Dreams, Talents, Working and Unworking

In a few months’ time, my daughter Imogen will finish her university degree. She’s started thinking about what she would like to do next. “I have three lofty dreams,” she says. One of them involves a piano, a microphone and…

Unschool Love Stories

About a month ago, I wrote the following story for my unschooling community: This morning, I didn’t want to go for a run. It was cold, I was tired, and I had no one to run with. Running seemed too…

A Homeschooler’s Thoughts on Her First University Exam

Yesterday, I spent over two hours sitting in the car outside the Flight Centre at Goulburn Airport. Inside this building, Imogen was doing her very first university exam. She has spent the last semester studying the unit Introduction to University…

Interviewing Charlotte (16), an Unschooling Teenager

Ten Minutes on Thursday “Can I interview you for one of my unschooling videos?” I tentatively asked my 16 year old daughter Charlotte. “Okay.” Okay? I smiled. I was surprised. I didn’t really think Charlotte would agree. You see, she’s…

Latest

Turning Famous Paintings into Jigsaw Puzzles

My girls love putting together jigsaw puzzles. We often look out for cast-off puzzles at markets and garage sales. We come home clutching piles of old boxes, hoping all the pieces are inside. The girls like to work on huge puzzles that take days to put together. And though I can see putting together puzzles is satisfying work for them, it can be a bit frustrating for me: “When are you girls going to finish that puzzle? I’d like to…

Wednesday Adventures

One evening last week we were all sitting together in the lounge of our holiday cottage. The older girls were drawing, the younger ones were reading, and I was fiddling about with my camera. Although I’ve had the camera for a few months now I haven’t yet read the manual properly. I keep dipping into it and trying things out. I should have read the instruction booklet carefully from start to finish before actually using the camera, but somehow I…

An Unschooling Holiday

This morning, I crept out of bed just before 7 o’clock and met my kindred spirit, Charlotte in the kitchen.  Neither of us likes lying in bed late. But everyone else… they were all still snuggled up under their quilts, enjoying a relaxing start to the day. No need to hurry. We are on holiday. Yes, our third term of the school year has just ended and holiday atmosphere prevails in our home. I wonder why holidays mean so much…

My Maths-Magician Helps Out

We are going on holiday, our first holiday in years and the girls are very excited. I am very excited too! We have a cottage booked opposite the lake, not far from the beach.  A couple of weeks ago we received all the details about costs. There is a basic cost for 7 nights’ accommodation for 6 people (the boys are staying home- they’ll be working and cat sitting), plus an optional end-of-holiday-cleaning cost and a linen cost. I mulled…

A Mother’s Basket

It hasn’t been long since the last homeschooling meme. But if you are a book loving mother and would like to join in with another… Read on… Imogen and Charlotte decided to fill the gaps in Sophie’s education by filling a basket for her, with books they consider essential reading for a ten year old girl. They also put together a basket of books for Gemma-Rose. Then Imogen thought she’d hunt out all her favourite books for Charlotte to share. And…

Sophie’s Basket

  Or Imogen and Charlotte’s book recommendations for their younger sisters  We are sitting around the table munching our lunch and chatting.  Sophie tells us she wants to learn more about horses and Charlotte mentions brumbies.  “Brumbies?”  “The wild horses of Australia…  You remember the horses in that poem, The Man from Snowy River?  “You have to read The Brumby books,” someone insists.  Charlotte’s eyes light up. “Yes! They were good.” She thinks for a minute. “There’s lots of good…

Sew Easy

When I’m not writing, I love to sew clothes for my girls. And when I’m not sewing pretty skirts, I like to sew pictures. And the pictures I like to sew are red work embroideries. A few years ago, I discovered a couple of embroidery books by Wendy Brigg: Sew Red and Simply Red. All the patterns use very simple stitches and have been embroidered using red thread. As soon as I saw the books I had to buy…

Did I Doubt? I’m Not Telling!

A few weeks ago, I had a photography adventure in the bush with my girls. We had a wonderful afternoon strolling along the bush track with our cameras, and when we returned, I pondered: Should I plan a special lesson about how cameras work, or how the eye works, or the history of cameras or how light works or…? No! That would kill the girls’ interest in photography dead. I am sure the girls will ask questions or look things up for…
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My Unschooling Books

Parents and Kids

Unschooling Poster Kids

All seven of my unschooled kids went to university when they were 14 and got their degrees before they reached adulthood. No they didn’t.…

The Ladies Fixing the World

How Unschooling Doesn’t Guarantee a Fairytale Life

Yesterday evening, like all Sunday evenings, my kids who live locally came to dinner. Six of us gathered around our dining room table, savouring a meal cooked by my husband while enjoying the usual end-of-the-week lively catch-up conversation. There was a time when we dreamed that all our children would buy houses on the same street as our family home.…

Unschooling: Trusting the Process and Letting Go of Control

“I kind of love my title for this podcast. It’s very ambitious. Let’s fix it all!” And so begins another Ladies Fixing the World conversation in which Cecilie Conrad, Sandra Dodd and I dive deep into unschooling, sharing our thoughts and experiences. In S2E4, we discuss Unschooling: Trusting the Process and Letting Go.   Want to know more…

How Unschoolers Can Deal with Questions and Sceptics

My mother-in-law visited us for the birth of our son, Thomas. After he died and we’d buried him in his tiny white casket, Andy’s mother asked me if we wanted more children. As I replied, “Oh, yes!”, my mother-in-law’s face dropped into a disapproving frown. “She thinks we already have enough kids,” I thought as my defence hackles rose. But…

Christian unschooling

Sharing the Catholic Faith With Our Kids

Maybe you’re thinking about unschooling. Letting children follow their own interests, and trusting they will learn all they need to know sounds great. But stop! Wait! What about religion? This is important. You think: “Can I just stand back and hope my children will want to learn about their faith? Doesn’t that sound a bit risky? What if they don’t…

Christian Unschooling: Letting God into Our Kids’ Lives

I used to tick off my spiritual boxes religiously every day. I said a lot of prayers and read my Bible. And I got extra ticks whenever I was able to get to daily Mass, so I made the effort to get there as often as life allowed. It wasn’t easy doing all that, but I did it. I had…
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