I am often asked about the value of textbooks, worksheets, rote learning, knowledge acquisition etc etc. I find it interesting that many believe there is a straight forward answer to this question. Finley, my son, summed this up best as Grace dug into her new summer Brain Quest book. She was saying how fast she finished level one with the map and stickers. She was racing through level one and he said ” “ yes, but are you learning anything, because you’re supposed to learn something, or are you doing it for the stickers?” 
Why limit our scope of learning by choosing Either/Or? Why not Yes/And? Rose and I are dabbling in books like this, online help like Kahn Academy, inquiry quests formed by our family, keyboarding lessons, podcasts in the car, and who knows what else, it’s only July 11th…
Did they have questions? Yes. Were they interested?, Yes. Did they learn about types of rocks and energy, grammar and the fact that the math was to easy for them? Yes. 
We feel the key here is to ask them to try things, ask questions and have a variety of ways to learn. Lets see where the Brain Quest goes. It was recommended by a good friend and wonderful library educator, Alison Cuthbert. We are feeling overwhelmed by possibility for learning but excited to see them explore, learn and own their own progress. Posts from them coming soon…
