A Bit of Murder in Our Typical Unschooling Day

“Miss Scarlett did it in the conservatory with the dagger,” Gemma-Rose announces to her older sisters. Miss Scarlett, the conservatory and the dagger: Those words belong to my childhood. Many years ago, I loved playing Cluedo with my own sisters.…

Unschooling Resources: Discoveries of 2014

This week’s podcast is all about resources. I talk about some of the interesting things we discovered during 2014 and… I answer the following questions: How do I discuss at least 17 resources in only 30 minutes? Do I talk…

A Real Maths Learning Moment

Sometimes real life maths turns up when I least expect it. Maths learning moments suddenly appear. And if I take advantage of these moments, some wonderful real maths learning can happen… Yesterday the girls and I were watching art history…

Becoming Brave and Gritty

This morning, I posted the following words on Instagram: Hello! It’s Monday morning here in Australia. I am thinking about the day ahead. Should I start it with a run? The only problem is the temperature. It’s below freezing. Should…

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Resisting the Temptation to Interfere

Or trusting children to learn in their own time  I have been rather busy recently, my eyes glued to the computer screen, my mind miles away.  “Please can we use the scrapbooking paper, Mum?”  “Yes, you may.”  “Please can I borrow your stapler, Mum?”  “Huh? Oh yes, it’s on my desk.”  For a couple of hours I was vaguely aware that Sophie and Gemma-Rose were very busy doing something. I wasn’t sure exactly what they were doing…  “Mum, look! We’ve…

Drawing, Geometry and a Happy Girl

Sophie is happy. She grins from ear to ear. “I’m off to do some maths, Mum!” What a change from a couple of weeks ago. Not long ago, she was battling her way through an online maths course. But no more. After some thought and reflection, and talking to myself sternly about what feels right and what makes sense, I have given Sophie permission to turn off the computer and ignore the ‘perfect’ and structured maths course we have subscribed…

I am a Pirate King!

Or the delights of Gilbert and Sullivan.  A few years ago, the Dominican nuns from Ganmain came to our homeschooling camp. They swept in, resplendent and imposing in their spotless habits with plans, not only to teach our children the catechism but also help our teenagers stage a production of Gilbert and Sullivan’s HMS Pinafore. Sister Augustine had the scripts and music all arranged. She’d trimmed down the original production to a manageable level: the children had only four days…

Let’s Talk Maths

My girls have been learning maths in a formal way rather than as a consequence of life. But I have been thinking…  The girls used to use workbooks, the sort that cover one school year at a time. They filled them in with correct answers and moved from book to book. And they didn’t complain. It was interesting enough. It was just something that was expected and they did it.  Then about 18 months ago, I found an online maths…

Yikes! Do They Know About Filtration?

I was chatting to a friend on the phone the other morning. She was telling me about a dialogue her daughter is writing as an English exercise. “One of the speakers is a professor and he is talking about filtration. We did that in chemistry the other day.” Filtration? I began to wonder: do any of my children know about filtration? Did we ever talk about it together? Is it something they need to know about? Perhaps there is a…

Lunch with Charles Dickens

We are sitting around the table. It is lunch time and as we eat, someone starts a lively conversation. “Do you remember that strange old lady in Great Expectations?” “The one who sat in her wedding dress, day after day after day?” “Yes, Miss Haversham. She sat there with one shoe on and one shoe off… for years.” Gemma-Rose has forgotten why Miss Haversham sat by the decaying wedding feast in her fading dress. We remind her that her fiancé…

The Photography Girls Head into the Bush

The other week while the girls and I were at the lake, we spied a track that disappeared enticingly into the bush. I promised we’d return another day and head along the path in search of adventure. So last Wednesday afternoon we packed up our exploring kit. We grabbed a basket and tossed in small bars of chocolate (bushwalking requires lots of energy), a large thermos flask of hot chocolate (it was a cool day), a packet of almond fingers for…

A Jane Austen Education

I was on my way to bed when I noticed the older girls’ bedroom light was still on. As I stood outside the door I could hear Imogen’s voice. It sounded like she was reading out loud. Pushing open the door, I saw both girls sprawled on their beds. Charlotte was listening enthralled as Imogen read from the book Pride and Prejudice. Both sisters were obviously having a wonderful time so I crept away and left them to it. This…
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My Unschooling Books

Parents and Kids

The Ladies Fixing the World

The Math Myth: How Do Unschooled Kids Learn Math?

There are many unschool maths questions. Here are just a few of them: Can kids really learn maths without formal instruction? What does unschooling maths look like? Can we strew unschool maths? Is it possible for registered homeschoolers to unschool maths? How can we provide evidence kids are learning maths when we don’t have formal records like workbooks and test…

Unschooling: Trust, Autonomy, and The Realities of Learning

The Ladies are Fixing the World again! Cecilie, Sandra and I are discussing the words ‘self-regulation’ and ‘limits’. When we say, “I’ve let go of control, and now I’m waiting for my child to learn how to regulate his time playing video games (for example),” do we have expectations about what that regulation should look like? Do we want…

Christian unschooling

Reading Out Loud and a Generous Christmas

Do you like listening to stories being read out loud? I have to admit that this isn’t my favourite activity. My mind tends to wander and I miss half the words. But my kids are different from me. They love reading aloud time. Even though most of my children are grown up, they still like to gather whenever anyone opens…

Bringing God into the Unschooling Picture

A few months ago, I wrote a post called Why This is the End of the Line for Me. I decided that I’d explored unschooling from every possible angle. What more could I write about? It was time for me to move onto other things. Let my kids tell their own unschooling stories and find something else of my own…
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