I’ve said before that we try to avoid too much screen time. However, there are some very important technical skills that kids need to have in the world they will enter. There are also some incredible learning tools out there. One that we have really loved (for all ages!) is Toca Lab. It’s available for…
I am always ready to learn, but I do not always like being taught.
— Winston Churchill
I posted recently about what, in my opinion, is the hardest thing about unschooling. Today, I wanted to share a snapshot of the best thing: joyful learning. Learning that changes and expands horizons. Learning that sticks. This little 9-year-old wants to build things. Ever since she saw Handy Manny at age 4, she has wanted…
The beneficial effects of getting just a little true play can spread through our lives, actually making us more productive and happier in everything we do.
We make it into Yellowstone at least once a week right now. It requires a lot more effort than in the warmer months, but it is worth it. From the moment I enter those borders, I am home. (This is Richie, the girls’ hiking mascot. Every kid should have a mascot, don’t you think?) :)…
As an unschooling mom, I hate all things involving drills. Though I know it is a commonly used technique to master math facts, I prefer to look for other ways to get my kids familiar with math. Two things seem to be prevalent when successful learning takes place in our home: a no-stress environment, and…
It takes time–loose, unstructured dreamtime–to experience nature in a meaningful way. Unless parents are vigilant, such time becomes a scarce resource, because time is consumed by multiple invisible forces; because our culture currently places so little value on natural play.
“Too much directed attention leads to…”directed-attention fatigue,” marked by impulsive behavior, agitation, and inability to concentrate. Directed-attention fatigue occurs because neural inhibitory mechanisms become fatigued by blocking competing stimuli. As Stephen Kaplan explained in the journal Monitor on Psychology, ‘If you can find an environment where the attention is automatic, you allow directed attention to…
Some people talk about play as if it were a relief from serious learning or even worse: a waste of time. But for children, play is exceedingly serious…and important! In fact, play is a way for children to learn who they are, how the world works, solve problems, and to express feelings. Yes, play is…
One thing that I have committed to myself, again and again, is allowing each interest and each possible topic or “subject” in my children’s learning to have equal weight. In the education of my children, I agree with Sir Ken Robinson that creativity is as important as literacy. Creativity can come into play in any…
We’ve recently begun using Tinybop’s Human Body app and we are nuts about it! The Human Body is the first app in the Tinybop Explorer’s Library. Everything, from the bones and brain to cells and veins, is animated by particle physics in this interactive playscape. Children can poke, probe, and examine the skeletal, muscular, nervous, circulatory, respiratory,…
Some of the biggest questions that I get about unschooling are about math. Truth be told, some of the biggest questions I ask myself are about math. Math continues to surprise me, though. It’s one of those things that is all around us and pops up at surprising times. Since we began unschooling, we have…