Navigating My Unschooling Blog

I hope this page will help you navigate my unschooling blog and find the information you’re searching for. I have included links to articles, podcasts and videos that will answer common unschooling questions.



Welcome!

I’m Sue Elvis. 

I’m an Australian blogger, author, podcaster and Youtuber. I live with my family in a village south of Sydney in the state of New South Wales.  Our home is surrounded by the beautiful Australian bush. I think it’s the best place in the world! 

I’m married to Andy who is a primary school teacher. We have 8 children: Felicity, Duncan, Callum, Imogen, Charlotte, Thomas, Sophie and Gemma-Rose. Felicity was born in 1987 and Gemma-Rose joined our family in 2004.

Thomas died as a baby in 1999. Despite no longer being with us, Thomas is still part of the family so he occasionally makes an appearance on my blog.

Update: Gemma-Rose turned 18 at the beginning of 2022, so all my children are now adults!

I may no longer have any young children, but my blog is overflowing with stories about my kids’ younger days. I sometimes write new posts too about the days gone by. 

If you’d like to know more about my family you could read my family posts. These stories show how much my children have changed over the years. (I created this blog in 2011.) Their interests and dreams have changed too.

I’ve written a few posts about me, but here are a few quick facts:

I’ve written three unschooling books, Curious Unschoolers,  Radical Unschool Love

and The Unschool Challenge.

  • I’ve also written three children’s novelsThe Angels of Abbey CreekThe Angels of Gum Tree Road and The Angels of Wallaby Way.
  •  I love running along our local bush tracks with my daughters and Nora and Quinn our dogs.
  • I enjoy taking photos with my daughter Sophie.
  • My inside is much younger than my outside.
  • I suspect I’m a bit vain.
  • I don’t like parties. (I’m an introvert.)
  • I do like drinking coffee with Andy, my best friend.
  • I love writing. At times, I also hate writing.

Our unschooling journey hasn’t been perfect. You’ll realise this if you read my homeschooling story posts. I’ve made plenty of mistakes along the way. But I’ve learnt a lot!


Why do I write this unschooling blog?

I want to tell you about the love and joy we have discovered while living the unschooling way of life. Good things should be shared!

You might already unschool or maybe you’re just investigating. Either way, I hope you will find something of interest here on my blog.


How can I help you?

 

Do you want to find out what unschooling is all about?

Unschooling can be hard to define in a few words. Interest-led learning? Child-led learning? Life learning? Natural learning? None of these terms tells the complete story. Maybe unschooling is something that needs to be lived to fully understand. And even then, there is still so much more to learn about it. We’ve been unschooling a long time and I’m still surprised by what I’m discovering. (This can be exciting!) But we have to start somewhere, so here are a few of my thoughts:

What is Unschooling?

What I Think Unschooling is All About

Tired and Difficult Days (a podcast in which I talk about the definition of unschooling)

Other unschooling blog posts on this topic

My unschooling basics videos


Are you thinking about unschooling, but you’re not quite sure it’s for you?

I hope my stories will encourage you to say, “I want to unschool too! We can do it!” I hope my passion is reflected in my blog, and it inspires you to give unschooling a go.

If You’re Thinking about Unschooling

What’s Stopping You from Unschooling

Obstacles to Unschooling

Thinking Critically about Unschooling

My misconceptions about unschooling posts

My starting unschooling posts

My unschooling basics videos

My unschooling basics blog posts


Would you like to ponder unschooling ideas without feeling pressured to do things a certain way?

You can do that here. All families are different. But we can still share and learn from each other even if we’re not all the same.


Perhaps you’d like to read about unschooling from the baby stage to the young adult stage?

I’ve written unschooling blog posts about babies and toddlers, adult children, and every age in between. Attachment parenting? Learning to read? Graduating from university? Yes, I’ve written about those topics too.

My babies and toddler post

My primary school posts

My high school posts

My young adults posts


Would you like to know if unschoolers can get into university?

If they want to, they can. Five of my children have studied at tertiary level.

My unschooling and university posts


Maybe you’d like to hear about difficult unschooling days as well as the good ones?

No one leads a perfect life, especially not us. That’s why I share my mistakes as well as the good stuff. But I try to add a touch of hope to my mistake stories. There has to be a reason for sharing them because I don’t want my blog to be depressing.

My tired day posts

My difficult day posts

My mistakes posts


Perhaps you want to hear stories about real unschooling children?

Now that my kids are grown up, it’s a bit harder to share their stories: I want to protect their privacy. I do occasionally – with permission – still share a bit of their news. Fortunately, my children still don’t mind me sharing stories about their younger years.  I’m very fortunate that I’m able to give specific examples to illustrate what unschooling can look like. Even though a lot of my stories were written a while ago, practically all of them are evergreen so there are many to read.


Do you enjoy videos and podcasts as well as blog posts?

 I have Youtube and podcast channels as well as my unschooling blog. These days, I usually present these by myself. However, I’ve make videos and podcasts with my children which are still available to view or listen to, so you can hear their thoughts and see unschooling from a child’s perspective.

Videos: My Youtube channel

My unschooling interview videos

Podcasts:

on iTunes 
Podbean
here on this blog.


Perhaps you’re interested in parenting stories?

Somewhere along the way, unschooling flowed over into our parenting. It now affects everything we do. Would you like to hear about that? Some people might describe unschool parenting as radical unschooling or gentle or peaceful parenting. Maybe it could be also be described as attachment parenting. I like to think of it as living a radical life of unconditional love with my family.

My parenting posts

My posts about love


Are you looking for some ideas on how to encourage kids to help with the chores?

 Getting Kids to Help with the Chores

My other chore posts


Are you looking for resources for strewing?

I love sharing the resources I find. I’m always looking for things that might be of interest to my girls, and I post about them here, speak about them in my podcasts, and then put them on my Pinterest boards too.

My Pinterest boards

I have put together My BIG page of unschooling resources where you’ll find books, blogs and websites, podcasts, and other links which I hope you’ll find useful.


Are you looking for information about homeschool record keeping?

Can we unschool and legally fulfil homeschool registration requirements at the same time? This is a question I have written a lot about. I’m always talking and writing and making videos about how we can use Evernote to record unschooling in an impressive way. I also share my registration experiences.

A Perfect Method for Keeping Unschooling Records

My Evernote videos

My Evernote posts

My homeschool registration and records posts


Perhaps you’d like to connect with another Christian unschooling family?

I write my unschooling blog for everyone, both Christian and secular unschoolers. We can all share a lot even if we have different religious beliefs. Occasionally, however, I will write a post that explores unschooling from a Christian point of view. Perhaps you’d like to check out my Christian Unschooling posts.


Do you like to chat?

Do you have any questions? This is a friendly place. I’m quite happy to talk. You can leave a comment.


You’re not unschoolers?

That’s okay. Not all my readers call themselves unschoolers. But unschooling is about learning from life, and we all do that, so I hope you will find something of interest on my blog.


Would you like to help spread the word about unschooling?

If you find my posts helpful, I hope you’ll consider hitting the social media share buttons. And if you feel able to write an Apple review for my podcasts or sone Amazon reviews for my books, that would be wonderful! 


And if you’d like to help me and my family…

Perhaps you could take a look at my books, Curious Unschoolers,  Radical Unschool Love and The Unschool Challenge.

They’re available on Amazon as Kindle and print books. If you like them, please spread the word!

You could watch my daughter Imogen’s music videos on her Youtube channel. And perhaps you could check out her fantasy novels The Crystal Tree and The Shattering Song.

Your help would be very much appreciated!


Would you like to know how to keep up with my unschooling blog and everything else I do?

You could subscribe to this blog.

[do_widget “Blog Subscriptions (Jetpack)”]

my podcast,

my Youtube channel.


Of course, you can also use the menu bar at the top of my blog (side panel on mobile site) to browse my stories. How about checking out the All My Stories page?

 

 

29 Comments

  1. Hi

    I’m trying to find an unschooling community who could fill a questionnaire for me, if you could also do this then that would be great. I’m in my final year and I’m doing my dissertation on Unschooling, my aim is to see if Unschooling is trending and what parents think about this.
    Here is the Link:
    https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/CGQJNZS

    Thank you

  2. So glad to find you! I’very been homeschooling for 7 years, and when we take the week off “school” and have fun together, I’m the most fulfilled. I want to be an unschooler but I want to do it right haha. Anyway, just prayed for the Lord’s guidance and found your very full blog. I haven’t read one post, just saw the words “Christian unschooling” and had to say thank you for putting your story online. Bless you before I even dive in. ♡♡

    • Annie,

      I’m pleased to meet you! I hope you find something useful in my posts. Please feel welcome to ask any questions. I shall try to answer them. I’m always happy to chat. Thank you for stopping by. May God bless you too!

  3. Hi Sue,

    I just wanted to thank you so much for this blog. All your efforts to share the wonders of unschooling and all that it has opened up for you all, individually and as a family, is a real blessing.

    As I read more about unschooling, lightbulb-moments are flying everywhere! From what I’ve read/heard/seen so far from your website, my mind is b l o w n! Thank you also for your posts about evernote, what an amazing tool.

    Warmest wishes and prayers to you.
    M

    • Michelle,

      You sound excited! Unschooling makes me feel excited too. It truly is a wonderful way of life. I’m so glad you’re finding my posts helpful. I’m passionate about spreading the unschooling message. And I love sharing what I’ve discovered about Evernote too. Yes, it’s an amazing tool! Thank you for reading my blog and for taking the time to stop by. I really appreciate your kind words.

      May God bless you and your family!

  4. I just discovered your blog. So awesome. Please keep writing about teenagers and unschooling. The article I just read could not have come at a better time. My 15 year old son has been working pretty much fulltime with his dad. My husband said to me this morning that my son is no longer a student and I am like what, wait, how did that happen and does he know what he needs to know, is he going to be ok? To read – your daughter simply saying just keep trusting was exactly what I needed. Thank you?

    Regards Emma

    • Emma,

      Welcome to my blog! I’m so pleased you stopped by and shared your son’s story. Teenagers are amazing people. We should trust them. They will learn all they need to know. I will indeed keep writing about teenagers and unschooling. Thank you for your encouraging words. I hope we’ll chat again another time!

  5. Dear Community

    I am looking for a unschooling family in the states near by Los Angeles to live with, for three month. (around December-18 to May-19)
    Maybe you can help me to find something…

    I live in Swizerland and since 3 years i am an unschooler.
    I want to improve my English in the states.

    I am:
    Julian Kobler (2002)

    Bernstrasse 28
    3045 Meikirch BE
    Schweiz

    +41 75 430 22 88
    [email protected]

    I would appreciate it very much to hear something from you.

    Best regards
    Julian 

  6. I have been unschooling our house full of kids for almost 2 decades.. I now have realized that those years spent reading books and playing outside, have actually given me the talents that I can now use to give the world the things I love most. books! I am launching a publishing company for picture books and was wondering if you would be interested in blogging on either it or one of the books themselves.
    Rumtum the Sailor is about a father who is determined against all odds, to keep his promise and be home in time for supper.
    Charlie and the Hot Air Balloon is about an orphan who is trying to build a hot air balloon in order to go visit his mother “in the stars”.

    • Sam,

      “I now have realized that those years spent reading books and playing outside, have actually given me the talents that I can now use to give the world the things I love most.” Your words fit right in with my recent post about play!

      I wish you every success with your publishing company. I will take a look at your site!

  7. Hello Sue – I love your blog and will be unschooling my 4 year old daughter after difficult experience with Seton pre-k. I was looking for resources on translating every day like into educational terms to use for reporting to the school district. Thank you!

  8. I unschooled my children in the US after hearing my older sister tell me she didn’t think she could take Dad up on his offer to take ALL of us (kids, spouses, grandkids, totaling 32) to Disney World. Why? asked my pregnant-with-first-child self. “Because the school won’t excuse them, and it will go on their permanent records.” Her kids were in grades Kindergarten, 1st, 3rd, and 4th.

    I am now a 57 year old woman with four kids: Three boys who were unschooled until college started at 16 (yes, early for the US, but what can I say? They had a stellar unschooled education!), the fourth my beloved (step)daughter whose mother would not allow me to keep her out of the public schools. The boys are thriving. My daughter, aged 20, is struggling. Too many variables to make a scientific conclusion.

    I wrote a lot of articles that were published in a now-defunct unschooling publication called “Life Learning Magazine.” I am a writer, and I keep friends and family members amused and informed with lengthy story-telling emails. I have stopped and started with fictional novels, but I don’t have the patience – yet. I thought when I got older I’d settle in but at my age I have to think “older” is here. My life experiences could give birth to a number of based-on-true-life books, but, sadly, people have to die before I’d have the guts to publish them.

    What advice do you have for me? I want to write. I don’t need to make a lot of money (not a bad side effect, though). I’ve read your blog and we are of a mind. I’m not sure how to get people to read a blog. I’m a pro at FB but still figuring out Twitter. Help!!

    • Hi Tracy,

      It was good to hear some of your story and to find out that we have a couple of things in common: unschooling and a love of writing!

      Oh yes, it can be hard to write about true life experiences because we might upset someone or they just might not like to be in our stories. I’m fortunate because I focus my writing on my immediate family and they are all very supportive. They don’t mind me writing about them!

      Blogs are a good way to share our writings but, yes, we have to find an audience. It does take a while to build up a readership. I don’t use Twitter or Facebook to promote my blog, but I do connect up with other unschoolers on Instagram. Some people survive quite nicely without social media by making sure their posts are high up in the search engine results. They think about such things as search engine optimisation.

      Because you are already a FB pro, you could add links there to any blog posts you write. You could start a blog FB page though that can be frustrating. Sometimes this involves a lot of work for not much result. Posts aren’t always put into a page followers’ feeds.

      Reading other blogs in a similar field, commenting, and becoming part of a blogging community might lead to some interest in your blog.

      If you like listening to podcasts, the Problogger Podcast has lots of good tips for creating a successful blog. There’s also a website.

      Blogging is good for exploring our thoughts and making connections with other people. Perhaps you could blog and then later, use your posts as a basis for a book. That’s what I’m doing.

      Even if you haven’t got a lot of readers when you start blogging, you still might enjoy having somewhere to post your articles. Blogging does encourage us to write consistently. It’s different from writing for ourselves.

      It’s good to chat with you. Thank you for stopping by!

  9. I really don’t want to be spammy but I completely love this site and read every single article on here. I have written a book partially inspired by this blog all about unschooling called Freedom From School (and other forms of imprisonment). I really hope some of you may find it helpful. I was afraid to take the plunge and homeschool/unschool my kids but now I am certain it is the best decision I ever made…by far. Here’s a link to my book:

    https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07CSTL3ZP/ref=sr_1_3?keywords=freedom+from+school&qid=1551344833&s=digital-text&sr=1-3

    • Hi Greg,

      Thank you for your kind words about my blog. And congratulations on the publication of your book. A new book to help spread the unschooling message. That’s exciting! I hope your book is a huge success and encourages many people to take the plunge and unschool!

  10. Hi there. Stumbled onto your blog via your girl’s speaking engagement at an upcoming homeschool event. We currently live and work in Seoul, S Korea at an international Christian school. As an educator who is non-traditional and well read unschooling appeals to me on many levels. I see where education goes astray and often abandons to the core idea of what might be best for developing kids. It’s hard and the more I learn and read, the harder it becomes. This is my 12th year teaching in elementary school (in various places) and I have a passion for what I do. I am curious why you started unschooling and what your husband thinks since he’s a primary teacher. Thanks for sharing your journey!

    • Hi Mandy,

      Thank you for introducing yourself.

      My husband is also passionate about teaching. At the same time, he is an unschooling father. We started homeschooling 27 years ago. We knew homeschooling was possible, and we wanted to give it a go. We were confident that we could teach our kids all they needed to know. We heard about unschooling when we went to our first homeschooling conference. We came home feeling inspired. We wanted our kids to have a real love of learning and unschooling seemed the way to achieve this. Unfortunately, we didn’t understand unschooling very well at the beginning. We ended up going down various other educational pathways as we learnt more about how kids learn before we made our way back to unschooling.

      My husband Andy became a primary school teacher well into our unschooling adventure. We recognise that not everyone wants to or is able to homeschool, let alone unschool. Schools and good teachers will always be needed. There are some frustrating things about the school system, but I believe Andy is doing a great job and influencing children’s lives in a positive way as he shares his own love of learning.

      School doesn’t affect our home life. Andy’s two roles are separate though we do have many interesting discussions about education. We support each other without question. And we’re grateful that we have choices other families might not have.

      The upcoming homeschooling event… Yes, two of my girls will be involved with the Global Homeschooling Summit. Imogen and Sophie always have lots of interesting things to say about education and parenting. They’re looking forward to being interviewed in the next week or two!

      It’s been good to chat with you. Thank you for stopping by!

  11. Thank you, Sue, for your wonderful blog. I came across it just a few days ago and have been spending more time online as usual because of it.

    I love the honest, open and all-embracing tone. I have read your posts on aging and how you were worried younger mothers might feel like they couldn’t connect. I can only speak for myself of course, but I love that your blog covers different stages of childhood, of family, of learning and of growth. Age is just a number. You are inspiring. And like I said, your posts are honest and there’s a welcoming warmth in them. I appreciate this so much.

    You see, I am not a Christian and sometimes I have come across homeschooling groups and websites that quickly made it clear that, because of this, my children and I weren’t welcome. I love diversity. I love to learn from others with different cultural and religious backgrounds. I appreciate the fact that you welcome everyone. And it is wonderful for my children. I am not comfortable with choosing for them what they should or shouldn’t believe. So I am want them to explore and to see how others are living.

    Diversity is a big theme for my children and myself, because we are a family on the autism
    spectrum. All too often we hear that it’s not right to give autistic children that much freedom to choose. We are supposed to make them ‘more normal. Of course what people mean by this is make them seem less autistic. Make them at least appear more neurological. You have to train them. Or so I have been told. Punishment and reward. Strict routines designed by a neurological adult. The autistic kid has to learn to follow. No wonder there’s such a high risk of abuse.

    Anyway. We are unschoolers on the autism spectrum and happily so. Personally, while I log unschooling , I do not much care for the term. Unschooling. To me it sounds more like a description of what we do not want to do, rather than a word for what we actually choose to do. We didn’t just choose not to do school after all. We didn’t choose to just be defiant for the heck of it. We chose consciously to follow our passions, to work on the bond, to love freely and unconditionally. We chose to explore, to go for adventures, to make mistakes and learn from them. We chose to embrace the glorious messiness and beauty of life and how we experience it. And we chose organic growth. We chose trust. That might be the most difficult part.

    There were sacrifices. Having to leave home, because homeschooling wasn’t and isn’t legal there. Financial loss. And yes, sometimes struggle. All lead go growth. But it’s not always sunshine and puppies and it shouldn’t be.

    But we live with love and passion. And I am grateful.

    Today I am grateful to have come across your blog.

    Thank you, Sue.

    Call a

    PS: I have been trying to sign up for your newsletter, but the link didn’t work . I was shown a 404 error code.

    PPS: I don’t have Instagram, otherwise I would love to chat about unschooling ?.

    • Oops, I just realized autocorrect made some changes. Neurological? I typed neurotypical and I meant it. Sorry. I probably should have expected autocorrect to make some unwanted changes and checked before posting. That’s what I get for getting carried away by excitement. ?

    • Calla,

      How lovely it is to meet you! I am so glad you feel welcome on my blog. When we can be ourselves and feel accepted, we can have wonderful conversations, sharing ideas and thoughts and experiences, can’t we? We don’t have to be the same. Diversity is indeed good!

      I like your thoughts on the word ‘unschooling’. Yes, this word doesn’t describe what we do. I’ve read some discussions about the word ‘unschooling’. Maybe when John Holt coined this word, he only meant it to mean ‘not schooling’. Of course, the word unschooling means so much more than that for us. There doesn’t seem to be an adequate word to replace unschooling. Passion or interest or child or self-directed learning – these descriptions don’t tell the whole story either. How about life learning or natural learning? Unschooling really is a way of life the whole family lives, isn’t it?

      Have you seen Chris Packham’s video ‘Aspergers and Me’? It was very thought-provoking. Should we try and make our kids who are on the spectrum ‘normal’ so that they will fit in? Or should we as a society be more accepting of everyone? Accept the differences that make each of us unique and special. I’ve thought a lot about this because I have a child who is ‘different’. (Aren’t we all different in some way?) I don’t see why we should try and change people. I know that school would have been a crushing and painful experience for my child so I’m glad we’ve been able to unschool.

      I’ll check the newsletter link. Thank you for alerting me to the error.

      I both love and hate Instagram. It’s a good place for meeting people who are interested in discussing unschooling. I have made a lot of wonderful friends there. But IG is not my space in the same way my blog is. I’d like to write more blog posts and spend less time on IG. Maybe I will once my second unschooling book has been published. At the moment, IG is a quick and easy way to share unschooling thoughts and ideas.

      It has been so good to chat with you. Thank you so much for stopping by and leaving such a kind comment. I’m so pleased you’re enjoying my blog. I hope we’ll chat again soon!

  12. Dear Sue,

    I hope you might be able to help me with this. I have always unschooled my kids. They are 9.5, 8 and 2. My husband completely supports me in our homeschooling journey, and I have always shared with him that formal schooling is only of real importance at about 14, so always said we would start doing a bit of “formal academics” at about age 10. But during the years as I explored unschooling more and more I just fell more in love with it.

    Now I need a way to explain “unschooling” to my husband as he is wondering when we will start with daily routines and book work??.

    I have no idea how to cram 9 years of my own research into a short but effective conversation. Where do I start with this whole explanation.

    My husband is not really a reader, and he is always busy with work, so getting him to read a bunch or listen to lots of podcasts wont work. He always says He trusts me to do what is right for our kids. But is has come to the point where I need to give him the tools to understand what it is we are doing, and how we work towards it.

    Do you perhaps have any advise?

    • Barbara,

      It sounds like you have a very trusting relationship with your husband. It’s so good to have the support of our spouses, isn’t it?

      I imagine that after 9 years of research, you are able to talk about unschooling very confidently and can easily explain your reasons for wanting to do it. You must have a lot of info that you’re eager to share – unschooling is exciting, isn’t it?! – but yes, it’s hard for some people to find the necessary time to catch up to where we are. Could you have a number of short conversations with your husband? Perhaps you could write down the main benefits of unschooling and how it works. Start there.

      My husband has never listened to unschooling podcasts or read unschooling books or blog posts. But he knows a lot about unschooling from our conversations and from observing our kids. We like to go to a cafe and share our ideas and listen to each other while we’re enjoying our coffee. Could you do something similar?

      Maybe trust is the most important thing. Podcasts and books might be full of information about unschooling, but perhaps it will be the trust between you and your husband that will help the most.

      • Dear Sue,

        After I posted this, I only revisited this post now.

        Oh yes, unschooling is amazing…but gaining the courage to say it out loud, and to fully live it, is so much better and freeing.

        In the past two weeks I have been reading your books, I am almost halfway with curious unschoolers now.

        Your books have inspired me to embrace the more Radical Principles as well, something I have always longed to do, seeing as the constant power struggles for control was getting to me.

        Also this week my husband and I had a few short discussions on the way I school the kids, and he completely agrees with it. Even though we still don’t use the term “unschoolers” really frequently, he really knows and understands what we are doing and why. “We do our own thing”… you know… I avoid going into too much detail, as our small community will really frown upon the idea.

        I love the comments in Radical Unschooling Love with regards to Trust. You have inspired me to become a better mom, by just taking hold of what I believe to be best for my family and me. The last two weeks have been a bit rough and at the same time adventurous, with me letting go more, and turning more focus towards Trusting and being a more gentle parent.

        I am happy to say that I see the learning happening, even though my boys have embraced their freedom on screens with a big-bang,I used to limit this a lot, today it started winding down a bit and they started looking for something else to do.

        I see my boys responding to me and whatever we take on in a very different way. We even touched playfully on French today… I am as excited as a kid myself.

        Discovering this Freedom for myself, and deciding to Trust more has opened a new world for our family.

        And I finally realized that me just taking on the things I stopped learning(guitar, languages, songwriting) due to a lack of time, will be like strewing, and might inspire my kids as well, and now we will all have more time to pour into these things when we want to.

        Thank you for taking the time to answer my question, even though I found your books touch on so much of my concerns and questions.

        Thank you for being so open and sharing your stories with us. It really has a great impact.

        God Bless

        • Barbara,

          It was so good to hear what you and your family have been doing recently. I’m glad you and your husband were able to talk, and you’ve found a way forward. Our family used to tell people we were ‘doing our own thing’ too. That’s a wonderful way to describe unschooling to others and is actually true.

          Rough and adventurous… oh yes, it can take time to settle into a new way of life, but though it can have its difficult moments, it can be exciting too. It sounds like you’ve already come a long way since we were last chatting. You sound happy!

          Perhaps you’d like to join our unschooling community? We are a very friendly and encouraging group of people. You are very welcome to join us.

          https://stories-of-an-unschooling-family.mn.co/

          Thank you so much for buying my books. It’s so good to hear that you are finding something helpful in them.

          Stay in touch! May God bless you and your family!

  13. Hello – we are long time homeschoolers morphing into a more relaxed approach with my younger children. I have 5 very active children (3-8) and the thought of corralling them to sit quietly and “do school” seems daunting and oppressive. How might i foster learning when they all have such varied interests and attention spans? Thank you For any advice ..:

    • Hi Emily,

      Oh yes, it’s hard work making little kids sit still while teaching them. They’re really not suited to this type of learning, are they?

      Could you nurture your children’s natural curiosity by answering questions, chatting with them about anything and everything, be curious yourself? Perhaps you could strew interesting experiences and things in front of your kids. Offer to read stories out loud, watch movies together, go on outings.

      Of course, when we have lots of children, they’re not always going to be interested in the same things. Balancing everyone’s interests and attention spans can be tricky. I always tried to give each of my kids some one-on-one time where they had my full attention. Often I had to rely on other people to arrange this. For example, my older kids used to take it in turns to play with the baby or toddler while I spent time with each of them. Sometimes we read books out loud in the garden next to the sandpit so our toddler could play while we were busy. We did some creative thinking so that everyone’s needs were met!

      There were times when my kids had to rely on themselves or they helped each other. There were other activities we could all enjoy together. Going on outings were always big learning adventures.

      Young children learn by playing so I was happy when mine would disappear into the garden and play elaborate and creative games together. They’d learn together as they made bows and arrows or hitched up the wagon and travelled the prairie. The older kids were happy for their younger siblings to join in. Everyone had a role to play.

      A few ideas! I hope you enjoy your more relaxed way of learning with your kids!

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