Excerpts

My favorite thing this week was something Georgia Schlegel (YarnPirate) said during a conversation on Twitter when I expressed frustration that some people see PBH as just “arts and crafts”:

My five-year-old knows most of the organelles of a cell from his so-called arts and crafts.

To see more of her son’s anatomy project, check it out on PBH Kids!

Some good links about making and doing and sharing this week:

“Time is the raw material of creation. Wipe away the magic and myth of creating and all that remains is work: the work of becoming expert through study and practice, the work of finding solutions to problems and problems with those solutions, the work of trial and error, the work of thinking and perfecting, the work of creating. Creating consumes. It is all day, every day. It knows neither weekends nor vacations. It is not when we feel like it. It is habit, compulsion, obsession, vocation. The common thread that links creators is how they spend their time.” — Creative People Say No — Thoughts on Creativity

If you need someone to give you permission to say “no” to something so you can prioritize your meaningful work, this should help. “The math of time is simple: you have less than you think and need more than you know.”

I liked this post of Michael’s and we had an interesting discussion about it on Twitter. Some read it as “take 24 hours to commit to working on your top project,” which is hardly doable for parents of young children. I read it as “take 24 hours to focus on one project and not be distracted away from it.” (Can you tell what *my* issue is?)

“Sometimes lack of time or energy make it necessary to make very radical choices about what is important to us, what we want to give priority to and get on with. Sometimes it can just be that the amount of choice and options before us is so overwhelming that reducing them suddenly seems like a breath of fresh air.

Whatever the motivation, I’m increasingly coming to the conclusion that cutting right back and concentrating on very few (or even just ONE) thing is the way forward.” — Distill your ambitions down to their essential core @ Sustainably Creative

Michael writes about doing creative work from the perspective of having a chronic illness that leaves him with low energy; his “important work” equates to my “meaningful work.” I find his work very inspiring; you might want to check it out.

Along with this, Jennifer’s beautiful words as she works on changing her life:

“My intention and direction have been set
now I need only to listen
to pay attention
and let go.” — growing :: letting things go @ under the big blue sky

Pay attention to what you want to grow; put your focus there. Let the rest go. Good thoughts for anyone who’s trying to make a change.

A couple of work-related links this week, the first just one great quote from a slideshow by Reid Hoffman (founder of LinkedIn) that’s well worth your time. Having owned two businesses and hired and fired more people than I want to count, I think his advice is pretty much on the money. And forget about college grads — this applies to anyone who wants to accomplish anything:

“Opportunities do not float like clouds in the sky. They’re attached to people. If you’re looking for an opportunity, you’re really looking for a person.” — Amazing Career Advice for College Grads

This is something I’ve experienced in my own life. Magical things can happen if you focus on trying to help people, preferably for free. You can build experience, make contacts, make friends, learn, and grow — and opportunities lie beyond that experience. Concentrate on people — they *are* the opportunities.

An article about work *and* about making and doing:

“There are millions of unfilled jobs in America, and most of them are careers where you actually have to make and build stuff. If you grew up in an affluent environment, then you see your software engineer friends getting jobs easily. But it’s not just them. There are countless labor jobs — everything from HVAC to plumbing — that still pay big dollars. But rich kids don’t even know what those jobs entail.

My advice to young people is to figure out how to make something. That means either working with your hands, or learning how to type code with them.” — Young People Are Screwed … Here’s How to Survive

Even if you go the traditional job route, it’s the people who have real skills — the ones who know how to make and do — who float to the top. This goes back to that “arts and crafts” misunderstanding — it’s not about a pretty picture, it’s about knowing how to plan, execute, revise, build, share, collaborate, and contribute!

And one more thought on prioritizing:

“Make no mistake about it, the things you spend most of your time doing is how the world sees you.” — We Are What We Do, Not What We Say

I’ll add to that: How we live is what our children see and it’s what they internalize. They will do as we do — so it’s crucial that we think hard about what we’re doing and how we’re doing it.

Finally, I’ll end with the quote I shared on Mother’s Day:

“Be yourself. Everyone else is taken.” — Oscar Wilde

Hope everyone has a wonderful week!

Welcome to Friday! Hope everyone had a great week. Here are the links I shared on Facebook this week (and some extra material as usual) with *bonus insightful comments*!

We spend a lot of time in the forum and in the PBH for Grown-Ups series talking about goals: how to set them, how to break them down, and then how to keep them. We talk about taking real baby steps — and in the forum, we have a thread where we support one another to set and work on monthly goals. An important theme is always — just keep going. Don’t give up. Any progress at all is better than no progress! So I liked this post about the marathon shuffle:

“The essence of the marathon shuffle is that, no matter how daunting it feels to add miles to your training runs, it’s entirely doable if you just keep shuffling out mile after mile.

And that is precisely what I kept top of mind throughout the training program, and all the way through that first race.

Just keep moving.

No need to sprint. Just keep shuffling forward.” — Too hard to sprint at your goals? “Marathon shuffle” at them instead

I used to have a handmade sign hanging on my computer right in front of my face: “Forge Ahead.” No matter how bad things get, no matter how slow you go, just keep going. As Churchill said, “If you’re going through hell, keep going.” I haven’t shared the following post on FB, but I keep sending people the link to underscore this point, so I’ll share it here:

[W]hen we consider our actions, often it’s true that any one instance of an action is almost meaningless, yet at the same time, a sum of those actions is very meaningful. Whether we focus on the single coin, or the growing heap, will shape our behavior. — Gretchen Rubin’s “One Coin Argument”

This hearkens back to the story of the two men who were asked about their work at a construction site: the first said, “I am laying bricks”; the second said, “I am building a cathedral.” Keep your focus on the cathedral you’re building — every brick counts!

Loved this old post by Rachel at Small Notebook about setting compelling goals. If you’ve doing some experimenting (by which I mean trying and failing) with goal-setting, you know they can be too small, too cloudy and undefined, and definitely too large and unwieldy. Compelling goals that are deeply meaningful can tap into our inner motivation:

Want a different life? Here’s how to do it:

Those things you’ve been calling dreams? Start calling those your goals.

And those things that you’ve been calling goals? Those are more like New Year’s resolutions: good for your health, but not quite compelling enough. You need bigger goals, captivating ones, audacious goals. The kind you’ll have to take risks for. — In Search for Compelling Goals @ Small Notebook

It’s scary to set big goals. But the people most likely to achieve big things are the ones who were brave enough (or crazy enough — probably a combination of the two) to attempt them in the first place. Speaking of which, this short video is definitely worth your time. In it, Roman Krznaric talks about how to find fulfilling work. I pulled out this short quote he referenced, and I think it speaks to the argument about whether you should pursue passion or just work hard:

“For the first time in the human experience, we have a chance to shape our work to suit the way we live instead of our lives to fit our work. We would be mad to miss the chance.” — Charles Handy

Hear hear. (Want to read more about the kickback against passion? Try this post: Why Skills Don’t Trump Passion. You can also check out last week’s link round-up.)

Roman talks about five strategies for finding work that is meaningful and fulfilling, which he defines as something you care about and something you’re good at. I’d say that’s at the heart of PBH.

Speaking of which, I shared a post about learners as entrepreneurs, which as you know is a favorite topic of mine:

“To cultivate creative and entrepreneurial talents is much more than adding an entrepreneurship course or program to the curriculum. It requires a paradigm shift — from employee-oriented education to entrepreneur-oriented education, from prescribing children’s education to supporting their learning, and from reducing human diversity to a few employable skills to enhancing individual talents.” — Learners as Entrepreneurs @ User Generated Education

Read my posts about raising entrepreneurs here: Entrepreneurship. Whatever you want to call the shift that is happening in our work world — freelance economy, gig economy — it seems clear that we need to prepare our kids to make their own jobs. Personally, I want to make sure my kids are prepared to both compete for a regular job they want *and* make their own job. Statistically, they will change jobs often, and we already know our career plans don’t always pan out. So I don’t think you can skip these crucial skills, even if your kid is sure he or she is set on “normal” employment.

This post is a little scattered and crams a lot into a small space, but there are some good, deep ideas there worth pondering:

“How do we find our authenticity with all of the many influences in our lives pulling us in different directions? One approach is to identify and make your own “authentic connections” with the people, places, activities or memories we relate to so deeply that they empower us to be more authentic.” — Authentic Connections and Growing Your Creative Confidence @ Forbes

Good thing to think about: authenticity. “Authentic” is a word that would loom large in the word cloud for PBH. Why? Because everything about PBH is about trying to make the learning experience more real, more learner-specific, and more relevant. I think we should be drilling deeper in every area of our lives to reach authenticity.

Another good thing to think about: self-efficacy. Another key part of PBH: having the *authentic* self-confidence that you can achieve what you are setting out to do. This ties back into goals — heck, it ties to everything. We’ll talk more about this in the future.

Okay, so some specific PBH-related goodness for this week — I shared this quote on FB, and it’s about leadership in business, but I want you to think about it in terms of mentoring your children to become self-directed learners:

“[I]t all starts with listening, turning our attention fully to the person we are with. It’s not just leaders, of course. We’re all besieged by distractions, falling behind on our to-do lists, multi-tasking.

A classic study of doctors and patients asked people in the physician’s waiting room how many questions they had for their doctor. The average was around four. The number of questions they actually asked during that visit with their doctor turned out to be about one-and-a-half. The reason? Once the patient started talking, an average of 16 seconds or so the doctor would cut them off and take over the conversation.

That’s a good analog for what happens … everywhere. We’re too busy (we think) to take the time to listen fully.” — Curing the Common Cold of Leadership: Poor Listening

We are leaders in our homes, and if we want to really mentor our children, we have to learn to stop, pay attention, and really listen. Good stuff.

Abbey shared a beautiful post about her five-year-old son’s foray into project-based homeschooling building a model of a Roman aqueduct:

“He got frustrated. … This frustration led to the most stunning moment of all, when he decided to build supports for the lower end of the aqueduct. …

I was sure [his plan] wouldn’t work. The pipecleaners were bendy…how were they going to support the weight of the wooden balls? When he tried it, though, I was surprised to see that although the pipecleaners buckled under the weight as the balls rolled down the chute, they popped back up again. The bendy pipecleaners made his design flexible where mine would have been rigid. His idea worked better than mine would have.” — Water Beads, II: Roman aqueducts and project-based learning @ Surviving Our Blessings

So much good stuff there, I want to just include the whole post — be sure to click over and check it out. This is the process *every* adult goes through when they support children to make their own ideas happen: the struggle to let go, the amazement when you see authentic learning happening. Authentic! This kind of learning is so much richer, deeper, and longer lasting than prescribed education. They own it. They know it. They will never forget it.

I hope you’re checking out the projects on the new PBH Kids blog. I got a great e-mail from a dad saying he was blown away and now is interested himself in helping his kids do more self-directed learning. We have the chance to inspire other kids *and* their parents — so let me know if you have some self-directed work to share!

Finally, I’m going to share a couple of inspiring quotes from the PBH forum. If you are interested in learning more about project-based homeschooling and sharing your exploration with other like-minded parents, join us. So much good stuff happening, good discussion, sharing, encouraging, and just all-around support.

We are not deeply involved in any projects that seem scholarly, but the play the girls have been involved in is intense and lasts for days. They’ve built a huge train track and have houses all around. Even their arguments are based on scenarios of what could happen where they are thinking through situations and using their imaginations for imaginary problem solving.

I’ve been seeing things through fresh eyes again. Before breakfast, I grabbed a cardboard Top Ramen box I was going to throw out, and started sorting out our neglected craft box. I kept big ‘materials’ in that box, and transferred crafting ‘tools’ into the cardboard box — glue, pencils, scissors, rulers, thread spools, markers, etc. I sat this out for the kids and they were so excited! I also noticed that they were able to sort things, find things, AND put them back on their own today! No more ‘mom, where’s the glue?’ or ‘I can’t find my scissors!’

 

…

 

Also, today was our first official focused project day. It turned out great, and the kids were churning out more and more projects after they were finished. Our son, who only seems interested in video games, has been filling his new ‘project notebook’ with ideas! On a walk to the store today, I brought my first-ever mini notebook to jot down ideas as the kids mention them, and he actually said ‘Mom! Get your notebook back out! I have an idea!’

...all for our FIRST DAY... 

It doesn’t get any better than that! Have a great week, everybody!

Be a part of the PBH community. Project-Based Homeschooling isn’t for only one kind of homeschooler — whether you’re a classicist or a radical unschooler or somewhere in-between, all kids deserve some time to direct and manage their own learning while pursuing their deepest interests. Read the posts on project-based homeschooling. Check out the book. Look over the 10 steps to getting started with PBH. Join the forum. Chat with me on twitter. Follow me on facebook. See my pinterest boards on learning, authentic art, play, and more. Come make friends, get some new ideas, and brainstorm about your challenges.

“You want to build a family culture that celebrates and supports meaningful work. This is much more than saying the right thing — this is creating a lifestyle, a set of articulated beliefs, and a  daily routine that encourage and sustain the life you want for your family.” — Project-Based Homeschooling: Mentoring Self-Directed Learners

“I’m especially grateful for the shared experiences, questions, and suggestions in this forum. Already I have been able to think more creatively about some of our dilemmas and I think the idea of a tribe of families working on this makes it so much more interesting to me.” — from the PBH forum

This week on Facebook, we returned to the passion vs. mastery argument:

“Think about all the things you have been passionate about in your life. Think about all those passions that you considered making a career out of or building a company around. How many were/are there? Why did you bounce from one to another? Why were you not able to make a career or business out of any of those passions? Or if you have been able to have some success, what was the key to the success? Was it the passion or the effort you put in to your job or company ?

If you really want to know where you destiny lies, look at where you apply your time.” — Don’t Follow Your Passion, Follow Your Effort @ Blog Maverick

There were some strong reactions on Facebook voting in favor of passion. I wrote a post about this, if you recall:

To really learn something, you need both knowledge and skills. You have to gather the knowledge and then you have to work with it. To discard passion (or authentic interest) is to drain the life force from the learner and therefore from the work. Am I going to bring my best efforts to something that holds no interest for me? Am I going to achieve flow? Am I going to strive to challenge myself? — Why Skills Don’t Trump Passion

The thing is, in my opinion it shouldn’t be “passion over everything” — it should be “passion *plus* mastery.”

Skills don’t trump passion. Skills are what you know how to do. Passion is where you start finding out who you are, what you’re good at, and what the world needs. — Why Skills Don’t Trump Passion

I do think you should look at where you apply your time and your effort. Because if you think you have a passion but you aren’t willing to put in the time and the hard work to build up your skills, then what you have is a pipe dream. Real passion calls to something deep inside you that demands effort, sharing, and contributing. If you aren’t moved to do those things, then you need to consider whether it’s really a passion at all.

This week’s Facebook posts focused on self-examination, so let’s continue! Your passion may not really be much of a passion if you aren’t willing to do the work — and inspiration isn’t worth anything if it doesn’t lead to real doing.

“The inspiration is not the receiving of information. The inspiration is applying what you’ve received. People think that if they keep reading articles, browsing books, listening to talks, or meeting people, that they’re going to suddenly get inspired. But constantly seeking inspiration is anti-inspiring.

 

You have to pause the input, and focus on your output. For every bit of inspiration, use it and amplify it by applying it to your work. Then you’ll finally feel the inspiration you’ve been looking for.” — Seeking Inspiration? Stop Looking and Start Doing @ LifeHacker

I hope you all have been checking out the new PBH Kids tumblr blog — I’ll slowly be adding more and more self-directed projects by kids of all ages, and we are going to have some kid-written reviews of project resources as well. If you want to share some kid-directed work, send me an e-mail through the contact form on this blog!

And finally, a great quote from the PBH forum:

I also loved what Ian told me yesterday — He said, “All of our projects connect! Because I am learning about the ocean, and Micah is learning about machines, and they use machines to explore the ocean, and Max is learning about dinosaurs and he is really wanting to know about fossils, and Lena is learning about people skeletons, and…” He’s right, they are all connecting, sometimes in startling ways.

Everything is connected.

On that note, hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!

First news first, if you have any interest in starting some sort of project or PBH-related group, please check out “How to Start a Project Group” and let me know if you have additional questions/feedback. After everyone has had a chance to give input, I’ll add any additional material and then make it available as a downloadable PDF.

And now, this week on Facebook…

I shared another post on how our kids may have to invent their own jobs:

“Today … because knowledge is available on every Internet-connected device, what you know matters far less than what you can do with what you know. The capacity to innovate — the ability to solve problems creatively or bring new possibilities to life — and skills like critical thinking, communication and collaboration are far more important than academic knowledge. As one executive told me, ‘We can teach new hires the content, and we will have to because it continues to change, but we can’t teach them how to think — to ask the right questions — and to take initiative.’” — Need a Job? Invent It @ The New York Times

We already quoted the same writer on the same subject back in 2011:

[The fastest growing companies in the world] are all looking for the same kind of people — people who not only have the critical thinking skills to do the value-adding jobs that technology can’t, but also people who can invent, adapt and reinvent their jobs every day, in a market that changes faster than ever. — Invent, adapt, and reinvent

More of this kind of discussion here:

“What’s needed most are a set of educational practices — whether in the context of the traditional liberal arts, a technical program, or something in between — that empower students to seek knowledge independently, to collaborate, follow their passions and to connect their knowledge with the real world.” — In a Time of Change

If so-called “soft skills” are what employers will really be looking for, maybe artists will be highly valued:

“Many people see artists as shamans, dreamers, outsiders, and rebels. In reality, the artist is a builder, an engineer, a research analyst, a human relations expert, a project manager, a communications specialist, and a salesman. The artist is all of those and more — combined with the imagination of an inventor and the courage of an explorer. Not a bad set of talents for any business challenged to innovate in a world of volatility, uncertainty, and change.” — Is an MFA the New MBA? @ Fast Company

Dawn pointed out this sounds like Dan Pink:

“The last few decades have belonged to a certain kind of person with a certain kind of mind — computer programmers who could crank code, lawyers who could craft contracts, MBAs who could crunch numbers. But the keys to the kingdom are changing hands. The future belongs to a very different kind of person with a very different kind of mind — creators and empathizers, pattern recognizers and meaning makers. These people — artists, inventors, designers, storytellers, caregivers, consolers, big picture thinkers — will now reap society’s richest rewards and share its greatest joys.” — Dan Pink, A Whole New Mind

I shared a couple of great posts this week on doing less so you can accomplish more of what matters:

“You can’t please everyone. When you’re too focused on living up to other people’s standards, you aren’t spending enough time raising your own. Some people may whisper, complain, and judge. But for the most part, it’s all in your head. People care less about your actions than you think. Why? They have their own problems! However, when you do get the stink eye, it’s because folks are jealous of the gutsy risks you take. They’re too scared to look in the mirror and take action. Thicken your gorgeous skin and move on.” — Do Less and Live More @ Positively Positive

And:

“[T]hinking, if done properly, requires uninterrupted focus… In other words, it takes time. And that time will only be available if you carve it out for yourself. Conversely, if you don’t take the time to think proactively you will increasingly find yourself reacting to your environment rather than influencing it.” — The Importance of Scheduling Nothing

This reminded me of one of my own posts:

Not only does your attention reveal so much of what is happening all around you, but it creates a dynamic that pulls your children in and feeds their desire to work. When you pay attention to their work, when you provide them with the space and materials they need, they respond by doing more of what you are paying attention to — your attention to what matters becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.

 

Rather than praise or coercion, you are simply making space to focus on something. And your focus and attention are worth more to your child than all the praise and coercion in the world. So they are drawn to doing more of what earns your attention.

 

How do we begin? By clearing a space. — White Space as a Learning Tool

It’s about being deliberate and intentional — dedicating time to your priorities.

And this one:

Refilling the well, being inspired, making connections, reflecting … these aren’t things that are easily acknowledged and checked off a list. They need time — empty, unfilled, unscheduled time. White space.

Without the white space, there’s no balance.

Rather than thinking about quantity — of ideas, of experiences, of work produced — we need to think about quality. Spending more time doing less, so we can do better and appreciate more. A single experience, really and truly had and understood, is more valuable than weeks and weeks of rushed, unconnected, random experiences. — White Space

As Randall Degges writes in this post, you might find more time by sacrificing something that doesn’t matter as much:

“A great way to free up your time to work on something new is to give something up. Instead of optimizing every second of your day (which is do-able, but very difficult to maintain), I believe the better option is to make a sacrifice. … Instead of focusing on the killing aspect, I’ll try to focus on how this is a good move for me right now, and how life’s too short to focus on everything and accomplish nothing.” — Sacrifice

You might have to practice some good quitting.

Some great PBH-related stuff to share this week!

Michelle wrote a great post about getting started with PBH:

“I think project-based learning is a natural way of learning, so in some ways we’ve always done this. When my oldest was two and was obsessed with dinosaurs and we came home with stacks of dinosaur books each week that she picked out … that was PBL (project-based learning). When we wanted to adopt a new dog and researched his breed and bought a book on teaching dogs tricks … that was PBL, too. It’s all about finding an interest, feeding it, finding ways to dig deeper, and sharing what you learn. It’s the kind of learning that attracted us (and many of you, I’m sure) to homeschooling in the first place. It’s something we were already doing in small doses. We just shifted to doing more of it.” — Project-Based Homeschooling Q&A: Getting Started @ Raising Cajuns

I loved what Sheri wrote about the big differences you can see from making small changes:

“As I sit here tonight, I wonder about what in our environment changed so that the latch could be lifted and the floodgates of imagination could burst open. Not that our house is void of imagination — I do recognize its presence daily. What was different was my place amongst all the scheming. I was no longer a passive participant, barely noticing the words and ideas making up the constant chatter that surrounds me. I was actively listening.” — The day grand plans were made @ Rookie Homeschooling Mama

Carrie shared her three-year-old daughter’s inspiring work on her snail project:

“Esmé’s bug and snail knowledge is building, and her confidence as a young entymologist is blossoming too. She has a focus for her art, her photography, her writing, her research, her make-believe. It’s not all snails and bugs at our house, but it definitely is an ongoing interest that results in knowledge acquisition in just about every subject that I can think about; math, writing, biology, history, art, literature, caretaking, sharing, cooperation, physics, empathy, and more.

Interest-led learning, brought to life.” — Snails, season II @ Carrie Mac

And that’s what PBH is — a child’s intense interest provides a focus point for her learning so that everything comes together to make a layered, complex understanding. This is authentic, organic multidisciplinary learning!

Heather’s kids do so many awesome projects — I love this post about how her daughter’s sharing her work turned into an even bigger opportunity to contribute to her community:

Her source book suggested finding a place to “carry” her zine for distribution so on our next trip to the library, she asked the librarian if they would put her zine out for patrons to take. Our little library has had many staff changes in the last year, so we don’t know these ladies as well and we weren’t sure how the request would be received. Providentially, she asked the right person. She’d asked the new children’s librarian who was delighted to carry The Artist’s Palette at the circulation desk. … Additionally, the children’s librarian asked her on the spot if she would agree to teach kids how to make Zines at the summer library program’s craft hour. R is so excited about this! — Behind the Scenes, the World of Zines @ Blog, She Wrote

Hello and happy Friday! This week’s Facebook link round-up commences … now.

You probably already know my take on screen time (you can read about it here and here). I really enjoyed this writer’s thoughtful exploration of the topic:

“On the one hand, parents want their children to swim expertly in the digital stream that they will have to navigate all their lives; on the other hand, they fear that too much digital media, too early, will sink them. Parents end up treating tablets like precision surgical instruments, gadgets that might perform miracles for their child’s IQ and help him win some nifty robotics competition — but only if they are used just so. Otherwise, their child could end up one of those sad, pale creatures who can’t make eye contact and has an avatar for a girlfriend.” — The Touch-Screen Generation @ The Atlantic

Fantastic article about how to change the story and make positive errors:

“Scientists call it the ‘sweet spot’ — that highly productive zone on the edge of our abilities where learning happens fastest. The problem, of course, is that the sweet spot doesn’t feel sweet. In fact, it feels sour and uncomfortable, because being there you have to take risks and make mistakes. And most of us hate making mistakes.

Basically, we’re allergic.

But what’s kick-assingly powerful is when somebody finds a simple way to reverse that allergy.

…

[C]oaches and parents are storytellers. Their job is to create an emotional safe zone where players can go to the edges of their abilities and then beyond.” — How to Overcome Fear of Mistakes: One Coach’s Story @ The Talent Code

“Schools are doing Education 1.0; talking about doing Education 2.0; when they should be planning and implementing Education 3.0. ... [Education 3.0] is self-directed, interest-based learning where problem-solving, innovation and creativity drive education.” — Jackie Gerstein

“We teach kids to do all sorts of things, but we don’t teach them to think about things in the inventive way — and why don’t we? It’s something you should be alert for from earliest childhood. You should be conscious that when you do devise something, when you fill a gap, you have invented. I’d love to see kids thinking in that way, and growing up to be adults that think in that way… that solve their own problems, and acquire stuff for themselves that they want, whether or not it can be bought off the shelf.” — Saving the Inventive Way of Life @ InventiveMax

“Thinking means concentrating on one thing long enough to develop an idea about it. Not learning other people’s ideas, or memorizing a body of information, however much those may sometimes be useful. Developing your own ideas. In short, thinking for yourself.” — William Deresiewicz

“The greatest untapped source of motivation … is a sense of service to others; focusing on the contribution of our work to other peoples’ lives has the potential to make us more productive than thinking about helping ourselves.” — Is Giving the Secret to Getting Ahead? @ The New York Times

“[A]ll these elements work together to create this lifestyle of learning. Project-based homeschooling is like putting together a puzzle. It doesn’t matter which piece you start with, but as you lay them all on the table, you’ll start to see how they fit together to make the whole picture.” — What Is Project-Based Homeschooling? @ Mama of Letters

Welcome to the Friday link round-up! Boom! Some good stuff to share this week…

First, a book quote I shared on Facebook:

“The secret is creating the conditions for inner work life — the conditions that foster positive emotions, strong internal motivation, and favorable perceptions of colleagues and the work itself. Great inner work life is about the work, not the accoutrements. It starts with giving people something meaningful to accomplish… It requires … clear goals, autonomy, help, and resources — what people need to make real progress in their daily work. And it depends on showing respect for ideas and the people who create them.” — The Progress Principle: Using Small Wins to Ignite Joy, Engagement, and Creativity

This is a busines book but hey, look — same ideas work in motivating your kids. Give them something meaningful to accomplish! (Their own self-chosen interests and goals.) Give them autonomy, help, and resources! (What you need to make real progress.) Show respect for their ideas! That’s it in a nutshell.

And some more links about helping our kids succeed:

If we believe that someone’s talent is fixed — including our own — we are effectively writing off any options for growth. But if we believe that talent, or intelligence, or any other ability, evolves as a result of how much effort we put in, the opportunities are endless. — Talent Isn’t Fixed and Other Mindsets That Lead to Greatness

That’s our old friend Dweck they’re referencing. 

What else? How about change the story and encourage positive errors:

Scientists call it the “sweet spot” — that highly productive zone on the edge of our abilities where learning happens fastest. The problem, of course, is that the sweet spot doesn’t feel sweet. In fact, it feels sour and uncomfortable, because being there you have to take risks and make mistakes. And most of us hate making mistakes.

Basically, we’re allergic.

But what’s kick-assingly powerful is when somebody finds a simple way to reverse that allergy.

...

[C]oaches and parents are storytellers. Their job is to create an emotional safe zone where players can go to the edges of their abilities and then beyond. — How to Overcome Fear of Mistakes: One Coach’s Story @ The Talent Code

Heather wrote a great post this week about learning how to take more risks:

“[T]here’s a trap in looking for some elusive expertise that few people can achieve. It makes getting started too hard. It undermines the achievements we make. It makes us reluctant to start something new, because the bar for competence is set so high. … Over and over, I’m seeing that the real way you gain fluency is not through competence or perfection, but through sold-out bravery. You get better at something not by magically getting it all right ahead of time, but by *being willing to try*.” — What is Fluent? @ A Little Yes

This article reminded me of my own post about learning to take *real* baby steps — you’ve got to just go for it! And to do that, you need to cultivate a safe space for making big attempts and taking risks, which is what that previous quote is all about. This week’s links are sending a great message: figure out the story you want to tell, make a safe space for making big attempts, and then go for it!

Some great PBH-related sharing this week —

Angela wrote about the positive changes she saw in her children when she moved into more self-directed work:

“Back in October, I realized my carefully laid out plans for our oh-so-many-subjects weren't really working out. My kids were completing their work, but I could tell they weren’t really learning. I’d get questions like, “Is this good enough?” This question is code for, “Does this please you enough to let me quit now and get on with my life because I really couldn't care about this any less?” I remember some name coming up in conversation one day and excitedly saying, “Oh, Cati, you can tell us all about this because you read about this person last week!” She looked back at me completely clueless. If my goal for the kids during school time had simply been obedience to my plans and diligence, then I would have achieved my goal. Don’t get me wrong! Obedience and diligence are important virtues, but could we attain those virtues while working on others. We could come to enjoy learning, we learn to self-direct.” — Project Peek Day @ Creating Something Beautiful

Michelle wrote about how to use that time between projects to gear up for the next big thing:

“One of the main things we’ve learned is that interests develop with time and freedom to explore. Kids need big chunks of time to play, create, read, and question. They need the freedom to discover their interests. We have to make room in our days for exploration in order to pave the way for more meaningful projects.” — Paving the Way for Projects @ Raising Cajuns

A really interesting read in the Atlantic about screen time, kids who are digital natives, and app designers with very restrictive screen times for their own kids:

“On the one hand, parents want their children to swim expertly in the digital stream that they will have to navigate all their lives; on the other hand, they fear that too much digital media, too early, will sink them. Parents end up treating tablets like precision surgical instruments, gadgets that might perform miracles for their child’s IQ and help him win some nifty robotics competition — but only if they are used just so. Otherwise, their child could end up one of those sad, pale creatures who can’t make eye contact and has an avatar for a girlfriend.” — The Touch-Screen Generation @ The Atlantic

At the end of the article, the writer decides to experiment with her own toddler’s screen time. Bit of a long article, but I enjoyed the read.

On Twitter, I’ve been talking to some parents who are starting (or who have already started) businesses so they can work at home. This article about a mom’s struggle to run a business and still be a good parent seemed especially timely:

“Why is it that moms can't set the bullying aside and focus instead on what is right in front of them: the exquisite opportunity to know and be known, to inspire and be inspired? We’re all in the same impossible predicament that society put us in — why can’t we acknowledge it and go from there? We’re all in the same pickle. We were educated from childhood to become contributing members of society and to aspire to fulfilling careers, then we have our own children and society’s expectations of us change utterly. Our collective confusion and anxiety is understandable. But why can’t we recognize that this is a consequence of living in this time, and not allow the insecurity we are almost forced to feel manifest itself in a distracting and destructive cutting down of others?” — The Helping Foundation

I realized how closely my daughter was watching me and that I was wrong to beat myself up. Even when I thought I wasn’t directly affecting her, I was. She was watching — and what she saw wasn’t hurting her. She was proud of what I had made. That gave me so much inspiration… I was ready to make more.

So, I kept building. — The Helping Foundation

Once again, we’re touching on women feeling less-than — obviously, this is something a lot of us are struggling with. I have seen some great support and cheerleading among the women in my circle — I hope we can make more of that!

Finally, PBH news!

Don’t miss the newest post in Amy’s process art series, Art Together:

It’s just fun to lay down some color and “see what happens.” When you go into it with the idea that you’re experimenting, there are no mistakes, just unexpected outcomes. When my 8yo layered white on top of a color he thought was dry but the white looked muddy, we talked about it. Was the white paint itself muddied in the tray? Let’s wipe it off and try again. He experimented with having black as the first color — would anything at all show up on it? This is knowledge he’ll take with him the next time he paints. This is how we get to know a material so that we don’t try to make it do something it just can’t do. — {Art Together} Experimenting with Watercolors @ Kids in the Studio

Check out our new quick-start guide for getting started with PBH:

“PBH is centered around helping your child direct and manage his own learning. It’s about independence, responsibility, and exploring talents and deep interests.

Every choice you make matters.” — 10 Steps to Getting Started with Project-Based Homeschooling

And we also made an FAQ for the site — it’s a work in progress, but we’ll keep adding to it. Let us know if you have any suggestions!

What’s your background?

What is Reggio?

Does PBH work with teens? — Project-Based Homeschooling: Frequently Asked Questions

I was interviewed by Jacquie this week at the Sweeter Side of Mommyhood:

“Thoreau wrote that cutting wood warms you twice — once when you split it and again when you burn it. This is probably the deepest lesson I’ve learned, first through my own work and then again watching my children: building your own education means you learn exponentially more. You have to find what you need, you have to determine whether you’ve answered your own questions, you have to set and meet your own goals. You end up with the knowledge and skills you were seeking, but you also end up with remarkable learning muscles and powerful habits of mind. Then you can go forward and learn anything you need to learn.” — Project-Based Homeschooling: Interview with Lori Pickert @ The Sweeter Side of Mommyhood

The PBH for Grown-Ups post this week was on building community (geared especially toward introverts):

“No matter what you want to accomplish, community is key. Whether it’s online or offline, whether it’s focused on you or your kids, community is where you see how you fit and how you can contribute. It can be as simple as having two other families to hike with once a week or as complex as an online forum with thousands of members — but it comes down to finding other people who want to do what you want to do. It’s about making friends, but it’s also about finding colleagues and building a network. It’s about building a community of people who can help each other accomplish something larger than what one person can do alone.” — The Introvert’s Guide to Building Community

So, Google Reader bit the dust this week. Just a reminder that you can subscribe to this blog by e-mail if you like — or several people have been recommending Feedly.

Quote for the day:

“[Creative children] ask more questions than most children. They’re usually spontaneous and enthusiastic. Their ideas are unique and occasionally strike other kids as weird. They’re independent. Not that they don’t care at all what other kids think, but they’re able to do their thing despite the fact that their peers may think it’s strange. And they have lots and lots of ideas.” — Silvia Rimm

And this week’s Facebook links!

Worried about how much your teens use the internet? It offers kids the chance to direct a lot of their own learning, including for personal projects:

“When my daughter graduates from college, I want her to be able to ask interesting questions, make wise choices in where to direct her time and attention, and find a career that is about contributing to a purpose that’s more than her own self-advancement. I am proud of her for managing a rigorous course of study both in school and out of school, but I’m also delighted that she finds the time to cultivate interests in a self-directed way that is about contributing to her community of peers. The Internet and her friends have offered my daughter a lifeline to explore new interests that are not just about the resume and getting ahead of everyone else. In today’s high-pressure climate for teens, the Internet is feeling more and more like one of the few havens they can find for the lessons that matter most.” — What Teens Get About the Internet that Parents Don’t @ The Atlantic

Another quote from the above article:

A college degree is a requirement for most good jobs, but no longer a guarantee of one.

Consequently, kids feel pressure to not only do well on tests and in school, but in their out-of-school activities as well. … The pressure to succeed along narrow paths is exacting a staggering cost on the values and well being of our children. — What Teens Get About the Internet that Parents Don’t @ The Atlantic

Along those lines, this jumped out at me this week:

“Universities must change, [Thomas Friedman] says, from a ‘time served’ model to a ‘stuff learned’ model. He reasons that ‘increasingly the world does not care what you know. Everything is on Google. The world only cares, and will only pay for, what you can do with what you know’.” — Who’s Afraid of the big, bad MOOC? @ Learning with ‘e’s

(If you want a funny take on this, try the Onion’s.)

Obviously, people who succeed have to rise above what everyone knows and what everyone knows how to do — they have to go further, do more. Along those lines, I’ll reshare a quote that I blogged earlier this week:

“Every once in a while — often when we least expect it — we encounter someone more courageous, someone who choose to strive for that which (to us) seemed unrealistically unattainable, even elusive. And we marvel. We swoon. We gape. Often, we are in awe. I think we look at these people as lucky, when in fact, luck has nothing to do with it. It is really about the strength of their imagination; it is about how they constructed the possibilities for their life. In short, unlike me, they didn’t determine what was impossible before it was even possible.” — Imagine more, not less @ Camp Creek Blog

Click over to read the whole quote.

And a couple more blog posts re: those intangible skills that we need to rise above the other B.A.s…

“The brain chunks activities into habits to save mental energy.

When a routine becomes a habit, the brain performs these routines automatically and without thinking.

Healthy habits influence healthy lives and unhealthy habits determine unhealthy lives.

Habits can be changed.” — Change a Habit @ New Discoveries

The takeaway here is that habits can be changed — you are not doomed to stay on an unproductive road! Believe it, then do it.

And another important skill — networking, making friends, building community. This is something I am asked about frequently. How do you do it? This excellent short article gives you the answer — definitely read the whole thing:

“Give. All the time. And never ask for anything return unless you really have to. … This isn’t a ‘favor for a favor’ thing. It’s being a good person. When you truly help people every chance you get, that reputation will get around and people will be more inclined to help you down the line.” — How to Network Without Shaking Hands @ What Spinks Thinks

While you’re out there attempting to build that network, keep in mind we’re all trying to put our best face forward — and we’re all human:

“I’m not the only one who wonders why other mothers seem to have such ordered lives, when mine is a whirlwind. I’m not the only one who thinks that the neighbours can hear me when I shout, and what must they think of me, because of course they never shouted at their children. I’m not the only one who wishes my house could be a little tidier, a little cleaner, like the other mothers I know.

I’m not the only one making comparisons and coming out at the bottom.” — Keeping up appearances @ The Home of Lisa Hassan Scott

Finally, some some great kid PBH goodness:

“He knew exactly where he wanted each box and bottle to go, where to put doors and windows, and even added water to a bottle for a fuel tank.

It was SO HARD to watch him struggle with the tape, or to see him doing something one way when I knew another way would work better. I kept my mouth shut as much as I could, and when I broke down and offered suggestions he almost always said he wanted to figure it out.” — The Rocket Ship @ Lemon Tree Studio

Really inspirational, both the kid work and the parent/mentor work!

We are setting up an area of the blog to share kid projects like this — real, authentic, inspiring. Not a recipe for how to do things, but a glimpse of what is possible. There are quite a few other new site additions in the works, so stay tuned — and join our e-mailing list if you haven’t already. (So far I’ve averaged about one e-mail every six months, so it’s not a spam factory.)

Hope your weekend is wonderful!

Debbie Millman on getting out of your own way:

I discovered these common, self imposed restrictions are rather insidious, though they start out simple enough. We begin by worrying we aren’t good enough, smart enough or talented enough to get what we want, then we voluntarily live in this paralyzing mental framework, rather than confront our own role in this paralysis. Just the possibility of failing turns into a dutiful self-fulfilling prophecy. We begin to believe that these personal restrictions are, in fact, the fixed limitations of the world. We go on to live our lives, all the while wondering what we can change and how we can change it, and we calculate and re-calculate when we will be ready to do the things we want to do. And we dream. If only. If only. One day. Some day.

Every once in a while — often when we least expect it — we encounter someone more courageous, someone who choose to strive for that which (to us) seemed unrealistically unattainable, even elusive. And we marvel. We swoon. We gape. Often, we are in awe. I think we look at these people as lucky, when in fact, luck has nothing to do with it. It is really about the strength of their imagination; it is about how they constructed the possibilities for their Life. In short, unlike me, they didn’t determine what was impossible before it was even possible.

[…]

If you imagine less, less will be what you undoubtedly deserve. Do what you love, and don’t stop until you get what you love. Work as hard as you can, imagine immensities, don’t compromise, and don’t waste time. Start now. Not 20 years from now, not two weeks from now. Now. — Debbie Millman in Look Both Ways: Illustrated Essays on the Intersection of Life and Design

hat tip: Maria

It’s Friday again people. Here’s what I shared on Facebook this week:

Shelli posted a review of the book and followed up with a three-part interview with me, lengthy because her questions were astute and challenging and my answers were long and let’s say detailed, shall we? Shelli is actually doing projects with her children, so she had authentic questions based on her own experiences. It’s good stuff.

How do you help a child direct his own work if he doesn’t yet have the experience to know where to research?

“The most important thing is to remember that it’s a process. You are learning how to mentor, and your child is learning how to direct and manage his own learning. Mentoring means slowly transferring the power to him and helping him learn how to be in charge of his own learning. You should try to stay out of his way as much as possible and leave him room to have his own ideas — but that doesn’t mean never making suggestions. It just means waiting to see if he will have his own ideas and supporting those first.

He needs an environment that supports independent working, he needs you to model how to ask questions and research and make and share, and he might need you to help him recognize and articulate his interests and questions.

Being a mentor means helping him slowly take control — and it means showing him the ropes.” — Interview with Lori Pickert, Part 1 @ Mama of Letters

“There are many reasons why project-based homeschooling emphasizes sharing what you learn. You really know you understand something when you can teach it to someone else. Collaboration is a crucial life skill. And PBH is about helping children connect with their meaningful work: where their interests and their talents intersect. This is a years-long process that you are only just beginning; there will be time to explore it fully and develop it from project to project.

Helping children share what they know helps them find their place in the world, and it helps them discover what they have to give. I don’t think there’s a better goal for education than that.” — Interview with Lori Pickert, Part 2 @ Mama of Letters

What if you’re interested in exploring these ideas but are struggling with doing it all?

“Even when it feels like you aren’t accomplishing as much as you want, keep living a life that prioritizes learning, making, and sharing. It’s those underlying values that will form the foundation of [your child’s] learning life.” — Interview with Lori Pickert, Part 3 @ Mama of Letters

That final interview was posted today and I am taking questions, so if you want to ask something about PBH, get over there!

It’s not ALL about me this week. Michelle shared some great advice about using momentum to jump-start your week:

“[I]nstead of procrastinating or taking it ALL on at once, we need to remember the importance of tiny victories and the snowball effect. Tiny changes snowball into big changes, with very little effort. Accomplishing something, anything, no matter how small, makes you feel good. Getting that little zap of feel-good for several days in a row becomes a drug. You want more. So you do another small something for a while. Now you're doing two things and getting twice the feel-good juice. See how the new pattern works? It’s all about momentum, baby.” — Momentum Magic @ Raising Cajuns

This is exactly why I write and post my PBH for Grown-Ups piece on Monday morning — taking advantage of the momentum of finishing. I surf that wave the rest of the week.

Angela shared how projects are going with her kids — really inspiring:

“I’ve come to see that my kids have learned more by pursuing these other projects than they ever would have by completing my plans. They have learned to do their own library research and reserve books through inter library loan. They have learned to keep a notebook of questions and notes about their projects to help them organize their research. They have learned to plan. They have learned to evaluate helpful resources verses extraneous ones. They have learned how to take all of this further and produce things from their research. They have learned to schedule their own time. They have learned the joy of sharing their work with others. And, they have learned the joy of learning.” — Project Peek Day @ Creating Something Beautiful

This made my week!

Finally, another interesting article on the college question:

“[A] combination of technology and sticker shock leads increasingly well-informed parents and students to distinguish between the truly valuable offerings of mainstream universities and commodity courses and activities that can be had elsewhere for a fraction of the price. The result: a tsunami of creative destruction is bearing down on US higher education.” — The Coming Higher Education Bust: “Some Will Survive”

Are you going to be hustling to put together a reasonably priced degree for your child? When I went to college, I was the first on one side of my family to attend; now my children aren’t college age yet and a degree is considered necessary for even entry-level jobs. Quite a switch in just one generation.

Not a big week for links as I was being quite a me-monster. Also, I am working hard on my next book, which I hope to publish in May — see Part 3 of Shelli’s interview for a few tantalizing details! If you want every last bit of my Facebook goodness including the quotes and photos I don’t repost here, follow me there. If you’re off Facebook, I have to applaud that, but if you want to go back under a pseudonym just to follow my page, I would consider it a very reasonable compromise.

Happy Friday! This week on facebook… and some bonus content I didn’t post to facebook as well…

“What story it is I want to tell with my talents? … When I look ahead ten years from now I want to be living my passion. This is just the map to get me there. Pushing off and testing the waters so to speak, exiting the planning stage and creating something, leaving my mark in the world so that I can turn to my daughters one day and say, ‘This is what I have created. Know that you can create something for yourselves too.’” — growing a business: choosing @ under a big blue sky

This is the message of the PBH for Grown-Ups series: that the best way to help our children live an authentic life is to strive for that ourselves. Speaking of which, I added a new quote to that page that says it all:

Train up a child in the way he should go — but be sure you go that way yourself. — Charles Spurgeon

More inspiration from Paul Graham:

“I'll start by telling you something you don't have to know in high school: what you want to do with your life. People are always asking you this, so you think you’re supposed to have an answer. But adults ask this mainly as a conversation starter. They want to know what sort of person you are, and this question is just to get you talking. They ask it the way you might poke a hermit crab in a tide pool, to see what it does.

“If I were back in high school and someone asked about my plans, I’d say that my first priority was to learn what the options were. You don’t need to be in a rush to choose your life's work. What you need to do is discover what you like. You have to work on stuff you like if you want to be good at what you do.” — What You’ll Wish You’d Known, by Paul Graham

This reminds me of a post Deb had about asking a teen friend who likes photography if she planned on being a photographer when she grows up.

The minute I said it, I realized that I was doing the very thing that some of the moms and dads and coaches whose kids play competitive sports do: trying to turn an interest into a vocation.

Why? Why do we do this? There is no reason to take something that a kid (or regular person, for that matter) is interested in and push them into making it something more. More. Why do we want everything to be MORE? And don’t you think doing that can ruin the very thing that was previously loved? — Grownups Ruin Everything @ Not Inadequate

One (ha) of my comments in response to this post:

My issue with asking the teenage girl if she wants to be a photographer when she grows up would be — isn’t she *already* a photographer? Do we disrespect the work that kids do because it doesn’t earn money? Because we assume it can’t be that good?

Lots of good discussion in the comments of that post and lots of ideas to unpack about interests and how they tie to income, future or otherwise — another thing we’ve discussed in PBH for Grown-Ups, specifically Getting Out of Your Own Way (self-talk: “Shouldn’t I be earning money for this? Or doing something else that could earn money?”)

When you’re helping your children develop their talents and deeply engage with their interests, how preoccupied are you with how they’re going to translate that into a future income?

How closely tied are education and future career opportunities in your mind?

“It is one of the great testaments to the intellectual — and moral, and spiritual — poverty of American society that it makes its most intelligent young people feel like they're being self-indulgent if they pursue their curiosity. You are all told that you're supposed to go to college, but you’re also told that you’re being “self-indulgent” if you actually want to get an education. Or even worse, give yourself one.” — What Are You Going to Do With That? — The Chronicle Review

And speaking of giving yourself an education, maybe you’ll give yourself a job as well —

“My oldest son, Christopher, was not college material. You probably have the wrong idea: it’s not that Chris isn’t smart. Chris is brilliant. But brilliance is not enough to make you college material. Something else is needed: at least an average level of compliance.” — How the Bowyer Family Played the College Tuition Bubble @ Forbes

I have a brilliant, noncompliant son myself… but as a person who has always been self-employed, I am probably more comfortable with an alternate path than most.

Everything seems to point to the fact that our children will most likely be having nontraditional careers. Perhaps nontraditional education is the best preparation for that:

What will be required of our children in the future? They will have to be in charge of their own learning. As college students, as adults, as entrepreneurs, as tradesmen, as parents — they will have to make important decisions and figure out how to get the knowledge and skills they need. When we do start helping them learn how to direct and manage their own learning? When they are teenagers? When they are in college? We need to begin now. — The Myth of the Reluctant Learner

And in that same vein:

“We need a curriculum of big questions, examinations where children can talk, share and use the Internet, and new, peer assessment systems. We need children from a range of economic and geographic backgrounds and an army of visionary educators. We need a pedagogy free from fear and focused on the magic of children's innate quest for information and understanding.” — Sugata Mitra: We Need Schools, Not Factories

Of course, if you’re homeschooling you own and operate your own school, so you can fit your child’s education to your particular beliefs. Don’t waste that opportunity — make the most of it.

Some inspiring posts about children and learning from this week:

“I learn a lot from my daughter. That fact releases me from a lot of concerns i used to have about homeschooling her. I homeschool with her. In fact, I can just say we learn together, because that is what we do. We build what works for us; we build it ourselves.” — If you want it, you can build it yourself @ Happyer at Home

A fantastic new series on authentic, process-based art from Amy:

“I’m telling you: You are capable enough right now to sit down and make art alongside your kids (even if you think you can’t). If it only takes one person’s encouragement and that person hasn’t shown up in your life yet, I will be that person for you, if you’ll let me.” — {Art Together}: Getting Started @ Kids in the Studio

Annie’s words on helping kids make real books for their writing:

“Making books sends a special message to children as they begin their journey as readers, writers and artists. When you help a child write a book of their own, from the penning of the plot to the drafting of the illustrations, you create an object of permanence. You teach children that their work is valuable, that it is important, that it is worthy. You tell your child, and yourself, that each of us is a writer, an artist, a storyteller, or a poet. We are writers because we write. Artists because we make art.” — Creativity with Alphabet Glue @ Rhythm of the Home

And some important words on creativity’s importance for adults as well:

“Whenever I create something for myself, I have to fight off feeling a bit guilty… as if I was being too self indulgent. This is ridiculous because it’s actually an essential component of self-care. Just like exercise and fresh food is good for the body, creativity feeds the soul… and forming something for one’s self goes even deeper. It has the power to mend a broken spirit and give meaning to our making.” — worthy @ maya*made

And to go along with that, a quote I shared on facebook:

When my daughter was about seven years old, she asked me one day what I did at work. I told her I worked at the college — that my job was to teach people how to draw. She stared back at me, incredulous, and said, “You mean they forget?” — Howard Ikemoto

If you’re still with me, you might want to check out a new review of Project-Based Homeschooling: Mentoring Self-Directed Learners:

“What Pickert has done with her book is explain in an easy-to-read and practical manner what parents can do at home to ensure that children will take charge of their own education and gain essential skills. If that sounds far-fetched, I suggest you read the book.” — Book review: Project-Based Homeschooling @ Mama of Letters

Shelli is following this up with a three-part (!) interview with me, so if you just can’t get enough Lori, you’re in luck. We’re going to do a Q&A on her blog at the end, too, so lots of PBH talk going on.

That’s all I’ve got this week. Still some stuff on Facebook I’m not sharing, so if you want every last bit of it, follow me there. (For instance, I quoted Seth Godin this week and set off a mini firestorm — you wouldn’t want to miss that!)