2 July 2014

From Unschooling to University and Work (Part 2)

Ten Minutes on Thursday

I have uploaded a new version of this video to Youtube. Hopefully there are no problems with this one!

Last Thursday I posted the first part of From Unschooling to University and Work, a video interview with my 22 year old son Callum.

“Hey Callum!” I say. “There were some lovely comments about you and your interview. Would you like to hear them?”

Callum grins but I can tell he’s a bit embarrassed. I am guessing he has been avoiding my Facebook page recently. He always avoids my blog. He doesn’t like reading about himself, though he is quite happy for me to write about him… and interview him. (Isn’t he nice?) Thank you so much for the kind comments!

This week I’m posting the second half of our interview…

 Callum and I chat about his current passions, and his dreams for the future. 

I ask him about his thoughts on family: Is family still important now he is an adult? How does he get on with his parents? What role do they play in his life? 

I ask Callum if he feels different from most people his age. 

We finish our conversation with his thoughts on unschooling. Was it a good preparation for his life as an adult?

I enjoyed chatting with my son. It was good to share a laugh and he really touched my heart at one point. I hope you also enjoy…

From Unschooling to University and Work: an Interview (Part 2)


Image: Even though Callum is now an adult he still enjoys coming along on family outings. This photo was taken on Sophie’s birthday.

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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!

10 Comments

  1. That was wonderful!! What a joy he is! I think we all hope that at the end of the home schooling road, our kids are happy, competent, confident, and still love us! This was such an encouraging video: thank you, Sue, and thank you, Callum!

    • Wendy,

      Thank you so much for watching our video and for your kind comment. I imagine it wasn't easy for you to find a quiet moment to watch. I appreciate your feedback!

  2. Sue,

    (Google just ate my long comment (argh!) so apologies if this is a duplicate.) I am getting so much from this video series – thank you all so much. It is so interesting hearing the stories of your children at their various ages and stages of unschooling.

    Callum's story is especially inspiring. I often wonder how my life would have been different if I had realised sooner that law was not the right career for me. Certainly I would have saved myself many years of doing a stressful job I had no interest in! I don't have regrets because I am so happy where I am now, but I hope that by spending their childhoods exploring their passions, my children will have a better idea of who they are and how they can best serve the world than I did.

    I'm sure theirs will also be winding paths – we learn so much from our "mistakes", after all – but I hope they will show similar courage to Callum in their choices (and that I will be able to lovingly support them as you have him).

    • Lucinda,

      How frustrating losing your comment. That's a loss for me too! I love hearing from you. Thank you for trying again.

      I also worked in the wrong career. Oh yes! even mistakes teach us a great deal. It's just good to finally find the right kind of work. Imagine being stuck in the wrong work for years and years, thinking there is no way out. My husband Andy was in this situation before he was made redundant from his job of 25 years. It all ended well when he had a second chance to go back to university and earn his Masters of Teaching. Now he is where he should be, and he really enjoys being a school teacher.

      Maybe it doesn't matter about mistakes, and winding paths, if we have the courage and confidence to change pathways when it's necessary. I think our unschooled kids do have confidence. Supporting our kids? I think that's very important. As unschooling parents, I think we all do that!

      I'm sorry I took a while to reply to your very welcome comment, Lucinda. I haven't done any blogging this week. Instead I've been preparing my children's novel for publishing. Finally I think I might see my book in print!

  3. Sue, I am always amazed by how quickly how reply to comments – two days is about as fast as I get! How exciting that your novel is ready for publication. You must be so proud of your achievement. I shall look forward to reading more news about your novel in due course (including, of course, how I can buy a copy!).

    • Lucinda,

      I was excited about publishing my book until I realised how much work needs to be done. I just had to write a book description. Always one more thing to do… But I hope that's everything now finished, and I can sit back and wait for a copy of the book to drop into our mailbox. That will be an exciting day! I'll let you know when the book is available to buy. Lovely of you to want to know about that. Thank you!

  4. So very inspiring and touching, Sue! Thank you for making this series of videos. The closeness of your family really shines through the video, and I hope for myself that Tiger will be as close and loving to our family as Callum is with yours.

    There's a lot to take away from this video, but I am especially happy to learn about Callum finding and doing more with his interest in cars and mechanics. Going with our interest is something that many of us instinctively feel is the right thing to do, but very few have the courage to actually pursue it. Well done to Callum!

    • Hwee,

      Thank you for your beautiful and encouraging comment. You are always so thoughtful when responding to my posts. I'm sure the close and loving relationship Tiger has with you, will continue, and grow even stronger as he grows into adulthood. Life may not be perfect but as long as we have good relationships, I feel all will be okay. I read your comment out to Callum. He appreciated it. Thank you so much.

  5. "If you don't take the risks, you don't get the rewards." Well said, Callum!!!!!!!!!!

    I just loved this video! What a sweet, intelligent, hard-working, and very handsome young man!! And all those nice things he said about his mother… That must have just melted your heart, Sue 🙂

    Much, much love to you all. And thanks for sharing this with us 😀

    • Oh happy day! A visit from my friend Virginia Sue! What a great way to start the week.

      Oh yes! Callum sure knows how to melt my heart. We get on really well together. Maybe I overlook some of his faults because he is so charming!

      Thank you so much for sharing our video. I know a lot of people find it difficult to watch videos, but I think they sometimes tell the story better. Well at least Callum had a chance to tell his own story instead of me telling it for him.

      Much love to you too, Virginia. I always smile widely as I'm replying to your comments! xx

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