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!

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Planning the Next Term’s School Work in Half an Hour

Andy is sitting hunched over his computer. He has been there on and off for the past fortnight. Only one more week until the official start to the new school year and Andy is busy writing lesson plans for his primary school class. I don’t envy him. Homeschooling is so much easier. I don’t have to spend weeks planning work for my students. I don’t even have to spend a…
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Learning From My Children

My children are always eager to learn.  “Wow! That looks wonderful. Will you teach me to crochet too? Do you think I could make a blanket like yours?”  They always seem willing to have a go. They don’t worry about the possibility of failing.  But me? I’m an adult and I’ve learnt a few unfortunate adult habits. I do like to learn new things and I attempt to gain new skills…
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Homeschooling Heidi

“Can we have another chapter of Heidi, please Mum?” begs Sophie. It’s the third time I’ve been asked that question today. “If you make me a cup of coffee and get the book ready, I’ll be there in a minute.” The girls rush off. They can’t wait for another instalment of this story. I can’t wait either. I was ten years old the last time I read Heidi. I’ve forgotten most of the…
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How Younger Siblings Learn by Listening In

On Sunday Father S began his homily: “In Hamlet, it says, ‘To thine own self be true’.” Gemma-Rose dug me in the side and whispered loudly, her eyes wide with excitement, “Hamlet!” We are halfway through reading this Shakespeare play and Gemma-Rose couldn’t believe Father knew about Hamlet too. Later around the table, while we ate our Sunday cereal and crumpets, we had a good discussion: “Which character said, ‘To…
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A Little Unobtrusive Help with Reading

Many years ago, I taught my first child Felicity to read so quickly and easily, I was sure I was a brilliant homeschooling mother. What was everyone else doing wrong? Teaching a child to read? Easy!  Or so I thought.  Then Duncan came along and the word ‘frustrated’ became part of my everyday vocabulary. He could remember the sounds of letters, but running them together to form words was a…
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Handwriting Matters or Maybe it Doesn’t

Some of my children have beautiful handwriting and some don’t.  “What are you going to do when you go to university? Your tutor won’t spend time trying to decipher your essays. If he can’t read them, you’ll fail.”  My eldest children went to university. “Handwritten assignments aren’t accepted, Mum. See, I didn’t need good handwriting after all!”  So I was wrong. Times have changed. Good typing skills are now more…
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Learning about Punctuation the Lewis Carroll Way

I never used to bother with the finer points of punctuation because I wasn’t sure how to use such devices as colons and semi-colons. For a long time, I didn’t even know their proper names. To me, they were two dots, or a dot and a comma. And I’m supposed to be an educated woman. But one day, help arrived in an unexpected way.  I started reading Lewis Carroll’s Alice in…
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Listening

Gemma-Rose’s turn to read. My turn to listen. When I was an eleven-year-old student, our teacher got out her tape recorder and played us a current affairs radio program. It was a hot summer’s afternoon, late in the day, and I felt sleepy. I didn’t even try to concentrate on the program.  I spent the half hour I should have been listening, daydreaming instead. Apparently, almost all my fellow students did the same thing. And the teacher must…
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Why I’m Not a Good Homeschooling Teacher

Everyone thinks I homeschool my fourteen-year-old daughter, Charlotte. I don’t. She homeschools herself. I try to help her: “Charlotte, I have a new book we’re just about to start reading. What you like to join us?” “No thanks, Mum. I have something else planned.” “Charlotte we’re going to watch this DVD. Do you want to watch too?” “Not right now, thank you Mum. I’m in the middle of something else.”…
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Education Doesn’t Have a Use-by-Date

Yesterday Imogen was peering over Charlotte’s shoulder, looking at all the interesting things she is learning.  “You are giving yourself a much better education than the one I gave myself,” Imogen complained. “Look at all those wonderful books you’re reading. I haven’t read any of them.”  “Well, it’s not too late,” replied Charlotte. “Your education isn’t over even though you’re doing uni work rather than homeschooling. You could read these…
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Doodling

My girls love to doodle. I do too! I used to think doodles were those scribbles people draw while they are talking on the phone. They are, but they’re also a whole lot more. Doodles are easy to draw, require little artistic skill but are so satisfying to work on. Anyone can doodle. Anyone can produce drawings that satisfy. I also like how they encourage creativity. Doodling is a bit…
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