What We’re Reading: Joyful Toddlers & Preschoolers (Faith Collins)

Joyful Toddlers & Preschoolers: Create a Life You and Your Child Both Love by Faith Collins was a great book and, after listening to the audiobook, I bought a hardcopy to keep on my shelf. It's one of those I'm going to be rereading every couple of months because I want to be sure I'm implementing …

Welcome to the Wild & Free Gang!

At the end of February, a week after his due date, we welcomed little E into our family. The ensuing weeks were a blur of postpartum chaos, coupled with an impending move and an unplanned kitchen renovation due to some flooding. I couldn't seem to find the time or will to write. If I had …

What We’re Reading: Free to Learn (Peter Gray)

If you start perusing the pages of any alternate schooling, freedom advocating, or unschooling text, you will likely see Peter Gray quoted somewhere. He’s a psychologist and researcher who studies education from an evolutionary biological perspective. In other words, how children learn naturally. His book, Free to Learn, began through his writings for Psychology Today …

What We’re Reading: Sage Homeschooling (Rachel Rainbolt)

“Childhood isn’t naturally a race ; it’s a season of life.”Rachel Rainbolt, Sage Homeschooling (51) Rachel Rainbolt’s Sage Homeschooling embodies this principle as Rainbolt chronicles her research and personal experiences as an unschooled of her three children. She says, “Living life is the ultimate stage for learning . We have forgotten this . Our ancestors …

*6 Months Later*

A recent visit to our local farm. My younger, at least, was thrilled. Hello friends, Who would have thought that six months after my last post we'd still be in a pandemic? Still arguing over whether or not to mask, have playdates, or go to church? Still wondering if the end is in sight or …

These Slow Summer Days

Here we are at the end of July and the whole world seems just as uncertain as it was in March. It's been five months since we started all talking about COVID and four months since most of us have been on quarantine. While most of us are reeling with all the changes to our …

Unlocking Montessori Key #6: Learning with Meaningful Context

Usually, I frame my posts through stories of my children or other students, but when I sat down to draft today’s article, I had a vivid memory from my own past - I wasn’t quite a child (or I certainly didn’t think I was!) but it was certainly a learning experience for me. I remember …

What day is it?

I honestly am not 100% sure what day it is without looking at my watch. I am also 100% ok with that. Our days each blend into one another with their vague routines and unhurried agendas. I was thinking about the song from Tangled and how closely it resonated: 🎶🎶Seven a.m., the usual morning lineupStart …

Unlocking Montessori – Key #5: Learning From Peers & the Unconscious Absorbent Mind

———————————— This fifth principle of Montessori education is one intuitive to most parents - especially in the preschool years. It is the understanding that children will learn from their peers and their surroundings continually, not just in lesson times.  Maria Montessori used the term “unconscious absorbent mind” to describe the concept of the child taking …

“Bye Mom, I’m going to my work!”

I often wonder what my children make of this COVID-19 quarantine. At 1 and 3 years old, they don’t understand words like “germs”, “pandemic”, or “global health crisis”. The younger seems to operate business-as-usual, with a notably lower tolerance for car rides since they are now so infrequent. For his older brother, though, the changes …