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…).

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. My goal 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 only by pure accident, I’m reading this gem:

“Green Home by Anders Røyneberg”

The kids choose something different to learn each time, just like their mom who thrives on variety. A little of this one day, a little of that the next — and sometimes a full-blown hyperfixation. Every bit of it adds to their backpack of competence and life skills.

Three days ago the kids chose to learn how to braid oneself and how to do 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 about curiosity, patience, creativity, and building confidence to explore new things. 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.

Because learning should never be owned by institutions.
They are the very tools for freedom itself.