When I student taught at a highly rated public high school, most of my language arts classes were honors classes. At this particular school there were four tracks, honors, accelerated, regular, and I’ve forgotten what they called the lowest track. In the minutes before class would start, I’d love to listen to the kids talk…
Tag: self-directed
My Year Without Goals
Last year I sat down with my notebook and took several hours to plot out my goals for the coming year. I wrote down some big goals in major areas of my life, broke them down into sub-goals, and then made monthly goals. I was so proud of myself and felt that it was…
Mindmeister: Brainstorming Connections to Your Child’s Interests
Have you ever used a mind map to outline a piece of writing? Maybe you’ve even used one to plan a trip or a party? What about using a mind map to help your children think about topics and subjects related to their current interests? Well, I’ve found a great free program at Mindmeister.com that…
Creating a System for Adventure: Building a Master Calendar
In my last post, I talked about how to create a master list of places you might want to visit with your family this coming year. It’s really important to create a link for each place you list. This way as you go through the list, you can just click on each link and be…
Creating a System for Adventure: Building a Master List
We love to travel. Ever since my kids were 14 months old and we boarded a plane to the US Virgin Islands, we’ve gone on great adventures with them both near and far. In fact, I’m in the middle of planning a big dream vacation that we’re taking later this year. While we travel far…
50 Awesome Posts About Interest-Led Learning & Unschooling From 2011
Happy New Year’s Eve! Now is the time of year when lots of bloggers, newspapers, and magazines put out their top 10 or 50 or 100 lists. It’s the time when they highlight the best of the best from throughout the year. So, I thought, why not jump on the bandwagon? Here a…
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…
10 Non-Traditional Christmas Movies for Homeschoolers
What’s your favorite Christmas movie? Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer? It’s a Wonderful Life? A Christmas Carol? When it starts to get cold outside (at least where I live!), I love to snuggle up in a blanket on the couch with the kids on a Friday afternoon and watch a great movie. We love watching all…
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…