After 23 years of child rearing and educating my 7 children, other home/unschoolers began to ask me how I did things. After attending a workshop on the Thomas Jefferson Education model, I was inspired by their stages as reflecting what I similarly saw with my children's growth and learning. However, I consider TJE a cross between unschooling and classical education; I see what my children experienced quite differently.

My development of these stages was not in creating a new “educational model”, but to try to give voice to what I saw as an organic, natural development to the learning process. I was trying to be “undefined” by outside educational models as I raised my children and supported them on their learning paths. Instead, I wanted to provide the necessary resources, support, facilitation, information, guidance, or direction that each stage that presented itself called for. So, my collaborative learning stages were created as they emerged. I did not try to fit my child(ren) into any existing educational method in order to produce “x”.

It is my belief that aligning oneself with any type of prescribed method limits the individual into that model instead of allowing that person to become who he/she is meant to be. Thus, the process and stages I talk about is simply a translation of a natural process of learning that was revealed to me through my children; a flexible and dynamic entity meant to be individualized to all involved. It is about a young person fulfilling his/her own creation, and we are blessed to be part of their journey of self-discovery as we offer adult mentorship of pure intention in sharing what is available in this world to them in meeting their goals.