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Small Steps Towards Unschooling: A Challenge

For the past year and a half or so, I’ve been writing unschooling challenges for our Stories of an Unschooling Family community. Each challenge is designed to stimulate thought and discussion about a particular aspect of unschooling. Hopefully, the challenges help turn unschooling principles into something real in people’s lives. This week, I posted A Small Steps Unschooling Challenge in the community, but I’m posting it here on my blog as well!…
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Losing Time

I’ve been reading a book called A Time to Die by Nicholas Diat, who visited eight monasteries to talk to the monks about the experience of death. Here’s something that caught my attention: One monk described how he cares for the old and sick, and how he has to guard against doing things in a routine way, trying to complete these tasks as quickly as possible without giving his full…
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One Day Life Changed

A few days ago, my sister suggested we swap a daily photo via email, so I’ve been looking around to see what I can capture with my camera. I used to take lots of photos of my kids. They’d be there somewhere in the picture. A beautiful scene and a person: that was my favourite kind of photography. But these days, when I’m ready to take photos, no one else…
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Solo Adventures

This morning, Gemma-Rose and I left home earlier than usual because we wanted to drive the scenic route to town instead of going the direct way. After my youngest daughter slid into the driver’s seat of her nifty blue car, we realised there was ice on the windscreen. A few squirts of water and swipes of the wipers, and we were on our way. Driving along the back road past…
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Unschooling Jane Austen

Every time we walk past the cinema, on our way to our favourite cafe, we glance at the posters advertising the movies that are currently screening. And I always say, “We haven’t been to the cinema for a long time. The last movie I saw was Emma.” Some time in February 2020, while big sisters Imogen, Charlotte and Sophie were at work, Gemma-Rose and I headed into town to see…
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It’s Not for Me

What if we share our work with the world and then someone comes along and criticises it? Some people might write bad reviews that make our hearts sink. We could wonder what we’ve done wrong. Why doesn’t everyone like what we’ve created? Wouldn’t it be wonderful if everyone loved our work? What if we received only 5-star reviews and lots of praise? No negative words at all. Or maybe this…
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The Problem with High Expectations and Control

Expecting a lot of our kids sounds reasonable, doesn’t it? If we have high expectations, perhaps our children will strive to achieve more. And if we keep raising the goal posts, won’t they end up doing amazing things? They could have fabulous secure futures that include high paying jobs. If we push our kids, they might become doctors or lawyers or enter another high-status profession. Or will our ideas and…
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Social Media, Hooks, Distractions, and Books

My daughter Imogen and I aren’t big social media people. For some reason, we find platforms such as Instagram and Facebook a bit overwhelming. Could that have something to do with our introverted natures? Often, we disappear. But, after a while, we try again. Maybe we have to. Because social media is where everyone hangs out. It’s where people are discussing the things that are of interest to us. Yes,…
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Can We Live a Seemingly Conventional Life and Successfully Unschool?

Is our unschooling life rich enough? Can we live a seemingly conventional life and successfully unschool? Or do we need to travel the world or spend time seeing our country firsthand? Perhaps we need to live off-grid or live in an unusual place or home? These were questions that I was pondering quite a few years ago. When we were offered an opportunity to move to a tumbledown cottage on…
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Big Ideas and Big Passions

I say to my daughter Imogen, “I’d better post the details of our last podcast on my blog.” And she replies, “You haven’t done that yet? How will we become podcasting stars if you don’t let anyone know we’ve published a new episode?” Podcasting stars? That sounds so unlike us. We grin! I love chatting to Imogen while we’re making podcasts together. We hope you enjoy listening! In episode 183…
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Bad Haircuts and Unschooling Adventures

In this week’s solo podcast episode, I’m sharing a few stories, and talking about how we can be more adventurous. It’s good to be adventurous, isn’t it? Adventures are fun. They connect us together as a family. They open us to new experiences. I’ve noticed that parents are often reluctant to be adventurous. We’d rather sit on the sidelines of life where it’s safe because sometimes we’re too afraid or…
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Be Brave

  Yesterday, my Youtube subscribers must have fallen over backwards with surprise: I published a new video! It had been a very long time since my last one. In this vlog, I’m sharing a story about red hair, shampoo, and being brave enough to do the things we want to do before time runs out. I hope you’ll watch!…
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