How Unschooling Saved the Dragon Mother

Austin Kleon wrote in his book, Show Your Work, that if we want to share our work with the world, we need to tell great stories. He mentioned the Pixar Story Structure:

Once upon a time there was ___. Every day, ___. One day ___. Because of that, ___. Because of that, ___. Until finally ___.

I thought I’d use this structure to tell a story!

Once upon a time there was a mother who had lots of children of different ages that she was homeschooling. This mother’s heart overflowed with love for her kids. She wanted to give them the best.

Every day, the mother planned things for her older children to learn about. Unfortunately, they weren’t interested. “Why do we have to do this?” they asked. “Because I said so!” replied the mother, who didn’t have time to think of a better answer because the baby was crying and the toddler was complaining. (They were hungry.)

Every day, the mother pushed her older kids to learn what she thought was important, while caring for her younger ones.

Every day, the pressure inside her built up until she exploded into a dragon mother.

One day, when the dragon mother was threatening to appear, the real mother ran outside. She sat on the garden wall in the sun, trying to calm down. After a while, she noticed her kids peering anxiously through the window at her. Were they afraid of what she was going to do next?

Because of those looks, the mother decided that things had to change. She raced inside and said, “Make a picnic. We’re going bushwalking!”

Because of that picnic, the mother and kids enjoyed their day. They rediscovered what was important. It wasn’t other people’s expectations. It wasn’t work no one was interested in. It was each other. The mother listened to her kids instead of the outside voices. She rejected everything that wasn’t working.

Until finally, life was good. It was peaceful. Everyone was happy and learning. The family had found their way to unschooling.

Something Extra

I talked about that bush picnic day in a video that was included in the 2021 Catholic Homeschool Conference. Perhaps you’d like to watch it.

Photos

A couple of photos that I took of the bush near our home. As you can see, it was a misty morning!

So, do you have a Pixar unschooling story?