Unschooling Blog, Vol. 38 - Exposing the Kult: A Spontaneous Bit of Fun.
The Yakult guy came today. Yakult is a Japanese pro-biotic drink that is ubiquitous and a staple of life here in Japan.
Often, sales reps will unexpectedly show up at your door offering you samples, and informing you of the latest marketing campaign.
Well, today was such a day, and my son and I received two free samples and a flyer with a nice big picture of a smiling dude holding a bottle of Yakult. Immediately I felt my hands reaching for an eraser. I used to make fake tabloid newspapers when I was a kid, erasing the eyes of celebrities and writing stories about how they were really aliens. Isaiah got a really big kick out of this and was laughing and helping me draw on the poor guy who had posed for the ad, never having any idea he would one day be turned into a demonic, pro-biotic zombie alien.
We made a backstory about the drink, changing its name from "Yakult" to "Kult," and as we drank our free samples, pretended to turn into zombies, smiling and nodding in mock, wide-eyed trances at one another, laughing. You just can't do this type of stuff in school! Today we had a bit of priceless, spontaneous fun, and effortlessly explored the topics of:
- ZOMBIES/ALIENS
- POISON
- SPELLING
- THE OCCULT (in a five-year-old-appropriate way, of course)
- GRAPHIC DESIGN
DRINK. OBEY. RESTEEM! ;)
(Thanks for stopping by! If you missed the last Unschooling Blog, Vol. 37: "Make Custom Crypto Wallets with Your Kids!" you can find that HERE.
~KafkA
Graham Smith is a Voluntaryist activist, creator, and peaceful parent residing in Niigata City, Japan. Graham runs the "Voluntary Japan" online initiative with a presence here on Steem, as well as Facebook and Twitter. (Hit me up so I can stop talking about myself in the third person!)
you just hade fun and made a great memory for your son to carry on... nice sir
If I was a kid again I'd want to go to your school Graham. Great fun mate.
Children are always going to learn better if they're allowed to 'be' children while learning, rather than being forced to conform to some ridiculous regime.
I have friends with quite young children (under 10 years old) who are already showing signs of stress due to the pressure put upon them to pass pointless tests that make the teachers and politicians look good.
The government training camps have gone too far now with the constant testing for the sake of it and worse than that, the PC bullshit the kids are being bombarded with.
It ain't right!
Too true. What a fuckin' shame this is being done to kids man. They wonder why the adolescent suicides rates around the world are skyrocketing. Nobody looks at the fucking society. They blame video games or something silly like that. Those games are probably what are helping kids survive nine times out of ten.
Cheers man. I appreciate that, and I couldn't agree more.
Yakult is like holy water in Asia. My Thai wife her mum works as a yakult lady. Stuff is being sold like by the tons. Everywhere you go there is a yakult lady selling some. Walking around with iced bags and on the scooter a big trunk with iced twelve packs. They are 7 baht a bottle and yakult lady gets 1 baht comission a bottle. My wife her mum earns about 9,000 baht a month, but in commissions about 20,000 baht a month. I think they drink it, because they hardly drink cow milk or eat yoghurt. In my country everyone eats yoghurt and drinks cow milk, so the stuff is hardly sold here. Don't know many yakult drinkers in my country, but Thailand nearly everyone does.
I was not aware it was a big deal in Thailand, too. Good point about the dairy, though. Dairy here is expensive and not nearly as big of a part of the average diet as it is in other countries.
I love it! He won't remember the things that you think he will from his childhood, he will remember making zombie aliens today and having fun with Dad. My son is 32 and still talks about the scrambled eggs with sausage that I made him while camping in a torrential rain all day, haha! Good stuff @kafkanarchy84!
Ahhh that's great man. Funny what we remember, and in this case super heartwarming. Thanks!
lol DED
follow and upvote ^^
I shared the blog post with my local unschooling group. Everyone loves the idea and we are working on organizing an event! Somethings people might need to think about are permits required by your city in order to sell items on public property, or finding a space to hold an event in bad weather. I think we are going to try a small one at my house first and see it goes well before we make it bigger and invite all the other homeschoolers in the area.
What are you talking about?
Lmao! I think that you have started a kult. It has spread.
Nice @kafkanarchy84 ...Bless
after a long time i online and today i see ur post i haver no idea on yakult or kult @kafkanarchy84.... u recieve samples with ur son whats about ur small son u he look cute and totally look like you
V.Nice