1. The document discusses tools for inspiring self-directed learning, using a garden allegory as a framework. It outlines clearing weeds like compulsory education and devices, providing sunshine and water through stories, and ensuring good soil conditions with nutrients like music, art, and service. 2. Freedom in education is advocated, allowing children to learn through play, stories, and warm relationships until they show readiness for more formal instruction, guided by their interests and passions. Notebooking is suggested instead of worksheets. 3. The approach emphasizes enriched story times, self-directed learning, and mentorship to help students discover their purpose.

1. Inspiring Self-Directed Learning

2. Seeds of Self-Directed Learning
Consider how much a child learns during his first year of life

3. The Garden Allegory
1. Clear the
Weeds
2. Sunshine and
Water
3. Soil Condition
4. The Law of the
Harvest
A garden allegory provides the perfect back drop for discussing the essential tools to inspire
self-directed learning.

4. The Master Gardener
 What He Does Not Do
 He does not create the
seeds
 What He Does
 Trusts the process
 Creates an environment for
the seeds to grow

5. Weeds (Obstacles) to learning
 Compulsory
Education
 Unresolved
emotional trauma
 Electronic devices
(cell phones,
tablets, video
games, etc.)
 Other distractions

6. Unresolved emotional trauma blocks
learning pathways
 Grief
 Divorce
 Bullying
 Anxiety
Relationship
before
Scholarship
Resources:
• The Sharing Place: http://www.thesharingplace.org/
• TheArbinger Institute – Parenting Pyramind:
http://www.familygoodthings.com/transform-your-family-and-buy-into-the-
ultimate-pyramid-scheme/
• Teaching Self-Government by Nicholeen Peck https://teachingselfgovernment.com/

7. Electronic Devices
It’s ‘digital heroin’: How screens turn kids into psychotic
junkies PostedAugust 27, 2016
http://nypost.com/2016/08/27/its-digital-heroin-how-
screens-turn-kids-into-psychotic-junkies/
This IsWhat ScreenTime Really Does to Kids' Brains
Too much at the worst possible age can have lifetime consequences.
PostedApr 17, 2016
https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/behind-online-
behavior/201604/is-what-screen-time-really-does-kids-brains
Too much screen time,too soon,interferes with important cognitive
development.

8. Compulsory Education
 Peter Kaufman, professor of sociology at the State University
of NewYork:
 “As a college professor, I see the dysfunctional effects of an
educational system based on testing when I look out into a
room full of students. After years of cramming, memorizing,
regurgitation, and forgetting, many students enter college with
little intellectual curiosity, much less a sense of academic
excitement. Too often, the students just want to be told what
they need to learn to pass the test or what they need to write to
get a good grade on a paper. Because so much of their
schooling has been based on this dysfunctional model, they have
forgotten how to be the self-directed and genuine learners that
they were when they first entered school.”

9. Water and Sunshine of Education
The most effective
stories for nourishing the
heart include:
 Stories of Character
and Faith
 Stories of History
 Stories of Nature,
Animals, and Fairy
Tales
 Classics
Storytelling in an atmosphere of warm relationships provides the water and
sunshine of a heart-based education.

10. Nutrients for the Soil
 Song - includes all music, dance, and rhythm
 Symbol - includes artwork and artistic
representations of real objects such as dolls,
figurines, puppets, object lessons, metaphors
 Service - includes all activities that help to
build relationships and assist others in their
learning and progress
 Story - includes fiction and non-fiction
stories and poetry
 Spirit - includes all activities that invite the
Spirit of God into the learning environment
like prayer, scripture reading, reverence,
gratitude, and stories that teach moral values
and principles.
 Nature is God’s University
 Creativity connects us with our Divine
Nature
“Children need art and stories
and poems and music as much
as they need love and food and
fresh air and play."
​ -Philip Pullman

11. The Law of the Harvest
1. Seed Selection (Define principle
or concept)
2. Soil Preparation and Planting
(Discovery)
3. Nourish the plants (Skill practice
and Service)
4. Pull out UnwantedWeeds
(Evaluate, Organize, and Apply)
5. Share the Harvest (Create and
Share New Understanding)

12. Compulsory Education
 Separating children by
grade
 Set standards for each
grade level (conveyor belt
education)
 Removal of parents from
educational goal setting
 Emphasis on academics
with little time for
childhood, character
building, and family
relationships
SAMPLE STANDARDS
Reading: Literature Standard 4
Identify words and phrases in stories or poems that suggest
feelings or appeal to the senses.
Reading: Literature Standard 5
Explain major differences between books that tell stories and
books that give information, drawing on a wide reading of a
range of text types.
Reading: Literature Standard 9
Compare and contrast the adventures and experiences of
characters in stories.
Craft and Structure
Reading: InformationalText Standard 4
Ask and answer questions to help determine or clarify the
meaning of words and phrases in a text.

13. Freedom in Education
 Primary objective
for children 0-8:
Learn from stories
and play
 Parents provide:
 Play time with a
variety of toys
 Time in nature
 Stories
 Warm relationships
Resource: homeschoolcoach.com
Mary Ann Johnson - Spark System

14. Freedom in Education
 Parents watch for signs of readiness to begin formal reading
and math instruction
 Some children will show reading readiness at ages 4-5 and
others will not be interested until 8-9.
 Children who develop a broad vocabulary through read-a-
louds with parents will learn to read quickly once they show
signs of readiness

15. Freedom in Education (0-8 years)
 1-2 Story periods each day
 Nursery rhymes and nursery tales
 Stories with moral values
 Stories about nature, animals, and fairy tales
 Enriched StoryTime (SharingTime)
 Group time to includes music, art, poetry, stories, dance
 Structured play time (dramatic play, shapes, numbers, letters,
measurements, clocks, money, nature study)
 Reading and math instruction when child shows signs of
readiness

16. Freedom in Education (8+ years)
 Connect learning
experiences with a child’s
passion
 Weekly mentor meetings
to report on progress and
set goals
 Student Centered –
Parent Directed Learning

17. Freedom in Education (8+ years)
 “Children are born passionately eager to make as much sense
as they can of things around them. If we attempt to control,
manipulate, or divert this process, the independent scientist
in the child disappears.” – John Holt

18. Freedom in Education (8+ years)
 Independent readers with basic writing and arithmetic skills
 Students learn through a holistic unit study led by a teacher
 As they approach 12 years, they will continue with group
study but they start to work on independent studies
 Parents set goals and students learn to self-govern as they
accomplish those goals

19. Freedom in Education (8+ years)
 Educating for Human Greatness by
Lynn Stoddard
 The Great Brain Project
 Choose a topic and become an
expert on that topic
 Ask questions: what, why, when,
where, who, was, which, would,
were, how, is, do, does, did, may,
are, could, shall, will, can, have, if
 Study and Learn
 Create and Share

20. Notebooking,
Journaling, or
Education
Scrapbooking
Instead of using pre-determined fill-in-the
blank worksheets,students create their own
journals about a topic. They add illustrations,
definitions,and commentary.

21. Freedom in Education (8-12 years)
 Two enriched story times each day
 Morning SharingTime (Religious and values based)
 Closing SharingTime (History based)
 Self-Directed LearningTime
 Math
 LanguageArts
 Science/Nature Study: Nature Journals and Science
Notebooks
 Weekly mentor meetings – parents help students set goals
for each subject for the week.

22. Freedom in Education (12+ years)
 Greater independence in learning
 Students set more of their own goals and seek out learning
opportunities
 Discovery of personal mission and purpose

23. Freedom in Education (12+ years)
 Enriched story times each day
 Religious andValues based
 History based
 Self-Directed Learning time
 Math (parent/student choice)
 Student created textbooks in Literature, History, and Science
 Academic Service projects to practice LanguageArts