Siblings as Learning Facilitators

As our children have grown, they have naturally stepped into an occasional role of helping to facilitate their siblings learning.

Sometimes Devin helps Ivy look up information online by showing her the many resources out there from Wikipedia, YouTube, Google. Sharing information and showing or teaching another something is said to aide in the path to learning about a topic in depth.

This is an interesting aspect of living this life and something that I have never written about before. It is becoming more and more often that they are doing this with one another and with us! To see us all grow together as a family of passionate learners feels so good. It is a very powerful, blissful, intense life of constant growth.

As Ivy grows, she is taking this role with Orion at times. Here she is helping him learn to fold clothes. She was so patient and loving. She solidified her own ability and knowledge about folding laundry by teaching another. Some people learn a lot from sharing with other people. My kids have learned to joyfully support and help their siblings because they all get something positive out of it. It is a learn-learn dynamic!

This is a beautiful evolution which deepens my roots in my Truth.

Interest-Driven Learning

Being part of the life of an Unschooled child is inspiring to me. It's an honor to witness natural learning. So pure. So joyful. My children learn so much through totally immersing themselves in an interest. Sometimes an interest will last one day, sometimes months, and sometimes it goes back and forth. My kids very often pick something up again after not being interested for a long time - sometimes years!

Devin is interested in Lego's again ~ a passion that has ebbed and flowed naturally for years. It was cool to see his vast collection of Mini Figs make an appearance on the kitchen table after being in his closet for so long. He collected them years ago, when he was around 7 and 8. He's almost 12 now and is playing with them all over again, but in a different way than he did years ago. He's making stop-animation videos with them now, using the collection as a tool for his new interest.

Here are just a few of Devin's other current passions, interests and ideas from this week.

Devin made hangers and shelving for his instruments in his music room.


He had the idea to attach branches to the ceiling to hang special trinkets from.

He made a Zen Garden for our family to enjoy. It is so beautiful!

He began learning an "Elvish" language after being inspired by a girl he met in Australia who spoke it. She was an always unschooled girl who had taught herself this very complex language created by J. R. R. Tolkien.


Devin received a very special instrument in the mail this week. An Ocarina. He learned about it from his interest in a video game called, "Zelda". Much of the music in the game was created with the Ocarina. You can never know what someone else takes from an experience. I'm so glad that I always trusted him in his choices, because by limiting his choices, I would be limiting his learning and making his world so much smaller. I want to give my kids as huge of a world as possible.

Here Devin is playing his new instrument at a river near our home. We walked there today because he said he plays best when he is out in nature with the sound of the water.

An Unschoolers Focus

Radical Unschooling is a very present-based philosophy for most families. The focus is on the joy, partnership and connection.

Children are naturally living in the present and rarely focus or worry about the future in the way that most adults in our culture do.

It's interesting to me that our culture raises kids to be so future focused. We then spend years as adults trying to undo this mental mindset through yoga, meditation and self-help books to convert us back to our natural way of being, which is to be more Present.

I feel that Radical Unschooling is the most natural, Zen way for children to live. When we never take this default way of being in the present away from children, they never have to go through all that so many of us have to do to get back to the state of being that feels so good and so natural.

Yes, my kids are different in the sense that they are very Present. They do not worry about the future. I wish that more kids in our culture had this choice. Some parents may be afraid of that and may not want to live a life outside of the mainstream because they don't want their kids to stand out, or be different from their peers. Many parents worry because they don't want their kids to get made fun of, hurt emotionally in some way from not thinking and living in the same way as other kids their age. This worry is the perfect example of a "fear-of the future" based mindset, which is our culturally conditioned way of being.

I am proud that my kids are different in their focus on life. They have a depth of happiness and self-worth that I did not know until I was an adult. Through Radical Unschooling we never take away this very natural way of *Being* from our children. Their inner guidance is respected, trusted and never silenced by others agendas. They are pure and unfettered. What others think of them isn't a concern in the way it was to most of us as children.

I know in my heart that that happy moments lead to happy days, happy weeks, happy months and happy years. A joyful, fulfilling life overflowing with self-love is the result of a happy childhood. When a child is able to live in Freedom pursuing their passions and interests with non-judgment and support they have so many opportunities for growth and expansion. I never worry about my children's future. This sounds crazy for some people to hear. My trust is so strong because the "future" is now.

Here are a few things that Devin created this week. The first one is a painting he made on a wall in our basement and the other is a type of origami.

The focus in his art brings tears to my eyes. I am so grateful that his Life and own happiness is a focus. Not performance, or rewards, or what others think. He is living in a state that many of us are striving to later in life. I truly believe that for us, Radical Unschooling is the most natural, organic and authentic way for our children to live. It enables our kids to always stay connected to their Source with unwavering self-love. When their cup is overflowing, they have so much more love to give to others.