Allow your children to experience the adventure, freedom, and wonder of childhood with this practical guide that provides all the information, inspiration, and advice you need for creating a modern, quality homeschool education. Inspired by the spirit of Henry David Thoreau—”All good things are wild and free”—mother of five Ainsley Arment founded Wild + Free. This growing online community of mothers and families want their children to receive a quality education at home by challenging their intellectual abilities and nurturing their sense of curiosity, joy and awe—the essence of a positive childhood. The homeschool approach of past generations is gone—including the stigma of socially awkward kids, conservative clothes, and a classroom setting replicated in the home. The Wild + Free movement is focused on a love of nature, reading great books, pursuing interests and hobbies, making the entire world a classroom, and prolonging the wonder of childhood, an appealing philosophy that is unpacked in the pages of this book The Call of the Wild and Free offers advice, information, and positive encouragement for parents considering homeschooling, those currently in the trenches looking for inspiration, as well as parents, educators, and caregivers who want supplementary resources to enhance their kids’ traditional educations.

"Ainsley Arment has emerged as one of the most prominent voices in [this] grass-roots community." — New York Times As parents, we dream of creating a magical childhood for our kids, yet it can be so easy to slip into autopilot. Ainsley Arment-- a mother of five, founder of the thriving community Wild + Free, and bestselling author-- is no stranger to the barrage of decisions, opportunities, and daily tasks that each day brings. But what Ainsley has discovered is that the magic of life isn’t found in the hustle and bustle of constant activity but in the intentional ordinary decisions of our days. And when we assume that a family has to look or act a certain way, we miss the opportunity to build a meaningful and fulfilling life together. Drawn from her family's stories and those shared by the Wild + Free community, The Wild + Free Family explores how to create a family culture that breaks the mold by seeking to connect with our children, unleash their gifts, pursue a shared vision together, and redeem generational brokenness, among so much more. Inside these pages are Ainsley’s words of encouragement, honesty, and wisdom, guiding all parents to create a home where families can forge their own path to love stronger, live more fully, and grow closer to each other.

Get the Summary of Ainsley Arment's The Wild and Free Family in 20 minutes. Please note: This is a summary & not the original book. "The Wild and Free Family" by Ainsley Arment explores the concept of intentionally crafting a family culture that reflects shared values, interests, and traditions, rather than succumbing to societal norms. Arment emphasizes the importance of nurturing a child's natural development and preserving the essence of childhood by fostering a nurturing environment, prioritizing relationships, and allowing children to explore and learn at their own pace. She discusses the significance of understanding each child's unique personality and needs, advocating for the use of tools like the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator and the Enneagram to aid in this process...

From Wild + Free, a wonderful collection of creative activities for parents, educators, and caregivers filled with engaging and fun ideas to help kids fall in love with literature and reading. Foster a love of reading in your child with Wild + Free Book Club. An invaluable educational resource curated by Wild + Free families around the world, this full-color illustrated book offers imaginative suggestions for creating themed book clubs for kids. Here are hands-on activities, games, food, and decoration ideas inspired by a carefully chosen list of beloved classic novels, as well as discussion questions about plots and themes that engage kids minds and sparks their curiosity. Wild + Free Book Club is filled with fun ideas for each book, including: Anne of Green Gables—host a picnic tea party The Secret Garden—craft a terrarium, a secret garden of your own Charlotte’s Web—host an old-time country fair The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe—turn your front door into a magical portal to Narnia With step-by-step instructions, lush photography, and family-tested and kid-approved activities, Wild + Free Book Club will help parents and educators inspire children and instill a lifelong passion for literature and the joy of books. The Wild + Free Book Club reading list: The Adventures of Tom Sawyer Anne of Green Gables Around the World in 80 Days Black Beauty Charlotte’s Web The Crossover Esperanza Rising The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate Farmer Boy From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler The Green Ember Heidi The Hobbit Island of the Blue Dolphins The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe Little House in the Big Woods A Little Princess Little Women Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH My Side of the Mountain Peter Pan Pippi Longstocking Robin Hood Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry The Secret Garden The Swiss Family Robinson Treasure Island The Vanderbeekers of 141st Street

Imaginative holiday-themed activities from Wild + Free to spark children’s curiosity and wonder and help families connect with each other in the most wonderful season of the year. Wild + Free is a great resource for parents to engage their kids’ creativity using festive, holiday-themed crafts, outdoor activities, and essays that celebrate the warmth of the season. Curated by Wild + Free families around the world, this full-color book is filled with creative and intellectually stimulating ideas and hands-on activities parents, educators, and caregivers can use to nurture their child’s curious spirit and imagination. With step-by-step instructions, lush photography, and family-tested and kid-approved activities, Wild + Free is a valuable guide to helping children spark wonder in the most wonderful season of the year.

The companion to The Call of the Wild + Free: styled in the lush aesthetic of the Wild + Free brand, a four-color book offering outdoor activities and essays, that parents, educators, and caregivers can use to inspire their children. Wild and Free Nature is a beautiful, four-color resource book for parents, educators, and caregivers to enjoy doing hands-on activities outside with kids. One of the core philosophies behind Wild + Free is the belief that nature is the best classroom we could ever hope for. It unlocks the imagination and inspires creativity in ways that a schoolroom never could. Being out in nature has a number of benefits. Studies show that children are more likely to interact with kids of different ages and learn to problem solve in natural settings. Being in natural settings stimulates the brain and restores cognitive function. Children who spend time in natural settings also interact better with kids of all ages and learn to solve problems more easily. They build muscle and coordination and fend off obesity. It cultivates a sense of responsibility for caring for the earth, not to mention, encourages imaginative play, curiosity, and other qualities necessary to spark a love for investigation and learning. This resource book will help equip parents and adults who work with children to get them outdoors with activities such as: Build a treehouse in the woods. Cultivate a garden plot. Make land art and nature crafts. Create a mud kitchen in the backyard. Go for a nature walk each morning. Find a secret swimming hole. Go to the creek to learn about the water cycle. Plant a garden to see what will grow in your backyard. Raise monarch caterpillars and feed them milkweed until they transform into butterflies. Set up a birdwatching station in your front window equipped with binoculars, notebooks, and bird guides. Make a wilderness fort with the fallen branches from trees. With the same lush photography as The Call of the Wild + Free, this book includes step-by-step pictures that show parents how to do the activity, and essays on the importance of nature in a child's life.

“Christakis . . . expertly weaves academic research, personal experience and anecdotal evidence into her book . . . a bracing and convincing case that early education has reached a point of crisis . . . her book is a rare thing: a serious work of research that also happens to be well-written and personal . . . engaging and important.” --Washington Post "What kids need from grown-ups (but aren't getting)...an impassioned plea for educators and parents to put down the worksheets and flash cards, ditch the tired craft projects (yes, you, Thanksgiving Handprint Turkey) and exotic vocabulary lessons, and double-down on one, simple word: play." --NPR The New York Times bestseller that provides a bold challenge to the conventional wisdom about early childhood, with a pragmatic program to encourage parents and teachers to rethink how and where young children learn best by taking the child’s eye view of the learning environment To a four-year-old watching bulldozers at a construction site or chasing butterflies in flight, the world is awash with promise. Little children come into the world hardwired to learn in virtually any setting and about any matter. Yet in today’s preschool and kindergarten classrooms, learning has been reduced to scripted lessons and suspect metrics that too often undervalue a child’s intelligence while overtaxing the child’s growing brain. These mismatched expectations wreak havoc on the family: parents fear that if they choose the “wrong” program, their child won’t get into the “right” college. But Yale early childhood expert Erika Christakis says our fears are wildly misplaced. Our anxiety about preparing and safeguarding our children’s future seems to have reached a fever pitch at a time when, ironically, science gives us more certainty than ever before that young children are exceptionally strong thinkers. In her pathbreaking book, Christakis explains what it’s like to be a young child in America today, in a world designed by and for adults, where we have confused schooling with learning. She offers real-life solutions to real-life issues, with nuance and direction that takes us far beyond the usual prescriptions for fewer tests, more play. She looks at children’s use of language, their artistic expressions, the way their imaginations grow, and how they build deep emotional bonds to stretch the boundaries of their small worlds. Rather than clutter their worlds with more and more stuff, sometimes the wisest course for us is to learn how to get out of their way. Christakis’s message is energizing and reassuring: young children are inherently powerful, and they (and their parents) will flourish when we learn new ways of restoring the vital early learning environment to one that is best suited to the littlest learners. This bold and pragmatic challenge to the conventional wisdom peels back the mystery of childhood, revealing a place that’s rich with possibility.