From Dino Facts to Dill Pickles: Raising Curious Kids Through Homeschooling
My 8-year-old is obsessed with gardening. Over the past few months, she’s learned how to care for plants, spot when produce is ready to harvest, and figure out what grows best in our yard. Flowers? Not interested. What she wants is food—to grow it, pick it, and eat the literal fruits of her labor.
Right now, her garden includes cucumbers, tomatoes, peppers, herbs, watermelon, carrots and green beans. Every morning, she’s out there checking on each plant, watering what needs it, and peeking under leaves for progress. Her proudest moment so far? Harvesting enough cucumbers to make her very first jar of homemade pickles, with fresh dill she also grew herself. (Scroll down to see the picture. I’m not even biased… they look—and tasted— incredible.)
But it hasn’t just been about planting and picking. Along the way, she’s learned:
How plants grow from seeds
The anatomy of a plant and each part’s function
How weather patterns affect the garden
How insects interact with ecosystems
And that patience really is part of the process
And the thing is, interests evolve. Before gardening, she was completely into dinosaurs. She could rattle off species names and fossil facts better than most grown-ups. Now she’s also very into horses. She’s memorized breeds, studied how to care for them, and we've even taken local classes where she’s learned the basics of grooming, tack, and how to approach horses safely.
Each interest builds on the last. Some fade, some deepen, and some get replaced, but every one adds something. Because she’s genuinely interested, she soaks up the details, asks better questions, and remembers what she learns.
That’s what makes interest-led homeschooling so effective. When a child is invested, learning isn’t a chore, it’s wanted. And that curiosity creates a deeper, broader, more personal kind of education.
This is truly one of my favorite parts of homeschooling—and honestly, just raising kids in general. Watching them find something they love and dive headfirst into learning about it is pure magic. I live for that moment when something clicks—when curiosity turns into passion, and learning becomes something they want to do, not something they have to.
Some days are hard (because let’s be real, they are). But those sparks of inspiration? They make every bit of it worth it.
If you’re new to homeschooling or starting to explore interest-led learning, I’d love to share what’s worked for us. You can grab my free Homeschool 101 Guide www.TheCrateEdit.com, or check out the tools and resources that keep us (mostly) sane www.TheCrateEdit.com/MyFav’s.
And if this kind of honest, real-life homeschooling content speaks to you, we’d love to have you follow along on social, or just drop in and say hi. This community is all about learning your way, together.
Homemade Pickles with Garden Fresh Cucumbers