Both of the boys still play Minecraft, which people sometimes underestimate, but we see something different happening there. They\u2019re building systems, managing resources, running small economies inside the game, and constantly making decisions about input versus output, cost versus reward. They experiment, fail, adjust, and try again. It\u2019s entrepreneurship thinking disguised as play.<\/p>\n
They\u2019re also learning how to use AI in a very hands-on way \u2014 not just consuming it, but collaborating with it. They use it to help structure ideas, improve writing, ask better questions, and refine thinking. That\u2019s a skill set that feels increasingly essential for where the world is heading.<\/p>\n
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When people ask what they\u2019re missing by not being in traditional school, it\u2019s usually framed around academics. But for us, the bigger tradeoff conversation includes other things too: time, flexibility, depth of curiosity, and real-world exposure. We also recognize that traditional schooling offers things like structure, routine, and a shared educational baseline. At the same time, it often moves at a fixed pace and can struggle to keep up with rapidly changing tools and technologies. And depending on where you live, it can also come with pressures we\u2019re grateful not to have in our daily lives.<\/p>\n
But this isn\u2019t about comparing systems to declare a winner. It\u2019s about choosing what fits our family.<\/p>\n
Our kids are constantly learning \u2014 through travel, conversation, games, projects, and curiosity. And more importantly, they genuinely enjoy learning. There\u2019s no separation between \u201cschool\u201d and \u201clife,\u201d because everything is part of the same experience.<\/p>\n
So when people ask, \u201cWhat grade are they in?\u201d\u00a0 The honest answer is: that\u2019s not really the framework we use anymore. They\u2019re just learning.\u00a0And we\u2019re building a life that keeps that going \u2014 with as many doors open as possible, not fewer.<\/p>\n
What are you learning today?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
We are worldschooling, and some of the questions we get most often are: \u201cWhat grade are your kids in?\u201d or \u201cWhat are they learning in school right now?\u201d It\u2019s usually asked with good intent, but it always makes me pause a little \u2014 not because it\u2019s offensive, but because it assumes a framework we don\u2019t […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10502,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[403,404,392,402,15],"class_list":["post-11719","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-worldschooling","tag-alternative-education","tag-experiential-learning","tag-parenting-teens","tag-unschooling","tag-worldschooling"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gowatkinsgo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11719","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gowatkinsgo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gowatkinsgo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gowatkinsgo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gowatkinsgo.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11719"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/gowatkinsgo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11719\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11819,"href":"https:\/\/gowatkinsgo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11719\/revisions\/11819"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gowatkinsgo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/10502"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gowatkinsgo.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11719"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gowatkinsgo.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11719"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gowatkinsgo.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11719"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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