How Homeschooling Helped Me Find My Creative Path
Before Bear Creek Felting, much of my time was spent homeschooling our four children.
Of course we studied the usual subjects—math, science, grammar, history, and everything else they needed to learn.
But one of the things I valued most was giving them time to follow their interests.
If one of my kids became fascinated by something, I tried to provide the books, tools, materials, space, and time they needed to explore it.
Then I stepped back and watched them learn.
Looking back now, I realize that approach didn’t just shape my children.
It shaped me too.
Learning Doesn't Always Look Like a Textbook
My children had very different interests.
One of my sons became fascinated with electronics and computers. He wanted to know how things worked, so he took them apart, studied them, and sometimes even managed to put them back together.
Before long, he knew far more about technology than I did.
To this day, he's the person our family turns to when we have questions about computers, phones, cameras, or some new piece of equipment I didn't even know existed.
Another son was drawn to mechanics.
For years, that meant there was almost always something torn apart in the garage.
He wasn't satisfied with learning how to change the oil. He wanted to understand engines, machinery, and how all the pieces worked together. Eventually he was replacing motors and building things from parts that looked like scrap to me.
My youngest shared some of that mechanical interest, but he also had a natural way with animals.
He had the patience to sit with a lamb that needed help nursing and wasn't bothered by the less glamorous parts of farm life and livestock care.
Watching my children taught me something important:
People learn incredibly well when they care deeply about what they're learning.
My Job Wasn't to Know Everything
One of the freeing things about homeschooling was realizing that I didn't have to be an expert in everything my children wanted to learn.
Sometimes my job was simply to help them find someone who knew more than I did.
Find the right book.
Buy the supplies.
Arrange the field trip.
Give them time.
Let them experiment.
That philosophy would become surprisingly important later in my own life.
Because eventually, one of my children's interests caught my attention too.
Libbie's Interests Were Different
My daughter Libbie developed interests that happened to overlap with things I found fascinating.
She wanted to learn how to knit.
I didn't know how.
So instead of saying, “I can't teach you that,” we found a book, bought some yarn and knitting needles, and figured it out together.
That may sound like a very small thing.
At the time, it was.
But it became the beginning of a chain of events that would completely change my life.
Knitting led us to natural fibers.
Natural fibers led us to learning more about wool.
Wool eventually led us to sheep.
And the sheep led us into a fiber community where I would discover needle felting.
Somewhere Along the Way, I Started Following My Own Interests
For years I had encouraged my children to follow their curiosity.
Then, without really planning it, I began doing the same thing.
I became interested in wool, so I learned more about it.
I wanted to understand spinning, so I tried it.
I discovered needle felting, so I experimented.
I wanted better wool for my sculptures, so I began paying closer attention to our sheep and their fleeces.
I wanted other people to have an easier time learning than I did, so I created kits.
One question kept leading to another.
One experiment led to the next.
Eventually, those interests became Bear Creek Felting.
Homeschooling Taught Me How to Build a Business Without Knowing I Was Doing It
I didn't sit down one day with a business plan and decide that I was going to make a living from wool.
It happened much more organically than that.
The same habits I used in our homeschool became the habits I used in business:
Follow the question.
Find the information.
Try something.
Pay attention to what works.
Learn from what doesn't.
Keep going.
I had spent years telling my children that their interests were worth exploring.
Eventually, I gave myself permission to believe the same thing about my own.
And that turned out to be pretty important.
Sometimes the Teacher Is Learning Too
When I look back at our homeschooling years, I naturally think about everything my children learned.
But I learned right alongside them.
I learned to stay curious.
I learned that you don't need to know where an interest will lead before you begin.
And I learned that something that starts as a simple hobby can grow into something you never could have planned.
For me, the next step began when my seven-year-old daughter asked me to teach her something I didn't know how to do.
She wanted to knit.
And that little request would eventually lead us straight toward wool, sheep, needle felting, and Bear Creek Felting.
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