Whoops. I might actually break the internet with that question. Not exactly, but it can get people excitable, especially if they are familiar with the term unschooling at all. It is most often attributed to an American educator from the 70s named John Holt.

He was an award-winning public school teacher, and he recognized fairly early on in his career that our institutional education system, as it was designed, was not ideal for sparking true learning for individual children. This is a really wonderful interview that briefly sums up his thoughts on his philosophy of education and learning.

For our family, it is an ever-evolving way to live life. We love to learn and learn every day. Our learning isn’t boxed into curriculum or certain times of the day. Our learning rarely arrives at the same destination. We very often go off on tangents of things that may or may not have anything at all to do with what led us there. And we don’t interfere with each other’s learning by redirecting to something of less interest to each person just because it’s in the “scope and sequence.” Admittedly, it’s much easier to know how much our kids are learning because the numbers are smaller than in a classroom. We also spend much more one-on-one time together. There is so much learning that happens in any given day that is not quantified by traditional standards. Unschooling can and does look very different for different people and families. The overall feeling, still, is freedom. To get a feel for why many families choose this lifestyle, read more here.

If the kids are enjoying this freedom, why wouldn’t I treat life the same way? So, this blog was born. My kids are still home, and I’ve been home since my oldest was four months old. Our youngest is only three, and if I’ve learned anything, it’s that the days are long, the years are short. I most definitely still need to be home.

It occurred to me that I might not be the only person who is interested in earning a little money from home. Like many other long-time stay-at-home-moms, I couldn’t figure out what I was capable of doing from home that wouldn’t radically change our day-to-day life. Let’s see what’s out there!