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The Day My Teen Built His Own Computer

If you’re not willing to learn, no one can help you. If you’re determined to learn, no one can stop you. -Unknown It happened. The Amazon cart filled with computer parts for well over a month was finally emptied. On his 15th birthday, the…
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The Case for Living the Self-Directed Life

Summer is probably the most dreamed about, written about, and longed for season in America. For most of America's children and young adults, summertime means freedom. The school year schedule fades away and the longer, warmer days are replaced…
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Pine Cone Bird Feeders: 4 easy steps

We love birds. For years we have been observing them and putting up birdhouses in our backyard to provide shelter. We have also participated in FeederWatch and the Great Backyard Bird Count. If you haven't heard of either of these, I encourage…
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If You Want Children to Love Learning, Let Them Lead

It’s 11 a.m., the first day of the new year, and my 14 year old has just come out of his room. Hair disheveled, loving grin on his face as his tall body bends over to give me a hug. This is how every morning begins if I’m home when he wakes.…
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What is Unschooling?

We 'un' school. But what does that mean? For us it means this: We do not approach learning the way most think of when they hear the word 'school'. We eschew the traditional approach of going into a building filled with resources and…
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I'm pro-learner, not anti-education

The natural curiosity of a child is a sight to behold. To watch a toddler fumble through her world, touching, examining, tasting objects in her path is quite remarkable. Her brain taking in all the new information at lightening speed. She is…
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Why We Chose Homeschooling- A Letter to My Son

D, In three more days, I could be sending you, my four year old son, off to Kindergarten.  Your carefree days would be replaced with homework, inflexible schedules, and demands.  You would no longer get to greet your five month older sister…
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How Pokemon Sealed our Unschooling Fate

My son was six when Pokemon entered our world. The cute and odd-looking characters quickly became his thing, his focus, the topic he explored in as many ways as possible. For a little while, I was like the Pokemon themselves--using my 'special…
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Got Math?

Mathematics isn’t just about adding and subtracting; it is so much more than that. It is about symbols and patterns, quantities and relationships, structures and space. All of us are constantly ‘doing math’ with our children and like reading,…
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Learning to Read the Natural Way

I know it is hard to trust, but trust you must. Children can and will learn to read without school. This has been proven time and time again, yet it is a difficult concept to accept in a culture that spends billions of dollars on curriculum…