Opportunity to Learn

A favorite family field trip of mine is taking the kids to the London Food Bank to help sort food. It's do-able. It's relevant. It's age appropriate. It's short. We sort food from big boxes into shopping carts that are labelled with both words and pictures - so even the youngest volunteer can be useful.
As we homeschool I am intentional in creating opportunities for all of us to learn together. Today we did the job. Nothing earth shattering. No big learning point. We did the job. I guess it was a lesson in work ethics. We did the job.
We left the building - and the learning began. The unintentional, the unplanned, the real learning happened. Someone discovered Cicada shells strewn throughout the grass. "Exoskeletons" - we were taught by one of the keen little learners. I saw it in their eyes, they were excited, they wanted to know more. They searched, they found, they investigated.
It was neat to give the kids time to discover and to learn. I may have been tempted to think that my intentional and planned learning was over - we did the job at the Food Bank, time to get in the car and head home. But I stopped myself. I waited. I practiced patience. (This was not so easy for me!)
Sometimes the real learning happens when we wait, when we stop, when we allow for silent moments, when we rest, when we are quiet, when we are patient. I need to find the balance between intentionality and spontaneity. My Dove chocolate promise tonight said "Be Spontaneous" - I think I'll give it a try.