About Jamie McMillin
I am a researcher at heart – give me a stack of books and an internet connection and I’m happy. How could anyone get bored in this world when there is so much to learn? I’m also a list maker, a watcher and a doer – although my list of things to do is never done.
I love the smell of libraries and old bookstores. The smoky smell of a crackling woodstove reminds me of all the hours I spent as a teen stretched out on the floor reading Jane Austen, J.R.R. Tolkien and Ursula K. LeGuin.
I also love trees, mountains, and water in all its forms – rivers, oceans, puddles, fog, rain and running hot from the tap.
My family includes an adorable husband, who is nothing like me at all, but he makes me laugh and smile, and that is enough. I have three engaging children: Jesse (age 17), Aengus (age 15) and EmmaV (age 12), whom I have home schooled (mostly) since they were little.
In that time, I have waffled between more or less structure: unschooling, unit studies, Charlotte Mason, Montessori, Waldorf and classical (very briefly). Finally I just settled on the term “eclectic” for my own pick-and-choose method of teaching/raising my kids. I’ve never used any packaged curriculum because I’m quite picky about what materials I use – and know what will and won’t work with each of my kids.
I graduated from the U.S. Coast Guard Academy a long time ago with a degree in government, but the lessons I learned there were more about friendship, self discipline, and coastal navigation. Since then, I have taught myself everything I wanted to know, but I’m not done yet.