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Project-Based Homeschooling
Mentoring Self-Directed Learners

Lori McWilliam Pickert

Project-Based Homeschooling: Mentoring Self-Directed
Learners.
Copyright © 2012 by Lori McWilliam Pickert.
Visit our website at www.project-based-homeschooling.com for
additional resources.
All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or
portions thereof in any form whatsoever. No part of this publication
may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means,
electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any
information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing
from the author, except by a reviewer, who may quote brief passages
in a review.
Manufactured in the United States of America.
 Dedicated to my sons

Dominic and Jack Henry

and to my first collaborators

Chris, Jackie, Leisa, Andrea, and Emily

There are two aspects of providing occasions for wonderful ideas.
One is being prepared to accept children’s ideas. The other is
providing a setting which suggests wonderful ideas to children.
— Eleanor Duckworth
 Contents
Introduction
A Way to Learn
Self-Directed, Self-Managed
Doing the Work
Deepening the Work
A Way to Live
 Introduction
This book is not a recipe for how to homeschool that you can
confidently follow to bake up a nice loaf of educated child.
It’s not a purist approach that requires you to follow it to the
letter, memorize its fight song, and clash antlers with anyone who is
doing it slightly differently than you.
Instead, it’s a collection of strategies for helping children direct
and manage their own learning.
I had an unpleasant public-school experience followed by an
uninspiring college experience, so when it came to my own children,
I edged toward the whole subject of education somewhat warily. I
started by opening a private school — my own idealized school with
art studios for each classroom and a curriculum based on long-term,
child-led projects. It was lovely. It was unsustainable. I believe it was
John Holt who once pointed out that most wonderful schools are built
around one strong personality and when that personality leaves, the
school tends to fall apart. After several years, I was a tired wizard,
weary of maintaining my magical school by dint of continuous,
24/7/365 spell-weaving.
I segued right into homeschooling with the exact same values
about what and how childen should learn, and it was a vacation to be
in charge of two children rather than several dozen. My younger
child wasn’t yet five; my firstborn, a few years older, was already an
old hat at directing and managing his own learning. It was an easy
transition.
But homeschooling has its own challenges. Every
homeschooling parent is a kind of wizard, having to conjure up a
network of friends (for yourself as well as your child), learning
experiences (ditto), books, movies, science experiments, nature
walks, arts and crafts, play dates, and petting-zoo visits, and weave
it all together with three meals a day (not to mention snacks), toys,
more books, pets, more arts and crafts, more friends, and etc.,
because homeschooling isn’t just education, it’s an entire lifestyle. It
starts when you decide to begin and it never lets up, ever.
 When I was running my tiny private school, I also worked as an
educational consultant, traveling around and giving workshops,
presenting at conferences, and training and mentoring teachers. I
got a very interesting, inside view of how schools work and how
difficult it is to exact real and lasting change. Whether you’re a
parent, a teacher, or an administrator, the system is so solidly built
on a certain set of ideas that it’s almost impossible for one person to
get things moving in a different direction. Instead, the person
championing change becomes that one strong personality, the
wizard who conjures up a wonderful classroom or a brief Camelot of
a school. Alas, the magic can’t seem to last. That one classroom is a
brief stop for children — one really wonderful year — between more
ordinary classrooms. The children move on. The teacher becomes
discouraged, the school closes, or the administration changes. The
wizards leave and take the magic with them.
Homeschooling/unschooling parents, by comparison, have much
more freedom and control. They can maintain the same goals and
focus on the same values year after year. They can learn from their
mistakes and try again right away. They can capitalize on their
successes immediately. They can discard what doesn’t work and try
something else, without needing permission from a committee or a
boss, without waiting until next semester or next year. They can
accumulate their wisdom — perhaps slowly, but isn’t that how
wisdom usually comes? — and use it without delay. They can stay
with an idea for a long time and gain authentic understanding and
real expertise — which is the essence of project-based
homeschooling.
This book posits a simple idea — that children need the
opportunity to direct and manage their own learning — and then
suggests ways that we adults can help them do that. All of these
suggestions may not work for you; some of them, you may already
be doing. It’s not a blueprint. If you find an idea that appeals to you,
you can go from there. You can adapt it to what you already know
about your child and your family life. This is how project-based
homeschooling works: you start from where you are, today, and you
explore what interests you.
 When I was working as an educational consultant, I had this
experience several times: I was brought into a school by the
administrators. They wanted very much to embrace new values for
how their students should learn. They wanted the children’s
education to be interest-led, to move at a natural pace, to be
mentored and facilitated thoughtfully. They wanted to toss out the old
way of doing things and embrace these new methods right away,
immediately, without delay.
Therefore, they wanted the teachers to be trained in how to
change the curriculum, remake their classrooms, and start working
with children in an entirely new way right away, immediately, without
delay. They wanted their staff to toss out their old routines and
materials, move the furniture, redecorate their classrooms, toss their
old lesson plans, and do everything differently — right away,
immediately, without delay.
Many times, the administrators (excited and inspired by new
ideas, motivated to give their students a better learning experience
and a more wonderful school as soon as possible) would miss the
fact that they were championing holistic learning for the students but
not for the teachers. The adults didn’t get to learn at their own pace
— they were expected to change immediately to a new agenda. The
adults didn’t get to ease into a new way of working by exploring what
interested them — they were forced to do things the new way
whether it appealed to them or not. They weren’t being mentored
thoughtfully — they were being ordered to do as they were told.
Exactly the opposite of what the administrators wanted to champion
for their students.
Surprisingly often, people will champion self-directed learning for
children but not allow those children’s parents the same freedom and
respect. It’s their way or the highway, and you had better start doing
it the right way (their way) right away. Your kids should learn at their
own pace, follow their interests, and you should trust that they’ll
eventually learn everything they need to know. You, on the other
hand, should get with the program, right now, 100%, or else. You
don’t need to have your own opinions or ideas; ours will suffice.
There’s no time to experiment and see if these ideas work for you;
take it on faith or you’re part of the problem.
 If your child deserves to learn at his own pace and have his own
ideas, so do you. Whatever you champion for your child, make sure
you also give to yourself: the right to follow your own path, work at
your own pace, follow your own interests, make mistakes, and try
again. Whatever you want for your children, you are far more likely to
help them achieve it if you live it yourself.

I hope you find inspiration in these pages. Not the empty sort —
pretty and two-dimensional — that stays separate from your real life,
but something you can really put to use.
The freedom that we have to create a life that works for us, our
children, and our families is priceless. We should never trade it for a
handful of magic beans — a purist approach that comes with a set of
pregummed labels, a rule book an inch thick, and threat of eviction
from the tribe if you deviate from the center of the path. As you
explore new ideas — in this book and elsewhere — about how
children learn and how we can help them learn, I hope you keep a
firm grip on your own opinions and values. You can build a life
customized to your beliefs and priorities. Don’t settle for off-the-rack.
The philosophy of project-based homeschooling — this
particular approach to helping children become strong thinkers,
learners, and doers — is dependent upon the interest and the
enthusiastic participation and leadership of the learners themselves,
the children. The ideas in this book are offered to you in the same
spirit: follow your interests, build something new, and make it your
own.
 A Way to Learn
What is the point of learning? What is education for?
Many children have pondered those questions while sitting at a
desk intensely bored, listening to a teacher drone on about
something that neither interested them nor seemed useful.
“Well, Mr. Snelgrove, I happen to know that in the future I will
not have the slightest use for algebra, and I speak from
experience.” — Peggy Sue Got Married
How many children realize that education is for them, so they can do
whatever they want to do in life — build a robot, design wedding
dresses, write comic books, take care of animals at the zoo? How
many relate what’s in front of them — whether it’s a history book, a
math book, or a spelling test — to something they really care about?
If they did put it together — if they added 2 and 2 and came up
with the answer that this is their education, meant to help them live
whatever life they choose — they might stand up and demand that it
be more interesting and more relevant. They might say, hey, if this
boat is for me, then I want to sail over there.
Imagine if public-school teachers had to justify to their students
that what they were studying was relevant and would be useful in the
future. Could they do it? Could you?
When we set out as a society to educate children, we create a
curriculum — what they will study — and a pedagogy — how we will
teach it. By and large, in the public schools, over many decades, this
can be boiled down to What Every Fifth Grader Should Know and
rote.
Many interesting things are happening in private schools,
magnet schools, charter schools, and various public schools, but
they never seem to make the jump to standard practice.
“Innovations” in education — child-led learning, long-term projects,
hands-on experiences, and etc. — are not new ideas. John Dewey,
Bank Street, Reggio Emilia, project-based learning — educators
have been championing these methods for a very long time. They
simply seem new because they never gain any traction, so when
they are (continually) reintroduced, the fresh new audience isn’t
familiar with them. “Huzzah!,” says the audience. “This is what we’ve
been needing!” And they champion those same ideas once again.
And once again, wondrous things happen here and there, but mostly
everything stays the same.
“Think of how vastly different our world of today is from even
one hundred years ago. Someone traveling through time
would hardly recognize the country, as we know it today. Yet,
if that same time-traveler were to walk into today’s classroom,
it would be far more familiar. Instruction is teacher-directed,
lecture-oriented and textbook driven and spelling tests are
still given on Fridays. Drill and practice is the focus of
reinforcing concepts. Basal readers pound the shelves and
desks with linear comprehension skills and phonics.” —
Karen Morse, “When Schools Fail”
From The Adventures of Tom Sawyer to Calvin and Hobbes, it is
historically acknowledged that children more or less do not enjoy the
educational process as a rule.
“Why’n earth they want us to go to school anyway?” Stuart
demanded.
“Old first grade,” Robert said.
“Why,” I said treacherously, “first thing you know you’ll be
having a wonderful time in school. You’ve just forgotten what
school is like.”
“No, we haven’t,” Robert said.
“I used to love school,” I said.
This was a falsehood so patent that none of them felt it
necessary to answer me, even in courtesy. They sat and
stared at me instead. — Shirley Jackson, Life Among the
Savages
The standard public educational process has little to nothing to do
with the individual child and what he or she enjoys/detests, is
interested in/bored by, has talent for/a complete lack of talent for.
The child is expected to bend to what society wants in terms of their
education and their future occupation.
We set a plateful of cafeteria stew down in front of the child and
order him to eat up. “Yes, I know the gravy is gray and lumpy, and
the stew is liberally dotted with peas, which you despise, but eat up.
It’s good for you.” We create a curriculum — a list of knowledge and
skills we deem important for all children to learn — and then we
deliver that same curriculum to all of the children and expect them to
clean their plates.
When we talk about project-based homeschooling, we are
moving beyond knowledge and skills and probing underneath for the
machinery of learning. We are thinking less about the specific facts
that will be learned (radius of Mars, exports of Peru) and more about
what makes a person want to learn and how we can help them
become adept at doing the things they want to do.
Rather than filling our child’s educational plate and saying, “Eat
up. Trust me. This is what you need,” we hand them the menu and
say, “Order something that looks good to you.”
(Keep in mind: Helping your child direct and manage his own
learning does not mean immediately giving him complete control of
his entire curriculum. You can balance assigned work with self-
chosen work. We are talking about that essential portion of your
child’s learning life that you will devote to helping him do his own
self-chosen work — you get to decide how big that portion will be.)
Project-based homeschooling isn’t a wrestling match or a power
struggle, because the child gets to learn about whatever interests
him. Rather than educating him with a carrot or a stick, we are taking
a half-step back and saying, “I’m here to help you in whatever way I
can.” We become mentors, sharing our thinking and learning skills
and hopefully transferring them. We become stronger learners
ourselves as we work with our child.
When you say to a child, “I get to pick what you’re learning, and I
get to pick how you learn it and how you prove to me that you know
it,” then we should really expect to get little back in the form of
emotional investment. They may obey, and they may even respect
our opinion and make a good effort (or they may not), but in no way
should we expect that they will be really, truly excited about what
they’re learning, unless we’ve managed to magically hit upon just the
thing that they happen to care deeply about.
And even if we do, woe to the child, because we have a
complete curriculum to work our way through, and we’ll be moving
on after this brief unit. But they’re free to continue to learn about it in
their own free time, such as it is.
In project-based homeschooling, you zero in on what interests
your child and stay there as long as she is interested. She’s not on
her own; you’re there with materials, support, feedback, interest.
With the same enthusiasm and passion that you might transfer a
beloved skill (breadmaking, woodworking, tennis), you help your
child acquire the skills to think, learn, make, and do.
The importance of a child’s authentic interest cannot be
overemphasized. Without it, learning is like pushing a boulder uphill.
With it, we’re pushing the boulder downhill. Learning occurs in both
directions. So why do we usually go with the uphill option? It boils
down to fear. Or, nervousness. Nervousness that a child won’t get all
the important knowledge that he needs (radius of Mars, exports of
Peru). Nervousness that a child who is allowed to pursue his own
interests won’t learn the important lessons of how to buckle down
and do work that is boring, uninteresting, and meaningless. And
so on.
 Homeschooling parents have the same fears as society at large,
but even more intense, because their concern is for their own child
versus a faceless group of society’s children. It’s one thing to think of
a generation of kids who might not know What Every Fifth Grader
Should Know. It’s another to think fearfully of your own beloved child
competing against a generation of kids who might have some key bit
of information or crucial skill that your child does not.
Every parent who decides to take responsibility for their child’s
education must take this on. (Although, shhh — here’s a secret —
actually all parents are responsible for their child’s education, even if
they send them to school. Remember that in your darker moments.)
But think about this. Imagine, after fifteen years or so, you have
two children who’ve managed to graduate with educational deficits.
Which would you rather have: the child who has some holes in her
knowledge and skills? Or the child whose thinking and learning
machinery is rusty from disuse? An enthusiastic and creative learner
who is missing a few facts? Or the child who memorized those facts
but who says “I hate to read”?
The child who is a skilled thinker and adept learner can adjust to
whatever the future doles out. She can spackle in those holes in her
knowledge, and she knows how to acquire skills she needs to do
things she wants to do. On the other hand, the child who shoveled
down his prepared education but lost his curiosity, whose interests
withered away and were replaced by a general malaise and desire to
just be left alone — that child has a bagful of knowledge and skills
with varying expiration dates and dubious ability or desire to acquire
more.
After we graduate, we’re in charge of our own learning. We may
read or not read, we may learn or not learn — it’s our choice. If we
don’t segue into adulthood with a solid acquaintance with the deep
pleasures of learning and work, we may never meet them later in life.
Project-based homeschooling is concerned with the underlying
motives, habits, and attitudes of thinking and learning. However you
feel about knowledge and skills — whether you’re a Latin-loving
classicist or a relaxed unschooler or somewhere in-between — the
point of project-based homeschooling is to devote some time to
helping your child direct and manage his own learning. This does not
have to comprise your entire curriculum. (Though it can.) It does not
have to be the primary focus of your learning life. (Though it can be.)
But it is essential. It is the part of your child’s education that is
focused on that underlying machinery. It is the part of your child’s
learning life that is focused on your child’s very specific and unique
interests, talents, and passions. It is the part of your child’s learning
when he is not only free to explore whatever interests him, but he
receives attention, support, and consistent, dependable mentoring to
help him succeed.
Allowing children to learn about what interests them is good, but
helping them do it in a meaningful, rigorous way is better. Freedom
and choice are good, but a life steeped in thinking, learning, and
doing is better. It’s not enough to say, “Go, do whatever you like.” To
help children become skilled thinkers and learners, to help them
become people who make and do, we need a life centered around
those experiences. We need to show them how to accomplish the
things they want to do. We need to prepare them to make the life
they want.
To be a mentor goes beyond showing a child how to use the
library or bind a book, bake a muffin or build a birdhouse. It means
setting an example of what it means to be an alert, curious,
interested human being. It means setting an example of doing,
making, creating, and sharing. “Lifelong learning” is a phrase so trite
it makes your teeth hurt, but being a good mentor means showing
your child that learning doesn’t stop when someone hands you a
diploma. Not by treacly speech, but by everyday immersion in a life
that celebrates learning interesting things and doing challenging,
meaningful work.
Project-based homeschooling is a way to learn. It doesn’t have
to be the only way you learn, but it is an absolutely essential
experience for children — to spend time working on something that
matters and to spend time working with a dedicated mentor.
It is a way to learn that sets aside the importance of subject
matter and focuses on what it means to be an accomplished thinker,
learner, maker, and doer. In pursuing her own meaningful work —
her project work — your child may miss something that you believe
is absolutely crucial to learn. If that happens (and if it’s important to
you), you can simply make sure she learns it separately, in whatever
way you think is best. But project work is the time when your child is
in charge of determining what is learned and how she will learn it.
The only person she will have to satisfy about whether she learned it
well enough is herself. She’ll set her own goals and figure out how to
meet them, with your help.
 Self-Directed, Self-Managed
What does project-based homeschooling look like?
I’ve worked with my own homeschooled children, other people’s
homeschooled children in small and large groups, and the children
who attended my private school. For several years I ran an after-
school program attended by public-schooled children. I’ve had the
privilege of working with kids ranging in age from 2 to 15 who had
experienced a wide range of learning environments.
All of these children created amazing projects. It didn’t matter
whether they were home- or public- or private-schooled; it didn’t
matter whether they worked alone or with a friend or in a large
group. What defined their work was ownership. They directed and
managed the project. They owned the work. And the work they
created was amazing.
Real project work is work that is chosen by children and done by
children, with the help of attentive adults who are there to mentor,
facilitate, and support.
I have visited schools that purported to have a project-based
curriculum, but the teachers told the kids what to do. The kids were
bored and uninvested in what was happening in their “project.” They
were given some small, meaningless choices: “Do you want to be in
this group or that group?” “Do you want to do this activity or that
activity?” But they weren’t having any meaningful effect on what was
going on in their classroom. They weren’t directing or managing the
project or their own learning. And they knew it. I’m not sure whether
the teachers knew it.
 The children must own the work.

In contrast, I have visited schools that purported to have a

completely traditional curriculum, but the teacher (a wizard) was
expert at letting the children lead. The kids were having big ideas,
they were figuring out how to make those ideas happen, and the
teacher was there to help them. It was a negotiated curriculum: the
teacher expected hard work and collaboration, and the students
expected autonomy and influence. The children owned the work, and
they knew it.
It doesn’t matter what label you stick on it; what matters is what
is really happening in the room. Are the kids working independently?
Are they making the plans and figuring out how to turn those plans
into reality? Are they making mistakes, arguing with one another,
and deciding what to do next? Are they dividing up the jobs, offering
each other help, and breaking up into natural small groups to attack
various tasks? Are they confidently going up to their teacher or
parent to make a request for materials or assistance?
Are the adults in the room paying attention to what’s happening?
Are they taking notes and photographs? Are they guiding the
children to work through disagreements and settle arguments? Have
they created a system so plans aren’t forgotten? Have they made a
workspace that allows the children to work independently? Does that
workspace obviously honor the work being done there?
 The authenticity of the work is what’s important. The ownership
of the ideas, the control over decision-making. The roles are
important: the children must direct their own learning, and the adults
must steadfastly support that.
What does project-based learning look like?
A group of children age three to five are working together to
build a large, three-dimensional cardboard whale. Two are
crouched on the floor looking at a book, shouting out
information and ideas to the others. Two are arguing about fin
design — they decide they will each make one fin the way
they prefer and they’ll use both. Another decides to make krill
for the whale to eat, so he sits down and begins cutting paper
into tiny pieces. An adult sits with them, making careful notes
about their plans: what they need (more cardboard, tape,
paint), what they plan to do (build the fins, the teeth, the tail),
what they disagree on (whether their whale should lie on the
floor or hang from the ceiling). Later, she can use her notes to
help the children remember all of their plans. One of the
children walks up to her and asks her to write down the colors
of paint they will need: he lists them. Another says he wants
to measure how big the whale is — he would like it to be life-
size. They begin to discuss the best way to measure, and one
of the children runs to get a book from the bookshelf — he
remembers which book mentioned the exact length of their
whale, even though he can’t read yet.
In a large group, a lot of things can be happening at once. Children
will break into smaller groups or work alone to tackle a particular
task. Can you see how much learning is happening here — and how
much potential there is for more learning? Can the children make a
life-size whale? The adult isn’t telling them, “You can’t do that. It
would be huge. We don’t have room.” The adult is going to wait and
let them go through the lengthy process of figuring it out on their
own. Think of all the learning there: How will we measure? We must
discuss it, argue about it, decide what to do. What kind of whale will
we measure? Where do we find the information? Our whale is bigger
than this room! Now what should we do? They get to experience
every bit of the learning, step by step. There’s no rush. This is what
projects are for.
A ten-year-old boy is working on a comic project. He’s started
an online comic club, and he goes through the new entries on
the shared blog he’s set up, then e-mails one of the members
about this week’s drawing challenge. He is working on a letter
to a famous cartoonist, and he is carefully decorating the
envelope with the cartoonist’s characters. He stops and pulls
over a pad of sticky notes and makes a note about something
he wants to look up at the library; he sticks it on the wall
above his table and goes back to work.
Here is a child deeply engaged in his meaningful work. He’s
reading about comics and making his own comics. He’s
corresponding with artists. He’s working at home, alone, but he’s in
contact with other children with similar interests doing similar work.
Notice how, even at home, alone, he’s making important connections
with other people through letters, through the computer. Tomorrow
he might be working at a table with two friends, making a comic
book, but even when he’s working alone, he is part of a larger
community.
A small group of three- to five-year-olds are playing library.
They’ve arranged a small table and a bookshelf and they are
taking turns playing librarian and customers. The librarian
stamps the inside of the books with a small block. One child
says, “We need bookmarks. The librarian always gives me a
bookmark.” An adult sits nearby listening and making notes in
a journal, taking an occasional photograph. The children are
used to this and pay no attention. One of them crouches
down and waves a hand under the table. “This part should
not be see-through.” Another child agrees: “That’s where we
put the books we bring back.”
Children learn through play. This is more obvious with small children:
they play-act, they take on adult roles, they explore how the world
works. Their play churns up questions, ideas, disagreements — all
rich material for project learning. An attentive adult can help them
remember their questions and plans. Later, when they are gathered
around making art, the adult will say, “Haley wanted to make the
bottom of the table solid, and Mark said you need a book return —
does anyone want to work on that? We’ve hung up the pictures we
took at the library and the sketches you made.”
Older children also learn through play. They take photographs,
keep sketchbooks, write stories. They make stop-motion films, act
out skits, write songs, draw comics. They’re also working out how
the world works — and they’re starting to make their own
contributions.
A six-year-old boy is working at an easel, doing a large
painting of a bird. He refers often to a small pencil sketch he
drew the previous week. Spread on the table next to him are
some reference books. Later, he’ll take a photo of his work-in-
progress and upload it to his blog. On the other side of the
easel is his younger sister. She is also painting a bird. Her
brother’s interest in birds has, in turn, made her interested.
She asks him how to draw a wing. He comes around the
easel and looks at her work critically. He brings her to the
table and shows her photos of birds in his library books. He
asks his father if he will read the part about wings aloud to
them while they paint.
Children thrive in mixed-age groups, whether they are working with
siblings or neighborhood friends or classmates. In a large group, the
excitement and passion of one or two children can infect the whole
group — everyone wants to learn about pirate ships or seashells or
castles because those children share their excitement. Younger
siblings and younger group members will get involved at the level
appropriate for them if you let them. Very young children can ask
astute questions and make meaningful contributions.
Eventually, the younger children in the group will be older and
they’ll be driving the project. Ideally, all children should be given the
opportunity to be both the mentor and the mentee, the oldest and the
youngest, the one who gives and the one who receives help. In a
school or co-op, this can happen with multiage classrooms and/or
teachers/facilitators who stay with students for more than one year.
At home, we need to make sure our children have the opportunity to
work with both younger and older children.

Even in a group, each child brings his own ideas and follows his own interests.

Several children are working in a project group learning about

frogs. Today, they are doing clay sculptures. An aquarium sits
in the center of the table, holding three different varieties of
tree frog. The children are talking as they work, asking
questions, arguing, informing one another about what they
know about these frogs. One adult is taking notes — keeping
track of those questions and disagreements for later
discussion. Another is showing two children how to make slip
so they can attach legs to their frog bodies. One child decides
to roll her clay flat and carve a scene about frogs instead of
making her frog three-dimensional. A few other children
follow her example and roll their clay flat as well.
Children working together inspire one another. A child has an idea
and creates something; his friend sees what he has made and wants
to do it, too. He copies the first child’s creation, but he does
something extra — he adds something new. He extends the idea. He
adds some detail that the first child overlooked or solves a problem
in a unique and better way. The first child sees what his friend has
done and goes back to add it to his own creation. They are
extending and building upon one another’s ideas.
Look for opportunities for your child to work with other children. It
doesn’t have to be a formal project group; you can simply invite
friends over to draw, paint, or build models with you. The other
children don’t have to join in for the entire project; their questions,
ideas, and collaboration will still add a tremendous amount to the
work your child is doing.

These are just a few projects. Each project is unique because all
of the elements are unique — different children have different
specific interests and they express themselves in different ways.
They home in on what interests them particularly, and what they
choose to do with their knowledge — what they build — is always
unique. In a group setting, individual children will each focus on the
particular aspect that interests them the most. They’ll tell each other
about what they learn, they’ll copy each other’s ideas and
representations, and eventually they’ll all share the same knowledge.
But each has made a unique contribution to the whole; each has had
a slightly different learning experience because each chose his own
path. The crucial thing to notice about each of these different
scenarios is that the children are excited, engaged, and pursuing
work that’s important to them. The adults are there to support, but
the children are driving the process.
Identifying Interests
Whether you are working with one child or a group, the first step is to
find out what your child wants to know more about. This is where the
work starts. You can find this starting point in one of two ways: you
can ask or you can observe.
If you ask your child what he wants to study, a very small child
may not really grasp what you mean. He may shout out a lot of
different ideas — candy corn! snakes! cowboys! — none of which,
you suspect, are an authentic deep interest. You might be better off
observing his play and his conversation. What does he ask about?
What does he build with blocks? What does he play-act? What does
he beg to watch on TV or film? Which books does he ask for again
and again? If you make careful notes over several days, you may
find an area in which your child already has a strong interest. You
can then begin to feed that interest.
Older children who are experienced with project work will simply
tell you what they want to do next. I want to learn about this: corn
snakes, space shuttles, doll-making, beetles. They already know
how projects work. They have ideas about where they want to go
and what they want to make. They expect to direct and manage their
learning. They own the process.
Older children who are new to project work may be suspicious
about your motives. Most children are familiar with how fast adults
can suck the fun out of any subject by making it educational. They
may strongly prefer that you stay far, far away from their favorite
subjects. This is another time when it might be more useful to simply
observe and then feed the interest that already exists.
When you do this, however, be aware that your child still may
not trust your motives. Why are you suddenly so interested, Mom
and Dad? Are you going to ruin this for me? Are you going to turn my
favorite thing into homework?
You know your child best. You can sit down and talk with them
plainly and say, “We want you to have time to learn about what
matters most to you, what interests you most. And we want to give
you what you need to do that. I want to talk to you about it and help
you.” Or you can be stealthy and simply start offering up the time,
space, materials, and attention that your child needs to take his
learning to a deeper level.

The Earlier, the Better

Every suggestion in this book is easier if you are working with a
young child — preferably between the ages of two and four. It’s
certainly not impossible with an older child; there is no age at which
it’s too late to introduce these ideas. You are older, after all, than
your children, and it’s not too late for you. On the other hand, your
child — whether she’s been educated in school or at home —
already has definite ideas about learning, working, and how things
are supposed to happen. If you establish a strong family culture and
a daily routine that celebrates meaningful work when your child is
very young, she will grow up with one set of expectations. If this is all
new and different, you’ll have to deal with a different set.
Take it slow and give your children (and yourself) time to adjust.
The whole point is to give them the opportunity to be in charge of
their own learning; therefore, it makes no sense to force it on them or
try to rush the process.
But if you have the opportunity, start early.
Preparing the Environment
In the famous preschools of Reggio Emilia, each class has two co-
teachers. The environment (the classroom, school, and
playground/garden) is referred to as “the third teacher” because of
the impact it has on the students: the messages it sends, what it
allows, what it encourages, what it says to and about the children.
If you want your child to be in control of his own work, your
environment can either help or hinder that goal. Can your child reach
the materials he needs, or does he have to ask you to get things
down for him? Can he put away his own things when he’s through?
Can he clean up his own mess, or do you have to do it?
You may say the words, “I want my child to be independent,” but
if your environment strongly sends the opposite message, you are
working at cross-purposes.
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