learning language

Understanding Super-Creators: How to Nurture Your Child’s Creative Spirit

/ Sarah Janisse Brown / 1 Comment

I’ve written before about super-creators, but I think it’s important to remember just what a super-creator is, and how to nurture your super-creator child! Two of my kids are super-creators — they’re driven by a powerful internal vision of what they want to make and are laser-focused on bringing that vision to life! They often resist learning anything unless it directly serves their creative goals, and struggle with learning by lecture or lessons directed by another person.

A super-creator doesn’t just want to create — they almost need to create. Their journey is deeply personal and non-negotiable, with anything that interferes with their creative process which is seen as a roadblock or a threat. Some projects take hours, others years, but their focus remains unwavering! It’s this determination that I find so admirable! These children have a vivid mental picture of the end result and seem to work backward, figuring out the steps needed to make that vision real. Often, what they imagine is far beyond their current abilities, but they’re not deterred!

Super-creators are deeply absorbed in their work, and anything they perceive as unrelated to their goal can feel like a distraction. If parents or teachers try to divert their attention, they can become disengaged or resistant. However, when adults come alongside them, supporting the process without taking over, the results can be incredible!

Too often, our culture tries to mold super-creators into obedient, “well-behaved” students, thinking we’re teaching discipline. In doing so, we risk stifling their natural gifts. Super-creators are rare, and if you have one, you’ve been entrusted with something truly special — a rainbow unicorn!

Do you have a super-creator? What challenges have you faced? What wins have you celebrated? And how blessed you are to be raising such talented and driven children!

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!

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!

Work or Play? Why not BOTH?

/ Sarah Janisse Brown / 1 Comment

Whenever my kids are playing hard and having the BIGGEST fun doing whatever kids do, when no one is telling them what to do I always ask them, “What are you working on?”  I use the word “WORKING”.  I call their activity a PROJECT.   They never say “Nothing, I’m just playing.”  No, they go into a detailed description of something amazing, that starts with: “I’m trying to build a… I’m figuring out how to… I am making a…  I’m taking this thing apart… I’m putting together a new!”

When they are playing they are often doing work that is very meaningful and important in their eyes.  I have a daughter who was always very, very busy, I was always trying to pull her away from her “play” as if it were a waste of time, because I didn’t yet see the value of play. After all, she was 9 and should be doing things that look like school. She knew how to read and write, and she was always in her own world.

One day it was raining outside and she was looking out the window.  She had been there for a long time. She was supposed to be in the school room with her science book.  I was about to tell her to stop sitting around and get back to work.  Then I noticed she had a notebook with all these strange little marks, pictures, checks and numbers.  So I asked, “What are you doing?”

“Oh, I was just charting the storm, timing the lighting and the thunder and measuring sound and distance.  I’ve been charting the weather for about a month.”

I started unschooling that child on that day, and at that point I began to ask my kids what they are working on when they seem to be playing or busy.  They always amaze me with their answers.I couldn’t find anything in the 3rd grade school books that could have been more educational and meaningful than the research our daughter had been doing on her own. I just began to ask more often what she was working on and then I began doing everything I could to support those interests. She is the one who recently gave me the ideas for the 10- and 12-Subject Portfolios! I think it is funny that my unschooled child would be the one to want to design such a structured subject-by-subject learning plan for herself!

She has learned so much about so many subjects over the years and now she wants to put all her knowledge together in a Portfolio that is well organized. 

All of my children need differing amounts of structure, motivation, instruction, teaching, guidance, assignments, evaluation, and follow-up with their learning.  They are all unique.  My dyslexics need a lot of my help and investment when it comes to learning to read, write, and spell.  Dyslexia Games makes it easy, now that it exists. (continue reading by clicking Page 2 below)

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