Sarah Janisse Brown

This Weekend: Creative Healing Retreat – Tea Time, Gardening, Foraging, Pottery, Jewelry Making and More!

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Saturday, July 8, from 10am-2pm I’m opening up Olive Branch Farm for a Creative Healing Retreat.
The Medical Tea Gardens and Permaculture Zones are their peak. Everything is a bit wild, but even the lush “weeds” have vast healing properties and are ready to process.

What is going to happen?
I’m going to have one on one time with each person who shows up to explore the specific benefits the plants and teas can have on your wellness, I’ll also spend time with you individually to brainstorm with you and answer questions about homeschooling or family issues that you may want to talk about.

While I’m having one on one time with each individual or couple or parent/child- the whole property and facilities will be set up for you to be creative, to serve, and to relax. Whatever brings you the most joy. What brings you peace and feels therapeutic? Find a couple hours here for that special time… from reading, swimming, painting pottery, helping with gardening and weeding, making jewelry or watercolors. Bring a camera and practice photography. Spend time with the horses…. Lunch will be provided.

The recommended contribution is $50 or 2 hours of volunteering at Olive Branch Farm.

This is for moms with babies, and for parents with children 9+ who can entertain themselves without getting into trouble. The day is not set up for ages 2.5-8.

All ages are welcome at 2:30pm to volunteer and at 4:30 to swim and relax, no more work!

If two parents come with the kids at 2:30-4:30 you may take turns volunteering and watching your kids swim and play.

Parents must watch their own kids in the pool area. Since we are trying to make this a productive day of cleaning and organizing the facilities it will not be helpful if a zillion kids are free-ranging like they do on co-op days.

All the details here: https://www.facebook.com/events/616371383379518/

Taco Bar at 5:30 (bring stuff to put in a tortilla)
Worship Night 6:30 all ages welcome. 

Summer Day Camp at Olive Branch Farm!

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Do you have a child or teen ages 8+ interested art, music, dance, singing, voice, painting, improve, YouTubing, costumes, piano & acting?

Time: 11am-5pm

The Olive Branch Arts & Acting Camp would be Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays for four weeks in a row starting July 18th.

The cost will be $75 per week. If you sign up for all four weeks the final week is free.

Let me know if you have a child ages 8+ that will be joining us! If I get 10 “yes” responses in the next couple days we will launch the camp.

Dates:

July 18-20

July 25-27

August 1-3

August 8-10

Since the camp is organized around a three day project each week, we can only accept participants who can commit to a three day week. Your kids can come for one week or all four.

Join this group to learn more: https://www.facebook.com/groups/230250036494994/

When You Don’t Fit In

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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!

How Do Unit Studies Work with Fun-Schooling?

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Unit Studies…

  • A deep dive into a topic/interest
    • Can be based on an animal, nature topic, hobby, interest, book, place, person- anything really!
  • Combine multiple educational subjects into the same topic
    • For example, a unit study on horses might look like:
    • Math- calculating horse speed, stride, distance, stats, etc for racing horses. Managing a budget for horse feed and equipment. (lots you can do with horse math!)
    • Science- horse biology
    • Social studies- horses around the world, how horses are used in different cultures/communities, horses throughout history
    • Language Arts- read a classical book about horses, do copywork on horses, learn to spell horse-related words
  • Multiple ages can work together on the same unit study with age-appropriate materials for each subject
  • Students can also work individually on a unit study
  • Great for students who tend to get “sucked into” a subject
  • Goes well with our idea of choosing a major https://funschoolingwithsarah.com/?s=major
  • Can last as long as you’d like- a day, week, term, month, or even an entire school year!
  • An easy way to combine elements from multiple educational approaches/methods (see the comments below for links to the other educational approaches we’ve covered)
  • How do I set up a unit study?
    • Start with a Fun-Schooling journal based on what your child wants to learn about- or a blank core journal or Master Class if we don’t have a themed journal on the subject
    • We’ll talk about this more on the 21st- information below

How do you set up a Fun-Schooling Unit study? Make sure to join the main Fun-Schooling group, and then click below to watch!

Investing in the Future

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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.

Is Fun-Schooling a Full Curriculum?

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(Guest post by Amanda Osenga)

We have thousands of Fun-Schooling families and everyone’s school looks different.

Some families use a journal or two to cover a specific subject. Others like to use our journals for electives. While other families Fun-School for every subject.

You’ll combine journals with books, podcasts, documentaries, etc. that correspond to your child’s academic levels. A huge age range of kids can use the same journal because each child will use it with different materials.

Some journals, such as Spelling, Math, and Grammar, are more sequential. We’ve been sharing a subject-by-subject breakdown with one subject per month on our blog, private group, and Instagram, Facebook page if you want to check those tips and info out.

If you’d like to jump in and use this as your full curriculum, here’s a post with tips about how to do that: https://funschoolingwithsarah.com/flip-to-fun-schooling/

We also offer curriculum bundles with a suggested lesson plan and everything you need for an entire school year. Students can go up or down a few grade levels and be just fine so if your student sees a bundle that sparks their interest, go for it! https://www.funschooling.com/all-curriculum-bundles

Journals in the bundles are also available individually via Amazon and most are available on our website as PDFs https://www.funschooling.com/bookstore-all-pdfs

I Think I Did Something Right…

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This is from a post dated May 9, 2018.

I’m on the train with 7 of my older children, going to a conference in Kiev. Joe, age 8, is sitting beside me reading “his really special Bible”. I took a look. It looked like the precious Bible of a 75 year old missionary. Joe told me that his sister, Anna, gave him her old Bible.

I flipped through the pages of the New Testament. Notes, prayers, poems, quotes, doodles, highlights, stickers, and underlines decorated every page.

Flash back to 9 years ago when Anna was almost 9 years old. She told me she would never be able to read and write. Her dyslexia was so serious, that every reading lesson ended in despair. She said she was going to be a mommy and artist and wouldn’t need to read to do that.

I decided to let her major in the arts and home economics, starting that day. But I prayed…

“God, You gave us the Bible, I know it must be your will for Anna to be able to read it. Show me how to use her strengths, and use art to teach her how to read.” I knew God would answer in time.

A few weeks later I had an idea. I started drawing logic puzzles and art games for Anna. She loved completing the designs & figuring out the patterns. I began to add letters and words into the designs. I even snuck in games with the d,b,p & q.

I created dozens of these Dyslexia Games, starting out simple and becoming more complicated. The activities were fun for her. As Anna worked through them the reading confusion disappeared.

After a few days she could read three and four letter words. This had never happened before. She had always been stumped by any word with confusing letters. In three months she was reading chapter books.

As I flip through her old Bible I can see that my prayer was answered. That she would be able to read the Bible. Not only is she immersing herself in the precious words of God, she is pouring out beautiful prayers, songs and poems, inspired by her love for His Story.

I pray for the thousands of children who are now using the Dyslexia Games that I made for Anna, that they would also discover the treasures of God’s Word.

After Dyslexia Games…What Next?

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After using DyslexiaGames.com, what’s NEXT? Still struggling? Let’s talk about a program called Learn Reading from LearnReading.com:

1. Some kids are ready to jump right into a typical grade level curriculum after using one set of Dyslexia Games.

2. Some kids were so far behind that they need to move right on to Dyslexia Games Series B or C to get on grade level.

3. Some kids transition beautifully to a Core Curriculum Journal and Fun-Schooling Spelling Journal.

4. Some kids, because of a unique combination of challenges, need to continue serious therapy, but can’t afford an tutor or an expensive intensive therapy. And that’s what I want to talk about…

You have tried everything. Dyslexia Games helped your child make a lot of progress, but they still don’t grasp reading because they seem unable to comprehend phonics, and it isn’t coming naturally.

I’ve discovered a wonderful resource I’d like to share with you. I love it so much I partnered with the author to help her reach more kids!

I’d like to introduce you to an affordable AND enjoyable program called “Learn Reading” it’s a perfect next step after Dyslexia Games for kids with serious reading disorders who need extra help.

Learn More: https://thinkingtree–learnreading.thrivecart.com/learn-reading-membership-trial/

How to Inspire Your Children to Read

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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!

What is a Core Journal?

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(Guest post by Amanda Osenga)

What is a core journal?

A core journal covers multiple subjects (4-10+ depending on the journal) in one. It is a convenient way to ensure your Fun-Schoolers cover all the basic subjects without needing a million notebooks! Each page has a prompt for a different subject, such as “Math Time, Nature Study, or Copywork.” We also add in creative pages like “Create a Comic” and practical pages such as “Draw Your To-Do List.”

Most families use core journals daily, twice a week, or once weekly. Some families like to rotate a few core journals, while others like to finish one at a time. They are extremely versatile in how you use them- there’s no wrong way.

We suggest kids complete the same number of pages/day as their age across all their Fun-Schooling journals. For example, if a 10-year-old is only using a core journal, they would do 10 pages/day in their core. If they are using a core + a single-subject journal, they might do five in one + five in another, 8 in one and 2 in another, or any other combination to get to their ten total pages. A page is one side of the sheet of paper, not both.

Students combine books, podcasts, documentaries, and/or curricula with core journals. If a student has a core they love, they can repeat the same one again and again since they’ll use different materials each time! They’re a great way to document learning alongside a curriculum and for students to research their chosen majors.

We have core journals themed around seasons, interests, careers and generic journals without a theme.

A core journal is a perfect tool for when a student wants to study something we don’t have a journal designed for. They can print photos, add drawings, and dive deep into learning about anything they want!

Core journals for our youngest Fun-Schoolers teach letters, numbers, shapes, and other early skills. Once students can read, most of our cores can be used by any age and customized with age-appropriate learning materials. College students even like to use core journals to help them stay organized in school (especially the 10 Subject and 12 Subject Portfolio).

Lots of Moms like to use Core Journals for Mom School. We even have some we’ve designed just for moms!

See a page that isn’t relevant for your Fun-Schooling needs? You can easily repurpose it by putting a white address label, white tape, or whiteout over the prompt and write your own.

All PDF core journals are 50% off this month and many print core journals are on sale!

See a Flip-Through of the core journals here: