What a fantastic learning tool!

What a delightful article! So so so lovely. Maya is definitely the cutest Etsy seller ever.

what a wonderful story!

Maya's head pieces are gorgeous! This is a wonderful story about the unique qualities of homeschooling. What an undertaking & a great example of how parents can create a thriving creative environments for their kids! Congratulations of this successful handmade education project & congrats to Maya on your successful shop!

Wow! I love this. I homeschool as well and I found this story very inspiring. Such awesome life lessons through creating!

Maya sounds like such a talented and lucky girl! As someone with teaching experience, I can entirely understand the overwhelming task of choosing what, when and how to home-school a young girl, but the benefits are amazing. Congratulations on your shop Maya, you do amazing work! <3 Andrea

Love this!

Maya is an inspiration for many.. tells how to follow your dreams.. Good Luck Maya

I love it! Such a cute story and a great learning tool!

So cool! :) Go, Maya!

wow - what a story!! much success to you both, maya and mom!!

Keep up the great work, Maya! You're awesome!

wonderful and inspiring article. big BIG fan of stories like these.

What a great and inspirational story! I did not catch Maya's age but she looks about my kids age which are 6 and 7. This story has inspired me to get them more involved. They always say", Mommy is always on the computer." I'm going to get them more involved which will start with them reading this story! Go Maya, and Mom!!!

What a talented kid! She needs her own show! It's great that Etsy encourages young people. Hats off to Maya's Mom and Dad! Great Article!!!!

I LOOOOOVE this story! I've often wished etsy was around when I was a kid. I'm sharing this with my aunt and her three young daughters right away. Thanks for the inspiration, Maya!

Fantastic!

What a great story! You are very talented, Maya!! Best wishes!

I KNOW I don't have the patience to homeschool my children full time! But I applaud the parents who do. I also love the last paragraph - no matter the AMOUNT of time you can dedicate to teaching your children, we ALL can do it to some degree! I love painting and planting and exploring with my children...I hope that their experiences will help them in school :)

Thank you for sharing this! Great inspirational story for kids of all educational backgrounds!

My gosh!! How cute was this???!! Such an inspiring story from such a beautiful little girl!

Aw, I am so inspired by Maya! What a wonderful story, and those flowered hats are so cute.

Maya, you are an inspiration to my little businesswoman. We are also homeschoolers and it is wonderful to see a positive story related to homeschooling.

Lovely story, Maya is very talented and it's wonderful to hear how she is encouraged to work out her her ideas into products and into a business. Learning to run a business is hard for most people and many creative types, it's great that Maya is having practical lessons in this, while still having fun.

Maya, your animation of the ninja mouse and cat is really great. well done. love the start and the fire and water stuff. great faces on the characters. if you are doing stuff like this at age 10 i just wonder what you'll be making when you are 15 or 20 or 30. keep on making stuff, as much as you can, all the time!

Maya - I wish more people were like you! What an inspiration to us all - keep up the great work! :)

Such promise for such a young soul...I wish you continued success Maya.

Wow I wish I was as cool as Maya is at that age. Keep it up Maya, you're so creative!

That animation was brilliant! A true talent in the making! Keep it up maya.

Love this feature, very encouraging! If I had children I'd definitely home school. I'm almost ready to go round up kids that aren't even mine and get to ringin' the bell of the one room creative classroom. I see a guitar in the corner too, good job Maya!

Go homeschooling!!!! My 6 siblings and I did it all the way through highschool and my parents taught in a creative yet structured way that allowed us to excel in our strongest areas. Sure, we drove around in an old VW van and everyone thought we were the strangest hippy family ever, but it is an experience I would not trade for the world. It allowed for a creative opportunities around every corner. Maya is just darling and super artistic. What a delightful article!

Awesome and inspiring!! Thanks sooo much for sharing Maya's story. I'm blown away!

I am also in the camp of admiring homeschooler's but being aware of my limitations to do so. I love this article!! And I love seeing Etsy sellers of color and parents of color being celebrated!! I am motivated to use Etsy as a teaching tool with my four kiddies who all love to make and create with me.

This is a wonderful story. I was very creative as a child too. I'm glad her parents are encouraging her talents.

Great story! Loved it and wish Maya MUCH success!

What an inspiring feature! Way to go Maya and Maya's Mom! Creative learning is such an important part of a child's upbringing, and being a new mom myself, this is something I want to pass on to my daughter.

What a great article. I love the idea of using etsy as such a creative homeschooling tool. Keep up the great work Maya and Mom! Off to check out your shop:)

As a former homeschooler, I really appreciate seeing these families getting recognition. <3

I love this post! I hope to one day be able to homeschool.

Thank you for sharing your story of home education and how it is fused into your daily lives. Your daughter is rich with knowledge and experience, as well as a simplicity of free time to think creatively and with passion, something that she will carry with her forever. Your selfless acts of home education will be mirrored in so many wonderful ways, not only here in Etsy but in future waves to come!

how adorable and what a go getter is this Maya-look out world also i love vanessa's vintage belt in the pic

What an inspiration! You go Miya!

Loved the animation... especially the smug look on Coconut's face at the end! :-) Way to go, Maya!

What a fun video Maya! I enjoyed this article very much. I'm not a homeschooler but I'm a stay at home mom with one still at home and one in school. We're very blessed to have a fantastic visual and performing arts magnet school in town that we send our 6 year old to. At home they get constant exposure because my husband and I are both creative and are always letting them dig in!

What a great story! Maya is so cute!

absolutely fantastic!

Thank you for doing this interview! I'm glad to see homeschooling posed in a positive light; so often it gets negatively portrayed. Leave it to Etsy, though, to come through! Nice ambition, Maya! Keep it up, and next thing we know, she'll be in charge of a great _______ (fill in the blank) business!

It's a very inspiring story and I want to tell Maya that she's a fantastic artist!!! A big kiss from Italy to Maya and her Mom ^_^

What a talented and smart girl you are!!!keep up the good work,study hard and you can be anything you want to be!

I have home schooled our youngest daughter for the past two years. During this time, she has watched me launch my etsy business, and has given loads of great input, honest criticism, and creative ideas. Kids really are wonderfully creative, inherently. Home schooling has been as educational for me, as it has been for my daughter. She is a constant reminder to me to embrace the childlike sense of wonder many of us lose as adults, enjoy this moment, and to not allow schooling to interfere with our education.

she is so talented!! go girl:)

I can't wait until my daughter is old enough to have her own shop! YAY!

this is the most inspired i have been all year! maya is super cool!

Wow. That should be one proud mama. :)

What a great article...so inspiring. That Maya is going to be a huge success as she grows up. My own son is dying to have an Etsy shop, and I need to think seriously about what he can offer. It really is a GREAT education in business and marketing and so many other things!

Adorable & super inspiring. Way to go Maya & u'r mom & dad too! I'm off to check out your idea shop!!

This is just adorable. ♥

Maya, you're an inspiration to us all!

I loved this! Very awesome! :)

Clearly Maya is highly motivated and is so fortunate to have parents who value education, a love of learning and creativity as a way of life. Wonderful story! Best wishes in all your endeavors!

I love this! It reminds me of my childhood and how I should really be encouraging my son's creativeness in with every day things.

What a fabulous story which really can inpire us about our own child's ecucation!

This young lady has a very good eye for design... she will go far. Love the idea of home schooling, since so much time is wasted in the formal school environment, but not sure how it allows one to learn to deal with people, and not sure i have the expertise to teach math etc to the level that is required.

We've home schooled for 8 years now and although it is a lot of work we wouldn't have it any other way. The proof is in the pudding as they say. Our oldest will graduate next year. She's already won two prestigious writing awards, been published twice and has started working as a wedding photographer. We've constructed a life that provides ample time for our children's creative pursuits. You don't have to wait until you grow up to be an artist, we tell her. Be an artist NOW. Great story! Keep it up Maya, Deirdre and John!

I love Maya's creations! Thank you all for sharing a great story about a homeschooling family.

Fantastic ninja battle animation!

Loved this story. Maya's parents have every reason to be very proud. Here is to continued success for Maya!! A lot of talent in a little package:)

I love this article. I am also a homeschooling mom!

Very cool feature. We're just starting homeschooling my fie year old daughter and we both love it. And she is definitely noticing the selling process. Often pretends she's knitting or sewing something and saying she's going to put it in 'her shop'! I think having an Etsy store would be such a valuable learning experience.

omg how adorable! ^__^

Such a sweet little girl! I started all kinds of crafts when I was young too. Thank you for your story! All the best :)

I love it - what an amazing creative way to approach home-schooling x

wow getting started early I loved the photo montage of her making pieces. Its true crafting really does increase self esteem.

Fantastic! A young artist that is motivated, driven and obviously full of passion! Great work Maya and I look forward to your lovely designs. I love the hair pieces.

Maya is so tallented - Its so great to find your skill at such an early age!

Very impressive. Go Maya Go!!

She will grow with her talents!

She's learning some very valuable skills at home that she'll be able to use her whole life. Sweet story!

Absolutely incredible little girl! Maya your items are just beautiful!!

I love this story, I have a daughter who loves to craft and when she is a bit older I'm sure we will set up an etsy shop for her. Thanks Maya!

This is a fantastic article! It is so wonderful to see creativity as a cornerstone in homeschooling, especially when it has been so neglected in public schools. Maya and her family should be commended on their efforts. Thanks for sharing!

Super cute! I absolutely love this.

Maya, love your animation. Keep up the fabulous work!

We are entering our 21st year of homeschooling. Yes, Maya, it's so wonderful for all the freedom you have to create the things that you do and integrate it into your schooling. The sky is the limit when it comes to the things you can study, create, discover...when you homeschool! I wish you all the best in your business Maya!

AWESOME!!!! Maya, you ROCK! And your Mom, too - of course... keep up the brilliant work... I'm so happy to hear they featured you in an article!

this is great to see a young soul putting her art into the world. you go girl!!

I was also homeschooled and I found it very rewarding!

I was also homeschooled and I found it very rewarding!

Maya, I wish I was more like you when I was a kid! :) (And when I was a college student!)

What a wonderful and inspiring article! I will begin homeschooling my son in a few months and my son and I could not be more excited to begin.

I teach art to homeschoolers too! Ceramic, painting, mixed media and creative sewing! Too fun!!

Yes!! What an awesome story! Go Maya!!

It is fantastic!, Also educate my child at home from eight years and has 14 and I'm glad I made that desicion.

Maya, you're an inspiration to us all!

what a cute little girl. more importanly, SMART. way to go Maya and parents!

It's sad that the Facebook comments highlight 'home schooling' as the only way for a child to do this...Anyways 'Go Maya!'

Awesome article!!!!!

We homeschool too! We love it and my son, 12 years old, will have his own Etsy shop in just a few weeks! Hmmm...is there an Etsy team for younger sellers?

My gosh what a cutie :) Wonderful article!

We follow the same ideas. We homeschool and use Etsy as a great creative outlet. I agree, there should be a team for younger sellers and for homeschooling familes as well!

This is a great example of how homeschooling gives children time to explore and develop their interests :) We do tons of hand-crafts in our homeschool, especially fibrearts, and my son is busy whittling walking staves to sell.

Extremely inspiring. Thanks for sharing this fabulous article!

This reminds me a bit of my childhood. My dad would dedicate his evenings after work to what we called "art nights." We would usually do it on the weekends when my sister and I didn't have to get up early for school the next day. Dad would get out sketch paper or one of his oil paintings, and we would grab whatever project we were working on, and turn the dining room table into a studio. Dad usually only progressed a little on what he was working on, since he spent most of his time teaching and encouraging my sister and me. Art nights were really special to me, not only because of the fun of doing art together, but also because of the meaningful conversations we always ended up having. I look forward to continuing the tradition one day when I have children.

A really great story that I loved reading!

Thanks for sharing this great story. Great to see kids creating, and with homeschooling - there's more time to create!

Amazing story! I also home-school my kids and am very inspired by anyone who home-schools.

Amazing story!

Great to see other homeschoolers on Etsy! Our 15 year old is interested in starting her own shop, this is very good incentive for that!

Great Story..

How wonderful that Maya's parents are doing everything they can to fulfill her creative spirit! Bravo!

We too are a homeschooling family. Currently living in Thailand doing volunteer work and trying to earn our living via etsy! If it wasn't for the fact we have taught our girls at home we could never have lived the exciting adventure filled life we have. Well done Maya. Love your shop. Keep up the good work.

This brought back many memories of when we homeschooled our two girls who are now 29 and 26. The business I still have was started as a homeschooling business (you can read more about it in my profile) I wanted to incorporate being creative into business skills. Back then we didn't have Etsy, we had to do it the old fashioned way of peddling our creations to shops and gallery's, doing art fairs and also teaching some classes. Keep creating Maya! I wish you the best of success!

Great article - I'm an ex-teacher so I know all too well how hard it was to fight to keep creativity in my classroom - but even when I managed, there wasn't a lot of me to go around for 30 kids. Keep up the good work!

Love it! Well done Maya!

Great article

Terrific Maya!

Etsy kids team??

Thank you for this feature about homeschooling! I homeschool my little monsters and love it--and this shows ways we can expand as they grow older! My kids play like they have "customers" all the time--and Bug told me a couple of weeks ago, after we made our own jam for the first time, that she wanted to make jams and biscuits to sell to her customers! Made this mama's heart proud!

Awesome article!

Well done Maya & Mom - I loved reading about your educational adventures & how you're incorporating traditional learning with life skills. Your family is a great example of what I hope to do when I have kids someday. And Maya, your creations are innovative & waaaay ahead of your chronological age - you should be very proud. Thanks for sharing!

thanks so much for including my apple cozy, great article!

What an inspiration you are Maya! I wish you nothing but the best. Also, I love your natural hair!!!

Great article, and what a lovely, intelligent young lady Maya is! Thanks for including my Leaf Dance V in your 'related items' section! Best of luck and lots of sales to you both!

what an adorable story and an adorable little girl. As a soon to be homeschooling mom, this story is very inspiring.

Oh what a great article. Maya I love you and your Mom's shop. Keep up the good work and you are so smart and well rounded.

I love this! I think its so great you encourage and support your daughter in her creative business ventures. When I was Maya's age I wanted to own my own business it's all I've ever wanted throughout life and at age 24 I'm finally starting to do that. It would have been nice though to have a wonderfully supportive mom like Deirdre!

my nieces were home schooled and I highly recommend it. They all turned out to be awesome individuals. Great article!

I love this article. Makes me want to pack my kids in a winnebago and give them a creative education on the road.

love the article and the tiny one is very cute

As an artist and former public school educator, it is so easy for me to see the value of creative work integrated into homeschooling. My work (sewing) is part of our day, and my kids love to "help" with little things, or at least rifle through my supplies and discover their purpose. I write about this in my blog at www.qwinkshop.com. I'm so glad that others can see the educational value in their, or their children's creativity! I hope to homeschool my own children and the arts will definitely play a huge role in their education!

So wonderful to see this article. We did the same thing "old style". Our 2 daughters grew up at craft fairs and home schooled. They sold work at local fairs instead of Etsy but the skill they gained are still serving them well. It's all hard work but worth it. Trust you instincts (with a little help from the late John Holt) and go for it!

Love this article and it shows homeschoolers in such a good light! I am a homeschooling mama of 2 girls (8&7) and we love it. I was an elementary ed teacher prior to having them and felt creativity was really lacking in the public school systems. My girls also hope to one day open a shop of their own and what an inspiration Maya is! Great job Maya and Deirdre!

Maya you are AWESOME with capital letters.Thank you Etsy for the article.

Maya you are AWESOME with capital letters. Thank you Etsy for the article.

This is absolutely phenomenal! I almost had tears in my eyes reading this article. What an absolutely unbelievable way to learn! Not to mention the bonds that are being built by this mother-and-child team. Absolutely amazing.

Maya you are too cute:)Love your shop and your hair Rocks! Thanks Etsy For Sharing

I LOVE this story!!!! Maya your an inspiration to so many young ladies out there. I was a musician growing up as well as an artist and I think it is WONDERFUL that Maya's love for art is being harvested and supported at such a young age. Everyone needs to take a step in the SAME DIRECTION!!!!!! :)

loved the cover of homeschooling! I was homeschooled myself, and loved the time it gave me to pursue my intrests! what a lucky and talented little girl! :)

Absolutely Awesome!!!

I'm so happy to see the *comments* be positive as well as the article itself. I love the way Etsy and Etsians encourage this way of learning. To the one commenter who wasn't sure how homeschooling helps kids "deal with people," I was public-schooled from K to 12 and I *still* can't deal with most people. My experience was that despite attending school with kids from many different walks of life, I never actually got to know the kids who were different from myself for the most part, because we all split off into our own little social groups. I have also noticed an upswing in the number of adults who do not know how to deal with people from age groups different than their own. I also notice too many people being too willing to throw away friendships because they have "outgrown" them, and of course when you "outgrow" something you have graduated from it and no longer have to deal with it. School isn't even real life, but people live their whole lives under the school metaphor if it is all they knew for most of their waking hours throughout childhood. It's really sad. It's not the public education part that bothers me. If it actually were education and not child-herding, I would be fine with it. I know many parents have no choice and must put their kids in school and I sympathize but I wish it didn't have to be that way. We're not even as well-educated a populace as we have the potential to be--and the solution offered is more school hours. Yeah, that's working real great so far. Thanks. I think it's coincided with the desensitization to the value of friendships and social diversity that I mentioned earlier. My daughter tells random strangers on the street that her school is "the red house." Our home is red brick. It makes me smile every time I hear it.

I love it!! Such a cute story and a great way for creative children to learn! Keep up the fine work! :))

WOW, I can totally relate to this one I am homeschooled and I am 13 and I have been making and selling jewelry since I was 9. I just this year started my etsy shop and I really love it! Thanks etsy!

as a mom of 2 and a half year old the homeschooling idea is growing on me, very much indeed. i only have to get the idea into my partners head, yet! learning and creativity go hand in hand, learning from people you know and trust in your known environment that is also tailored to your needs, how can that NOT work out?? most people just live their live mainstream, from school, to friends, to (lack of interests) and so on. i wished there were sooo many more people out there like maya and her mom and the rest of all the artists here on etsy!

Maya, keep up the great work! You are a very gifted child. Kudos, to your mom for finding a great outlet for you to express yourself. Great story! Thanks, Vanessa!

OMG! I have got to share this with my 10yo daughter who's been wanting her own etsy shop. So proud to know this little girl is doing her thing. GO Maya!

Nobody mentioned math skills specifically, but having a shop would be a such a fun way to teach arithmetic skills, decimal points (money!) and so many other math skills which in the classroom sometimes feel boring or irrelevant.

I was home schooled and definitely feel it greatly impacted my creativity, both in the items I create and the options I have in life. I think it has helped me see life from a broader viewpoint than I would have had with a more traditional education. Very inspiring story I will be sharing it with my own ten year old!