Lori McWilliam Pickert

Children, even when very young, have the capacity for inventive thought and decisive action. They have worthwhile ideas. They make perceptive connections. They__e individuals from the start: a unique bundle of interests, talents, and preferences. They have something to contribute. They want to be a part of things.It__ up to us to give them the opportunity to express their creativity, explore widely, and connect with their own meaningful work.

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.

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__ not enough to say, __o, 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 learn how to do, we need something real to focus on _ not a task assigned by someone else, but something we want to create, something we want to understand. Not an empty exercise but a meaningful, self-chosen undertaking.