Invited by Huib, they all sat in the living room for yet another movie night. Lisa looked at Ineke: "We have been through this a few times now, and every time Huib manages to show another special film, a gripping film, to watch with pleasure, but also to raise questions. The films he chooses simply do something to you. I don't know what he has for us next, he was a bit vague this time, a bit mysterious, but I'm sure it will be something nice again. I see Rosalie's parents are there too, and you, really nice for you to get away!"

"Yes, quite exciting for a while, but I feel right at home here. I also just saw Rosalie for a moment, would she be upstairs now? Oh no, here she comes, helping Annerieke with the cake dishes. How wonderful she can bake, huh?"

"Yes, she really does, it's delicious every time, and something different every time. Today it looks like a combination of cake and apple pie, I'll be curious!"

Annerieke overheard something Lisa said and responded, "Right Lisa, it's a cinnamon cake with a layer of apple in it and a layer of apple on top, own recipe! Last night I got that idea, and felt like just taking the gamble. At the guesthouse, it was received with great enthusiasm!"

Quietly, she handed out the cake points, while Margreet set a tray with mugs of coffee and tea on the table. She saw Rosalie searching among the mugs and whispered to her, "That coffee that already has milk in it is for you. The other people get black coffee and put their own coffee cream and sugar in it if they want."

Rosalie nodded and started handing out coffee mugs, while Margreet put the tea glasses near Lisa and Ineke.

When everyone was catered for, and deliciously snacking on the cake, Huib stood up. "Glad you all could come. We are not going to watch a whole film today, but a part. The part we are skipping is about an attack on Iron Man's house. Iron Man is his superhero name, and his regular name is Tony. Everyone thinks he is dead, but he is taken to safety and he has fled. He meets Harley, a 10-year-old boy, with whom he has a deep connection, and today it is about their dealings with each other. I wanted to show you that part, and after that, I guess it will become clear what the reason for this choice is. Shall I start it up then?"

The enthusiastic response meant a definite YES! Huib started the video and sat back down. As they watched Harley interact with Tony, Ineke regularly watched Rosalie, and her parents. When Huib had seen that a few times, he paused the film and asked her, what was on her mind. Ineke was a bit startled by the direct question, but explained that the boy reminded her of Rosalie, that Harley was also discovering and learning things on his own. "And I super like how Tony treats him as an equal, not a little kid," she said.

Huib nodded smiling, "Thanks for sharing, it's important, thank you!" and set the film in motion again.

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"That was exciting!" sighed Rosalie when the film had ended. "I liked that Tony guy, a bit of a cocky one though, but I like that, that's who I am too!" she chuckled.

"Quite right," Patrick laughed, "delightfully cocky, fun cocky, you have your own wisdom, your own way, and so does that Tony. And so does Harley for that matter. They both really knew what they were doing!"

"And you know that too Patrick," Huib agreed with him, "and you too Bea. You know very well what you are doing, how you are dealing with Rosalie so that she can develop in her 'own wise', in her own way. And I would like to ask you to share your dreams with us, the plans you have put on paper. Because your dreams, your plans have everything to do with Tony and Harley."

Patrick and Bea looked at each other in surprise. "That's a surprise, I didn't see that coming," Bea responded, "but here in this group it seems completely normal that we share this. We all know you, except Ineke, but I know from Rosalie that you already know each other, and I don't think you're here just for fun either. Huib has clearly brought us together with the aim of sharing our plan and he has given us a warm-up with that film. Smarty!" she turned to Huib. "Ineke just said it, that Harley reminds her of Rosalie. We have given Rosalie quite a free hand to learn what she wants. And she wants to learn, learn a lot. Rosalie has been a free bird from babyhood, and somehow Patrick and I have been able to let her go, let her have her way. She went to school for a few months, and she loved it so much!"

Rosalie indignantly attacked her: "Not true! I thought it was terrible there!"

"That's what I mean, I thought you could best tell yourself. So school was not a success, rather a disaster. Well, she's not required to go to school yet, so when we moved here, we didn't enroll her in a school here and just let her live with us at home and... how am I supposed to tell..."

"We kept an eye on what Rosalie wanted," Patrick complemented. "That started with reading, that she wanted to learn to read. That was already in our previous residence. She could go to the library here all by herself after just a few times together. And every day she fetched new booklets. The books she reads now are written for children aged eight to ten, but Rosalie savours them. People would think she is a child prodigy, but I prefer to call her a free child. She feels what she wants, she knows what she wants, and when necessary, she asks us for help. Sometimes we ourselves sense what she needs. She has taught herself to type and write, works on her own laptop, writes stories on it....

"And maths, I can do maths too, addition, subtraction and multiplication, I discovered that with cubes," Rosalie complemented.

"Exactly," Bea continued. "At first you didn't like it, numbers, you didn't feel like it and that was fine. Later you discovered it yourself with those cubes. She doesn't learn tables because she can add up so quickly that she knows very quickly what, for example, seven times eight is. I suspect that at some point she has the answer to that sum by default in her memory, just as we all know it. We learned multiplication tables, but not addition rows, but by doing sums over and over again, we now know that four plus six is ten. That has become ingrained in our memory. Strangely, we all learnt that at school through practice and I think also with materials or drawings, but multiplication tables are compulsorily memorised. Rosalie has nothing to do with that, so we leave it that way.

Well, we have been thinking for a while about how to do it later. Officially, when she turns five in February, she will have to go to school, but she has already made it very clear that she does not need school. And we know she is right. But how to proceed from there? How do we deal with this school requirement? Patrick came up with a plan for a discovery centre..."

She then gave Patrick the opportunity to share what they had also told Huib. He did not ignore the questions and concerns they had about permission from the education inspectorate, a building permit, what materials to buy and finances. As he told them, Huib noticed that Lisa and Sjaak looked at each other a few times. He smiled, suspecting they had a click with this project. His suspicion turned out to be correct when Patrick finished telling. Lisa immediately latched onto it: "Patrick, Bea, last year I received an inheritance of an amount I thought 'what should I do with it'? Sjaak and I long to follow our inner self in everything, and so also with this money. When I knew we would get this money, I got a plan, a few plans, but the plan I am talking about now, that is about projects whose ideas people receive from their inner self, but which cannot be carried out without outside money. We want to support such projects. Not all projects of course, then the pot would be empty in no time, but those projects that we experience are the ones that we may join. And as you were talking, we both experienced that click. I have no idea how much money you need, but I suspect there is enough in the pot. The way we spend the money is as follows: we lend it interest-free, and if the initiators see an opportunity to pay back parts of it, we also expect them to do so, so that the pot doesn't get empty and we can also use it to support subsequent projects."

She paused, seeing that Huib called for attention for a moment. "Lisa and Sjaak helped me get a shallow building in the village that way. I put woodwork in there, and partly because of that I get commissions. So, from the money I earn from that, I pay them back. They didn't put any pressure on me. If I don't have customers, I don't have to pay them back. Fortunately, I do have them, so the borrowed amount is slowly getting smaller. That's how the plan works."

Lisa nodded: "Well I don't know how a discovery centre can become a profitable organisation, but there may be a solution to that. I'm not worried about that, are you Sjaak?"

Sjaak shook his head, nonchalantly: "Well no, why should we? It's a good project, and beyond that, I'll let the repayment go. As Huib said, no pressure, that works best, especially when you start something new. Then you probably have enough pressure of your own, then it's nice if the finances run smoothly."

Patrick and Bea looked at each other, looked at Sjaak and Lisa, too stunned to react. Rosalie had followed the whole conversation and did respond, all excited: "Then you guys can make that building, I'm sure Simon can do that, and buy stuff to put in it, and then I can learn there and I won't have to go to such a nasty school!" She cheered with her arms in the air.

"It's not that easy yet, Rosalie, all sorts of things need to be arranged first. We need permission from the education inspectorate. Those people know what is and isn't allowed. The government actually thinks you should go to school, so the education inspector, who works for the government, must first say it's OK for you not to go to school. And on top of that, someone has to give permission to make a discovery centre. But I know already now, that the education inspector has a requirement for that, that he wants a real teacher to work there, someone who has a diploma for that work."

Ineke slid forward on the sofa, interrupting Bea: "I hereby apply for that. I have my diploma, but I totally agree with Rosalie, school is TER-RI-BLE! I did an internship there, and got nightmares from the memories of when I was in primary school myself. I had to do so much, and I wanted to, but I couldn't get it done. Only now I dare to say, I want to learn, I want to discover, I want to do what I used to manage so badly. I want to do it myself, like Rosalie, and where better to do it than in a discovery centre? Could I be a teacher and learner there? I think so, in fact I'm pretty sure! Discovering together with children, that would also allow me to learn, right?"

Rosalie looked at with a tilted head. "But you are already a teacher, what do you still have to learn?"

Ineke shot into laughter: "If you think a teacher knows everything, you are mistaken. And I know a lot of people think that teachers know everything, but that's not true. I have long since forgotten a lot of what I learned. Why? Because I had to learn it the teacher's way, and at a time when I had no interest in it. When I think of what I would like to learn now..." Ineke thought for a moment and continued, "I would like to learn how you learn, Rosalie, self-discovery. And very practically, well, self-discovery is also practical, but besides that, what I would like to learn is how to bake such delicious cake. And when I see Sjaak busy in our garden at The Shelter, I want to discover for myself how that feels, how that works. Maybe after a few times I won't like it at all, that could well be, but I don't mind. I just know that these are a few things I would like to try out, discover and learn for myself. And while I'm doing that then, I'll find out if I want more of that."

With a deep sigh, she slid back on the sofa, looking at Patrick and Bea. She saw that they looked at each other and smiled. She saw that Patrick nodded, to which Bea turned to Ineke: "If everything goes through, if we can get everything done, then you are hereby hired!"

"Really?" Ineke clasped her hands in front of her face and started crying. Rosalie stood up, went over to her, sat on her knees next to Ineke's legs and put her head on Ineke's lap. "We are going to learn together nicely; I'm looking forward to it!"

Ineke shot a little laugh, stroking Rosalie's hair. "Me too, Rosalie, me too," she whispered.

"And me," Sjaak complemented, "I'd love to give you a little way into my wonderful hobby."

"And the same goes for me, just tell me what day you want to bake cake together. I think it would be fun to do it together every now and then!" thought Annerieke.

"Wow, so I can start exploring new things right away?"

Rosalie responded, "That's nice Ineke, I've also helped Annerieke with baking sometimes, and also with cooking sometimes. It's really cosy." And conspiratorially she added: "Annerieke is really a sweetheart, you know." And then out loud, so everyone could hear, "I said, Annerieke is really a sweetheart! And you all are! Just so you know!"

A spontaneous applause welled up as everyone laughed, happy that a few more people could move forward!

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Ironman (Tony Stark) and Harley, Clip

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0pHBgkEPs-M

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To chapter 22. New creativity

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