My daughter ran shrieking through the house, saying something about Zeus, and the Cyclops, and I think she mentioned Hercules in there somewhere. As she bounded up the stairs, my son zoomed past me, too. With a sword in one hand he yelled, “We’re the bad sea monsters, and Shaggy and Scooby are going to…
Tag: self-directed
10 Unusual Ways to Explore Art
My memories of art in kindergarten: cut and paste creations, detailed instructions of how to color inside the lines and reminders to “follow directions.” High school art wasn’t much better. I wanted to create art and often had pretty cool ideas of what I wanted to make, yet I often felt frustrated. While the three dimensional…
Are You Doing An Injustice to Children By Catering to What They Want to Learn All the Time?
I was asked this question just a few weeks ago. The person who asked this followed up by saying that the real world doesn’t do that; that you do what they want you to do when they want you to do it. On the surface, many people would probably agree with the statement my friend…
A Collection of 100 Quotes About Natural, Self-Directed Learning & Compulsory Schooling
In a few days, we will be celebrating the 4th of July, our day of independence, in the United States. Almost 250 years ago a few brave men (and some women!) broke against the mainstream and fought for a future where they could self-direct their own lives. African Americans and women had to fight…
If Skills & Subjects Are Different, Why Do Schools Treat Them the Same?
There’s a big difference between history and math, and it’s not just a difference between stories and numbers. There’s also a big difference between reading and science or geography. Reading and math are skills. Think of them as analogous to learning to talk or how to ride a bike. Almost all kids learn how to…
Instead of Preschool: Why We Opted Out Part 1
I recently read a report that said 64% of children age 4 nationwide attend some type of preschool program. Where I live it seems the percentage might even be higher. Besides a few friends who plan on homeschooling when their children are older, I don’t know of a single parent who chose to have her…
Real Goals
There’s a lot of buzz going around lately about setting goals. If you type “setting goals” into a Google search engine you’ll get 7,770,000 results. If you believe in the importance of setting goals as a tool to help you achieve something, you probably also think this is a pretty great skill for your kids…