In Celebration of Homeschool
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“Hey, let me look at that,” says Trinidad. He pulls the window-cleaning advertisement he made at age ten off the freezer door. He smiles. I wink at him and rummage for frozen blueberries.
“It’s not half bad for back then,” he says. Trin studies the ad. He spends most of his time reading copy writing books these days. “It’s got catchy colors, a clever slogan, and a before and after shot. It even has faces to show the change.” The phone number (which I’ve scrubbed for this pic) is posted clearly in black beneath Sam and Trinidad’s names. Partners, even then.
The kids’ “dangerously clean” concept came about because they believed the invisibility of window glass to be “dangerous.” Transparent glass was kind of foreign to them (smirk). This tells you how many dog nose and child fingerprints kept us safe from walking through windows. But the kids were nonetheless happy to support our neighbors in living dangerously.
Reflecting on that ad and the boys’ current partnership, I’m so grateful for the years we unschooled. Unschooling prioritizes learner-chosen activities as the primary path to learning. We hybridized with public school offerings as we went.
We’ve always embraced education as a family. We committed, as individuals and as a group, to following our passions, to supporting one another, and to lifelong learning. It’s been fun and productive. And it’s never too late to jump on the bandwagon! You can free yourself to pursue the education most joyful to you at any age.
When young, both our kids read books around the clock. Their interest in the natural world spawned lessons in science, math, and writing. We biked to the library each week and spent hours choosing and reading books together in cuddle piles. We cooked and cleaned together, tended the garden, and constructed things out back.
The kids have built businesses together from the time they could first talk.
“I love being in business so much,” says Trinidad. “It amplifies all of a person’s characteristics — the good and the bad. And what we do with that information is up to us.”
What do you do that shows you all of who you are? And what inspires you to learn more and be your best self?