Are We Living a Second Best Kind of Unschooling Life?

Sometimes I wonder: Are we living a second best kind of unschooling life?

Perhaps we should move to a farm or a large property. We could grow organic vegetables, have chooks, a goat, and even a donkey. Maybe we could get a milking cow. And what about a horse? We could ride bikes, go off-grid, and recycle everything. We could spin wool, bottle fruit, and make our own soap. The kids could swim in the river (or dam), chop wood, and run free. We’d have few neighbours and no noise except for the chuckling of the kookaburras and the screeching of the sulphur-crested cockatoos.

Do you ever dream about living a slower life, about being self-sufficient, about stepping outside mainstream society? Perhaps you already do this. I know there are a lot of unschoolers living an alternate existence. You see, I’ve been reading a few blogs.

And I’ve been dreaming…

Perhaps things would be perfect if only we could also live a free back-to-nature unschooling life.

But my dreams never last. I know that I’m looking at unschooling with romantic eyes. You see, we once left our home in town. We packed up and ran off to a 100-acre property in the bush. There were dams of fish, a mob of kangaroos, and space to breathe. Sound good? Yes, but things didn’t turn out as we’d imagined.

Some people are meant to live on farms or in yurts or in recycled houses. But we’re not. The life we’re living in our conventional house on an average sized block of land is perfect for us. It’s not a second best kind of unschooling life at all.

In this week’s podcast, episode 84, I talk about:

  • How we can look at both school and unschooling with romantic eyes

  • Moving to a yurt, or a farm, or travelling around Australia in a campervan

  • Our experience on a 100-acre fish farm

  • What our kids need if they are to be world-changers

  • The latest blog and Elvis news

Images: These photos were taken close to home.

Do you dream of living a back-to-nature kind of life? Perhaps you already do live on a farm or somewhere wild and adventurous. Do you grow vegetables? Are you off-grid? And what do you think about yurts? 

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