joy in learning

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is based on the same principle—letting children study what they love, explore their passions, and skip the boring, outdated schoolwork that kills curiosity.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.

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Delight Directed Learning, the Fun-Schooling Way!

/ Sarah Janisse Brown / 1 Comment

What is Delight Directed Learning?

  • The name gives us a good hint
    • Letting kids follow their interests and learn what they’re delighted/ interested in
  • Many call it the most natural way of learning
    • As adults, we are free to pursue learning whatever sparks our interest
  • Is it the same as Unschooling?
    • Not quite
    • Delight Directed homeschools typically use more formal lessons
    • Most Delight Directed homes teach core subjects with formal lessons and curriculum as well
    • Still can use the unschooling concept of strewing to spark ideas and introduce new concepts
    • Very relaxed and follows children’s interests, generally a bit more structured and may follow more of a schedule than Unschooling
  • What does Delight Directed learning look like?
    • Working with the child’s unique learning needs, learning language, and style
    • Children applying interests to real-life and learning real-life research skills
    • Choosing a subject they want to learn about and doing a deep dive
    • May include- books, documentaries, podcasts, field-trip, crafts, curriculum, visiting with experts on the subject, research, art, and more
    • Often begins as a spark of interest from something else covered in school or discovered in life
      • Begins spontaneous and then may progress into something more structured
    • May last only a day or may last months!
  • How does Delight Directed Learning work with Fun-Schooling?
  • Fun-Schooling is the perfect combination with the Delight Directed (DD) approach!
  • Students can easily study anything they want with our journals
    • Single-subject journals give students a guided deep-dive into dozens of topics
    • Or students can choose a core journal and library books, documentaries, podcasts, interviews with experts, hands-on projects, etc. to study anything they can.
  • Aligns with the idea Delight Directed learning teaches of following the natural learning process
    • As adults, we decide what we want to, or need to know, and dive in!
    • A relaxed, fun, and encouraging learning process like DD focuses on
  • Students can cover all the main subjects like math, language arts, history, science, social studies in alignment with their interests.
  • Sets students up to dive deep into the skills, knowledge, and tools they will need to have for their future callings and careers

Be sure to join the main Fun-Schooling Moms group on Facebook, and then click below to watch a video on Fun-Schooling journals that are Delight Directed-Friendly!

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.