7 April 2017

Does My Trust in Unschooling Ever Waver?

A friend asked if I’ve ever been unsure about unschooling.

And I replied:

Yes, there have been times when I’ve questioned what I’m doing. Even now I have an odd day when I wonder if I should be doing something different. Hard to admit because this is probably not what everyone wants to hear. But I think that it’s quite okay to have low days when we question things. Unschooling isn’t a magic solution. It’s life and life can be difficult. It’s the hard times that deepen our trust. We question, mull things over, and then we pick ourselves back up and go forward again, stronger than before, trusting we are on the right pathway. I guess trust isn’t worth much if we are only willing to trust when life is good. Things always work out which is just as well because when I look around at the alternatives, I realise we don’t have anywhere else to go!

I discuss the ideas in this comment in episode 92 of my podcast as well as other topics:

  • Trust: It’s easy to trust when things are going well but is that real trust?
  • Being a support driver for young learner drivers: Do we sometimes have to be adventurous and do things we don’t want to do?
  • Children who don’t seem to fit easily into the world: Should we watch out for ways we can help each other?
  • Praising kids: Is praise good or bad? How do we encourage our kids to be humble about their talents?
  • Creativity: Do you ever yearn to create but don’t have the opportunity because you have small children that need your time and attention?
  • Creative arts and English resources: art documentaries, Jane Austen mini-series, film scores and cinema history
READ  How to Talk and Save Lives, and Can I Mention the Weather?

Show Notes

Duncan’s Youtube Channel

TheEntity’sLair

Kelly’s Weaving Channel

Kelly Casanova

Poem

Young Woman Gathering Lemons by Jan Owen

Creative Arts/ English

Private Life of a Masterpiece

Every Picture Tells a Story

Sound of Cinema: The Music That Made the Movies Part 1

Emma (2009) 4 part series available on Youtube at time of posting

Emma: Behind the Scenes

Emma’s Costumes

Emma’s Music

Emma’s Locations


Image: Doesn’t Charlotte have a lovely smile? She’s been smiling a lot recently because she’s having fun learning to drive!


So I’m wondering… Have you ever been a support driver for one of your children? Do you praise your kids? And what do you think about Alfred Hitchcock? Have you seen any of his films?

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!

8 Comments

  1. The one “fluff” class I took in college was about Alfred Hitchcock and his films. One night we would watch a movie and the next class we would discuss it. It was really a fascinating class! So many good ones… Rebecca, North by Northwest, Notorious, Rear Window, Suspicion, Dial M for Murder…

    • Sallie,

      I can imagine how enjoyable your film class was. I’ve crossed paths with Alfred Hitchcock a few times recently, and now I’m eager to watch some of his movies. Your comment makes me want to hop straight over to Youtube and start watching! (There are quite a few Alfred Hitchcock films on Youtube.)

      I’m so glad you stopped by. Do you remember your last comment about the INFJ personality type? Well, it sent me on a long journey of discovery. I love how we end up going places we never expected because of other people’s words. Anyway, thank you for that comment and this one too!

  2. I love, love, love your podcast! This was one of my favorite episodes. Maybe one of the reasons your podcasts are so great is that you yourself live the unschooling lifestyle. You podcast when you want and when the interest wanes you do something else that brings you joy. Thank you for sharing your lives with us.

    • Cricket,

      I’m glad you enjoy my podcast! Sometimes when I’m recording an episode, I know my heart isn’t in it. My words are flat and dull and I give up because I know the episode won’t be worth sharing. Yes, occasionally I do need to do something else for a time. Thank you so much for understanding and not giving up on me. Everyone is always so kind, happy to listen when I’ve made a new episode, however long it has been since the last one. At the moment I’m actually ahead with my recording which is very unusual! I have already recorded the next two episodes in anticipation of the Easter holidays. I’m creeping closer to episode 100!

      Cricket, thank you so much for your encouraging comment!

  3. Great to hear you again Sue. Encouragement and praise is so important, it is normal and I don’t know how anyone could think otherwise. I do think that as parents, it is our privilege to be out child/ren’s biggest fans.
    Thanks so much for mentioning me and linking to my channel, that was a lovely surprise 🙂
    God bless.

    • Kelly,

      I do love your words about parents being their kids biggest fans. I remember writing a blog post about that, but I also remember some readers disagreeing with me! Yes, it is indeed a privilege.

      When I relistened to this episode, I wished I’d said more about your weaving channel. Never mind, I’ll do it again another day. It’s always a pleasure to tell people about the work you are doing. I saw you now have over 6,000 subscribers. Congratulations!

      Thank you for listening to this episode and for your comment. I love chatting with you! God bless!

  4. I only started this podcast and am looking forward to listening to the rest, but I just had to pop in to say that your conversation about Duncan reminded me of the discussion on Deep Work. How interesting that a quality you didn’t articulate until you read the book is one you definitely instilled in your children 🙂

    • Beate,

      That is such an interesting observation! I have been thinking about that Deep Work conversation. I’m going to listen to it again, remind myself what I actually said and then think about your words again. Thank you so much for stopping by and sharing your thoughts. I hope you enjoyed the rest of the podcast!

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