If you have ever looked at your child after a busy day and thought, “They were learning all day, but I have no idea how I would explain it to someone else,” you are in the right place.
We are Laura and Monica, and between us, we have spent decades working with children in classrooms, homeschooling, self-directed learning communities, and educational settings around the world. We do not agree on every educational approach, and honestly, we think that is a good thing. One of the most important things we have learned is that there cannot be one right way to educate a child because there is no such thing as one kind of child.
What we do agree on is that children are often learning far more than we give them credit for.
Some of our favorite learning stories do not begin with a workbook. They begin with a child trying to build a treehouse, negotiating the rules of a backyard game, figuring out why bread dough did not rise, or spending three hours reading about octopuses because they suddenly became fascinated by them. Somewhere along the way, we began separating school learning from real life, even though life has always been one of our greatest teachers.
That is what we hope to explore here.
We will share stories from our experiences working with children and families, practical ideas parents can use at home, research that has made us stop and think, and examples of learning that happens outside a traditional classroom. Sometimes we will zoom in on a single everyday moment—a trip to the grocery store, a backyard project, a family vacation, or even an argument between siblings—and look at the learning hiding beneath the surface.
We will probably challenge a few common assumptions along the way, but not simply for the sake of being different. Our goal is not to convince every family to homeschool, unschool, or follow one particular philosophy. We want to encourage parents to think beyond the schoolhouse box and consider what education could look like when it begins with the learner.
We also promise not to make this feel like homework.
There will be no quizzes, required reading, or color-coded binders to organize before you can continue. There may, however, be stories that make you laugh, ideas you want to try, and moments that leave you looking at your child’s latest mess and thinking, “Wait a minute. That may actually be engineering.”
As educators, parents, and lifelong learners, we care deeply about child development and the conditions that help children grow into curious, confident, capable people. We believe the best learning often grows from experiences, relationships, meaningful challenges, and the freedom to follow a question long enough to discover where it leads.
If one parent finishes reading a post and says, “I never thought about it that way,” we will consider that a pretty good day.
Thank you for stopping by. We hope you will return often. We have a lot of learning stories to share.
— Laura & Monica