MaryAnn Johnson never ceases to Inspire!

My good friend MaryAnn Johnson always has

an inspiring trick up her sleeve for us homeschoolers new

and seasoned alike. 

Even if you are not a homeschooler, she has real insight 

and has tried and true principles for us.

I recently (during the summer) took her course
 "The Closet Mastery Program".

MaryAnn has taken 'Ingredient #20 The Closet'  from
Oliver and Rachel DeMille's book,

"Leadership Education, The Phases of Learning"
and has dissected it into baby steps that we can follow

to help us understand  the potential The Closet has in inspiring

children and parents! 

The Closet is a place to put toys, books, experiments, anything 

that will inspire learning and inner genius! 

But most important, the course taught about connecting with 

your children. Finding what inspires them and making it come 

to life for them, WITH you.
Being PRESENT with your children can sure
help you understand them better and they love the time you
spend with them.
 Especially if you are really present with them, 

looking in their eyes, lots of affirming words and a lot of love. 

You build a trust with them that cannot be broken.
We need that trust to build as they grow.
She also teaches about the "scripts" we tell ourselves that stifle
our growth and the growth of our children, 

and gives us tools to use to get past those "scripts" 

Read here and here about my story about "scripts".

I feel like I have planted a seed, but by no means am I where

I need to be but thank goodness my children are forgiving and

still love every chance they get to really be with me.

One day my son wanted to get into the Closet. I was hesitant

(like always,I am worried about the mess or the noise which,

by the way, I'm working on!) and he pulled out the insect kits.

The other kids saw and pulled out theirs. They went out and

collected potato bugs. Then we drew them. We looked at all

the details through a magnifying glass and drew and drew.

They were very proud of their pictures for a while. A couple of

days later they found a new use for those magnifying glasses.

If you hold them right, under the sun, you can burn things.

Oh the joy....

Pretty cool don't you think?

 Here, we learned we couldn't light the white paper on fire.

The sun reflected off the paper. We had to burn the corner 

of the paper with a match so there would be a black edge. 

Once we caught that edge with the sun we could burn more. 

I heard a lot of  "Wow, look at it mom!"

and "This is the coolest" and " Mom, this is the best day!"

That is just one fun example of the inspiring things you can 

do with the Closet. 

Please check out her WEBSITE. She has daily inspiring stories 

for those of you who need to be inspired so 

you can inspire. Once a week she brings the Traveling Closet

with her to teach her grandchildren. She posts all of the activities 

she does with them and they are really fun.

If you are struggling to inspire take her course 

and see how truly inspiring you 

can be!