A NEW site to us for learning!

Why Don't Spider's Get Caught in Their Webs? A fantastic fall wonder from Wonderopolis!

I have spent the weekend searching and reading the website Wonderopolis. 

This website is an unschooling families dream! Wonderopolis is a site full of information about topics people wonder about. Each "wonder" includes a video, article, links, vocabulary, and more! 

Natalie LOVED the listen button. She doesn't like to read on the computer screen, so listening to the article was a GREAT feature for her.

 Ella has her own "wonders" to ask, but is excited to get answers to some of the most popular "wonders" on the site. 

Olivia liked the site as well. She is interested in exploring it more on her own. 

This website covers so many topics that are fascinating. We will be using this and the app as part of our daily learning. 

I LOVE finding wonderful ways to learn. At my house technology is our favorite method of learning. 

Thanks Wonderopolis!

Seth Godin and Learning

I have been watching this Seth Godin video today.

Choosing to homeschool my kids is my first step to standing up for learning in a different way.

Giving my kids the freedom to learn about anything their hearts desire is my way of standing up a bit more. I want my kids to want to do and learn more. Giving them the freedom to choose allows this to happen.

My dream is for all kids to be able to learn what they are passionate about.

Worry, Learning, and Technology

I worry about my youngest. Sometimes I am concerned that she is not doing enough. I worry that I am making a mess of her education, since I am choosing to allow her to learn in an interest led way. 

Today Ella spent most of the day playing, practicing her tumbling skills, and on the computer. She did two math lessons, watched a video on Billy the Kid, watched a Youtube video on how to make changes to her Youtube channel, wrote a question to the creator of the video, thanked him for his response, and listened to her read aloud. Then she spent three hours at dance. 

When she came home she hopped onto Club Penguin. Then, she surprised me. 

Tonight Ella informed me she had written the first two pages of her script for "real" actors. Understand up to this point her movie's have been all Webkinz, all the time. She showed me her script. I was impressed that she naturally wrote in a script format and it is typed. She wanted me to know it wasn't complete and she will be working on this for a long time, because she doesn't want to film it until after Christmas when she gets her "real good" video camera and tripod. 

I was quite impressed with her spelling. She informed me that she is getting better at spelling. This is a true statement. We have never spent a day with any spelling curriculum. Some words she said she knew how to spell because she has seen them many times on her computer games. Another vote for how gaming increases learning. We went through her script, discussed and fixed some of the mechanics such as capitalization and punctuation. 

It was a great discussion. She asked if she was suppose to use the two "dots" after the character names. I told her yes. Those "dots" have a name, it is a colon. She was stoked that she had used them correctly. She told me where action was to take place within the script, so I explained how to use brackets and short phrases to write where the action occurs. She thought this was a great idea, and told me where we needed to add more. 

At this point it was late and she went to bed. When I went to look at her script and close some windows on the computer I noticed this image above. When Ella writes and I am not at her side to ask, she has discovered how to look up the correct spelling of a word. 

I did not teach her this skill. She did not show me with pride her method for spelling words correctly. She did not see writing this script, or our discussion about grammar, mechanics, and script writing as a school lesson. Ella simply loved the process of writing a script for a movie. Her movie. Her first movie with real people!

It is moments like these when I take in a deep breath, realize we are on the right path for us, and Ella is learning about what she loves. This is a perfect combination. 

Enjoying Life and Learning

We are enjoying life. 

Recently I enjoyed a day with a photographer taking photos of my girls. It has been years since I have had anyone other than myself take photos of them and it was time. They had a great time and I now have hundreds of beautiful pictures of them!

This weekend Ella enjoyed creating skirts for her Webkinz. They are SUPER cute and we discussed how she decided to create them. She decided she wants to write a how-to script, have me film her process, edit her video, and post it on her Youtube channel. She enjoys Webkinz. I NEVER expected so much learning to come from stuffed animals, but it just goes to show what role passion plays in how we learn. 

Natalie is enjoying the season of Halloween. She is painting, creating, and making all things Halloween. We decorated the house this weekend, and have been enjoying reading Heidi. 

Olivia has also been enjoying the creative Halloween bug that is consuming my house. She has been working on a couple of Halloween projects and finished reading The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. 

Enjoying life is why I homeschool in an interest led way. When creativity strikes we are able to travel down that path. The ability to do this is pure joy. 

Learning Independently and Unschooling

I consider my kids independent learners. Educators take terms like "independent learners" to describe kids who are peer tutors. This educational terminology is NOT the method I consider my kids to be learning. My kids are NOT mini teachers that run to the aid of one of their siblings to tutor them in a subject they are good at. This is not an independent learner, it feels more like a mini teacher training camp led by "experienced teachers."

I am an experienced teacher. I don't feel it is a requirement for my kids to be independent learners. As a matter of fact I have had to get rid of my experienced teacher hat in order to allow my kids to become independent learners. I define an independent learner as any one who freely chooses to explore and learn more about a topic that they are intrigued about, or feel is necessary for their future. Freely choosing to learn is important, as it has the ability to change attitudes about learning. 

Yesterday my oldest chose to spend her day reading and writing. She chose to finish reading The House of Hades by Rick Riordan, after which she rolled on the floor and discussed her despair at how the book ends and the fact that she has another year to wait for the next book in the series. She shared her excitement on new insight about several characters. Next, she picked up a book I had picked up from the library about Aladdin and other Tales from the Arabian Nights. She was excited to read Aladdin and ran upstairs to start. After reading she chose to read a couple of chapters from a book about writing called Seize the Story and decided to do the writing exercises at the end of the chapter. We discussed what she learned from the chapters and how she used the exercises to learn more about the characters she is developing in her novel. After lunch she saw another book I had on the table called The Witches by Roald Dah lthat I had picked up to see if my youngest wanted to use it as our next read aloud. My oldest asked if I would read it to her, so we read a couple of chapters. After lunch she added another paragraph to the next chapter in her novel and wrote over twelve pages in her writer's notebook. She did not do any reading of history or science on this day, nor did she do a math lesson.  Yet  she was still choosing to learn after 11 pm. 

I believe this description embodies an independent learner. My oldest is freely choosing to read and learn about what interests her. I do not get in her way and try to teach her something. My job as her mother is to listen and discuss her interests with her. Through these discussions she shares what she is passionate about, we are able to analyze and think deeply about her interests, and when we are unsure of something we go and explore; searching for an answer. 

Independent learning is a result of unschooling. Teenagers are not the only age group who excels with this style of learning. My elementary aged daughters are also independent learners. I have one in the kitchen trying to re-create science experiments she has found on Youtube. She will spend most of her day doing this. We are reading aloud the classic story Heidi and will do a math lesson or two on the computer. Later she will spend some time learning how to design a web page and write HTML code and at 9:30 pm curled up by the fire to read the book Storybound. My youngest announced at 9:30 last night that she wanted to read a chapter from the book My Haunted House by Angie Sage. She also announced that she likes reading and she discussed how she remembers not liking to read (back when I was still trying to be the "teacher"). She listened to a chapter in our read aloud, The Willoughby's by Lois Lowry, and spent time on the computer doing a math lesson. She grabbed a book about Billy the Kid that I picked up from the library and ran off to read it. She played her favorite on-line games and spent the entire day practicing her hand stands for the hand stand competition in her tumbling class (which she won). 

I am not teaching my kids. If anything they have taught me there are better ways for them to learn. I am a listener. I listen to what they are working on and exploring. I ask if they may want help finding more information on a topic they are exploring. I set books and materials on the dining room table and if they gravitate towards it great, and if they do not then  I return them to the library. 

This is what independent learning looks like at our house. It does not resemble a classroom. There is no teacher. There is most certainly no mini tutoring sessions going on. They will help each other if asked, but it doesn't look like school or tutoring. Simply put, my kids are unschooler's who learn in an independent fashion. Public education turns simple language into a teaching style that completely misrepresents the words from which it originates.

Reading Aloud

This week we are reading. We read every week, but for some reason this week we are spending a lot more of our time reading. We are reading independently, silently, but most importantly we are reading aloud. I am currently reading three different read alouds.

My youngest is listening to The Willoughby's by Lois Lowry.

This story has completely grabbed her attention, made her giggle, ask about new vocabulary, and provided some great discussion.

Natalie is listening to Heidi.

I have never read this story, but I am so glad I get to read it to Natalie. This story has grabbed us both and is taking us on a lovely journey up high in the Alps.

I brought home The Witches by Roald Dhal from the library.

I thought I might read this to Ella as a Halloween themed book. She saw the cover and wanted nothing to do with it. At lunch Olivia saw it and was asking about it. I read her the description and told her how Ella wasn't interested in listening to this story. Olivia asked, "What about me!?" So, I began reading Witches to Olivia, Natalie, and Maria who spends some time with us each day. All three of them were sucked into the story and are excited to hear more tomorrow.

It is nice to have so much reading going on in my house. Reading aloud allows us to all be a part of an adventure and share thoughtful discussions and ideas about what we have read. I am thrilled all three of my girls are wanting to share stories and be read to.

History and Television

Check this show out on the National Geographic Channel.

This weekend we watched a show that was new to us, Diggers from National Geographic.

I turned this show on as I recalled how much fun I had as a child using a metal detector on the family farm. Slowly Natalie and Ella joined and started watching with me. We watched several episodes. One episode involved an unarmed atomic bomb that had been accidentally dropped in the US, others were about Billy the Kid, and Bonnie and Clyde.

Ella asked many questions about Billy the Kid. Was he real? When was he alive? Why were people after him? Are there any movies about him? Would I like them?

Needless to say I was floored. Here is a girl who has steered clear of any topic history related. Yet, a television show which gives a quick synopsis of history and geography has completely drawn her in.

I have put library books on hold, a PBS video, and we are watching American Experience episode about Billy the Kid during lunch today on Amazon Prime.

An interest in a topic can come from anything. Yes, this includes television. I am thrilled I stopped to watch a few Diggers episodes. I am sure we will watch more in the future, and who knows what one of the girls will be inspired to learn more about!

Youtube and learning

My husband has become Mr. Fix-it! When my bread baking ended in failure with a broken Kitchen Aid mixer my husband went to Youtube and with a couple clicks of a mouse was able to watch a video and learn how to repair my broken mixer! The part he needed cost $6 in comparison to replacing the mixer at over $300!!! Yeah!

I was not shocked to hear that Olivia had been taking drawing lessons by watching Youtube videos over the weekend. She proceeded to show me several of her sketches and explained how she had found a Youtube channel that actually taught drawing techniques that she could use to her own drawings instead of just copying someone else's drawing.

First, let me say that I LOVE that she was able to find a teacher on Youtube. I am thrilled about our discussion as well. She didn't settle on learning from someone who simply wanted to teach her through imitation. What she really wanted was a teacher who could teach a technique and let her use her own creativity and imagination to draw her own character's.

This process is what unschooling is all about and I absolutely LOVE it!

Learning by Example

This past week has been full of learning. I have been learning, testing and experimenting with baking bread. I started last week with my first success baking cinnamon swirl bread. My whole wheat bread was not so successful. Due to my failure I was determined to figure out a way to bake the perfect loaf of whole wheat bread.

I never thought of failure as a "good" thing. Yet, it is failure that sent me on a mission this past week. I spent hours pouring over recipes and blogs. I finally decided to combine the process from my failure and several ingredients with another recipe's ingredients, and created my own smash up recipe for whole wheat bread. The bread is INCREDIBLE! I learned that I can actually create a successful bread recipe, and had success making dinner rolls, and have french bread resting in a bowl on the counter as I type. I CAN bake bread. This is something I have failed at my entire life until last week, when I had success with cinnamon swirl bread. I didn't give up, even when I failed. Failure this week was good, because it taught my kids to persevere and find a way to do what your mind is set on. 

Yeah. I know. It is only bread. Yet, it has been something I have always wanted to be able to do. Plus, I had three girls cheering me on through my failure. I even had suggestions and Natalie decided she wanted to help and learned along side of me. 

I also learned that as a mom who unschools, I need to lead by example. I need to demonstrate that even adults learn through failure. I need to be a cheerleader to all three of my girls. Cheering them on when they experience both success and failure. Reminding them to persevere when their interests and passions seem out of their reach. 

I could tell you about everything my kids learned this week, but I'd rather point out that baking bread taught us all a HUGE lesson. This was not all my girls learned this week, but I feel it is the most important.

Working Hard

I question our choice to unschool. I question it so much, that often I do not even use the term unschool. I would rather use the terms interest led learning, or self-directed learning. I feel as if the term unschool implies that my kids are not working or learning. Unschooling at our house means my girls are FREE to LEARN in any manner of their choosing. Being free to learn does not mean they are not working hard. They are simply working on what interests them. When there is an interest I am amazed at how deeply involved they become in discovering and learning.

My youngest was peeking over my shoulder today as I was watching an animated video on ecosystems and food webs. She suddenly looked at me and said, "Oh, I have seen that before." I asked her when she had seen the video, and she informed me she had been "Googling" science videos the other day and watched the same video I was looking at. I was dumbfounded, and Ella apparently could clearly see how surprised I was. She continued by asking, "Remember the day we were talking about places animals live. I just went and looked for more science stuff." Of course she went off on her own to learn about science, I mean doesn't everyone explore and discover more about topics that interest them?!

Olivia is obsessed with learning about psychology and the mafia. She was so concerned a few weeks ago that she would not read enough each week to get through these books that she asked me to help her create a schedule. Currently she reads more each day than she had scheduled herself to read for an entire week! She loves the topics she is reading about and just wants to continue learning. I know this NEVER happened to me when I was attending school.

Natalie is completely absorbed in her web design program. She informed me that the program said they were to design a web page about raptors, but she said she was going to design one on dolphins. I LOVE that she had complete confidence in making the program interesting for her. The freedom she has to learn in her own way is completely apparent in this single moment.

My children do not work in the same way as school children do. Our day does not resemble a typical school day. I am thankful for this, because my children are working hard at learning about what is most interesting to them. The freedom to choose to learn is an amazing thing!

Learning Through Online Games

(picture source)

This past weekend Ella asked me how to pronounce a word she was reading on the computer and asked what it meant. She was very involved, and I was impressed that she asked, so I sat with Ella as she was participating in an online penguin party on Club Penguin. Ella took me through this party that will go on for days. It has clues she must read in order to know what her next task is at the party. There are games, some history, and more reading! I am thrilled that she is excited about this program. I now know why she was inspired to learn to read.

Later this same day, Ella brought me her movie making book and asked if I would read it to her. She was very excited about learning about composition and setting. She spent the next two days creating interesting backgrounds to take photos of her stuffed animals.

Every time I begin to question if self-directed learning is the right approach for my family, I receive answers. Ella is learning and having fun. I love when I answers are painted so clearly.

Freedom + Creativity

Today I stumbled upon an article on Psychology Today discussing the correlation between children' s declining freedom and their diminishing creativity. 

School is stifling. School shoves everyone into a box and tells them not to step outside of it. There is no room for creativity within the box and no room for exploring interests. Homeschooling is the first step towards providing my kids the freedom that they need to become more creative. 

My oldest informed me before going to kindergarten that she wanted to be an author. She loved stories, reading, and writing. By the end of first grade she hated writing, and read less. Once we pulled her out of school at the end of her third grade year it took another three years for her to regain her love of writing and deepen  her love of stories. During those three years I had to learn not to recreate school at home, and allow her the freedom to explore and learn in a way that works for her. With this freedom I have witnessed her creativity blossom with every word she puts on a page. Over the past five months as we stepped into the world of self directed learning, Olivia's freedom has increased immensely; and so has her creativity. Not just her creativity of the written word, but creativity in her approach to learning. 

I watch my 10 year old explore science and get excited about it. She is constantly wanting to explore and create new experiments. She would not be learning science to the extent she is if she were enrolled in school. The freedom she has to spend most of her day on science would never exist in a school setting. Yet, it is precisely what she needs and in my opinion what the world needs. 

The world needs kids who think and experiment creatively. My 7 year old spent over an hour decorating the outside of a notebook with her favorite images and stickers. She made a creative mess all over the floor, and exclaimed, "This is so much fun!" She needed this time to be creative. She did not have a time limit. She finished when she determined her project was complete. 

This article reminded me how I am doing what is best for my kids. I am giving them freedom to learn and be creative. Sometimes I need this type of reminder.

Taking a Step Back

I really enjoy watching my kids learn. I love the choices they make. Today I started to panic and for a moment was headed out the door to look at curriculum. My panic had nothing to do with my kids or their lack of learning. This panic was a result of my teacher instinct feeling like I needed to be working on a specific curriculum. UGH! Obviously I still need to remind myself of everything my kids are learning. 

Ella will be working on:

• Mini Movie Maker weekly challenge! When I started to panic instead of hopping in the car to pick up curriculum, I did a subject search online about movie making for kids. After browsing the site and getting extremely excited about its potential - creating storyboards, writing scripts, movie making techniques, tips and tricks, plus a weekly challenge - I asked Ella to come and explore the site with me. She just kept saying, " I want to do that. Can we do that? Can I get that?" YEAH!
• Math this week will consist of Teaching Textbooks 3, Math Rider, and Math Blaster games. 
• I am reading aloud Charlotte's Web this week, which will be fun after our visit to the fair this past week. 
• Ella has not yet picked out a book for the week yet, but she informed me she has a couple she is interest in.
• We have some Magic School Bus videos and some science books she es ready to explore and has been peeking over Natalie's shoulder this past week as Natalie has been creating slides for the microscope.

Natalie will be working on: 

• Science: continue exploring the microscope book, experiments and starting biology. She is really excited about both of these.
• Math this week will consist of Teaching Textbooks 6 and Math Rider.
• I am reading aloud The Last of the Really Great Whangdoodles.
• Natalie is reading a couple of books right now - Storybound and How to Catch a Mermaid.
• She is reading Lives of the Scientists: Experiments, Explosions, and What the Neighbors Thought. Natalie hates history, but loves science so her choice of learning about important scientists is a great alternative to traditional history!
• Writing a book of quotes from her favorite Disney movies, complete with illustrations. This was again her own unique idea and I thought it a great alternative to dictation/copy work! Her finished product will be turned into an actual book, so we are both excited about this project.

Olivia continues to work on:

• Psychology, which she informs me each day as to how much she enjoys her psychology book and the topics that she reads about. She says it is fascinating. 
• She is reading The Everything Mafia Book, and we watched The Untouchables Friday night. After watching the movie she informed me about all of the characters that were in the movie that she has read about in her mafia book . YEAH! Love how things like this tie together.
• She started French last week and will continue it this week. She is very excited about learning a new language.
• She is doing Teaching Textbooks Algebra 2.
• She is reading The Hobbit, and finishing The Princess Bride.
• She is editing chapter 3 of her novel and beginning chapter 4, reading several writing books, and writing in her writer's notebook.

When I write everything down I relax. I realize there is no need to panic my kids are doing just fine without me interfering!

Technology and Learning

My youngest loves technology. Specifically she loves the computer. I recently read an article about digital tools helping to improve teen writing. As I read this article my first thought was of course it improves teen writing, but then I thought do these teachers and pollsters believe this is only true of teens? Perhaps as a homeschooling mom I have more of an opportunity to see the positive effects of technology and learning. I know that since we have moved to a more self directed approach towards learning I have witnessed the power of technology and learning even more. 

My youngest is teaching herself how to spell and write using email, text, Youtube, Facebook, and Skype. She loves to write to friends and family through email and we send each other notes back and forth. It is a great way for me to see the natural  improvement of her writing. Ella also uses my phone to text friends. She often asks how to spell words she is uncertain of and when she doesn't she gets replies from friends that let her know they don't understand what she is asking or saying. When Ella creates Youtube videos of her Webkinz she likes to use the title and subtitle feature of the movie editing program. Since she is publishing these on Youtube and other people besides mom will read or see her finished product she is very concerned about spelling, and writing mechanics. The instant messaging features of Facebook and Skype are improving her writing skills as she uses my accounts to chat with her friends. 

I see that digital tools can help improve teen writing. I have witnessed how these tools help elementary age children who have an aversion to writing learn to write. In my experience technology and digital tools are a great learning method for all ages.

After a morning walk with Natalie, we talked about what she wants to learn this week over breakfast. 

This week Natalie wants to:

• Learn about her microscope. She found a book on our shelf all about microscopes, so she is set and excited.
• She wants to create a book of quotes from her favorite Disney movies, complete with cited quote and illustration. I am excited to see how this turns out.
• She has a few slide shows to finish up that she has been working on. 
• She is reading How to Catch a Mermaid. 
• Plans go to the state fair.

Ella's plans:

• Read from her new books from the used book store.
• Start Charlotte's Web read-a-loud.
• Math and Reading Blaster
• learn about animals
• trip to the state fair

Olivia' plans:

• Algebra 2
• Psychology - researching a topic of interest
• Reading from Everything Mafia - contemporary world history
• Reading Stein on Writing, Outlining Your Novel, Seize the Story, The Princess Bride, and The Hobbit
• 2 trips to the state fair

Today we are getting hair cuts, and ready for a photo shoot with Jeff Mendoza. Most of the day will be spent getting ready and heading off to Tacoma for some outdoor location shots. I am excited to have these photos taken, as it has been several years since the girls have had professional shots taken. We will miss dance tonight because of this, but it is worth it. 

Shocking Learning Choices

My girls surprise me. Self directed learning surprises me. The discussion went something like this.

Olivia: Mom, I think I am going to start adding Algebra 2 back into my day tomorrow.

Gasping and then trying to regain my cool I inform her that I think that is a good plan. Inside I am as excited as a jumping bean.

Olivia: I want to start history too. 

Crossing my legs, I lean forward in my chair to make sure I am hearing things right. Then, leaning back I take in a deep breath and say to my self proclaimed history hating daughter, " If you want to."

Olivia: I want to add psychology into my day as well. I know I have the book, but I have have just read sections as they had interested me. 

I start tapping my foot to make sure I am not dreaming. 

Olivia: Could you help me organize history and psychology so I actually do them each day?

After picking myself up off the floor from utter shock, I ask her like  deer caught in the headlights, "REALLY?"

Olivia and I then have a discussion as to the type of help she wants. 

Olivia: I really just want you to help me manage the reading, because I know I will learn about something and want a different book on a new topic, but I want to get through these books too. I just am not sure how to know how much to read.

We continued to discuss this and I suggested that maybe she should determine how much time she wants to spend on each book and then we can divide then number of pages in the book by the number of weeks she wants to spend on the book. Then she would know how many pages she should read each week. I reminded her that she could always read more or less if she wanted but at least she had a game plan. 

Olivia: Yeah, it's a game plan I want. I don't want you telling me what to do and how to do it, but I am not sure how to manage all of this reading I want to do. 

I LOVE that she is showing me her teenage side, but really do any of us like being told what to do and how to do it when we haven't asked for help? I helped her with what she asked for. She maintained control over what she learns. She just needed me to help her figure out how to approach it. 

I never thought I would hear my daughter asking to learn topics that once would not have been touched, as if it were slime on the bottom of a dirty pond. Self directed learning continues to surprise me every day. 

Fun and Learning

This weekend Natalie and Ella found fun and learning with a box. Ella is still creating movies with her Webkinz and when Natalie told Ella that she saw an ice cream truck drive by creativity started to fly.  

Both of the girls used an ice cream box to make a Webkinz size ice cream truck. They were sure to point out the menu, window, and table at the back of their box truck. I smiled as I saw how much they were learning while working together, not to mention the hours of fun they had playing and making movies in the back yard until it grew too dark. 

Trip to the zoo + interest led learning for a 10 yo

Yesterday we spent the afternoon at the zoo. We met up with cousins and brought a long some friends. It was a fun day of learning and observing. 

Natalie and I were discussing what she may want to learn more about this year. Normally we take learning week by week, but I thought a bigger picture question might elicit more discussion from my more reserved child. She is interested in programming, web design, and earning money. Of course my stem child chooses topics I am not an expert in. So, we have a challenge on our hands. 

Good news about a challenge. This challenge has allowed for some nice discussion between the two of us. Also, we were able to explore the web together and search for some tools to help Natalie learn more about her interests. This is what I am purchasing as a result of our discussion:

We are excited about this .99 cent book! Natalie is excited because it will help her create a blog for all of her science videos. I am excited about the writing she will get to do. 

Natalie is VERY excited to learn how to do web design. I am hopeful this program will teach us both! 

I am not sure how this book will be embraced, but the title and the lemonade stand won Natalie over! She is extremely interested in money. How to make it. How to keep it. How to spend it. No, this last one she has down already, but the rest are all true.

This title describes Natalie. She has BIG ideas. She doesn't express her excitement as the kids on this cover do, but she likes to explain why her ideas are important. We are excited for this book to arrive. 

I am excited for Natalie to be able to explore these interests. I have to say this is NOT like any curriculum a 5th grader would be studying. Instead of checking my blood pressure and freaking out about the fact that we are not following a curriculum, or even a typical school model for learning, I am pleasantly calm and excited about what Natalie has chosen to learn. I am thrilled to see sparks of interest flying instead of the stares of dread and despair. 

Self-directed learning + the high school years

I am a little hyper focused on my oldest at the moment, probably because she is entering what would be her high school years. I might be worried that letting her be self-directed could totally screw up the rest of her adult life! Trying to ease my fears I have been taking notes on everything Olivia has been spending time on during the month of August. 

My notes are simple and very basic. I use sticky notes and a spiral notebook. Yep, that's all I use. I title a page with what might be a standard high school topic like English. Anything that Olivia does relating to the subject of English is written on a sticky note and stuck to the English page. Once the page is full I start another page. This has been helpful in a couple of ways. First, I stand back looking at her accomplishments and realize that my fears on self-directed learning have been just that my fears. Also, these little sticky notes allowed me to do some research on further material that I thought might interest Olivia. 

Here is a peek at what Olivia has requested to learn.

Last year Olivia read and enjoyed Writing Magic and Spilling Ink. She has informed me that she enjoys Seize the Story more. She does not like the writing prompts in this book, but prefers the overall information more and incorporates the information with the 30 day writing challenge she is doing. 

Olivia has used One Year Adventure Novel program. It sparked more of her passion, but didn't help generate ideas, a sense of individual writing style within her. She did love the outlining framework of the program, but feels she needs more as she continues writing her novel. We are hopeful this title will assist, we haven't read it yet, but it has strong reviews.

Olivia is excited to have this reference book sitting on her desk and bed as she writes. 

Through our discussions about what Olivia wants to learn, do, and become it became clear that she desires some guidance and insight on the business of writing. She is excited to dive into Stein on Writing. This is a book we previewed from the library and decided we needed it on our shelves.

Olivia has enjoyed her writing books so much, that when I brought the title Writing Irresistible Kidlit to her attention she jumped at the chance to bring it home. We haven't used it yet, but it again has some strong reviews and we will update how the material in this book works for her. 

Now that Olivia has chosen books that she is interested, and I can physically look at her plan,  my fears have dissipated. We have decided to call this self-directed course English 9 - Novel Writing and Literature. An official title for the start of our home made transcripts if she needs them.

I want to learn from the books she has pulled together.

Project Organization

I have been spending time organizing books. I have learned one thing through this process. We have a lot of books! 

I have decided to organize our novels by genre (a suggestion from The Book Whisperer) and all of our reference books by subject.

 I believe as interest and passion strikes this method of organization will make it easy for us to browse through what we have in our personal library before racing to the public library, used book store, or Amazon. 

Prior to diving into student directed learning I kept all of our materials organized by core. I have slowly been pulling out each core filing our reference materials by subject and color coding, covering, stamping, and shelving our literature by genre.

 Yes, the process is a bit time consuming, but I am pleased with how the organization is coming together. 

I am getting ready to make a trip to our favorite used book store A Good Book. I have a list of books I am looking for to add to our library. I know I said we have a lot of books, but seriously can anyone have too many? 

Olivia came to me yesterday asking if she could check with A Good Book and see if she could volunteer or do some type of internship there. I am excited to see what we can get set up for her. I am amazed at how her passion for reading and writing is pushing her to explore activities beyond our four walls. She also found a few writing classes at the community college she is interested in taking. Now we are doing the research to find out how or if we can take a class, what hoops we need to jump through, if her age is an issue, or if we can audit the class. Olivia has much to do over the next few days.

Natalie and Ella enjoy going to A Good Book as well. I am sure they will find a gem or two. They are enjoying spending time with friends this week and working a bit on a little game we like to call tidy up your room. There have been outdoor water fights, berry picking, and back yard fun. I hope they enjoy the nice weather as long as it lasts. 

After our trip to A Good Book  I will have more good books to add to our library! I have read most books that are in our library. I like to have a few in there that the girls read first, because I love having them come to me and say, "Oh, Mom, you just HAVE to read this book." These requests bring about some of the best literary discussions we have ever had. 

The Book that Got Me Thinking

We have used Sonlight curriculum from the beginning of our home school journey and I love their program. My kids have always been surrounded by GREAT literature, but they weren't loving learning like I had hoped. Don't get me wrong they enjoyed most of what they read and were learning a tremendous amount, but there were LOTS of things they weren't. They weren't excited about learning. They weren't exploring their passions. They weren't even excited about what they were reading. So, I started looking for new ways to help my girls get excited about what they were learning. That is when I stumbled upon the book The Book Whisperer. 

This is a story of a teacher and her approach to teaching a love of reading to children by - gasp- allowing kids to choose what they read. As a certified teacher who is use to all students reading the same novel, this was an enlightening concept.

When I brought this idea to my kids they LOVED the simple thought of choosing what they read. I followed the model outlined within the book, which has students choosing a certain number of books from different genres, and gave my kids their own page to log the books and genres. It was a great year of reading for my girls and opened up my mind to an entirely new methodology for student learning. 

I began to ask myself questions throughout this past year. If my kids are reading and learning by choosing their own books, why couldn't they learn other subjects this way? How could I approach the idea of learning differently? What kind of proof would there be if this new way of learning was actually working. 

As I witnessed my oldest daughter Olivia express a love of writing, I slowly allowed her to spend more time writing. Not just writing, but writing what she wanted. I went out and looked for books she may enjoy to help guide her. If she liked the book she would use it, if she didn't it was fine to let it go and move on to something else. The more I let go of being in charge of teaching, and simply began facilitating and cheering her on, Olivia truly began to grow as a writer. 

After witnessing Olivia's success with self-directed learning, I decided to take the plunge and test it out with all of my kids. I have been nervous, terrified, worried, and amazed with as my family has transformed our school at home to an environment where passions take flight and learning does not feel like school, or anything that is dreaded...well maybe math isn't a passion, but it is the one topic my husband and I are not comfortable being self-directed. Maybe we will get there some day, but for now we are learning O.N.E.'s way a step at a time.

When does school start?

This is the question I am getting at least once a day. My response is simple. We haven't stopped! 

This is new for us. Last year we started school the third week of September. This meant our home school went until the end of June this year. When we started our experiment with interest led learning this past spring I never envisioned us not taking the summer off from "learning". What I have learned through our experiment is that truly EVERY day is full of learning whether we call it a school day, holiday, weekend, or even summer break. 

I find myself paying attention to what my girls are doing throughout the day in a new way. I look at their activities and categorize it within core or elective subjects. My kids are completely unaware of what I am doing, they simply feel I am mesmerized by their activity! I do this because interest led learning is still new for us, and the certified teacher in me twitches at the thought of our relaxed approach to learning. By categorizing and taking notes I keep the twitches at bay and open up my mind a bit more to the fact that my kids will choose to learn every day. 

Today Olivia chose to:

• write for the 30 Day Writer's Challenge
• read Fault in Our Stars
• three hours of dance class

Today Natalie chose to:

• tend the garden
• research Jar Pendants and calculate the price of supplies and cost per each pendant
• two hours of dance class

Today Ella chose to:

• play Club Penguin - reading
• text friends - writing
• read messages on Facebook -read and write
• three hours of dance class 

I guess I could say we are "officially" starting back the third week of September, maybe that is a more comfortable answer for friends and family to hear.

I am counting everything we are doing this summer, over weekends, and late night research sessions that fits within a subject category as learning. "School" is not what my families learning experience looks like.

Maybe I have a hard time answering the question, "When are you starting school?"  because our experience doesn't look or feel like "school." My children and I learn and add to what we learn every day. We enjoy it. Therefore, I don't ever see us "starting" school again. Instead I see us continuing to learn.