A very seasoned education
Our, now adult, children never attended school and were always educated at home.
If pressed to identify our rather eclectic educational style we would describe it as child-led or autonomous, but if there was ever an overarching theme to not just their education but their entire childhood it would have to be classed as nature based.
From their early years on the Sussex south coast close to the downs and the sea, surrounded by towns and just 50 miles from London, to the second half of their childhood spent here in Lochaber living on a croft on the Isle of Rum, their daily lives and educational opportunities have been heavily influenced by nature and the changing seasons.
In our previously more urban life noting the time of year could be more about commenting on how early it was getting dark when dashing out to an evening activity like swimming lessons or Scouts and swapping summer shoes for winter boots.
But for us this went a step further as we visited the library for books about why the leaves changed colour and dropped from the trees.
Our regular trips to nature reserves and interactions with bird watches and rangers enlightened us about resident birds and migrating visitors, mammal and insect life cycles.
Our always drawing or painting son would be noting the changing light and cloud patterns in the skies and our wildlife documentary-loving daughter would be regaling us with her encyclopaedic sharing of facts, picked up from David Attenborough, Steve Irwin or Steve Backshall.
During our Rum years seasonal nature influences were more practical than theoretical.
If spring was about cute new arrivals on the croft of chicks, ducklings and piglets then autumn was about the contrast of processing and preserving with sausage making, brining, plucking and hanging.
The freezer would be emptied of kilos of summer gathered soft fruits for mammoth jam-making sessions to make space for pork, poultry and venison.
Early winter would see us tree planting on the croft, along with chopping firewood to keep us warm and the annual selection and felling of a suitable Christmas tree.
The Highlands and rural living also offered a whole new world of opportunities for seasonal wildlife and nature spotting.
Living where so many wildlife series are filmed, we have been fortunate to witness the red deer rut close enough to not just hear the roaring stags and their clashing antlers but also to smell their unique scent during autumn.
Having listened to the eerie night time calls of Max Shearwaters over the summer, we learned to ensure no night time lights were left on outside for risk of confusing fledglings as they left their burrow to head out to sea for their feeding or eventual migration.
We have watched returning wild salmon leap up waterfalls to return to their spawning ground to breed, seen V formations of hundreds of geese and occasional swans flying high overhead.
Night time sky gazing in the autumn offers not just stars but also meteors and the aurora borealis.
My son recently commented that he thought he could work out the time of day and time of year within moments by looking at the sky, the sun, the trees and the ground, and I realised how fortunate our children have been to have had this close connection to nature and to have learned from the natural world.
As an adult who continues to seek knowledge from nature, I can highly recommend getting outside wherever possible, along with reading books about the natural world; plants, animals, water and weather.
And, of course, watching some of the remarkable films and documentaries, including the current series of David Attenbourgh’s Planet Earth III and the rather more anarchic but no less informative 8 Out Of 10 Bats, some of which was filmed here in the Highlands and is available on YouTube.