Flip to Fun-Schooling

Sarah’s Mom Tips: Two Questions to Jump Start Your Fun-Schooling

/ Sarah Janisse Brown / Leave a comment
Ember creating Dead Sea Soaks
Abby making Jerusalem Stone bracelets

Do you have kids who don’t want anything to do with “FUN-school”?

MOM TIP: Some kids blank out, show resistance and roll their eyes when you say “What do you want to learn about?”

I have found that you will get a lot farther with a difficult child when you ask these 2 questions instead:

1. What do you want to DO?

2. What do you want to KNOW?

Learning is just the journey to reach the end goals of “knowing and doing.” Kids WANT to DO and KNOW.

To learn is HOW we find out the way to DO & to KNOW.

The idea of learning makes kids miserable because so much of traditional learning is irrelevant to their goals of DOING and KNOWING.

Every child wants to KNOW STUFF.

Every Child wants to DO STUFF.

Even my five new kids who spent 4 years in an orphanage want to KNOW and DO… but ask them what they want to “Learn for School” and they meltdown or shutdown or reject the whole idea of learning. They were so excited to talk about what they want to KNOW and DO.

Once I knew what they were interested in actually accomplishing, I started giving them tools to reach their goals, and they don’t even think it is “education” because this looks nothing like the “school” they had in mind.

Start a Fun-Schooling Co-Op!

/ Sarah Janisse Brown / Leave a comment

Step one in beginning a Fun-Schooling Co-Op is to Flip to Fun-Schooling yourself! Then you are prepared to encourage other moms to join you on your journey! Here are some photos from our Co-Op at Olive Branch Farm.

How Do I Start a Fun-Schooling Co-Op?

1. Create a Facebook Group: “Fun-Schooling in My Region, My State” (If there are no other homeschooling families in your city interested in FUN expand you reach to the county or region, like Central Florida, as soon as you decide on a region, post it in our Fun-Schooling Moms Homeschool Support Group so others in the same area can join you and not duplicate. Check comments for duplicates before you create a new group.)

2. Share some posts from our main page and FunSchooling.com in your group.

3. Invite me to your group.

4. Everyone who starts a Fun-Schooling Facebook Community group should join our Leaders Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/637742757064906/

What Do Fun-Schooling Co-ops Do?

Co-ops are private gatherings, like birthday parties- so don’t worry about legalities as long as everyone who comes is invited. Some people worry about creating a formal organization but that’s not needed when you are getting started. Everyone can pitch in and contribute like family.

They schedule FUN social activities for local homeschooling families and support each other while using Fun-Schooling Journals. They may plan activities based on a common Fun-Schooling Journal or Theme. For example if your group is using the Nature study PDF you might do nature crafts, weather experiments or go to a nature preserve together.

What are some activities we offer at Olive Branch Farm? Our always-evolving list includes: Pottery Painting, Watercolors, Gardening, Swimming, A Disk Golf Course, Soccer Field, Scooter ramps, Bikes, Scooters, Skateboards, Horses, Music Room, Lego Zone, Jewelry making station, Library, Fidget Room, Zip Line, Farm Animals, Nature Park, Cafe, Pool Table, Volley Ball, Preschool Zone, Snack Bar, Board Games, and our Herb Garden and Orchard.

Need inspiration? Here is a great resource:

Fun-Schooling 101: Transitioning from Public School

/ Sarah Janisse Brown / Leave a comment

I started out in the public school system. I failed third grade because I couldn’t really read, and couldn’t memorize math facts. I guess I turned out okay. I was always failing when I was in public school. When I was nine, I understood one thing–I was not as smart as all the other kids my age. I was being measured by a standard that totally ignored my strengths, and revolved around my immaturity and learning delays.

I’m the girl who could not handle structured schooling. It’s because I’m too much of a leader. In the 1980s, when I was in school, it was common for girls to be more easily manipulated by an authoritative system. It was expected of girls to give in, and learn in silence.

Traditional school works so hard to create submissive students. It crushes leaders.

Many boys are also natural leaders and don’t submit quickly to a authoritative system. It’s actually a good quality! Many kids, like me, resist submission, more and more these days. But schools tend to squelch individuality.

Schools don’t raise up leaders. We often are trying to push our kids into submissive learning, and that’s the main idea of socialized public schools. Get all kids to conform, make them good employees and obedient citizens. What are they trying to REALLY do? Create a population that doesn’t ask hard questions.

Fun-Schooling is a very joyful way to homeschool. We engage in fun research and logic based learning quests that focus on the individual child’s strengths, talents, career dreams, faith, family values and nature exploration. Kids learn through projects and journaling, with library books and educational videos! Much of the learning is focused on doing unit studies revolving around the child’s passion. There are Fun-Schooling Journals that focus on lots of different topics and subjects that kids love, like horses, travel, baking, gardening, survival, nature, art, writing and so much more. You don’t need “more curriculum” just any stack of books that you and the kids enjoy today along with the journals. Or just get Fun-Schooling Math, Fun-Schooling Spelling, and Fun-Schooling Nature Study and Geography. You will not need to use other materials to make this way of doing it complete. Look at our bundles here.

Click here to learn about how to Flip to Fun-Schooling!

THINKING moms want to nurture THINKERS and LEADERS. May your homeschooling style reflect the truest of your values and the most precious of your goals.

Is Fun-Schooling for You?

/ Sarah Janisse Brown / Leave a comment

Fun-Schooling wasn’t designed to work for every family.

So, who does it work for?

Who does it NOT work well for?

Instead of having to give it a try and discover it was a waste of time and money, let’s first get a few things out of the way.

1. Fun-Schooling is not for parents who love testing, grading and correcting their child’s schoolwork in order to make sure their child is standardized.

2. Fun-Schooling is not for parents who believe that education is all about discipline and perfection, all work and no play.

3. Fun-Schooling is not for parents who feel that children should not be allowed to follow their own interests but must study a formal curriculum designed by professionals. If you believe that your child will never be able to teach himself and needs to be taught through rigorous memorization of facts, maybe Fun-Schooling will be a disappointment to you.

4. Fun-Schooling is not for parents who want to play the roles of “teacher and student” rather than “parent and child”. If you want to teach your child every lesson and recreate school at home, maybe Fun-Schooling will not be a good match unless you and your child are both “friend learners or followers”.

5. Fun-Schooling is not usually a good match for parents who plan out every minute of every day to make sure the child stays on task. If giving your child freedom (balanced with responsibility) scares you, don’t Fun-School. You won’t be comfortable.

6. Fun-Schooling doesn’t work well for parents who love teacher’s keys and multiple choice workbooks with answers in the back. Our journals are very open ended and there are no answers keys or teacher’s guides. Why? Because the books are based on research and curiosity so one page in a Fun-Schooling Journal will be one-of-a-kind when a child completes the activities. For example the Journal may prompt them to choose their favorite extinct animal and write down four interesting things about it. Trust me. An answer key would not be helpful because your child’s answer is completely unpredictable.

7. Fun-Schooling is not for parents who do not appreciate creativity, imagination and fun. Seriously there are zillions of parents and teachers who work hard to keep schooling serious. If you are this kind of parent/teacher don’t waste your hard earned money and precious time on Thinking Tree books.

Was this helpful? Is Fun-Schooling for you? Click here to learn more about How to Flip to Fun-Schooling!

Shifting Your Vibe

/ Sarah Janisse Brown / Leave a comment

Why are we burnt out?

Because our personal history in conventional schooling has taught us that the focus of learning is the mistakes we make! It is by our mistakes, grades, and scores that an individual’s success is determined. This is why we search our child’s assignments for everything they did wrong, and overlook everything they did well. Why do we constantly focus on flaws instead of progress?

What if you changed your perspective on “grading” a child’s work?

Imagine this:

Instead of circling every mistake on the page, circle EVERYTHING the child did well! You will give them back their writing assignment covered in circles and you will say “I circled everything you did right this time!”

The first time I did this I realized my struggling writer got about 950 things right!!! Can’t we celebrate that? Perhaps she had 15 or 30 mistakes in her story.

This single act of recognizing the positives instead of the negatives fueled a confidence that motivated this child to become a passionate and confident writer. Of course after the excitement of getting so many things right, she ASKED what she needed to fix as well. I have even applied this method to grading a child’s math worksheet.

Can you imagine the shift of vibes?

Why do we feel like motivation has to be such a negative experience for a child? I’ve come to believe that children don’t fail. They are just children! They don’t fall behind. They are learning, growing, exploring and maturing day by day!

It’s time to stop comparing children with an imaginary set of milestones. Some of the most brilliant and creative problem-solvers don’t learn to read until after age eight!

Some who grow up to be successful artists, designers and entrepreneurs struggling with memorizing anything ever! So why judge children by their weaknesses? Why make they child’s struggle the main focus of their education and childhood? The child who is an artist is called dyslexic because they struggle with reading- and we label them by their weakness, why not call out their talents instead.

We’ve talked enough about seeing the positive in our children, and making their abilities and victories the focus of homeschooling. Let’s talk about you. Let’s talk about me. Let’s talk about homeschooling moms.

Just like we constantly zero in on the imperfections of our children we tend to obsess over our own weaknesses. Just like we grade our children by their mistakes, we carry guilt of our own because we never measure up to our own imaginary standards.

Are you ready to give your child an education that revolves around their strengths and their growth instead of their mistakes? Flip to Fun-Schooling!

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