Family - Page 4

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The Extraordinary Ordinary Things of Life

I’m at Thomas’ wake. I have his memory box on my knee, and I take out a few photos and pass them to a friend. “He was a chubby baby!” she exclaims. I reply, “He wasn’t really. Those photos were taken at the funeral home. He looked different at the hospital.” I think about this. I remember how much I longed to see Thomas once more at the funeral home…
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A Balanced and Productive Unschool Life

It’s good to read stories about unschoolers, isn’t it? What do they think? What do they do? What kind of people are they? Stories about real unschoolers bring unschooling alive. But there is something better than reading stories. And that’s listening to unschoolers themselves. In this week’s podcast: A Balanced and Productive Unschool Life, I’m chatting with my teenage daughter, Sophie who has lots of her own stories, ideas and…
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Sitting Quietly: Unschool Bits and Pieces

Kids Sitting Quietly in Church The other day, I was asked: How do you get young, unschooled children to sit quietly, without disturbing anyone, in church? This was my reply: When my kids were very small I didn’t expect them to sit quietly in church. Little children aren’t designed to sit still for long periods of time. So whenever my kids would get upset, I’d take them outside or I’d…
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Is Our Unschooling Life Rich Enough?

Some unschooling families seem to live very adventurous lives that make ours look rather ordinary. And I wonder: Is our life rich enough for our children? Are they getting all the opportunities they need to learn so that they grow into the kind of people who will change the world for the better? Perhaps it’s time for us to live differently. We could buy a farm, grow our own organic…
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Is it Really Okay if Kids Play All Day?

Parents value play when children are very young. At this stage of life, we all agree that children should be playing. But what about when they get older? Should they still be allowed to play as much as they would like? When children reach an age when they could go to school, play is often pushed to one side. It no longer holds the centre position in children’s lives. It’s now…
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Undercover Homeschoolers

Have you heard our unschooling story? Just in case you haven’t, I’m reposting a couple of updated posts that tell the story of how we began our homeschooling adventure as unschoolers but then got distracted by other ideas before returning to unschooling.If you’d like to listen to the original versions you can hear them in podcast episode 93: Our Homeschooling Story. When I was a child I loved playing school.…
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Saying Yes: Unschool Bits and Pieces

Saying Yes When Gemma- Rose asked if we could get a puppy, we could have thought of many reasons to say no. But we didn’t. A year ago, a tiny Shar Pei/ Great Dane puppy joined our family and we called her Quinn. Quinn (who has grown enormously) has brought us enormous joy. All the extra work and expense are nothing compared to the love and fun this dog has…
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Unschooling is Just as Much About the Parent as the Child

We can’t make anyone become the person we’d like them to be. We can’t say, “If you only did this or that… you’d be a better spouse (or partner).” We can’t change people. But we can change ourselves. We can try and become the person we’d like those closest to us to be. We can treat others the way we want to be treated. Be a good example. And who…
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Playing for Ian

If you listened to episode 125 of my podcast, Connecting Unschooling and Ageing, you might have heard this story. I wrote it in 2012 and originally published it on one of my other blogs. I think it’s a story worth repeating because it’s about an extraordinary person, someone we’ll never forget. Ian freely shared his talents with my kids and affected their lives in a big way. Perhaps you know…
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