It Begins with a Question

Gemma-Rose and I gaze upon the flowers. They’re pretty, bright, colourful, showy. A gorgeous backdrop for a photo. We raise our cameras. Cameras down. We look around. There’s a Chinese gentleman. He’s standing in a garden bed erecting a parasol. We…

An Unschool Challenge: Name Conversations

It seems to me that names can lead to many interesting conversations and much learning. While we’re sharing our name stories, we connect with the members of our family, present and past. We might learn more about each other, different…

When a Child Is No Longer Gripped by a Passion

A friend asked: “Have your kids ever been between interests?” The short answer to that question is yes. There have indeed been times when my kids have lost their enthusiasm for their interests. Their excitement for learning, in general, disappeared.…

How We Can Trust Kids and Dogs

We look up from our cameras to see two lean and muscular dogs racing towards us. They grin and circle around us before disappearing along the bush track.  A tall man appears. He pushes his long curly hair behind his…

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Intuition and Independence: Unschooling Tips and Practical Advice

What do we do if a child refuses to brush her teeth? What if our kids choose not to wash their hair or shower their bodies? Personal hygiene is important, isn’t it? Without self care, our kids might develop cavities. They could end up not being accepted by other people. Should we insist our children bring their own dirty cups back to the kitchen? If we don’t, will they fail to learn responsibility and consideration? Will they become self-centred and…

Unconditional Love: the Glue that Sticks Us Together

I miss my Mother's Day breakfast. My husband, Andy, and some of our adult kids enjoy coffee and pastries after the early Sunday Mass without me. I’m at home, a blanket drawn up to my chin with razor blades scratching my throat and a drum beating in my head: I’m unwell. Mother's Days, like birthdays, can be full of expectations. We don’t expect to be sick. We want all our kids to remember us. Will they visit? Will they phone?…

A Birthday Chat

Every time I celebrate a birthday, going up a number, I ponder ageing anew. How do I feel about getting older? Am I reluctant to admit my age? Or am I grateful to be who I am at the age I’ve reached? I once saw a sign saying, Experienced cars for sale. Of course, this is a novel way of selling secondhand vehicles. Secondhand conjures up images of something that’s not as good as it used to be. The value…

Live a Radical Life of Unconditional Love

Cecilie and Jesper Conrad invited me to be part of their Self Directed podcast, so I met them online, via Zoom, and I had a fabulous time recording episode 65 with them. After the interview, one of my daughters said, “How did it go, Mum?” and I replied, “I must have done okay because the Conrads have invited me to record a second episode with them!” That second conversation, episode 66 –  I’ve got back-to-back episodes on the Self Directed…

Encouraging My Daughters and Other Women by Embracing My Age

I was 58 on Christmas Day, 2019. If you do some real-life maths, you’ll soon work out how old I am today. There have been times when I haven’t wanted to admit my age and wished to appear younger than I am. Why? Did I fear no one would like me if they heard I was older than they were? Perhaps I thought I had to be young to be accepted and valued. But, bit by bit, I’ve come to…

An Unschool Conversation with Jesper and Cecilie Conrad on the Self Directed Podcast

Remember how I was talking about pushing ourselves to do things outside our comfort zones? Well, I almost said no the first time someone invited me to discuss unschooling on their podcast because I didn’t want to put myself in an unfamiliar and possibly uncomfortable situation. I was confident talking about unschooling when recording my own podcasts: I was in control. I could stop, delete, and start again if the words didn’t flow. But what would happen if I had…

Pushing Ourselves Instead of Our Kids

Often, we push our kids to try new things, don’t we? We want them to be adventurous. We say, “If you give it a go, you might discover you like it. You might be good at it.’ But what about ourselves? Are we willing to try new things? Or do we make excuses to avoid pushing ourselves outside our comfort zones? I wanted to give podcasting a go. So, I made an episode and uploaded it to the Internet. I…

Chatting with My Unschooled Author Daughter

It’s been a while, but I’m back with a new podcast episode! My author daughter Imogen is back too. In episode 205 of my Stories of an Unschooling Family podcast, we’re chatting about: Writing and how Imogen is promoting and selling her YA novels Collaboration and how we achieve more when we work together The ups and downs of social media We also share some of our latest news and tell a couple of stories, including the one about my…
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My Unschooling Books

Parents and Kids

The Ladies Fixing the World

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

Parenting: Doing Our Inadequate Best

Do you ever look back - a few years, months or even days - at your younger self and wish you could have done better? Perhaps you remember dragon parent days when you failed to be gentle. Could you have said things you now regret? I know I do. Sometimes, I want to go back and put things right. But…

Losing Time

I’ve been reading a book called A Time to Die by Nicholas Diat, who visited eight monasteries to talk to the monks about the experience of death. Here’s something that caught my attention: One monk described how he cares for the old and sick, and how he has to guard against doing things in a routine way, trying to complete…
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