Just days after he insists he doesn’t like trying new things, days after I’m worrying over my baby boy, he surprised me. (And likely himself.)

Today was irrigating day at Ironwood Farm. The farm shares surface water rights with several other neighboring farms, all of whom take turns irrigating their fields and gardens. It was a lot of tiring work cleaning the canals of debris. But once it was clear the water flowed through the channels and made for very happy geese, ducks…and of course, kids.

E and S, the two unschooling kids on the farm, had a ready-made boat (a water tub borrowed from the cows) and swore to Zeb it was the only way to do it. But Zeb insisted on making his own boat, and with plenty of scrap material on the farm, he managed to paint it and even add a flag! With a push off and a little help from dad, he made it about 20 feet downstream before what he called “an epic fail”.

He was pretty upset, and ran off to be alone for a moment. When I went to speak to him, he was devastated. He felt everything he did “never worked” and went on beating himself up for a bit. But just coming down from all your awesome comments and I finally felt reassured as to my part in his experience.

I validated him and listened. And when he was ready I commended him on trying something no one else had yet to try. I told him how much guts it takes to venture out on a limb, inventing something new and not taking the easy, assured route to success. (I likened it to the Wright Brothers who’s dedicated experimental work he has admired in the past.) And even when it fails our expectations, the experience still makes for an awesome time.

We stood up to walk back to the channel and I asked if he wanted one of the other “boats” to continue playing. Nope. He wanted to try his again.

A good, good day.