How I Teach Our Kids to Love Learning (Without Forcing It)

I don’t want my children to grow up strangers to self-development and personal growth.
Since two of mine are in compulsory school, I want them to continue learning just for fun like we did in homeschooling - growing in areas that they choose, not only what some narrow minded white colonizer idiots have decided for them (my apologies for my uncensored frankness, but we all know that we never learned emotional intelligence, how to grow cash flow and wealth, how to have healthy relationships, about genius indigenous inventions or dark skinned painters in school…).

Institutional education isn’t neutral — it’s incredibly curated. The creators and keepers of these institutions get to decide what history gets told, and what gets erased. They train people to think inside a narrow box so they’re easier to manage, easier to sell to, and easier to manipulate.
The curriculum is chosen by the same systems that benefit from narrow thinking, one-sided history, and unquestioned obedience.

When they control what you learn, they control how you think.

That’s why I see free education outside the system not as a side project, but as a tool for freedom itself. It’s where my kids get to learn skills and truths that can’t be whitewashed, graded, or taken away.

So at home, we focus on working with new exciting and valuable things that challenge us, ca one hour a day, with flexibility. Things we’re unfamiliar with, that feel interesting to us and that we don’t have to spend hours and weeks on only because we’re “bad at them” and need better grades at, like so much of what’s forced in school.

They get variety. They get to learn how to care for their minds and their bodies in other ways than what capitalism teaches. We deep dive into art that is created not only by white people, and learn about the power houses (the mothers) behind historical geniuses. We try to reclaim cultural knowledge almost lost to colonialism by learning old arts, crafts and handiwork. We learn how to use modern tools to grasp and utilize ancient ones.

My goal for my children is to help them build a foundation of entrepreneurship, self-awareness, freedom, and a love for learning by choice instead of by force. For them to learn that learning isn’t something institutional - but something part of life as a human who wants to grow.

Right now, my personal focus is EFT and plants. I am very unfamiliar with caring for plants and since we’re beginning to acquire a few and they’re all alive by pure accident (or by the grace of God), I’m reading this gem:

“Green Home by Anders Røyneberg”

The kids don’t always choose the same subjects, we all thrive on variety. A little of this one day, a little of that the next — and sometimes a full-blown hyperfixation. Every bit of it adding to their backpacks of competence and life skills.

Current projects for the kids are self-braiding and woodworking — so we’ve watched YouTube Tutorials on braiding while doing it practically (I didn’t know how to teach this one…) and I’ve also taught knife safety and woodworking techniques, the latter which was the most fun for me personally.

As you might figure, our daily hour of self-development isn’t about strict lessons or measurable results. It’s not about 60 minutes carved into our schedules. It’s about the intention that sometimes result in a 30 minute conversation or projects expanding throughout a whole day. Because I believe the greatest gift we can give our children is not just knowledge, but the love of learning and the courage to shape their own path.

Schools teach you to follow the rules. Real learning teaches you to question them.
When someone owns your education, they also own your mind.

And learning should never be owned by institutions.
They are the very tools for freedom itself.
xo, Briana