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.

The companion to The Call of the Wild and Free: a beautiful, full-color illustrated “boho-chic” workbook, styled in the aesthetic of the Wild + Free brand, offering crafts, activities, essays, prompts, and more parents, educators, and caregivers can use to inspire their children. Wild + Free is an online community started by Ainsley Arment, mom and homeschooler of five, who was inspired by the spirit of Henry David Thoreau: “All good things are wild and free.” The Wild + Free method is grounded in providing children a quality education, but equally important, ensuring that they experience the adventure, freedom, and wonder of childhood. Modeled after the booklets sent to Wild + Free monthly subscribers, and including contributions from others in the Wild + Free community, this full-color supplemental resource 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. This visually arresting resource is organized around helpful themes such as “Wander,” “Belong,” “Family,” and more. This modern primer includes 100 beautiful and inviting photographs, thematic essays, how-to activities, crafts, and helpful guided experiences any family can use. This Wild + Free Supplemental book is ideal for homeschooling parents as well as parents and caregivers looking for extra activities and ideas to stimulate the imaginations of traditionally educated children after school, on weekends, or during vacations.

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.

Get up! Come on! Join the crew! We're off to play, like wild ones do! Join the children in Wild and Free as they discover the joys of the great outdoors. From climbing trees and crossing creeks to rolling down hills and watching bugs, readers will almost smell the fresh air as they pore over the pages. Written in an energetic rhyme, this story will inspire readers ages 3 and up to go outside and be with nature - whether that's through adventure, their creativity or just by being still.

The companion to The Call of the Wild + Free: styled in the lush aesthetic of the Wild + Free brand, a four-color book offering crafts, activities, and essays, that parents, educators, and caregivers can use to inspire their children. Wild + Free Handcrafts is a beautiful, four-color resource book for parents, educators, and caregivers to enjoy doing hands-on activities with kids. A handcraft engages one’s hands, requires a level of learned skill, encourages children to do their best work, and produces an end product that is useful. It has been used in homeschool settings for decades as one way to encourage them to work with their hands and discover a skillful craft they love to practice. It also is a great way for traditionally educated kids who are home for the summer, or in afterschool programs, or with their families on the weekends, to do fun activities that will stimulate their imaginations and creativity. This book will feature crafts such as: Felted acorns Paper beads Nature wreaths Cocoa mint lip balm Woven willow hearts Finger knit bracelets Eco-dyed kitchen towels Fairy tale treehouse Flower crowns Bug hotel 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 craft, and essays on the usefulness and purpose of handcrafts as a tool to spark children’s curiosity and wonder.

A touching tale of a grandmother and her granddaughter exploring and cherishing the natural world. Words, the woods, and the world illuminate this quest to save the most important pieces of our language—by saving the very things they stand for. When Mimi finds out her favorite words—simple words, like apricot, blackberry, buttercup—are disappearing from the English language, she elects her granddaughter Brook as their Keeper. And did you know? The only way to save words is to know them. • With its focus on the power of language and social change, The Keeper of Wild Words is ideal for educators and librarians as well as young readers. • For any child who longs to get outside and learn more about nature and the environment • A loving portrait of the special relationship that grandparents have with their grandchildren For children who love such books as Outside Your Window: A First Book of Nature, And Then It's Spring, and Finding Wild. Brooke Smith is a poet and children's book author. She lives in Bend, Oregon, at the end of a long cinder lane. Brooke writes daily from her studio, looking at the meadow and many of the wild words she cherishes. Madeline Kloepper is a Canadian artist with a Bachelor of Fine Arts and Major in Illustration from Emily Carr University of Art and Design. Her work is influenced by childhood, nostalgia, and the relationships we forge with nature. She lives in Prince George, British Columbia.

Want to save cash, your child's imagination and possibly even the planet? This is the book you need. Packed with great photos of real families in the outdoors, Born to Be Wild contains easy-to-follow instructions for activities that require nothing more sophisticated than a small person's imagination and access to a little outdoor space. Nature lays on magical materials for free each season, from fallen leaves and twigs, moulted feathers, sand and shells, to mud, puddles and rain. Everything else you'll need for these activities is already hiding in your cupboards at home. No expensive art supplies of outward-bound kit required. All you need are the toolkit items at the front of the book - ordinary household essentials like scraps of paper, string, glue, recycled food containers and an empty jar or two. Along the way Hattie talks to families, organisations and communities who have rebuilt their relationships with nature with extreme or inspiring results, and she introduces scientists, psychologists and other experts who explain why, as modern families, we should revive our waning relationships with nature, whatever age or stage we're at.