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Teaching Permaculture Thinking/Design Skills

Rachel Lindsay

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posted 2 years ago

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So far, I have generated this list of thinking skills as useful ones for raising a Permaculturist:

Observation--accurate, complex, complete, and continual

Recognition--of resources and their potentials

Connection--flows of resources, processes, people

Reframing--obstacles as springboards, constraints as foundations

Evaluation---comprehensive, constructive, continual

Do they teach these skills in PDCs? Do you need a mentor working with you on a particular project to develop and hone these mental skills? I will be building a garden with my daughter in the spring, and I am including her in all my processes, the thinking as well as doing ones, in an attempt to model these design skills in action. I need a lot more practice with them myself, too, so I guess it's back to the library for me!

“If we are honest, we can still love what we are, we can find all the good there is to find, and we may find ways to enhance that good, and to find a new kind of living world which is appropriate for our time.” ― Christopher Alexander

Anne Miller

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posted 2 years ago

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To me, a good PDC will teach the 12 steps for the Principles of Permaculture.

Since PDCs are not offered where I live I have not had the opportunity to take one.

Years ago I looked into taking one online until I figured out that my computer is not compatible.

Here is an infographic that I found on Pinterest that explains the 12 Principles of Permaculture, I hope the person that made it got it right:

source

Here is an interesting thread that I found:

https://permies.com/t/39305/Applying-principles-permaculture-zone-infographic

Invasive plants are Earth's way of insisting we notice her medicines. Stephen Herrod Buhner
Everyone learns what works by learning what doesn't work. Stephen Herrod Buhner

Rachel Lindsay

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Location: Tennessee

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posted 2 years ago

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Teaching Observation
(or, What Has Worked in Our Homeschool So Far)

nature notebooks for recording daily observations and drawings on nature walks

My first grader complains about using hers to some degree, although I demonstrate using mine with enthusiasm, but even with her less-than-stellar attitude it has been essential to have her out "in the field" with her "nature investigator" cap on

talking about the patterns of the seasons as we go through them

For example, I would admire the trees in town in each season as we went on our errands, calling attention to how they looked in that moment, and anticipating what these same trees would look like in autumn and winter (note: magnolias here in the South are great examples of non-fir evergreens to talk about with young-uns!).

talking out what I observe My examination of aphids on the morning glories right outside our front door led to further, planned observations as we read from Fabre's The Story Book of Science about "plant lice"

asking questions to get Miss G to narrate what she observes

So far her narrations have been of few words, but I consider that questioning her daily is getting her in the habit of noticing things and differences in things

focusing on specific topics to observe based on the season

A primary one has been the topic of "day". I drew attention to the shortening days from Summer to Autumn to Winter, and she memorized Stevenson's poem "Bed in Summer" as this has been something that annoys her (This topic worked out well with geography, too, as we discuss that it is night and summer in Australia when it is day and winter here.)

arranging situations to observe

Still working on this, as it is harder in the Winter, but I expect that the kitchen- and market-garden projects I have planned for the Spring will provide plenty of opportunities!

Rachel Lindsay

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posted 2 years ago

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Teaching Recognition of Resources
in our homeschool

discussing the sayings "One man's trash is another man's treasure" or the Australian (I think? Read it in Ross Mars' book, anyway) version: "One man's rubbish is another man's resource")

I'll bring this up as part of a conversation at breakfast, for example, comparing these sayings to something I have recently read or observed with her. It's always nice when she will later on make the connection on her own.

Playing "lateral thinking" games like Pickles to Penguins

generative thinking practice

As a game in the car we will list all possible ideas for something we are thinking about doing, as a regular practice in trying to come up with many options, even silly ones, to generate possibilities

actively using compost, kitchen scraps for chickens, and *ahem* high-nitrogen fertilizer from humans in the garden

dice games like Yahtzee and Catan Dice where she has to constantly generate new strategies based on rolls of the die

listing multiple ways to do the same thing

such as using different denominations of bills/coins for making change in the same amount, etc.

Steve Zoma

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posted 2 years ago

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For me, thinking can only go so far and especially so at early ages. While I am a huge fan of the creative arts, and thus the creativity that goes with that, there seems to be too much thinking in Permiculture and not enough “doing”.

You see it on here: for every thread where someone did something there are fifteen threads on thoughts and ideas.

I realize it is January and I live in Maine, there is only so much can be done. But a person can make scale models, or do testing. Steps can be made towards the end game

What I would suggest is doing some activities with your daughter and not just talking about concepts. One thing I love is CAD design… ha ha, for
Me that is cardboard aided design. She might be too small to use a hot belt glue gun but take toilet paper tubes and glue up a hydro rotor, or use paper to scale out a sofa to, or make a shadow box that shows the topography of your homestead using cardboard and gypsum compound.

By combining some sort of age appropriate doing, we get engaged kids that are quick to get involved and become doers.

Rachel Lindsay

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I see "thinking vs. doing" as a false dichotomy in the wonderful web of Permaculture.

The infographic posted above nicely begins with Principle 1: "Observe and Interact." Yes, "and interact." What we observe depends greatly on what we do, in other words. (*) That is only one example, as I see it, of how constructive action is indelibly bound up with the thinking and planning in Permaculture systems. Evaluation and adaptation to changes are also action-oriented design steps.

Because our daughter has virtually no screen time and is enthusiastically homeschooled, she gets a lot of practice "doing" with we grown-ups. She has been gathering eggs in the chicken coop, baking cookies, harvesting vegetables for our suppers, building wooden kit projects with her father and grandfather, etc., since she was just a toddler. Children have that blessed natural drive to do what adults are doing: the only trick is not to say no, and patiently let them "help" you in your various projects.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
* “What you see and what you hear depends a great deal on where you are standing. It also depends on what sort of person you are.” ― C.S. Lewis, The Magician's Nephew

Anne Miller

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I feel folks do put out a lot of ideas, I also agree that asking questions helps folks learn about permaculture.

The forums here at permies are the best place to learn about permaculture without spending a lot of money.

Ask questions, everyone, as that is how we learn.

And since this is in the kid's forum...

Rachel said, " I will be building a garden with my daughter in the spring, and I am including her in all my processes, the thinking as well as doing ones, in an attempt to model these design skills in action. ... so I guess it's back to the library for me!

While you are at the library pick up some books for your daughter. Here are some suggestions:

https://permies.com/t/172223/Children-Books-Infect-Permaculture-Minds

https://permies.com/t/170436/Media-Permaculture-Young-Brains

This sounds like a fun project to help learn permaculture for folks with toddlers:

https://permies.com/t/132561/type-material-Quiet-sensory-book

Invasive plants are Earth's way of insisting we notice her medicines. Stephen Herrod Buhner
Everyone learns what works by learning what doesn't work. Stephen Herrod Buhner

I love a good mentalist. And so does this tiny ad:

Edible Landscaping With a Permaculture Twist by Michael Judd

https://permies.com/wiki/31938/Edible-Landscaping-Permaculture-Twist-Michael