How did we get here? My journey to PBL

A long long time ago, back to the pre-Covid days, I was merrily homeschooling along with five little children in tow. We were trying desperately to manage a Charlotte Mason schedule (which I admired so much for its habit-forming and literature based ways). We went to our co-op once a week and enjoyed our community. We read books, had both cozy and crazy times together. 

But something was missing. 

We had started homeschooling because we wanted to do something amazing - something outside the box - a way of learning that could be totally transformative...but our learning at home fell flat, and the co-op still felt like a teacher teaching a traditional class. We tried doing radical unschooling - leaving beautiful invitations and chasing rabbit trails all day, and, while that was liberating and joyful, eventually we missed the structure and accountability of some of Miss Mason's ideas! 

If only there were something that married the two! Now, many of you may just be confident eclectic homeschoolers who pick and choose elements of philosophies in ways that work. And for the most part I am, too. But I kept feeling like I was bouncing back and forth between guiding principles, when what I really wanted was a unified system that held both wild freedom AND accountability. Something that could give us a passion-driven life tied to the real modern world, but also the timeless habits that happy, productive futures are always built on - bonus if great literature could be tied in!

On a whim one day, I went to an Acton Academy info session in our area. Acton is a school or microschool franchise started in Texas that is built on child-led learning. I was fascinated. Their classrooms were thriving ecosystems of kids engaging in real, meaningful work, but within a structure that helped them check in, focus, and thrive. Adults led Socratic discussions and helped inspire and challenge students, but they were committed to these child-led ways. 

I went down the research tunnel, learning as much as I could, and yet another word popped up - "project-based learning." It felt like the skies opened up and angels sang. This was EXACTLY what I was looking for! In project-based learning, the adult coaches children through these projects in ways that honor and support their ideas, but also providing challenge and structure to help them develop skills to excel. An emphasis on craftsmanship, collaboration, and growth lead to reliance on good examples (like literature), rich discussion, and the building of soft skills that are crucial in today's world - and missing in so much of it!

There was so much material, but none of it looked like curriculum. Most of it was about training ME, the adult, to be a PBL mentor. Well I loved that - I couldn't stick to a curriculum to save my life anyway! I loved the idea that if I could become skilled at guiding my kids, I could streamline and simplify my homeschool, dropping the curriculum and using our questions, books, and the needs around us as our studies, without sacrificing rigor or habit. 

The one downside - none of the material I was finding was written for homeschoolers.* It was all written for public schoolers (mostly for charter or experimental schools). I was needing to translate a lot of it to my situation. How odd, since it seemed so utterly perfect for homeschoolers! 

That next year we started Bramblewood Learning Community - at first just one class of middle schoolers (12 boys, heaven help us!) for one afternoon a week. It was chaotic and beautiful and we learned so much (like we needed to save spaces for girls)! Using the feedback and reflection cycles we taught our kids, we refined and grew (currently we are a 2-day hybrid). I took the certification course through UPenn and was the only homeschool "teacher" in my cohort and all my peers were so jealous of the freedom I had to use PBL to its fullest potential as they were so limited in their classrooms! 

The biggest change has been in myself as a parent and mentor. I parented through curiosity and principle, putting more of the accountability back onto the kids, using structures and rhythms to inspire and mentor. I resolved conflict by helping children reflect on their actions and truly fixing problems. The kids felt like they were driving their own learning, but I did not feel any loss of control or direction as the parent. All of us have grown, and it has been such an exciting, rewarding journey! 

Now we are here with our fist senior about to leave the nest and I don't regret this journey one bit. He is so. prepared for the real world. He knows himself, knows how to learn, and how to work well with others. 

Let's keep diving into this project-based learning stuff! You won't regret it either! :) 

 - Danika