child-led learning

For twenty years, I homeschooled with my three kids. Before that, I was an elementary school teacher. My teaching experience did not exactly prepare me to be a homeschooling parent; more often than not it got in the way, let me tell you!

Over time I learned to loosen my teaching expectations and came to trust the kids, letting them guide their learning more and more, while still embracing the structure of a regular time working together. I share my struggle to find a homeschooling style in this post.

The “kids” are now adults. H homeschooled until he was 16, when he decided to go to high school as a junior. He started making films as a teenager, studied film in college and is now pursuing life as a freelance cinematographer in Los Angeles. L homeschooled until high school. The girl was born knowing her own mind; she wrote her own major in college and is now an analyst in community-based planning and policy. Mr. T also homeschooled until high school, and is currently an undergrad in Chicago, double-majoring in History and Comedy Filmmaking (with Second City!) —no surprise if you’ve read about him here over the years.

There are a lot of posts here, going all the way back to 2008, with a particular focus on helping kids love writing. I’ve tried to organize the highlights for you. Thanks for poking around! And please consider joining my free webinar series for parents.

dig through the archives

dig through archives of posts
from 2020,
2019,
2018,
2017,
and so on…
all the way back to
2008,
a time long ago and far away