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: uniqueness
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…
10 Out-of-the-Ordinary Christmas Activities
This is it – the last day in November. We’re getting deep into the holiday season now, and for my family that means lots and lots of baking cookies, watching Christmas movies and reading many Christmas stories. The day after Thanksgiving we always put up our Christmas tree, decorate it and watch our first Christmas…
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…
Interest-Led Sharing: Mining the Rich Resources of Your Homeschooling Community
A few weeks ago my children and I were privileged to take a tour of a local farm. Almost always when you sign up to take a tour, you’re required to pay a field trip fee. Then you’re usually restricted what you can do on the tour, either because the group is too large for…
15 Interest-Led Learning Families You Should Get to Know
Unschooling blogs usually read like a diary. A peek into other people’s lives. It’s not that you don’t get that peek in more traditional homeschooling blogs, but unschoolers tend to live unusual lives….and I like unusual! You get to see what resources and materials they use in the context of their lives. You get to…
Why is Self-Directed Learning a Difficult Concept to Grasp?
I’ve been thinking more and more lately why the concept of self-directed learning is so hard for many people to grasp and why five (or sadly, three) is the magical age when humans need to sit down and listen in order to learn things. Up until then little children observe, communicate, participate and contribute to…
5 Websites to Help You Better Explore Your Interests
So let’s say your daughter loves cooking. Lately she’s into making all chocolate desserts. Maybe she watches some YouTube videos or experiments on her own with some cooking books from the library. You find out there’s a local chocolate factory that gives tours. While she’s at the factory, she asks lots of questions. The tour…
The Death of Traditonal Teaching Part 2
Last Saturday, I wrote a post about the death of traditional teaching. To any teacher reading who thinks I don’t respect what you do, I was a teacher by profession, too. I worked hard at my job and wanted the kids to learn, too. It was only as I began to truly focus on the…