How Seemingly Trivial Interests Are Full of Valuable Learning

This morning, I did something totally unexpected. Without thinking too much about it, I grabbed my phone and made my very first live Instagram video! It seemed to be the perfect time to do this because my hair was freshly styled and I’d just applied some makeup. I was looking fairly presentable!

I decided to chat about unschooling and the seemingly trivial interests that our kids might have. Are such things as makeup and clothes valuable? Or are they a waste of time?

My daughter Gemma-Rose recently gave me some makeup advice, together with a glittery eyeshadow palette. Because I was wearing some of this makeup while making my video, I flashed my brown sparkly eyelids at my phone camera. Then I shared some unschooling stories and talked about how makeup can lead to great conversations and lots of valuable learning. It can also produce many fabulous homeschool records notes if record keeping is legally required.In my video, I mentioned a particular conversation that I’d had with Gemma-Rose after she told me she was going to order some makeup online. Here’s something that I wrote about that wonderful chat:

Are our kids learning anything while they’re buying and applying makeup?

The other day, my daughter Gemma-Rose showed me some makeup packs that she was going to order online. She wanted to buy a limited edition collection of 4 eye shadow palette sets: “I’m going to give one each to Imogen, Charlotte and Sophie, and keep one set for myself.”

We talked about the colour palettes. Which palette would suit each girl best? (Creative Arts)

Gemma-Rose showed me a bundle pack of makeup that was cheaper than buying each item individually. She’d worked out that the bundle was exceptional value after calculating the cost of each individual eye shadow palette in the limited edition collection. She’d also compared that price to the price of similar items available in our local pharmacy. (Maths)

Gemma-Rose then told me that the makeup doesn’t contain carmine. All the products are vegan. Did you know that carmine is a red pigment derived from beetles? The beetles live on cacti and are native to Latin America. There are carmine farms!

I did a quick bit of googling and discovered that carmine is also known as cochineal. I told Gemma-Rose that red food colouring is sometimes known as cochineal. Together, we googled cochineal and found out that Skittles contain this pigment and Jelly Babies are glazed with an extract from a different beetle. So these sweets or lollies aren’t suitable for vegans. (Science, Geography, Personal Development)

Gemma-Rose told me that her makeup isn’t tested on animals so it’s vegan in more than one way. She said that the makeup sold by this company can’t be exported to China because the Chinese government requires all makeup to be tested on animals before being used on people. (Personal Development, Geography, Science.)

Our conversation then turned to other dyes such as the purple dye extracted from sea shells that was greatly valued by the Romans. We talked about how the emperor wore purple, and why purple is considered the colour of royalty. We also shared stories of all the dangerous makeup products that have been used throughout history. Oh my, it’s horrifying to think of the health risks women of the past unknowingly took while making themselves look beautiful! (Science, Geography, History.)

Gemma-Rose is planning to give the makeup she orders to her sisters as a gift. This generous act could be labelled as Personal Development.

Using the Internet to make her purchases involved Technology.

I bet I could find lots of info about makeup and dyes to share with my daughter, but Gemma-Rose seems to be doing a good job of extending her knowledge herself. She’s been using the Internet to Google info. (Technology)

So, an interest in something like makeup might sound trivial and not very important, but when we dig a bit deeper, we can see it involves a lot of learning experiences!

(This short post was originally posted in the Stories of Unschooling Families community.)

Sharing Gemma-Rose’s passion for makeup has strengthened the bonds between us. It has also been a lot of fun!

So, I chatted live this morning. And everything went well, even though it took me a while to work out how to end the video.  Once I’d found the appropriate button, the video was posted to my feed where my followers could view it.

Then everything went wrong. Somehow I pressed the archive button and my video instantly disappeared. Fortunately, I found it again in the archive folder before trying to restore it to my feed. After multiple unsuccessful attempts, I ended up downloading the video to my phone and then uploading it again to Instagram. Doing this affected the video quality. Never mind. My next livestream video will be better. I now know what I’m doing. And I know what not to do: I shan’t go anywhere near the archive button!

One more thing: I also told my double piercing story in my video: “Mum, what do you think? Should I get my ears double pierced like yours?” Sometimes our kids want to hear our opinions, and they might also want to copy us!

So, do you ever wonder if your kids are learning anything worthwhile while they’re diving deep into such things as makeup, fashion, popular music, skateboarding and Pokémon? Or have you discovered that all interests can result in fabulous learning adventures? They can also be lots of fun!