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The Introvert and The Extrovert Within Me | How They BOTH Prepared Me For Stepping Into My Calling

/ Sarah Janisse Brown / Leave a comment

I’ve always given the introvert in me a lot of attention and respect. She has asked for many things over the years, and when she doesn’t get her way she has a fit, her brain melts, her attitude is rotten, she is easily distracted, noisy, and becomes a nuisance. For years she made the rules for example, she warned me: “If you participate in two public events in a row, you better give me two days of rest, research, relaxation, time for hobbies, long quiet times, quiet walks, and opportunities for conversation without conflict or drama.”

She would boss the extrovert in me around, and make her sit quietly with art supplies and large stacks of books by a sunny window with beautiful music playing in the background, interrupted only by well behaved and precious children, who just want to cuddle up with books and kittens.

The introvert in me is a strong woman who loves to bring order out of chaos, and she’s great at delegating all the busywork to everyone else. She’s also the girl that orders salads and says no to cheesecake. She doesn’t like driving much, and feels her best when she’s by a warm fire crocheting afghans and listening to Ted Talks. She sees what the world should be, and constantly ponders how to make it so. She’s patient and wants to be be well prepared for whatever comes her way, seeking to control whatever comes her way, creating the future she envisions, at the heart of her home, welcoming others in, but hesitant to venture out. She is pained by the disorder and opts for her comfort zone where she dreams up alternative worlds.

She’s gone. Did she starved to death a couple weeks ago? Maybe she hibernated and I haven’t heard from her since. She’s no longer fighting for her quiet, space, focus and thinking time. What happened to her? Six weeks ago I answered my life’s calling and stepped out of my comfort zone, and she simply didn’t come with me.

Maybe she just couldn’t stand the risk taking, all the people, the excitement, the collaboration, the long hours on the road, the purposeful yet hard work. She remains silent as the active and busy extrovert who has such a strong sense of urgency and calling, takes a stand. Why is she silent? She used to fight to pour over her books or crochet endless blankets so she could keep her hands busy, busy, busy, while she thinks, thinks and thinks.

The introvert had so many things to study, research and think about that she was driven to carve out that individual time for personal growth and vision development. But something happened. There was a calling and the extrovert answered it. She got up an incredible amount of courage to say yes to a dream she had been pushing down year after year. The extrovert stuck the sourdough starter in the fridge and got to work, like the sky was falling and she had to help prop it up.

So, the extrovert pops awake at 6am and dives into the day, she has a calendar, she makes her own coffee, and she still makes time for conversations with the King of Kings, who called her. She is focused on His calling and that calling isn’t one she can pursue from the comfort of home. She no longer fears failure, risk, loss, or the unknown. She just feels pulled into the hope of a calling. The one the introvert had been researching all these years.

She has boundless energy and suddenly looks forward to connecting with her team for a couple hours each morning, and then she smiles and laughs with the tribe of kids who are happily sleeping in on weekdays and starting late on breakfast, school, work and chores. She is just as good at delegating as the introvert, but has total different goals.

The introvert was delegating so many things just to free herself up to make time for reflection, relaxation and research. The extrovert delegates too, but to support her purpose and vision in doing the work to reach the world. The extrovert isn’t as addicted to comfy clothing, and cares a little more about her style, she doesn’t mind driving, in fact last week she took me on a five city tour, and hosted a birthday party after arriving home. The extrovert doesn’t just delegate to go off alone, she brings her family with her into the calling, and they thrive.

The extrovert appreciates the world the introvert so thoughtfully created, but she’s doing a terrible job keeping it up to the same standards. Yet she is so productive that she’s finding ways to outsource the things she has no time for. The extrovert is courageous, she loves getting to the next place on time without rushing the moment. She is focusing on one thing at a time, she is people centered, and awake, and aware of everything but the voice of the introvert who once ruled her world.

The extrovert didn’t even notice the introvert was gone, until the weekend came and there was a day with nothing on the schedule.

She felt unsatisfied for a moment, not knowing what to do. She looked at the yarn basket, the book shelf, the pile of clothing waiting to be folded up and put away, she thought about her sourdough starter. And then she ordered Chinese food, rounded up a ten of her kids and had lunch. After that she told the kids to clean their rooms and round up the livestock, that got out of their pasture. She no longer felt the need to relax, reflect and research by the fire.

And she paused, took a drive, and wondered how she ever overcame the pull of the introvert to protect four days of the week for reading, cooking, baking, studying, thinking, creating and crocheting? She stopped to think about it.

For the past 30 years the introvert with her insatiable thirst for focus and thought has been the dominant voice in the relationship, and now she has nothing to say, she’s not pitching a fit.

And now she speaks, and so softly

she says “I worked all these years, building this platform, protecting your time, giving you focus so that you could study, learn, prepare and research while nurturing your family to maturity. I fought to keep you undistracted by all the opportunities out there so you could build up your character and knowledge. I knew your calling, and I knew that one day you would have to step outside your comfort zone to pursue it. I was determined to discipline you so that you would not lose your focus. You had a calling so great that that a foundation had to be built within the framework of a quiet life. Now that I have built this firm foundation all these years, I gracefully step aside and yield to my extrovert who has what it takes to bring this calling and vision into the world. And because this introvert knows how to be still, be quiet, and give way, you can step into the calling for which you were prepared.”

Dear Inquisitive Unschooling Mom…

/ Sarah Janisse Brown / Leave a comment
Photo credit: https://www.joylilyphoto.com/

I’m the creator of the Fun-Schooling books. We are Unschoolers most of the time, but I am always introducing my kids to all sorts of content and we do projects and adventures together a lot. We also enjoy casual Charlotte Mason style learning in seasons where we need more structure. So I have been setting up a buffet of learning through the environment I create for my children to grow up in.

I created these books so the children could create portfolios of research, art, thoughts and discoveries about their passions, while incorporating some academic skill building at the same time. In my books I always focus on the spark of curiosity, the quest for knowledge, the joy of discovery, the adventure of going deeper, and the delight of sharing and using the knowledge and skills we have embraced. I also focus on collaboration and the natural process of nurturing the child’s drive to learn by example.

My role is mostly fulfilled by my example of being a curious, creative, peaceful presence as I pursue my own interests and create a wonderful family environment. We use our Thinking Tree Books after breakfast, chores and family devotions. Our daily time with Fun-Schooling books being open and used as a resource and guide for a learning journey is usually less than two hours, and most of the time the child is following learning prompts related to their passions and then coming back to the journal to document the learning in a way that feels more like journaling and scrapbooking.

Some of my books focus on specific academic skill building in areas of math, language arts and geography, for example. But I always reframe academics as an adventure in discovery or creativity. My math books are all therapeutic, (and fun), and are designed to give children joy and confidence with numbers, while healing some of the trauma. What trauma? All the trauma inflicted by the soul-destroying experiences in early childhood related to typical math problems that 90% of kids probably hate and dread. Most kids grow up thinking they are bad at math and writing. They feel ashamed, bored, and have this cloud of irrelevance surrounding all the monotony of standardized learning.

Typical learning focused almost completely on highlighting what the children missed, messed up, and failed in. They are always judged by the seven mistakes rather than the 1000 things they did well. Standardization in education creates a world of failing perfectionists who feel they will never be enough, never achieve their goals, never satisfy the people they love and respect. This is a sad cycle and our society pays the price, because “perfect” is an impossible illusion that we began striving for at such a young age. Women cry into their pillows every night all over the USA cause they can never be good enough… and it started with their first C- in first grade. They tried so hard and were so excited and curious about learning until they began to experience all the shame of small failures.

I failed 3rd grade, with a report card and little heart stained by Ds and Fs. At age 8 I felt doomed to failure and humiliation forever. I began to dream of a different world where kids like me could just play with animals, do school in the woods, build forts, bake cookies, make fairy villages, create museums, sell art, earn money, publish a newspaper and live in a giant cardboard box painted with daisies in the corner of the living room… and of course go to work with dad at the Space Center or help mom in her art studio. I dreamed a lot about a better way to learn and enjoy every moment of my childhood and my life. I decided I wanted to be a mom, and artist and run maybe a space camp where kids can pretty much go to space at the end of the experience.

The Thinking Tree books are a small part of my vision for creating an incredible life around my kids. But they help us dig deeper and document our learning journey while studying what we love, and a few things that we need. Thinking Tree Books also help a lot of people who live in restrictive states to build an impressive portfolio in an easy and joyful way to satisfy requirements. All our bundles are designed around the needs for grade level learning in charter schools in the state of California, so that even kids in that environment can Fun-School. I hope this gives you a little vision and understanding of what Fun-Schooling is and how it came to be. I wanted to give my 15 kids what I dreamed of when I was stuck in a desk doing third grade…again, imagining a different world. The good news is that I got to homeschool at age 13 and basically enjoyed a path of self directed learning based on my passions, projects and career goals! My parents let me do unit studies about ANYTHING I was interested in, and that was school!

ADHD Kids: What is Their Passion?

/ Sarah Janisse Brown / Leave a comment

Children with symptoms of ADHD often need less sugar, more time climbing trees, digging, running, and playing with Legos. They often need more B vitamins, more fish oil, more compassion, more dancing or jumping, more citrus, less screen time and less time in a seat or desk. These solutions usually help a lot!

It’s hard to parent a Hyper-Active child! I could have NEVER sent Anna to school–she got our family “kicked” out of two churches. But I trusted that she should be free to be who she was, and not try to force change.

Now that she is older she is funneling all that amazing acrobatic energy into bold, productive and amazing efforts. I am so glad I never tried to make her adapt or be someone I could manage better. She was very very very hard to handle as a 2 – 10 year old. Now that she is grown and I see who she is becoming I am so thankful for the wisdom that was shared with me by a few wise women, who encouraged me to trust my heart, and let Anna be Anna. If it weren’t for Anna there would be no Dyslexia Games or Thinking Tree – All my books and methods are the result of never giving up when faced with the challenges of raising and homeschooling a Hyper-Active Dyslexic.

I talk about Anna a lot. She is the one who has created many of your favorite Fun-Schooling Books!

One thing to pay attention to is what your child loves. Kids who seem to have attention disorders can often focus for long periods of time on the things that fascinate them or tap into their talents. Our Fun-Schooling Journals are a good match for your child’s talents and interests. The Journals are organized to keep kids from having to sit still for long periods of time. Children should move around with their Journals – taking them to different parts of the house and outside for nature study everyday.

School Teachers (and in our case Sunday School Teachers) can’t deal with the kind of energy and talent bottled up in these active children. They take up so much of the teachers efforts just to try to get them to sit still and be quiet. Hyper-Active kids can not be part of a group of 30 children their own age, managed by one poor woman. Kids labeled with ADHD are more than most teachers can handle because they can’t fit in. Medication is often the only way to keep the teacher sane – so either the teacher will go on anti-depressants or the children will be medicated to keep the class under control.

When Anna was 8 or 9 I watched this a Ted Talk by Sir Ken Robinson – I realized that Anna was an artist – and I needed to set her free to be who she was meant to be… so I did! Enjoy these videos for some inspiration…

Animal School (My Favorite YouTube Video!)

One Year Of Fun-Schooling Completed (Testimonial + THE PLAN)

/ Sarah Janisse Brown / Leave a comment

(submitted in the Fun-Schooling Moms group in 2017 by M.L.)

Sarah,

I was the mother who reached out to you about my sons.

I followed your plan for the last year. (See the THE PLAN posted at the end of this story).

We have occasionally had some things change a bit, but this plan was (and is) the core of our homeschooling. We left our traditional pathways behind, and we pursued education the fun-schooling way. A year in the life, I am now ready to report.

Last January I had my 4th child. I would like to say that the reason my homeschooling method stopped working was just due to the new baby, but that would be a lie. The truth was that I had two young men who were hating school. I tried to bribe them, I tried motivational speeches, I tried buying new books. Nothing worked. They hated school, and if I was being completely honest, I hated homeschooling. It was not leading to the peaceful family life I had pictured. I cried often. They cried often. It was so hard.

I came across the Library Homeschool Journal in a Facebook ad, and the ad specifically mentioned the book being good for families with a new baby. I knew I would need to step back from our current (and 5+ year old) homeschooling routine and materials for a time- new babies are hard work! But my love of the library and the idea of a library-based journal that incorporated library-learning made me give it a go. It was a 60 day journal, and I thought I would be “all better” by the end of it, and we could resume our same old homeschooling routine.

I quickly realized that the Library journal would not work the way I intended. I reached out to you for ideas, and you – in a way I never expected – changed our lives. You responded with with an earnest desire to help my family. You changed our curriculum completely- not just the materials but the time as well. In our email correspondence you addressed some issues regarding where I had placed our chores during the school day (I had them at the beginning, you suggested putting them at the end), rotating subjects between days (giving the kids a chance to look forward to their favorite ones), and using *time* as the measure instead of number of pages- in a desire to enhance the quality of their work and cut down on rushing. You created an entire curriculum plan, and you provided the means for us to try it.

It has now been a year.

We used your method. I incorporated the changes and materials and we just did it. I am going to admit something- I didn’t really expect much to happen. I mean, the materials are SO adorable, surely they wouldn’t be as effective as my much-more-expensive textbooks. I also didn’t expect much by making the curriculum changes you suggested. How could moving chores to the end of the day help? I mean, in theory it may help, but won’t the quality of the cores suffer, or wont it throw off the entire day? If they are doing something for a set time instead of a set number of pages, surely that would just make them do less and get more sloppy, right? But because you had been so generous, you worked with me on such a personal level, and you have so many children of your own, (and maybe because I had a new baby and the recovery was the most difficult of any of my 4 children…) I decided to completely go with your suggestions. I figured I would give it a few months while I recovered.

I can say, without ANY exaggeration- this has been the BEST year of homeschooling EVER. My spouse and all of my children would agree- hands down!!! In fact, homeschooling and the atmosphere of learning changed so greatly that my then-3-year-old begged to start homeschool kindergarten so she could spend more time doing homeschool activities too! We allowed her to start and included her in our plan (modified to fit her level, of course) but now, a year later- she is STILL going strong in her education, and it is fueled with HER desire. Last year if you had told me I would have happily agreed to homeschool *3* eager little learners, I would have laughed!

I not only use your materials, I use the plan you outline on this post. The two are a PERFECT homeschooling match. This curriculum guide saved our school and our sanity. It brought peace back into our homes and our hearts! School is now something that is not feared, tolerated, or despised. No, school is seen as being FUN! The kids adapted to the change beautifully, and so did I. These “adorable” books have helped my children’s handwriting, reading, math, logic, critical thinking, note-taking, planning, science, and other skills SO greatly- an educator wouldn’t recognize them as being the same students. Moving chores to the end of the day made them stop rushing through school, as instead of looking ahead to play they only saw chores, so they saw the school as being more fun and focused more joyfully on their learning. That still baffles me- the chores are only 10-15 minutes, HOW can that make such a difference??! I don’t know- but it was a game changer in their attitudes!

Rotating the subjects instead of doing the same set daily was brilliant! The children no longer fear their least favorite subjects… in fact, they HAVE NO least favorite subjects!!! What!?! I know, right! HOW IS THAT POSSIBLE?! I have no idea!!!! They voluntarily do math, reading, research, spelling- I mean, they actually CHOOSE it. Mind blowing! The final structural change was to use time blocks instead of pages. I seriously do not know how this works- but it does. I now have beautiful, brilliantly, carefully done schoolwork that makes my heart leap for joy, and makes them rush to me to show with pride. Pages that were once pencil only are now leaping with color- even from my eldest, who *never* liked to color or do any type of art. Miracle, I tell you.

I love the books. The books in this plan were SO perfect for this age!!! There are also SO many pages, and the workbooks are totally treasures we will keep to show the grandchildren! The Dyslexia games is fantastic. I love that we were able to easily print another set for my daughter to do- so she has her own “schoolbooks” too! What a totally perfect item for EVERY family!! I found myself asking if I could do a page here and there- there is something stimulating yet relaxing about them. They are truly a family favorite! None of us have Dyslexia, but we all benefit from your Dyslexia games!

Math Genius is brilliant- what a unique approach to math! The book passively teaches in such a fundamentally different way- at first I was not sure about replacing their old math program, but now see they have made HUGE leaps with this book!!! The book has had them voluntarily doing addition, subtraction, multiplication, division- but because they see it as building inventions, and they aren’t being drilled- they see this as FUN! This is truly a genius of a book!

Making Money. HOW PERFECT! Kids in the US are surrounded by materialism. One of the things on so many minds (of adults) in the US is money. This book is FANTASTIC. The book goes through various professions, and we researched (kids learning HOW to research without realizing it!) each job and wrote about them. The kids learned SO much about so many different professions, and I love that you incorporated such a diverse range of options- from laboratory research scientists to vloggers and dog walkers! BRILLIANT! There are sections that discuss amounts of education necessary as well- which passively gave the kids motivation to work harder in school. Seriously, this is a brilliant idea!

10 Subject Portfolio, oh how I love thee. Let me count the ways! 1) This thing is massive. GIANT. So many pages. What a super investment! 2) 10 subjects! This book is perfect for everything! 3) This book allows the kids space to journal, record, plan, and dream. This – in my opinion- should be a staple for all homeschooling families. It keeps everything all together in one beautiful book. 4) There is space where space is needed, and not when space is not. This book was designed perfectly for us. 5) In states where record keeping is necessary, here is ONE book that can do it perfectly- this makes record keeping easy and ideal!!!

Spelling- can kids learn spelling from a “Fun-School” book? Honestly I didn’t think so- but my kids loved your spelling books so much I wasn’t about to fight them on it. I figured we would finish out the spelling and go try the next thing (spelling was never one of our best subjects). A few weeks ago my son wrote a letter. In an ENTIRE page, he misspelled one word, and the word was phonetically written correctly (it was one of those strange English words that follows no rules whatsoever). I was shocked. Between his copywork, his find-words, his journals, notes, and your spelling books- his spelling had grown by leaps and bounds!!!! I no longer cringe when he has to write in front of other people, fearing I will be judged by his lack of spelling. Nope- he is a GOOD speller!!! How. Did. This. Happen? Answer: Your spelling books work. Shocked, but SO pleased. Spelling can be effective while being fun!!!

Thank you so much, Sarah. Thank you for taking the time to talk with me, and to troubleshoot my homeschooling. Thank you for creating these amazing homeschool tools, materials that allow young minds to flourish like I never thought possible. I am in tears of gratitude for your creative homeschooling approaches. I never thought such progress in my children was possible. I didn’t think such dedication and motivation was possible. I didn’t think “fun” schooling – for us- was possible. It IS!!!! THANK YOU!

*The Library journal is STILL one of my very favorites. When I say it wouldn’t work the way I intended, it was because I had serious flaws in my homeschooling approach. Flaws that your plan eliminated and which I had never been able to diagnose. Upon remedying the flaws, the Library Journal fit in perfectly and was used happily!!! (click here for THE PLAN)

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Best Homeschooling Hack!

/ Sarah Janisse Brown / 1 Comment

Mom’s Best Homeschooling Hack! Many moms wear their kids out by teaching too many subjects! “Seven a day keeps the sceptics away!” Oh no! Please stop!

It’s a good idea to combine many subjects into one learning time to save your sanity! Instead of segregating all the subjects into different courses, try this multi-subject learning trick.

For example, let’s talk about United States Geography. Sounds boring? Not at all! It’s a vast topic!

Were not just looking at maps! When you dig deep into each state you will unearth every subject in a fun and natural way! You will easily cover History and Social Studies at the same time, when you learn about each State! But wait! There is so much more.

Your children will remember more of what they learn with this method, and you will save a lot of time and energy.

You can use YouTube videos and library books to learn everything and create your own unit study! It’s free! Make it more interesting by talking to a travel agent!

Organize your own curriculum with a cute notebook, or use a Thinking Tree Geography Journal that covers multiple subjects. That’s the easy way!

You can even add science and math to the USA studies by learning about plants, animals and ecosystems in each state. Study a favorite animal or person from each state. Plan a trip!

Kids can look at all the statistics, records, timelines, and dig into a bit of local economics of each state and cover math.

They can add cooking to the mix too! Home economics!

Why not study the art and inventions of each state too?

What about careers? What about politics? Don’t forget local literature! While you are at it learn to spell words related to each location.

I think that geography is the best subject to focus on when you want to cover every subject with efficiency!

But at our house, we are Fun-Schoolers, so we don’t call it geography. We call it Travel Dreams! It’s so easy with Thinking Tree! We studied Hawaii together–all about sea turtles, surfing, arranging tropical flowers and planning torch-lit native parties!

It’s so fun.

The Thinking Tree offers four Geography Journals for you to enjoy! They also last a long time. Each book can last one to four years depending on how long you take to study each part of the world. Kids of all ages can use the same book!

How to do it:

We think that it works best to study the United States in Elementary School, the Seven Amazing Continents in Middle School, and 30 Fascinating Cities during Highschool.

🙂 Seven Amazing Continents – Travel Dreams Geography – The Thinking Tree: World Geography & Social Studies The Creative Research Handbook for Library & Internet Based Learning

🙂 United States – Geography, History and Social Studies Handbook: Do-It-Yourself Homeschooling

🙂 Travel Dreams Fun-Schooling Journal: 30 Fascinating Cities – An Adventurous Approach to Geography & Social Studies

If you are in Canada look for our Canada Geography Handbook on Amazon.

Canada – Geography, History and Social Studies Handbook: Do-It-Yourself Homeschooling Our Great Country The Thinking Tree

Celebrating 30 Years!

/ Sarah Janisse Brown / Leave a comment

We are celebrating 30 years since the day two young teens admitted they were falling in love and agreed it was a lifetime kinda love.

Josh and I were only 15 and 16. It was July 3, 1993.

Today we got out the old letters and read them to each other. Next we loaded ten kids into the van and went to the fire pit where it happened.

We showed the kids a handful of letters from our teen years, and read them some exerts. Josh told the kids the entire love story from his point of view.

After visiting the beautiful wooded campus, at Horizon Christian Fellowship where we began our journey as a couple, we took the kids to Skyline Chili. This was the first restaurant we went to together (though that happened in Cincinnati). Every kid got a hat.

We finished the adventure at Trader Joe’s where we let each kid choose a treat to share during the Fourth of July fireworks.

What a beautiful celebration of the goodness and faithfulness of God.

When You Don’t Fit In

/ Sarah Janisse Brown / Leave a comment

Just wondering? Do you ever feel like you don’t fit in with other homeschooling families? Why?

For years I felt like I had to put my girls in long skirts to be accepted at our homeschool food co-op. I felt bad that we were just faking the Amish look, but I wanted to show respect to the other families… turns out a bunch of them were dressing their kids in long dresses cause I was…

No more! Let’s just be who were are. It took a while to embrace the idea that homeschooling doesn’t have a dress code… unless PJs count.

I also thought that to be in the homeschool cool-club I had to grind my own grain, milk my own goat, grow my own watermelon and sew my kids clothing. I also noticed that most of my homeschooling friends had four kids… I only had three… then I had seven, now fifteen! It doesn’t matter what your family size is! It’s all good!

As a family we did some of these things just for the joy of it, and for health reasons, but we don’t all have to grind wheat to be friends. Here is the truth… a lot of homeschoolers eat Lucky Charms and go to Wendy’s.

I thought that “good homeschool moms” teach their kids to read at age 4. That worked with Isaac. But most of my kids are reading around age 9. Isaac never learned multiplication facts! Here is the truth, a lot of homeschoolers have kids that struggle with math or reading.

It was a hard lesson to learn that we don’t have to dress, eat, sew, skin rabbits, and have a zoo pass to be good homeschooling moms. Here’s the truth, a lot of homeschoolers shop at Walmart, and don’t always eat organic. Some do, cool.

Here’s another one: Good homeschool moms have clean houses and wake up before the sun. I make my appearance at 9:30am on most days, and my house looks like a work in progress.

Another tough one to swallow was the idea that unschoolers can’t be Christians. What the heck? I was a closet unschooler!

Do you need to “hang up” any of your hang ups? Hang ’em in the comments, and support each other!

Welcome to Fun-Schooling where it’s okay to try, fail, make a mess, focus on self-care, dump the mom guilt, let kids make mistakes, overlook our flaws, be content to not be perfect, give grace, drink a lot of coffee, hide the chocolate, hack homeschooling, and drop your kid’s phone off a bridge. Whatever, since we will never measure up to the imaginary standards can we just have a good time trying???? We ARE enough!

You can read more of my journey to joy and freedom in my book – Windows to Our World. Click the image below to grab it!

Investing in the Future

/ Sarah Janisse Brown / Leave a comment

I think that having a dream for what they want to become is great for any child. I think it builds confidence when we support that dream. With struggling kids, the goal is having parents partnering with them and collaborating together to start something that the child can gradually take over.

I help them experiment with business ideas on a small scale between ages 5-14. It’s been about age 13-15 that my biological kids have developed a vision for their futures and we can help them begin to build towards those.

Isaac was 13 – we invested in tools and training to be a personal chef, about $1000, at 16 he switched to being a media producer, and we invested another $1000 for internship and basic tools. The next year he put his own $6000 into his media business.

Anna wanted to be a baker at 13, we invested about $200 in her muffin business on an island off Croatia. At 15 she decided to be a singer/songwriter- I paid Isaac and Anna each $100 to produce and publish her first song. The rest is History “His Story” – we later collaborated with dozens of professionals to create a stage musical. At age 22, $7.5 million was invested to launch her project. The first series of shows happened in Texas, probably to tour next. Still figuring that out.

At 13 Esther wanted to be a photographer, she continued with that vision, she saved up money for her first nice camera, and we invested over the years, but by the time she was 17 she was financially independent and now makes thousands per week doing what she loves.

Rachel didn’t know what she wanted to do, she focused on helping Anna. At 16 she sparked an interest in oil painting. We funded a trip to Indiana to get lessons from my mom. We bought her the supplies. She’s been building her portfolio and selling her art ever since. Doing commissions, media art, and online sales.

Naomi is 18, we spent $1000 on her first business when she was 14 to launch a dog accessories business. She used that income to grow the business, buy horses, and start breeding high quality golden retrievers.

My adopted kids need more time, Christina started her first business at 17, making crocheted toys. I spent about $500 on supplies and sent her to visit our dear friends in Texas who have a business in crocheting so she could learn all the foundational skills. She has about 32 toys made and is ready to launch a shop soon.

The goal is for each one to be an expert in their field by age 18, and to have an income source to support themselves.

If they need college to further their goals, they can show a great portfolio, and pay for it themselves.

I don’t really want them to go deep in debt over a degree though. Most kids don’t have a chance to develop their skills and become specialized in anything at a young age, because so much time is taken up on irrelevant things. 🙂

Ask God for wisdom for each child, and He will guide you. That could mean teaching toward tests, college, careers, missions, homemaking or anything.

How to Inspire Your Children to Read

/ Sarah Janisse Brown / Leave a comment

I don’t worry much about reading before age 9. The longer they play the better! When my children start asking me “Mom, how do you spell…?” That’s when I know they are ready for reading. When a child is ready to learn to read it’s so easy to help them.

When it comes to learning to read there shouldn’t be a struggle. Dyslexic children and creative kids struggle because we are trying to teach them too soon. Dyslexia Games helps prepare the mind for reading and writing without stress, and helps to teach reading in a self directed way that works for creative kids.

Still, sometimes the brain just isn’t ready for the job of reading before age 9 (for some it may be age 11, kids who learn to read late tend to be very artistic and creative.)

The 1st key to inspiring a child to read is to find out what the child wants to learn about and be attentive to what he is passionate about. Provide books on ALL levels about those topics. Look at the books together, and use books with a Fun-Schooling Journal. Allow the child to do a lot of drawing in the Fun-Schooling Journal if they can’t write, and please do some of the writing for him or her while the child watches and dictates (writing for your child once a week is enough).

The 2nd key is to model a love for reading real books and writing on real paper – in front of your child – that’s what Mom-School books are for. When a child sees a parent reading and writing (not on a computer) they automatically desire to do it too. The brain is wired to give children a drive to do what adults do. (One big problem with classrooms is that all the kids are the same age, and kids are not getting an example of how people learn at a higher level.)

Curiosity will drive the desire to read, and the brain will begin to wire itself to read, write and spell. When a child is curious about reading they are going to learn quickly and efficiently. When a child feels the need to read, they WANT to learn.

When you try to force kids to read. write and spell before they desire to do it naturally you are going to face a constant struggle. If the child desires to learn, they are going to be active in the learning, and actually teach themselves – it’s beautiful and joyful.

So, precious homeschooling mom, if your eight year old can’t read, don’t worry, just remember the two keys!

One More Story

/ Sarah Janisse Brown / Leave a comment

I hear the whispers in the late night silence
I hear the giggles in the cool spring air
It’s been an hour since we said good night
It’s been an hour since the kiss and prayer

The day is over
It’s not coming back again.
Tonight’s a night
that has never been.
So let them laugh and stay up late
One more story, one more song, one more page

It wasn’t perfect, it was barely good
They were just doing what they could
They were helping in their childish way
And in a moment they were lost in play

They’ll learn to help
It just takes time
Little ones
have so much on their minds
Watch them laugh and run and play
they’ll need a bath later today.
One more story, one more song, one more page

Never silence, not a quiet moment
Always questions bouncing off the walls
If I had answers I would be a genius
Somehow they think I must know it all

Just a moment and I’ll finish sweeping
Just a moment and I’ll find that shoe
another pancake, turning, burning smoking
Another inch, another question, maybe two

The day is new
Smiling at me again
This is a moment
that has never been
So let them laugh and run and play
One more story, one more song, one more page