20 June 2016

Unschooling Siblings Working Together

unschoolingsiblings-1

My daughter Imogen’s latest music video features her three younger siblings, Charlotte, Sophie, and Gemma-Rose. The four girls sing the Enya song, Wild Child.

When I watch this video, it’s not the singing that I enjoy the most. I’m not thinking, “Oh wow! Aren’t my girls talented?” Yes, the singing is okay (and I guess it needs to be if Imogen is going to fulfil her dream of becoming a successful online musician!) but for me, that’s not the most important aspect of the video. It’s the evident love between siblings, as they interact together on camera, that warms my mother’s heart.

Making videos together allows my daughters to share their skills and help each other. They also have a lot of fun while they’re working. But they don’t just make videos. My girls spend a lot of time together as they enjoy other passions such as writing novels, exercising or taking photos. Sharing skills, working with each other and spending a lot of time in one another’s company has resulted in very close sibling relationships.

I wanted to talk about siblings for this week’s podcast, so I invited Imogen to join me. I thought it would be interesting to hear about her experiences of working with her sisters. Perhaps we could also talk about music and writing.

So these are the questions and topics we discuss in episode 75:

  • Is it possible for siblings to teach siblings?
  • What special challenges are involved?
  • What benefits are there to siblings sharing their talents?
  • Can siblings work together on a single project? Is it possible to make everyone feel part of the team?
  • Imogen talks about the piano and singing lessons she gives to her younger sisters.
  • We chat about her last music video which features her three younger sisters who all sang as well as helped make the video.
  • We talk about writing and the upcoming Camp NaNowriMo event. Is it too late to join in? Do you need a novel plan before signing up?
  • Imogen tells us about the Writing Circle Meetings she, Sophie and Gemma-Rose have each week.
  • And how she’d like to turn these meetings into a formal online course to help and inspire other young writers.
Show Notes

ImogenImogen Elvis‘ Facebook Page

READ  Unschooling: Learning the Important Things Before Time Runs Out

Imogen Elvis’ Youtube Channel

Imogen’s writing blog: Gossiping with Dragons

 

Camp NaNoWriMo

Camp NaNoWriMo is a virtual writer’s retreat, designed for maximum flexibility and creativity. We have Camp sessions in both April and July, and we welcome word-count goals between 30 and 1,000,000. In addition, writers can tackle any project they’d like, including new novel drafts, revision, poetry, scripts, and short stories.

 

Images: I took these photos while the girls were filming the Wild Child video. I might have messed up the behind-the-scenes video recording, but I did manage to snap a few photos!

You can find more episodes of my Stories of an Unschooling Family podcast on

iTunes
Podbean
and here on my blog.

Do you have any sibling stories? Perhaps your children share their talents with each other. Do you think unschooling has led to closer relationships between your children? I always love hearing from readers and listeners so feel welcome to stop by and say hello!

If you haven’t signed up for my unschooling newsletter, please do! I’m gradually adding my podcast notes to each edition. I’ll be publishing my next newsletter (which has some wonderful content from other unschoolers) in a few days’ time. Please watch out for it!

Thank you for listening to my podcast!

Sue Elvis

I'm an Australian blogger, podcaster, and Youtuber. I write and speak about unschooling, parenting and family life. I'm also the author of the unschooling books 'Curious Unschoolers', 'Radical Unschool Love' and ‘The Unschool Challenge’. You'll find them on Amazon!

4 Comments

  1. Your children are truly talented, and not the leas of their talents are sticking together. We have loads of siblings' bickering, but in a week the holiday begins, then – after a deschooling break – good tempers return. I enjoy listening to Imogen's music videos.

    • Uglemor,

      My children are fortunate in being able to stay home. Spending lots of time together has taught them how to work with each other without conflict. I imagine it is much more difficult for your children. Yes, a deschooling break is needed so they can adjust to being home full time. I hope now that the summer has arrived for you, you are all enjoying your time together doing fun things!

      Thank you so much for listening to Imogen's videos. Your kind words encourage her to keep working at her music. And thank you for your comment. I love chatting with you!

  2. One of my girls looked over my shoulder at the music video and decided they reminded her of the sisters in Little Women 🙂 Good work on the video. I'm just about to start the podcast which I'm interested to hear how siblings work together in your home. Ours work together really well when the common need is there most days but other days you would never know they were best friends the day before. Some days in the winter it gets tough to remain "close" when your really close. Thank you for another podcast.

    • Alissa,

      Sometimes my girls discuss Little Women and which of the girls they'd like to be. Nobody wants to be Amy! It's always good fun to think about such things.

      Oh yes, sibling relationships aren't always perfect. It can be frustrating watching brothers and sisters arguing or being unpleasant to each other. And I understand about being close but not 'close'. Sometimes a house is just not big enough! But on the positive side, I've found that with time, siblings do learn to adjust to each other. The longer they live together, the more they come to appreciate each other's differences and recognise the similarities. I told a story about Charlotte and Sophie in the next podcast, episode 76, which I recorded yesterday. Charlotte used to get very irritated by Sophie. That's not the case any more! There's always hope!

      Thank you so much for stopping by. I hope you enjoyed the podcast!

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