DIY Family Recipe Book: Whole Wheat Bread

One of my favorite aspects of unschooling is the time I spend with the girls cooking in the kitchen. We have many family favorite recipes and this year I want to put at least 52 recipes into a Mohler Family Cookbook. The girls are excited and are going to help with the process!

This week we are baking whole wheat bread. This bread is incredible and Olivia can now make it by herself as well!

I think the best lesson my girls learned through watching me bake bread is that failure is not an option. I guess you could say my bread baking skills were sub-par! Believe me no one in my house thinks my bread should be fed to our chickens. Actually I have listened to arguments over who will get the last slice!

This bread is made two or three times a week at our home. I hope you enjoy it as much as we do.

Ingredients:

Whole Wheat Bread Flour

Molasses

Sugar

Yeast

Salt

Vegetable Oil

Warm Water

Step one:

• Add 3 ½ teaspoons of yeast, 2 tablespoons of molasses, ¼ cup sugar, 2 cups whole wheat bread flour, 1/3 cup oil, and 1 & 1/3 cup warm water into a mixing bowl.
• Using the paddle attachment mix together for 5 minutes.

• This will create a sponge. The sponge will need to be covered with a moist towel and allowed to rise for 60 minutes.

Step two:

• Add 1 teaspoon of salt and 1 ½ - 2 cups of whole wheat flour to the sponge. Mix using the dough hook for 10 minutes.

Your dough should form into a ball. If you are impatient like me, do NOT cheat and try to mix for 5 minutes, or even 8 minutes. You will get the best results if you truly allow the mixer to knead the dough for 10 minutes.

• Pre-heat your oven to 350 degrees.

Step three:

• Roll dough into a log and place into a large greased loaf pan. Let rise for 30 minutes.

Step four:

• Place loaf pan in the oven for 33 minutes. That is the magic number for my oven. J

Let bread cool on a cooling rack, or slice right into the warm bread and slather on the butter! Whatever floats your boat.

I hope you enjoy this recipe. It is a definite family favorite in our home.

DIY: Happy Book Project

I spent some time with my girls talking to them about a new project I wanted to start this year. I really thought it would be a fun project for us to work on together, and could be a great part of our unschooling life. Two of my three girls decided that they wanted to do the project with me.

What is the project? Creating a 2015 Happiness Book out of an old used hard cover book. A bit of upcycling, creativity, time, and happiness are required to make a Happy Book, but doesn't that sound fun?!

Here is the premise of this project:

• Create a book full of happy thoughts, moments, images, and quotes.
• Create at least one page each week of the year.
• Upcycle an old book as part of the project.
• Use only what you have on hand.
• Goal is to focus on what makes you happy, even on difficult days.

The girls and I took a trip to our local used book store, and found our own hardback books to use for this project.

Next, we used an exacto knife and a piece of chipboard to cut away 4 – 6 pages of the book and then saving (not cutting away) two pages. 

We repeated this process throughout the entire book. When we finished we had books that looked like this.

We are cutting pages from our books, because we plan on adding bulky items to our happy pages. This will allow our books to bulge open a bit less. J

This week we created the title page and our first page of happiness for 2015!

The girls and I are excited to be doing this project together.

• We can keep each other accountable. Which will help me stick with my word of the year (BEGIN).
•  Creating with others is more fun than creating by yourself.
• It is simply FUN to spend time together on a creative project.

Maybe you want to create a Happy Book? I am extremely happy to have started mine. Hope you share your Happy Book pages here with me and my girls. 

2015 is the perfect year to focus on Happy!

A Novel Concept: Learning to Write

As a former public school English teacher, I can't believe I am going to say this, but here it goes. I do not believe kids need to be taught how to write. There I said it! Wow, it feels good to get that off my chest. I do believe that children will learn to write by being good readers. 

How do my kids learn how to write? Simple. When they feel like writing they write. Let me show you what I mean.

Ella is nine and when she writes it is normally a script for her My Little Ponies and Webkinz animals, because she likes to create movies with her animals.  Also, she will write letters to friends, because this is what she is interested in writing. When she writes she will share her writing with me and we discuss capitalization, grammar, and spelling. Super simple and it works because she is writing something that is important to her. 

Natalie is almost 12 and loves creative lettering. She has spent a lot of time working and developing her skill this year. Her writing this year consists of copying her favorite quotes into her notebook. Copy work is a great skill for learning how to write well. She has done more writing in past years, but this year she simply is focusing on copy work. She may write more later this year, or maybe not. The main reason this works is because she brings me her quote book and we talk about why punctuation is being used a certain way, and why specific words are capitalized and others are not. We will also talk about theme, mood, and descriptive words.

Olivia is 15 and has been a writer and story teller since she was 3 years old. At the age of three she would draw or paint pictures, describe the story and I would act as her scribe and get her stories onto paper. She still LOVES writing. Olivia wants to be an author. We worked together and found fantastic books, groups, conventions, and mentors to work with and ultimately create her own novel writing program.

Writing is a skill everyone needs, but how it is learned can be different for every individual. My three girls have all learned to write through their own methods and means. It didn’t require a classroom with boring material. It did require them to share their writing with me and for us to have a discussion about what and how they write. Writing really can be that simple. 

If you are interested in what books Olivia chose for her writing program I have them listed below. I have read about half of them, while she has read them all. These are wonderful books for any aspiring author.

Writing Irresistible Kidlit: The Ultimate Guide for Writing Young Adult and Middle Grade Readers

Olivia really enjoyed this book and felt it helped her focus on the genres and audience she is interested in writing for. 

Stein on Writing: A Master Editor of Some of the Most Successful Writers of Our Century Shares His Craft Techniques and Strategies

Cool information from a master editor. Good information to know for any future author.

Plot & Structure: (Techniques And Exercises For Crafting A Plot That Grips Readers From Start To Finish) (Write Great Fiction)

This was Olivia’s FAVORITE book of the year! She wants more from the Write Great Fiction Series.

Rivet Your Readers with Deep Point of View

She found good information from this book.

The Emotion Thesaurus: A Writer's Guide To Character Expression

She uses this reference book often!

Outlining Your Novel: Map Your Way to Success

This book was really helpful and gave good ideas for different ways to outline a novel.

Enjoy learning to write in  very natural way!

Making the Perfect Pie Crust

This year we spent Christmas at the happiest place on earth! The girls have named this the BEST Christmas ever and I would agree. Yet, because of the traveling we missed doing some of our favorite holiday baking. Everyone at my house is thrilled that we are celebrating 2015 with homemade pie!

Perfect pie crust is a must and I am incredibly grateful that my grandmother taught me how to make an awesome crust! I no longer make it in a glass bowl with a wooden spoon, but after a few tweaks and a Kitchen Aid I can truly whip together pie crust in no time at all.

Ingredients:

·         2 cups all-purpose flour

·         ½ teaspoon salt

·         ¾ cup of butter flavored shortening

·         6 – 8 tablespoons of ice cold water

The KEY to making great pie crust is the ice cold water, so take a few seconds and put some ice in a bowl and add water to it before you start mixing anything else together. Trust me on this.

Combine flour, salt, and shortening into a mixing bowl and mix well with a paddle attachment on your Kitchen Aid mixer. It should be a crumbly consistency.

Place the dough hook onto your mixer. Turn the mixer on and begin adding 6 – 8 tablespoons of ice cold water. Allow the pie crust to mix until the dough forms into a ball in the mixer. The dough should NOT be crumbly, if it is add another tablespoon of water.

This recipe makes enough pie dough for two pie crusts.

Roll your dough out onto a lightly floured pastry cloth. Lay the rolled crust into the pie pan folding under any excess crust.

Your pie crust is now ready for your favorite pie filling. My family LOVES pumpkin pie, so our New Year’s Day will be celebrated with a slice of our favorite pie! Hope you love making pie crust as much as I do. Such a yummy way to kick off 2015. 

My 2015 Word of the Year

I have got to be honest. I have not been good with follow through. Actually I kind of suck at it. Not all of the time. When it comes to taking care of my kids – I have great follow through! They need a dance costume I can whip one together. What I tend to struggle with is follow through on anything that has to do with my own personal well-being. 

As I sit here thinking on my last statement the only words coming to my mind is that truly sucks!

This year I am joining with the thousands who choose a single word to focus on throughout the year. I am going to follow through on this one simple task. I need to stop choosing the path that sucks for me personally and follow through on something I want to do for myself.

So, there you have it blogosphere! I am putting it out there and am choosing not to suck at following through. Instead I am going to choose to BEGIN. Yes, begin is my 2015 word and mantra!

I am going to BEGIN taking care of myself. I will BEGIN to follow through on my personal passions. I will BEGIN to take chances that will make me happy. I will BEGIN to rest when needed. Most importantly I will BEGIN to feel complete.

2015 is going to be a wonderful year to simply BEGIN!

My 8 Year Old Chooses to Learn

My youngest who detests anything that has to do with physically writing asked to learn cursive this week. Out of the blue she requests not only to learn cursive, but she wants a cursive book.

I immediately ordered a book and it is set to arrive this next week. I am not certain why she suddenly has this interest, but she does. I simply roll with it and encourage her.

She spends most of her day playing, reading and watching videos about animals, adding videos to her Youtube channel, doing a bit of math, and this week we will add in some cursive. Love how this little one chooses to learn.

Those Who Judge Our Choice to Home School

It is the time of year when I get asked one question over and over again. Where do your children go to school?

I quite simply answer, "They don't." Most often people ask if I home school and then spend the next fifteen minutes explaining to me how they would love to be able to home school, but they could NEVER do it.  

Today was a new day, yet the questions about how we school were the same, but my response was answered with raised eyebrows, many questions, and a look of disapproval. When a child sitting near by started to share how much they wish they could home school, the mother who raised her eyebrows stated, "Think of all that you like about school." 

Needless to say the child shrugged, and no longer participated in the conversation. 

I get that not everyone can wrap their head around the idea of home schooling, let alone the idea of unschooling. I simply ask that if you can't wrap your head around a concept please refrain from casting judgement and squelching others curiosity. 

I understand why some believe that they could never teach their own children, and can not imagine taking them out of school. I completely disagree, but I can understand how someone can believe this. I simply ask those who have difficulty understanding why I would home school, or unschool my children to put down their judgmental glances and comments. 

I ask these people to take some time to read and learn about the topic of home schooling or unschooling. Don't squash inquisitive children, because they are curious about a topic you are fearful of. Most importantly, don't judge with words or body language. I am not judging you for keeping your children in public school. 

Time and Unschooling

TIME is the most joyful part of unschooling. My house often looks like this, because my kids can spend an entire day working on something they love without worrying about being interrupted. They have time to dive deeply into topics. 

I also enjoy the TIME we spend sharing and discussing topics. Olivia is writing and researching a couple of ideas for new novels. She is excited and we have the time to hash out her ideas. Sometimes this will take up most of a day, other times it occurs in fleeting moments. Simply knowing our time is basically limitless allows us to enjoy the writing and discussion process.

I also enjoy my TIME more since we have started unschooling. Working on my own interests has inspired my children to spend more time exploring their own interests. Currently Natalie is excited about all things ocean related and Ella is captivated by wolves. 

I am not sure how long these topics will be at the top of my kids interest list, but it is exciting to know that there is no need to hurry. After all, we are unschooler's and we have as much TIME as we desire. 

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.