Unschooling, Homemaking, and a Mother’s Role

Erin wrote: What does the idea of homemaking mean to you? Is it a certain skill set or talent? Does it need to look or happen a certain way, or is it a flexible term? What role does homemaking play…

Unschooling During a Crisis

Are there some things you hate doing? We don’t like gardening. Usually, we let our garden take care of itself. That’s why our hedges grew and grew until they were higher than the roof of our house. We should have…

Another Unschooling Holiday

Last night I said to the girls, “Tomorrow is the last day of the school term.” Sophie and Gemma-Rose groaned. Years ago, we used to count down the days to the holidays. We’d limp through the last week of term…

Bob Blogosphere Discovers Imogen Elvis

The phone rings. “Hello?” “Sue!” A deep smooth voice from the past hits my ear. “Bob!” It’s Bob Blogosphere, the most powerful man in the blogosphere. He’s famous for his deep and probing interviews. He’s the man behind Blogosphere News. “Sue, I’ve…

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Real Maths Running

At the bottom of our road, only 100 metres away from home, is a park surrounded by bushland. And winding through the bush are fire trails and tracks where the girls and I run. A few times a week, we head towards the gum trees to enjoy some exercise. We usually run along the same circuit. We have made up names for different points along the route: We start at the pits (where we leave our water bottles) and then…

My Homeschool Records Book

Tomorrow is the first day of the final term of the school year. Andy is busy preparing lessons for his school class (he is a primary school teacher). And I am not busy preparing lessons. I have hardly thought about the new term.  I don’t really need to. Andy will get up early and head off to school, and we’ll slip back into our normal term time routine. It always happens that way. The only preparation I should do is find my…

An Education at the Museum

I have read stories about teenagers who’ve dropped out of school and into the world, in order to obtain a real education. They spent their days, not at home behind a desk, but out and about, visiting places of interest such as museums and galleries… seeing the world.  And I’ve always thought, “What a wonderful way to get an education!”  But we don’t have any museums and art galleries close to where we live. An education at the museum isn’t…

Remembering to Trust

Our family is problem solving. The oven is broken so we can’t cook scones, muffins, cakes, and biscuits: all those treats we really enjoy. We talked over the problem while we ate lunch. “We do have a microwave…” I started to say. And then someone mentioned the donut maker, the toaster and the sandwich toaster. We wondered what treats we could cook using these bits of equipment. “We’ll do some research this afternoon,” Imogen decided, “and then Charlotte and I…

A Main Course of Reading Out Loud

This morning we took a trip into town. While Imogen and Charlotte had piano lessons, the younger girls and I made the most of our waiting time, and did some grocery shopping. It was gone 11 am before we arrived back home. We carted all the shopping bags into the house and unpacked them, before putting on the kettle. A few minutes later, I sank with relief onto the sofa with my cup of coffee.  “Do you want to hear…

So How Do You Feel On a Monday Morning?

When I was a child, I’d awake on a Monday morning with a pain in my stomach. I was always reluctant to get out of bed and face the week. Five days of school stretched out ahead, and the weekend seemed so far away. I lived for Saturday and Sunday. The rest of the week was to be endured. My children know nothing about that ‘Monday morning feeling’. Every day is good as far as they are concerned. We wake…

Some Maths to Share on One of Those Tired Mornings

Last Friday morning, I had to take Imogen to an appointment. When I returned home, Sophie and Gemma-Rose were waiting for me, hoping I’d spend some time with them. But what I really wanted to do, after driving to and from town, was sit quietly with a cup of coffee. I looked at the girls’ hopeful faces and then I remembered something.  “If you make me a cup of coffee, I’ll have a look for a game we can play…
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My Unschooling Books

Parents and Kids

The Ladies Fixing the World

Resources for Unschoolers

Strolling towards the shopping centre, I spy an older man with three hand-reared brightly coloured parrots. A few wide-eyed kids are gathered around him, and as I watch, he transfers a parrot to one of their shoulders, where it bounces lightly upon its feet, nuzzling a little ear. The child grins, hardly daring to move. The children have questions which…

Unschooling: A Lifestyle of Curiosity, Flexibility, and Trust

I’m a Lady Fixing the World! Cecilie Conrad kindly invited me to join her and Sandra Dodd for Season 2 of her podcastThe Ladies Fixing the World. We recorded our first unschooling conversation together in November 2024 before life got extra-busy with Christmas, and it has just gone live! The audio version. Here’s the audio version: You can also listen…

Christian unschooling

When We Can’t Decide What’s the Best Way to Bring Up and Educate Our Kids

Do you ever swap between the various methods of homeschooling looking for the perfect way to bring up and educate your kids? I used to do that. I’d try one thing after another, confusing myself and my kids, while never finding what I was searching for. As I said in my book Curious Unschoolers: … I pondered lots of questions:…

Christian Unschooling: Disciplining With Unconditional Love

If our children misbehave, what do we do? Make them sit on the time-out chair? Punish them? Perhaps we should withdraw our love. Be cold and distant. Make things unpleasant for our kids because they need to know how upset we are, don’t they? We want them to feel bad because then, maybe, they’ll remember to act in the right…
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