I’ve recently finished reading Leo Babauta’s The Effortless Life (not an affiliate link). For those of you who haven’t heard of Leo, he writes on his blog Zen Habits about living a simple, mindful life and by creating positive habits by taking small steps one at a time. The Effortless Life speaks about having a…
Tag: exploring the world
How Children Can Invite Opportunities into Their Lives
In my last post, The Secrets of Expertise, I discussed Malcolm Gladwell’s book Outliers: The Story of Success. In that book, he points to two main reasons why many people have become super successful – putting in an enormous amount of practice in their area of expertise- 10,000 hours- and being born into extraordinary circumstance….
The Secrets of Expertise
I’m really excited to watch the Olympics on TV this summer. I’m always so amazed at how incredibly talented the athletes are, especially the athletes that are still so young. It’s impressive the amount of time and dedication they put into becoming an expert at something. To be an expert at something requires an amazing…
Nov 2011 Monthly Interest-Led Learning Resource Guide
I love reading homeschooling sites and blogs. It’s fun getting a peek into other families’ lives, but the main reason I love to read them is to steal their idea. We’ve never before lived in a time when we have access to so many great ideas and resources at our fingertips at any time of…
An Inteview with an Interest-Led Learning Dad
I knew before my kids were born that I didn’t want them to attend school. While I was pregnant I worked in a public school, and I had been reading books by John Holt and John Taylor Gatto. I could see with the 12 and 13 year-olds I worked with that when their interest was…
Why It’s Important to Bring Your Child to Someone Else’s Job
In a few weeks my kids and I will be going to the hospital. Thankfully, it’s not because anyone is sick. My sister is an RN and we’ll be following her around at work for a few hours. My son and daughter will be able to check out the stethoscope and other equipment, watch her…
The Essential Qualifications of an Interest-Led Learning Parent
Unschooling and Interest-Led Learning often receives a bad rap both in the media and the larger homeschooling circles. The belief that children learn best when they follow their own curiosity and passions is often dismissed as something utopian or unrealistic. There’s also the belief that unschooling is somehow easier and more hands-off than traditional homeschooling…
20 Ways to Volunteer With Your Young Child
Thanksgiving and Christmas and other holidays are just around the corner. It’s often a time when we look for ways to volunteer and give to others in need. Young children usually love to volunteer. They love being active and helping others. If you think closely about what they love to do and tap into those…
10 Great Catalogs for Unschoolers
As interest-led, passion-driven learners, we don’t follow a prescribed curriculum. We go out and explore and discover those things around us, through travel, the internet, libraries, people we meet and many other ways. Our tastes are very eclectic. We dabble in many different subjects and topics, staying with some for months at a time,…
How to Become a Local Tourist
My family loves to travel. This year we’ve traveled to Nevada, San Diego, St. Louis, Missouri, Kansas City, Missouri, and Saugatuck, Michigan plus we have two more trips planned before the end of the year. But as much as I love to travel to new places, some of my best memories of this year have…