happy to answer questions, but believe me, I still have SO MUCH to learn. This new path into herbalism is definitely a long term goal of mine, but I’m also taking my time, making sure I grasp everything. That clinical training sounds amazing. Maybe I’ll have questions for you later! 🙂
Hope you’ll stay in touch. I’ll be looking for you in the workshop! 🙂
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