technology

Turning Home Into the Epicenter of Human Life

/ Sarah Janisse Brown / Leave a comment

My house is a place of creativity, innovation, technology, tradition, beauty, art, music, good food, and education. Fun comes first!
As the one who organizes and orchestrates the events and environment for over a dozen children and an adventurous husband, I’ve embraced an opportunity to throw out the common uses of the rooms in my house.
Most houses were designed to serve as a place of relaxation and comfort for hardworking couples, and school age children. As a homeschooling mom and home-based entrepreneur I began to rethink the way Americans use their homes.
I saw the impractical design of a home as an opportunity to transform the underutilized living spaces into something far more useful and exciting.

What It Looks Like
Our kitchen is now a “Science Kitchen” and a place for fermenting, cooking classes, experiments, a place for making body-care products, and for inventing new remedies and recipes. In the past our kitchen was a birth center, where a few of our kids were born!
Our living room is a lending library and music room where family and friends gather to create music together and to read, share and borrow books. Our living room is also a place where children can play with puzzles and puppets. Sometimes it becomes a church, where we gather daily for Bible stories, worship and prayer.
Our dining room serves the usual purpose of a space for family meals, often squeezing two dozen of us around three tables! But often we set up the space as an Art and Game cafe! Watercolors, beads, and rubber stamps await the touch and imagination of creative kids. We added a coffee bar with three espresso machines and a beautiful assortment of ceramic mugs and flavored syrups. During the week the tables are used as a school space for my five or six youngest kids.

The nook attached to the kitchen is a tearoom, with a DIY tea making station complete with about twenty healing blends of loose leaf teas made from herbs, flowers and spices which were grown in our garden, foraged from our woods and meadows, and imported from around the world. On our recent trips to Italy, Greece and Israel we searched for local blends to bring home and recreate.
The media room in the basement is a Preschool Paradise – even though our youngest child is nine. We fill my house with young moms who have little ones every chance we get.
Our office is a studio of creativity, design, publishing, and relaxation for myself and my team of collaborators who often drop in to work on projects with me.
Our garage is a charging station for two Teslas and a Cybertruck. It is also a gym for my kids who are into fitness and bodybuilding, and another part of the garage is a pottery and jewelry making studio. My husband has a workshop in yet another section of the garage.
Half of the old barn has been renovated into a DIY creative space for neighborhood homeschoolers, complete with a Lego city, shelves full of games, a small stage, and loads of art supplies. The other half of the barn serves as an art studio for our daughters who are studying oil painting and drawing. The space also includes the set for a podcast studio.

Keep reading by clicking here.

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How AI Can Make Us All Feel Like 1950s Housewives

/ Sarah Janisse Brown / Leave a comment

In every era of rapid technological advancement, humanity faces a crossroads. Today, as AI and robotics threaten to replace human labor on an unprecedented scale, we are confronted with deep questions: What will happen to our jobs, our purpose, and our value? How will we spend our time, our energy, and our lives?

This isn’t the first time we’ve faced such a dilemma. A striking parallel existed in the 1950s when household technologies revolutionized daily life. Tasks that had once demanded weeks of effort—gardening, raising meat and eggs, canning food, sewing clothing—were suddenly replaced by mass production and modern appliances. The washing machine, refrigerator, vacuum cleaner, and telephone transformed the role of the housewife, freeing up vast amounts of time.

For many women, this was both liberating and disorienting. The work that once defined their survival and value within the family became unnecessary. They were no longer the primary producers of food and clothing, and their contribution shifted. Many entered the workforce or turned to consumerism and leisure.

But this “freedom” came with unforeseen consequences. Fast-forward 75 years, and we see a society grappling with obesity, mental health crises, loneliness, and fractured families. The very technologies that promised to make life easier have left many people without a sense of challenge or purpose.

Now, as AI advances at breakneck speed, we are entering a new era of disruption. Entire industries may be transformed or rendered irrelevant. What will happen when robots and technology handle most of the tasks that once filled our days? Will humans—like the 1950s housewives—find themselves with too much time, too little purpose, and no meaningful challenges?

Humans need to be challenged. We thrive on purpose, on working hard for something that matters, and on the satisfaction of overcoming obstacles. If AI takes over the bulk of our work, the question is not “What will we do with our time?” but rather, “How will we use it meaningfully?”

Click here to consider some answers to these questions, and discover some actionable points for you and your family.

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Celebrating Science & Technology

/ Sarah Janisse Brown / Leave a comment

The Fun-Schooling theme for July is Science & Technology! Keep an eye out for sales on your favorite Fun-Schooling science journals!

Our 7 Subject Science Portfolio – Minecraft & The Real World is one of our best sellers, and covers Biology, Chemistry, Geology, Meteorology, Physics, Technology and Zoology! Here is a review from Amazon:

“This is one of our favorite fun schooling journals! This is an all in one science portfolio which means your student will study various topics in science and compile a portfolio of all of their best work. This includes a section on botany, chemistry, geology, meteorology, physics, technology, and zoology. Once you’ve chosen your books that you’re going to read there are pages for summarizing your reading time, copy work, designing your science topic in Minecraft world, notetaking and illustration prompts, documentary reviews, diagrams, science experiments and observations, comic strip pages, vocabulary building prompts, Real world versus Minecraft world, coloring, geography and history, biography studies, audiobook time, nature study and drawing, biography studies, audio book summaries, AND occupation studies! What more can I ask for in a Science Funschooling Journal! I’m getting one for every child! Over 250 pages to show your research.”

Shop for physical Fun-Schooling science journals on Amazon here. Find a list of all of our themes for 2023 here. Some science PDFs that are discounted right now:

Unplug!

/ Sarah Janisse Brown / Leave a comment

Last year I did an experiment, and over the weekend, from Friday morning to Monday morning, I deleted Facebook, Instagram and Messenger from my phone–and I learned something. I made a concerted effort to be more present, less distracted. I put first things first. Sometimes I feel like my presence on social media is so “valuable” that I overlook my family’s needs, and even my own need for focus and a deeper prayer life.

It was so refreshing to me to unplug. Have you tried it? How did it go? Post a picture! You didn’t miss ANYTHING while you were offline, I promise. But how much would you have missed this weekend if you had been distracted by that endless newsfeed and the confusing voices of Social Media? Our families need us far more than we need Facebook.

I decided at that time that for the following 2 months I would get offline every weekend and just be more present in my home, with my family, in my marriage and in deeper prayer and devotion. It was so good for my soul to let go.

Here’s a book I published a few years ago to help with such a mission. It’s only $10 – the best $10 you could spend today on your much-deserved self!

Get it here: https://amzn.to/3oXzBmS

Friend, do you need more time to focus on what really matters? Do you need more peace, more strength, more energy, more focus, more devotion and more joy? You can have it all! It’s waiting in the quiet place where you unplug and unwrap all the good gifts your home life has to offer you. Try to unplug one, two or three days in the week. It will be so, so, so good for your body, soul, mind and spirit! It will be so good for your family, for your marriage and for your life work.

When you unplug and refocus you will be in a place to remember your purpose, to reflect on your unique calling, and you will be in a place to treasure the gifts you have been given.

Social Media can be a thief in many ways and we must not let it have access to our hearts and lives in such a way that we become more responsive to our phones than we are to our husbands. Social Media can also give us an unrealistic idea of what we should be as women. Social Media can be a drain and steal words and energy that were meant for your children… instead of the masses. Social Media can be a troubling voice that shouts confusion, presents fake news, sucks us into weird videos, and plants into our minds a diluted vision of reality. Yuck, we must be on guard.

In the same light, Facebook can be a wonderful tool for connection, encouragement and a place where friends can be found, and good things can be discovered and discussed. But we must control it and not let it control us. Use your Social Media for good. Use it to be a voice of blessing, strength, hope, friendship, kindness and light. Use it to share wisdom, ideas and experience. Use it intentionally by going directly to the groups that fill your heart and inspire you in positive ways to be a better and smarter mama.

The point is: BE intentional.

Maybe turn off notifications and tune in to your own heart a little better. Turn off your phone in the evening so you can be focused more on your marriage. Listen to the precious little voices all around your home. So often we wonder why we are struggling so much in our relationships. Is it because we are distracted from investing in them? Let’s not shift the blame and say that we are lonely because of someone else’s addiction to their phone. We get sucked into Social Media at times to push away the loneliness. But is this the best? Change begins with you. Create a place of joy. Invent an atmosphere of fun, peace, learning and even romance. It’s actually up to you, because you can only change yourself and your habits. And you are not alone. We are in this together, as women who are unplugging together to build up our families and to be refreshed.

And after you unplug, return to our Facebook group, and bless the women there with your new ideas and your fresh joy! Share pictures from your weekend off! Show us what you would have missed if you have been scrolling Facebook instead.

This little book is a simple tool to help you change your daily habits, and it has been a blessing to many! I hope it is a blessing to you! Click the image below to get yours!