Is It Wrong to Love Without Limits?
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Babies, Toddlers and Unschooling (Part 1)
Gemma-Rose is now seven. She is our youngest child and so it’s been a few years since we’ve had a baby or a toddler in our family. It’s been a long time since we’ve had to work our homeschooling day…
My Old Portmanteau
This morning, as we drove along the back road that leads into town, we saw three children waiting for the school bus. One of them was sitting down reading a book. I thought at first he was sitting on his…
Who Would We Be Without Unschooling?
Unschooling changes parents as well as kids. We learn, face life’s challenges with courage, soak up the joys, do things we never expected. We grow and become different people from those we were when we first set out on our…
It’s Not a Periscope 4: Morning Tea and Library Books
Every day at 10 am we drop everything and have morning tea. But we don’t always drink tea. Sometimes we have coffee or hot chocolate or even a cold drink. Confusing? If you have a morning tea custom, you’ll understand!…
Ordinary Frida Kahlo Eyebrow Days
Quinn barked, alerting me to the policeman striding along the path towards our house. After securing the dog, I opened the front door, my heart racing, my hands shaking, thinking, “The police only make house calls when they’ve bad news to share.” “Have you seen any strangers lurking recently?” the officer asked. “Your neighbour reported some broken windows.” My heart rate slowed as I realised the man was talking about windows and stones and not car accidents and deaths. I…
Parenting: Doing Our Inadequate Best
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Words Matter
Yesterday, I sang happy birthday to a friend in a video message despite thinking I have a terrible voice. “I’ll sing the low version,” I announced before plucking up my courage, taking a deep breath, and attempting the first note. My low voice is the one I use when I’m messing around with my family, pretending to be a bass like my husband and not a soprano like my daughter, Imogen. We all giggle when I reach into my boots…
The Unanticipated Problem with Sharing My Kids’ Lives Publicly
When my kids were younger, I constantly had my camera in my hand, watching out for photo opportunities. I wanted visual evidence of all our learning experiences for our homeschool records book. I also wanted lots of photos to go with my blog stories. We had a rule in our home: we had to check if it was okay to use photos of each other before sharing them online. We all could refuse permission for the publication of images of…
Reluctant to Persuade or Engage
I create a Friends Club, write and publish an exclusive members-only story, and then display a preview of it – an excerpt and an image – on my blog. I look at the red-tufted, painted cow staring back at me from my homepage’s sidebar and grin. Surely, the cow will attract people’s eyes? It will definitely persuade my readers to visit my Buy Me a Coffee page and sign up for my fabulous membership posts. Before I know it, money…
I Need Your Help. Do You Need Mine?
I decide to abandon my unschooling blog, leaving it online to look after itself while I move on. But then I discover I can’t actually do that. Blogs need attention, whether we’re writing on them or not. If I don’t keep a close eye on my website, making sure everything is updated regularly, and paying for the latest versions of plugins, things start to go wrong. Something goes wrong. Despite my best efforts to protect my blog, it’s infected with…
What Do You Want to Be When You Grow Up?
“When I grow up, I’m going to be a YouTube Shorts video creator,” I tell Amina. My pretend friend raises her eyebrows and says, “But I thought you wanted to be a graphic designer.” “I could be a graphic designer who makes YouTube Shorts.” “When I was a child, I wanted to be a fashion designer,” says Amina. “I loved making clothes for my Barbie dolls. I had loads of ideas for fabulous clothes collections.” “Why didn’t you become a…
Do You Need a Happy List?
I’m at a cafe with my pretend friend Amina, who places her mug of coffee on the table between us, sighs and says, “Unschooling doesn’t guarantee our kids won’t have challenges in life, does it?” “I wish it did,” I reply. “Oh, yes, wouldn’t it be good if our kids sailed through life feeling happy all the time?” “We’ve all got to face difficulties,” I say, “including our kids.” It’s my turn to sigh. Amina nods. “Yes, that’s the way…
Should We Push Kids to Use Their Talents, Aim High and Impress?
Do you ever wonder if you should push your kids? Make them do hard things even if they complain. Drill them. Give them a…
What if Adding Joy to Your Days Was Simple and Inexpensive?
When I ask my husband, Andy, what he wants to do to celebrate his birthday, he replies, "Let's go on a picnic." It's winter.…
How to Live Radically
Radical unschooling children don’t necessarily brush their teeth, or shower and if they want to exist on an exclusive diet of coca cola and…
Is It Working? Wrestling with Doubt in Unschooling
A grey day arrives that completely blots out the memory of all the preceding good days. We feel overwhelmed, tired, worried and lost. We wonder why we ever decided to unschool. A puddle of doubt about unschooling forms around us. What do we do? Cecilie, Sandra and I are discussing unschooling doubts and sharing our experiences in episode 10 of…
Unschooling, Attachment, and the Art of Letting Go: Building Trust Instead of Rules
We don’t make rules in our family, so how do my children know what is right and what is wrong, if they aren’t guided by clearly stated limits? Do I believe my own quiet example of appropriate behaviour is all that is needed in order to influence my children? Perhaps I stand back, hands-off, and let my children behave as…
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…
An Impossible Adventure
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Can Christians Unschool?
Can Christians unschool? We’re Christian unschoolers. Maybe you’re Christian unschoolers too? There are lots of us living this way of life. But are we doing the right thing? Or are we side-stepping our responsibilities when we choose to unschool? Are we choosing the easy, lazy path? I often hear of parents who are struggling with homeschooling. Their kids aren’t doing…