July 24 was the first annual Learn Nothing Day. Do you have any idea how hard it is to try not to learn anything for an entire day?
When I found out about Learn Nothing Day I posted it to the list of events on our online community and planned to make the day full of nothing, after all everyone needs a day off. Then I realized that Learn Nothing Day was doomed to fail in our house before the day even happened. I looked at my calendar to see that my son would be at science camp for half of the day. We decided that previously scheduled learning would be allowed to take place, but that was it. No more learning!
I drop my son off at his camp that morning fully intending to learn nothing with my younger daughter that day. We went to the park to play with some friends. I thought we were safe from learning, but then it happened….learning snuck up on us! While we were at the park there was a very friendly parks department worker who loved telling the children all about the beautiful flowers that were throughout the park. We went on a walking tour of the park learning about the variety of flowers that are in the gardens.
After the learning fiasco at the park it was time to pick up my son. The three of us decided to go out for a harmless learn nothing kind of lunch. As we ate we chatted about our food. My daughter was enjoying her mushrooms when my son asked how mushrooms are grown. After explaining the process I realized my children learned something new.
On the way home there was a terrible storm. I am talking about a pull over on the shoulder of the highway, wish you were in your basement kind of storm. As we continued our journey home after the storm blew over, we had a long discussion about weather. Ugh! More learning!
That evening we talked about how hard it was to learn nothing. We came to the conclusion it is really hard to learn nothing in a day. My son said since learning is fun it isn’t something that should be avoided. Smart little guy I have there.
We will try again next year to learn nothing. I already doubt our success since we are always learning about the world around us.
To learn more about Learn Nothing Day visit Sandra Dodd’s site at
http://sandradodd.com/learnnothingday
Well written!