Homeschooling

Sage Family Podcast 11: Nature

Posted May 29, 2018June 1, 2018 Rachel RainboltLeave a commentPosted in Home, Homeschooling, Parenting, Podcast, Simple Living

Listen in iTunes | Listen in Stitcher Today I’m here with my friend Nicolette Sowder talking about nature. Nicolette is a nature-connected educator and founder of Wilder Child and Wildschooling. Her passion is to serve as companion and guide for those families, educators and care givers interested in nurturing and growing their relationship with nature. She is also the creator of The Kids Moon Club, a year-long lunar journey designed to guide and encourage families to sync up with moon time. Most days you can find her being led through her farm and forest by her two wildlings. Support the show on […]

My Morning Routine

Posted April 23, 2018April 24, 2018 Rachel Rainbolt2 CommentsPosted in Homeschooling, Mompreneur, Simple Living

My morning routine is essential in setting the tone for my day. It’s something that I design with the greatest of intention and refresh seasonally while collaborating with the kids around their bucket system (it’s essentially the morning clothespins on my bucket, though I don’t use a physical bucket). If you have done Sage Coaching, you know we start by identifying our values, creating our priorities, determining our needs, and then hold space for those in our daily rhythm. This is a powerful dose of self-care to help you be your best all day long (and your needs can co-exist […]

Sage Family Podcast 8: Reading

Posted April 5, 2018 Rachel RainboltLeave a commentPosted in Homeschooling, Podcast

Listen in iTunes | Listen in Stitcher Today I’m here with my friend Leah McDermott talking about Reading on the natural learning path. Leah is a former Master Educator and now unschooling mama of two who has made it her mission to help bring more natural elements to children’s everyday learning experiences through her business Your Natural Learner. Support the show on Patreon Adventure of the Week This week I had my first solo adventure when I drove down to Portland for a homeschool conference and stayed 1 night in a hotel all by myself. You guys, I peed, and […]

Sage Family Podcast 5: Adventure

Posted March 5, 2018March 5, 2018 Rachel RainboltLeave a commentPosted in Homeschooling, Podcast, Simple Living, Travel

Listen in iTunes | Listen in Stitcher Today I’m here with my friend Robyn Robertson talking about adventure. “I call myself an unschooling mom, but I’m really a curious student of life. I’ve learned so much about myself and the world through my travels that I wanted to share that with my kids. 5 ½ years ago we decided to make a change and follow our dream of travelling with our kids (or at least try). It was the experiences of life and travel that changed our idea of learning. I started to let go and allowed their natural curiosity […]

Sage Family Podcast 4: Deschooling

Posted February 17, 2018February 24, 2018 Rachel RainboltLeave a commentPosted in Homeschooling, Podcast

Listen in iTunes | Listen in Stitcher Today I’m here with my friend Pam Laricchia talking about Deschooling and how the transition into unschooling mirrors the hero’s journey. Pam is a long-time unschooling mom whose three children left school back in 2002. She loves exploring unschooling and sharing the fascinating things she’s discovered about learning and parenting along the way (through her books, podcast, and website at livingjoyfully.ca). Support the show on Patreon Adventure of the Week This week I talk about our adventure at Pump It Up and the rambunctious fun that was had by all. Highlights Story: Pam is […]

Sage Family Podcast 2: Role

Posted February 13, 2018February 22, 2018 Rachel RainboltLeave a commentPosted in Homeschooling, Podcast

Listen in iTunes | Listen in Stitcher “My responsibility, the only thing, is to be as kind as I can . . . and the other things will all come from that.” Today I’m here with my friend Jo Watt of the blog and Instagram Girls Unschooled, talking about our role as parents on a natural learning path. Jo is a former teacher turned unschooling mum of 2. Adventure of the Week This week I talk about our adventure day with friends, including Jo and her girls, at the fantastic Lynwood Community Pool, and how West managed to hold onto gratitude […]

Natural Homeschooling Book Giveaway

Posted January 16, 2018May 13, 2018 Rachel RainboltLeave a commentPosted in Homeschooling

GIVEAWAY: Living a natural learning lifestyle with your kids is all about role modeling: reading, learning, and growing yourself! These are my top 4 natural homeschooling book recommendations: Sage Homeschooling, Home Grown, Free to Learn, and Project-Based Homeschooling. WIN a SIGNED copy of Sage Homeschooling: Wild and Free for yourself AND a friend, along with a copy of Home Grown, Free to Learn, and Project-Based Homeschooling for yourself, by entering on Instagram: FOLLOW @sageparenting on IG. LIKE this picture. TAG a mama or papa friend in the comments (each tag is an entry!). SUBSCRIBE to Sage Parenting here 👇🏼 (winner must […]

Winter Family Gear for Nature Adventurers

Posted December 4, 2017December 4, 2017 Rachel RainboltLeave a commentPosted in Homeschooling, Parenting, Travel

Just over a year ago we were living in San Diego with a wardrobe consisting of swim suits, sundresses (shorts and tanks for the kids), and flip flops. Then we took off on a new adventure in the Pacific Northwest and while we were so excited to experience 4 seasons, I was confused and intimidated trying to research and navigate what gear the kids needed for a lifestyle of nature adventures as homeschoolers (wildschooling, if you will). I can confidently say that we’ve now got this thing figured out and I’m sharing it here to save you the months of […]

Book Review: Sage Homeschooling: Wild and Free

Posted October 30, 2017October 30, 2017 Rachel RainboltLeave a commentPosted in Homeschooling

contains affiliate links Sage Homeschooling: Wild and Free offers a natural learning path, for gentle parents who dream of living fully in joy and connection with their children while giving them all they need to be successful, with eight secrets to living a fulfilling unschooling life. In this inspirational and secular guide, you will learn how to: deschool, shaking off all the educational programming that weighs you down maintain your relationship focus on connection beyond the early years trust in your children and their natural learning journey embrace the freedom that fosters meaningful productivity and independence utilize collaboration in respectful […]

FREE CHAPTER: Sage Homeschooling: Wild and Free

Posted October 25, 2017October 30, 2017 Rachel RainboltLeave a commentPosted in Homeschooling

The new book Sage Homeschooling: Wild and Free is launching and I’m giving you a peek at a FREE CHAPTER! If you enjoy the read, be sure to buy the book and share it with your friends! Let’s share the wisdom of this natural learning lifestyle where connection and freedom abound. Chapter 3: Trust Remember when your child was a baby and you trusted in the validity of their needs and developmental timetable, focused on building trust in your relationship, and understood that trust is the bedrock on which independence blossoms? Great news: nothing has changed. Trusting each other Forging […]

Book Review: Dumbing Us Down

Posted October 6, 2017December 30, 2017 Rachel RainboltLeave a commentPosted in Homeschooling

contains affiliate links John Taylor Gatto, upon winning the award for teacher of the year after 30 years in the classroom, delivered a speech that was so shocking that the reverberation is still being felt today. This speech is the first chapter of Dumbing Us Down: The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling and it is honest, insightful, and scathing. Essentially, he is an education whistleblower. “School is a twelve-year jail sentence where bad habits are the only curriculum truly learned. I teach schools and win awards doing it. I should know.” Those “bad habits” he is referring to are what he outlines […]

Book Review: The Carpenter and the Gardener

Posted September 23, 2017December 30, 2017 Rachel RainboltLeave a commentPosted in Homeschooling, Parenting

The Carpenter and the Gardener: What the New Science of Child Development Tells Us About the Relationship Between Parents and Children by Alison Gopnik is a book I bought for the metaphor in the title, which struck me as brilliant. Most mainstream parents view parenting and education as carpentry. “You should pay some attention to the kind of material you are working with, and it may have some influence on what you try to do. But essentially your job is to shape that material into a final product that will fit the scheme you had in mind to begin with. And […]

Book Review: Love, Learn, Live

Posted September 6, 2017December 30, 2017 Rachel RainboltLeave a commentPosted in Homeschooling

contains affiliate links I just finished reading Love, Learn, Live by Csilla and it was . . . meh. My Instagram bio used to read Loving, Living, Learning so when I saw this book recommended by an unschooling blog I really like, I thought it likely to be something I would enjoy. It is written by a homeschooling mother and consultant from Australia and while there was some goodness in it, I found it simple, uninspiring, and uninformative. The book is not bad! It just felt more self-congratulatory than helpful. Overall, it’s nice to peek behind the curtain of another homeschooling family […]

Book Review: Project-Based Homeschooling

Posted August 18, 2017December 30, 2017 Rachel RainboltLeave a commentPosted in Homeschooling

contains affiliate links Project-Based Homeschooling: Mentoring Self-Directed Learners by Lori Pickert was a wonderfully inspiring book that I have added to my homeschooling cannon alongside Free to Learn and Home Grown. She brings the perspective of an early education “wizard” turned homeschooling mother to her project-based homeschooling approach, which she describes through a weaving of learning foundation, concrete examples, and colorful suggestions. In a nutshell, project-based learning is supporting your child in diving deep in an interest through a process of self-directed planning, creation of artistic work, and self-evaluation. In action, it looks a great deal like what I describe […]

Book Review: The Art of Self-Directed Learning

Posted August 14, 2017December 30, 2017 Rachel RainboltLeave a commentPosted in Homeschooling

contains affiliate links The Art of Self-Directed Learning: 23 tips for giving yourself an unconventional education by Blake Boles is a book that is really written for teens and young adults to digest in light-hearted, inspirational bites. The author runs travel experiences around the world for teens and young adults and is involved in some camps and brings that real-life, experiential emphasis to his message. All in all, I would say it’s very light, and a book I might toss on the shelf for my someday teen but wouldn’t necessarily recommend reading as a parent. My favorite bit might be […]

Micro-Adventures: A Life of Adventure Is Within Your Reach

Posted August 1, 2017September 9, 2017 Rachel RainboltLeave a commentPosted in Homeschooling, Travel

What is a Micro-Adventure To adventure means to “engage in hazardous and exciting activity, especially the exploration of unknown territory.” Let’s break that down in the context of our unschooling lifestyle. “engage in hazardous”: We are actively reaching beyond our comfort zones. “and exciting activity”: We are following our passions, interests, and curiosities with hands-on fun. “especially the exploration of unknown territory”: We are boldly soaring into new experiences to learn more. We live a lifestyle of adventure but that doesn’t necessarily mean we are a full time traveling family living abroad or millionaire frequent flyers (though if anyone would like […]

Healing Through Parenting

Posted August 1, 2017September 9, 2017 Rachel RainboltLeave a commentPosted in Homeschooling, Parenting

I emerged from childhood with a lot of healing to do. On this I know I am not unique. Prior to motherhood, I did strive to be my best self, and some of that did include working through some of those wounds that stuck out most. But only once I emerged from the pregnancy chrysalis as a mother was I able to access my emotional depths. In hearing my baby cry, I heard my own unanswered cries. And in holding my child close with responsive empathy, I was soothing my own inner child. I could feel her tears drying […]

Book Club: Captain Fantastic & Unfortunate Events

Posted July 31, 2017December 30, 2017 Rachel RainboltLeave a commentPosted in Homeschooling

contains affiliate links This month for book club I read 360 Degrees Longitude, and it was meh in every sense of the word (and overpriced), so instead of providing a review of that book, I’m going to review the 2 things we watched this month that are still swirling around in my thoughts (in the best way). Captain Fantastic Captain Fantastic was a movie that was recommended to me by countless people. It was recommended to me so vehemently by so many friends that I was apprehensive to actually watch it. Has that ever happened to you? I might hate […]

When Kids are Bored

Posted June 28, 2017September 9, 2017 Rachel Rainbolt1 CommentPosted in Homeschooling, Parenting

What is boredom and how can we help support our children through it? Let’s unpack, shift, and live better, together. We’ve all seen the negative stereotype of the schooled child on summer break, sitting at home surrounded by stuff and whining, “I’m bored!” while the disengaged parent hides and scours Pinterest for new pretty toys to distract them and Google for day camps to busy them. But quickly filling in the space is not the solution. It’s an empty calorie, like eating a cheese puff when you’re hungry. It’s not good for you, it fills the space where something […]

How this Attachment Parenting, Homeschooling, Mompreneur Does It All

Posted June 3, 2017September 25, 2017 Rachel RainboltLeave a commentPosted in Homeschooling, Mompreneur, Parenting

I don’t. Priorities Let’s start right there. I don’t do it all. No one does it all and I wouldn’t want to. Remember my post about Finding the Quality YES? I talked about how saying yes to one thing is actually saying no to a million other things. I’m sitting on my deck writing this for you while I watch my kids run around and play in the grass. I’m not an archeologist on a dig in Tanzania right now. I don’t want it all. I want to invest myself in the few consciously chosen intentions that we have designed […]