curiosity

How to Transform Your Homeschool: Perfectionism to Joy

/ Sarah Janisse Brown / Leave a comment

Homeschool moms! Let’s throw our stress overboard! Let’s release the things that cause stress! Let’s set ourselves (and our kids) free from unreasonable and irrational expectations. Somehow we imagined that these unrealistic goals were the right way.
Untangle yourself and your kids from the things that choke out the joy in learning!
Here’s how:
One of the greatest gifts we can give our children is the ability to take their thoughts captive and release burdens that were never meant to be theirs to carry. As homeschooling parents, we often focus on academic achievement, but if we aren’t careful, we can unintentionally plant seeds of anxiety, perfectionism, and self-doubt in our children’s hearts.
God never intended for us to live weighed down by fear or the need to perform for approval. Matthew 11:28-30 reminds us to come to Jesus for rest, and 2 Corinthians 10:5 tells us to take every thought captive in obedience to Christ. These truths are not just for us as parents—they are essential for our children as they grow into the people God created them to be.
So how do we weave these lessons into our homeschool days?

The Hidden Burden of Traditional Schooling
In many educational settings, children are trained to work for grades, external approval, and the fear of making mistakes. Every assignment is graded, every test has red marks, and progress is often measured by how few errors they make rather than how much they have learned.

When children are constantly evaluated this way, they internalize a dangerous belief: “I am only as good as my ability to get things right.”

This burden is heavy, and I’ve seen how it plays out in adulthood. It creates individuals who are afraid to take risks, explore new ideas, or step into their God-given creativity. Instead of growing into confident problem-solvers, they become people-pleasers, perfectionists, or those who avoid challenges altogether because they fear failure.
When I was young, I struggled with traditional academics. I saw myself as someone who wasn’t smart enough, always focusing on my weaknesses rather than my gifts. I even failed third grade!!!
But when I embraced learning on my own terms (at age 13) following my curiosity, using creativity, and celebrating progress instead of perfection—I discovered a love for learning that has lasted a lifetime. This is the heart of Fun-Schooling.

How Fun-Schooling Releases Burdens
Fun-Schooling is not about performance—it’s about passion, mastery, and lifelong learning. Instead of burdening our children with the fear of failure, we give them the tools to learn with confidence and joy.
In our home and in thousands of Fun-Schooling families, kids don’t study to earn grades or please a teacher. They study to pursue knowledge, build skills, and prepare for the future God has for them.

Traditional school teaches kids to focus on their mistakes.
Fun-Schooling teaches kids to focus on their gifts.

When kids are given the freedom to research, explore, and follow their interests, they become fearless learners. They know that making mistakes isn’t failure—it’s part of the process. Instead of becoming burdened by anxiety, they develop the mental strength, confidence, and peace that are uncommon in traditionally schooled children.

Teaching Kids to Take Thoughts Captive
So how do we practically help our children apply 2 Corinthians 10:5—taking every thought captive—and Matthew 11:28-30—laying down heavy burdens?
Here are a few ways to include character teaching in your homeschool day…

Click here to keep reading!

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Fun-Schooling & “The Let Them Theory”: A Perfect Match

/ Sarah Janisse Brown / Leave a comment

As a mother of 15 and the creator of Fun-Schooling, I’ve spent decades helping families embrace a natural, joy-filled approach to learning. Recently, as I’ve been reading The Let Them Theory by Mel Robbins and listening to her podcast, I realized just how deeply her philosophy aligns with what I’ve been teaching through Fun-Schooling for years.

For me it started on the day I woke up, a homeschool mom of eight who was worn out micromanaging their education and depressed because there was no joy. So I said, “Today I will just say YES to whatever they want to do.” I had created a beautiful environment for learning, but curriculum was boring, limiting and too much work for me. I was drained and wanted to enjoy being a mom while homeschooling. I told my kids, “We are going to Fun-School today”. It was amazing. The learning that happened amazed me, and the joy set us all free.

Mel’s Let Them theory is about releasing control, allowing people to make their own choices, and letting go of the urge to micromanage. Fun-Schooling is based on the same principle—letting children study what they love, explore their passions, and skip the boring, outdated schoolwork that kills curiosity. Instead of forcing learning through rigid, one-size-fits-all curriculums, we let kids take the lead, trusting their natural desire to grow, explore, and create.

Here are ten ways Fun-Schooling and The Let Them Theory are a perfect match:

Let Them Learn What Excites Them

Mel Robbins encourages us to let people pursue their own interests, even if we don’t understand them. Fun-Schooling follows this same logic: if a child is obsessed with horses, let them dive deep into everything horse-related—biology, history, art, business, and storytelling—all through their passion.

Let Them Skip the Boring Stuff

Traditional education forces kids to memorize facts they’ll never use, leading to burnout and frustration. But what if we let them skip what doesn’t spark their curiosity? In Fun-Schooling, we trust that when a child is deeply engaged, they’ll develop the skills they need naturally.

Let Them Make Mistakes

Mel emphasizes that people learn best through their own experiences. Fun-Schooling embraces this truth—kids don’t need to get everything “right” the first time. They need freedom to experiment, fail, and try again without fear of judgment.

Let Them Go at Their Own Pace

Not every child learns on the same timeline, just like adults don’t all hit milestones at the same time. Fun-Schooling allows kids to develop skills when they’re ready, not when a curriculum says they should.

Let Them Create Instead of Conform

Mel Robbins challenges us to step away from people-pleasing and embrace individuality. Fun-Schooling does the same by giving kids the space to create, imagine, and build rather than just regurgitate facts.

Let Them Follow Their Curiosity

We trust that adults will figure things out when they’re interested in something—why don’t we extend that same trust to children? Fun-Schooling encourages kids to chase their curiosity, knowing that a self-motivated learner will always go further than a forced one.

Continue reading by clicking here.

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How to Spot Your Child’s Natural Interests

/ Sarah Janisse Brown / Leave a comment

What is a natural interest? A natural interest is an area of life that you’re drawn to! For a lot of people, they might call this their hobby or side project. Natural interests can cover a vast variety of subjects – from a specific animal to the overarching act of reading, to drawing with charcoal or recording/writing music! Natural interests are our callings. So how do you spot this in your child from an early age?

Identifying your child’s natural interests can help guide their growth and learning! Here are some simple ways to spot what excites and intrigues them:

  1. Observe Their Early Play: Pay attention to the activities they choose most often — whether it’s building, drawing, or imaginative play! These can reveal their passions, such as an interest in architecture, fashion, or writing creative stories!
  2. Follow Their Questions: The “why” and “how” questions they ask can point to what they’re curious about, like science, nature, or history!
  3. Notice What Captures Their Attention: Take note of what they focus on for long periods and what they ask to learn more about — this shows what they’re naturally drawn to!
  4. Encourage Exploration: Provide different activities (arts, sports, books) and see what excites them the most! Giving them a variety of topics to learn about can help you notice which ones they focus on the most! By observing your child’s play, questions, and actions, you can help nurture their natural interests and encourage their growth!

Learn more about preparing your child for their future calling/career here.

Find journals for every possible area of interest imaginable by clicking the image below!

Fun-Schooling: Out with the Old, In with the New!

/ Sarah Janisse Brown / Leave a comment
How to Fun-school

(Be sure to visit the tab on this site entitled “Flip to Fun-Schooling”, which gives lots of detailed information and links.)

Your first step in changing over to Fun-Schooling is to think about what is currently working well, and what current curriculum options and methods are not a good fit for your kids.

Take courage and get rid of all the stressful stuff. Take it out to the car right now, or burn it, or donate it. If your kids really hate it, let them burn it. Celebrate a new beginning and replace everything that didn’t work with Fun-Schooling.

New Fun-Schoolers often need to start with a few of the the smaller more focused journals, or just a Core Journal and stack of library books that the child loves.

The whole goal is to take away what isn’t working and replace it with something that brings your child joy. Some things need to wait, like reading or multiplication. You know these things matter, but your child isn’t ready to master them.  Your child may need an extra year or two to develop the mental skills for certain things. So focus on the skills your child is ready to learn and stop pushing the things that stress the child’s heart and mind.

There are so many wonderful ways to learn, we don’t have to settle for boring or miserable things, just because it’s always been done that way.

Also, celebrate your child’s efforts, talents and small accomplishments. It’s common to just hammer away at the problem areas and make our kids feel like failures. Everyone will have a happier existence if we focus on the good things and not our worries.

No one wants to live under a magnifying glass that is constantly  zeroing in on the flaws, yet that is what traditional education is all about… counting our mistakes and judging us and grading us based on all the imperfections in our work. This is no way to live, or raise a child. This method of education and parenting is the reason most of us to think we will never be good enough because we can’t be perfect.

This is why we don’t have grades and answer keys in Fun-Schooling Journals. They base the child’s education on research, logic, thinking, being resourceful, problem solving, creativity, a quest for knowledge–all based on the child’s passion and career dreams.

My children love learning because it’s a quest for the mystery of knowledge, power, understanding, beauty, skills, and invention. Learning something brings each of us closer to unlocking an ability or solving a mystery.

Remember when your child was four or five and they were so curious about EVERYTHING that they asked you 900 questions a day? Traditional schooling snuffs out that curiosity. Fun-Schooling nurtures it.

Bring back the wonder, the joy, the curiosity. It’s time.

Are You Raising Clever Kids?

/ Sarah Janisse Brown / 2 Comments

The whole point of Fun-Schooling is learning how to raise clever children. So, let’s talk about the meaning of the word “clever”. When we hear people talk about education, and what parents are supposed to do to raise kids that are going to be successful and get good educations, we don’t usually hear the word “clever”.

This is the essential meaning of “clever”:

“Intelligent, able to learn things quickly, intelligent thinking, funny in a way that shows intelligence, skillful, mentally quick, resourceful, marked by wit and ingenuity”. 

Webster’s Dictionary

How do we do raise clever kids? By encouraging curiosity, exploration, and wonder–and throwing out all that curriculum that puts your kid in a box where he or she does not belong.

Raising clever kids, especially clever kids with character and curiosity, doesn’t happen in the same way that you raise kids who make good grades. It’s different. I’m not talking about raising kids that are good at taking tests.  I’m talking about raising kids that know how to be creative in life, how to find solutions, and how to love learning.

Let’s talk about what Fun-Schooling is. If you already read my previous backstory on Fun-Schooling, then you know a little about my story and how I started homeschooling when I was 14 by pulling myself out of public school (and all its drama) with the help of my mom and dad. We went a totally different way with our homeschooling. Nobody was telling anybody how to homeschool back 21 years ago. We went to the library and got a whole bunch of books about everything I was curious about.

Do you know that true learning is fueled by curiosity? I want you to think for a minute about all the materials and things you are using with your kids. Do they inspire curiosity? Do they answer the questions that your child has about life? Kids naturally want to figure out how to grow up and do things. Some people a long time ago got an idea that there’s a whole bunch of content that you have to put in a child’s brain and make them memorize so that they can be successful. You aren’t raising kids to be clever that way. You are raising kids who try really hard to memorize things, and then forget it.  I want to raise kids who have skills. I want to raise kids who never lose the wonder and curiosity they had when they were five.

Think about your kids when they were five. They were like, “Why is the sky blue? Why does a cat have fur?” Kids don’t have to lose that curiosity and wonder. Traditional schooling methods take that away, and destroy it. Typical schooling methods tell the child what to learn and to stop asking questions. Memorize the facts If a child is good at memorizing things, then he or she is considered to be a good student by the system.

So many kids cannot memorize…and most of the they are being made to memorize doesn’t matter. Kids will ask, “When am I going to use these things in real life, Mom? Why do I have to learn this? It means nothing to me.”

Guess what? They’re right. Most of it they are never going to use, and a lot of it isn’t really even a building block for their future learning. It’s just a way to move on to the next grade.

Let’s fuel curiosity and raise a generation of clever kids.