Free Range Learning: Laura Weldon's Interview

Laura tells us that her family is a bit odd but I don't think so. Just look at these quite normal photos she sent me:







See what I mean? A perfectly normal fun-loving homeschooling family. Laura and her perfectly normal homeschooling family live in Ohio, on a small family farm they call Bit Of Earth.

After you read her interview below, you might want to have more fun by visiting her website/blog where you can learn more about Laura and her new book coming out this spring, Free Range Learning: How Homeschooling Changes Everything.

But first, let's hear Laura expound on the finer points of growing toe bacteria...

1. How long have you been homeschooling (or if finished, how long did you homeschool)?

We’re going on our thirteenth year.

2. One of the main benefits of homeschooling is the freedom and flexibility it allows. Can you give us a few examples of how this freedom and flexibility benefited you (your family)?

More and more I see that following our interests (mine too!) is an extraordinarily powerful way to learn.

For example, my daughter got interested in forensic science when she was around 12 or 13, probably due to mysteries she’d been reading. Because she was interested she did the following, all generated by her own passion to learn:

  • She read anatomy and pathology books, even contacting some of the authors with follow-up questions.
  • She did dissections on her own and with other homeschoolers.
  • She performed necropsies on animals that died here on our farm (it’s actually quite helpful to know that a chicken died of a blocked oviduct and not a respiratory disease).
  • She conducted a systematic study of decomposition by watching a muskrat over a period of weeks as it went from road kill to dust and bones.

The phase of intense interest passed but this powerful introduction to science served her well when she entered college. She’d never taken a “real” science class or lab before becoming a college student, yet graduated summa cum laude with a degree in biology last year.

Our interests lead us all over. Because the rest of us are less disciplined than my daughter we pursue one thing or many things for a while, then drift off in other directions. I tell my kids nothing we learn is wasted. Skills and knowledge gained while pursuing interests stick with us.

The creative intensity and precision my son brought to making his own rocket designs from balsa when he was eight years old now benefits him as he delves ever farther into electronics, geology, music, photography and his other current passions.


3. Another benefit of homeschooling is the fun factor. Can you give us a few examples of some especially fun times you had as a result of homeschooling?

All of us are odd and sarcastic and completely ourselves, not caring much what others think of us. We’ve come up with homeschool projects that appalled our friends, such as the time we grew cultures from bacteria we swabbed between our toes. Yes, it became a competition as we checked on those petri dishes and no, we haven’t really looked at the winner’s feet quite the same way since.

We also suffer from the ridiculous idea that what we find fascinating could be fascinating to everyone else if we just explain it sufficiently, so our dinner table conversations are a zigzag of topics that tonight included caddis fly mating habits, plasma welding techniques, the best socks for backpackers and a Supreme Court ruling.


4. We all have funny experiences while homeschooling. Can you share one of yours with us?

I’ll admit to dragging my kids around to a few art galleries one day, sure they’d find something thrilling. They weren’t entranced by the armadillo made of repurposed catcher’s mitts or the screens playing cartoons backwards.

They were, however thrilled to see me run full speed ahead toward the meter maid approaching our van with ticket book in hand. Justice had been served in their eyes. Now when I mention art galleries they remind me cheerfully the meter has expired on experiencing culture.

Learning Happens Spontaneously: Beatrice's Interview


Beatrice and her family live in Hamilton Ontario and she's been involved in Radio Free School, "an all volunteer weekly radio show by, for, and about, Unschoolers/Home-based Learners."

1. How long have you been homeschooling (or if finished, how long did you homeschool)?

I have three daughters ages 14, 12 and 11. My two older girls started public school a little over a year ago. Prior to that they had never been to school. My youngest is still at home with me.

2. One of the main benefits of homeschooling is the freedom and flexibility it allows. Can you give us a few examples of how this
freedom and flexibility benefited you (your family)?


Even though my oldest two go to school now, we still practice 'freedom in learning' at home. I let them sleep in and skip school if they so wish to and they can tag along if there's a particularly fun outing we are planning. This happened just the other day when daughter no 2 skipped school to go cross country skiing for her first time with daughter #3 teaching her how it's done.

They had a great time together making snow angels, throwing snow balls at each other, climbing trees really bonding as sisters-something we miss when she goes to school.

With my youngest we are able to plan our day (given some restrictions such as my work and her scheduled classes) as we see fit. If we decide to go to the art gallery, or ice skating there is no one to stop us! It's great because learning happens spontaneously in this way.

We are talking for example, and then the question comes up in the conversation "how long do turtles live?" We go straight to the computer and find out. We don't need to wait for a teacher to answer the question.

This leads to other questions, related or not, so we have a picture of what authentic learning is like-it is meaningful to the learner herself. We can delve into information as deeply or as little as we like. Keeps learning and being in this world fresh and engaging.


3. Another benefit of homeschooling is the fun factor. Can you give us a few examples of some especially fun times you had as a result of homeschooling?

Fun is always good and I personally am guilty of not having enough of it!

Still when I see my daughters laughing together with their father over a youtube video of crazy trampoline mishaps or when we get together with other families for skating and hot chocolate while other families are off at work and school, it makes me feel lucky we have this kind of a lifestyle.


4. We all have funny experiences while homeschooling. Can you share one of yours with us?

When we still had the weekly radio show we put on for over 7 years, we had the opportunity to visit an archaeologist at the local university and held a 2 million year old piece of poo from a cave in China! Not funny exactly but we had a lot of fun joking about it!

I Heard Aboout It First On School Sucks Podcast


I just finished listening to an episode on the School Suck Podcast series titled, The Decentralization of Information and Communication. I really liked this episode. It was filled with such optimism about the future of education now that we have so much opportunity because of technological advancements.

In this episode the host Brett Veinotte interviews the creators of a new website called Alekese. This is just one project of many out there of people experimenting with online learning and making connections with others for learning.

This post is titled as it is because Brett likes the potential of this particular project so much that he predicts it's really going to take off and change education and information access for the future.

The site is pretty new but it still includes quite a bit of interesting information. It's useful for those in the homeschooling community not only for the obvious reason of a method of freely accessing information on learning a topic in an organized fashion, but also for those who have developed expertise in a certain topic because anyone can start a "tree" of information.

Who knows, Brett may be right and it may indeed explode so go check it out and see what you think.