Healthy Eating and Unschooling Kids
There is no excerpt because this is a protected post.…
Misconceptions: Unschooling Parents are Lazy
I republished this post after reverting it to draft. I have doubts I expressed my thoughts properly. My intention was to encourage parents, who are thinking about unschooling, not to be put off by claims it’s a lazy way of…
How to Get Children to Do Their ‘School Work’
I often hear parents chatting together about how they can’t get their kids to do their school work. What do they do? Keep pushing their kids because that’s what parents are expected to do? Is this part of their duty?…
An Unschooling Experiment
Do you listen to my podcasts? Normally, I don’t. I make an episode and that’s that. I hope everyone enjoys it, but I don’t really want to go back and listen to my own voice talking about unschooling. But this…
The Changing Seasons of the Unschooling Year
I saw a friend the other day who asked, “When are you finishing school work for the year?” I grinned wickedly and replied, “Finishing? We haven’t even started. We haven’t done anything for a long time.” I shouldn’t joke. People…
Should We Encourage Our Kids to Follow Their Dreams?
What did you want to be when you were a child? I wanted to be a writer. I had a cardboard box inside my wardrobe where I stored my scribbled stories about princesses, dragons and faraway kingdoms. At night, in bed, before dropping off to sleep, I’d think up stories about large happy families who were a lot like the Brady Bunch. I dreamed of writing books that would be displayed on library shelves, and hoped I’d marry a man…
Embracing Gaming: An Unschooling Challenge
What do we do if our kids want to play games for hours, and we’re not happy about that? We could limit their screen time. Make some rules about when and what and where children can play games. We could try ignoring our worries, remind ourselves of the benefits of gaming, and then let our kids get on with it (until our doubts overwhelm us once again). Or we could embrace our kids’ passion for gaming. Instead of just tolerating…
Giving Our Kids Time to Discover Who They Are
Did you go to school? Were your teenage years crammed full of lessons, homework and preparation for exams? Perhaps, like me, you had very little free time for yourself. And when you did have a few quiet hours, were you encouraged to do something useful with them rather than rest or think or dream or chat? Many parents get concerned about time. It seems to pass too quickly, doesn’t it? Should we try to make every moment count by cramming…
This Time Next Year: Where Will You Be?
Do you ever play the game, ‘this time last year…’? What about ‘this time next year…’? How does it feel looking back? What do you hope for the future? Several days ago, my very thoughtful phone made me a video using some of the many photos in my camera roll. It titled it: This Day 2018. On that day, four years ago, my daughters Imogen and Sophie accompanied me to Canberra where we gave a talk about unschooling to a…
Clock Watching, Short Lessons and Curious Questions
This morning, after a long break, I dusted off my mic, sat down and made a new podcast episode! I enjoyed doing this, but I don’t know if I’m back permanently. Can I afford to keep podcasting? Can I afford to keep blogging? (I recently received some huge hosting bills.) Do I still have enough stories to share? Does anyone still want to listen? I talk about these questions in episode 190. In my latest podcast, I also read one…
Can Video Games Be Safe Places For Our Kids (And Us)?
Do kids who are denied their freedom want to spend a lot of time on their devices? Do they retreat into their games because, unlike the real world, they’re in control of these virtual ones? Do kids use games as a safe refuge from a sometimes difficult real world? Are devices and video games and the reason kids want to spend so much time in front of their screens more complicated than we first imagine? Last year, during our almost-six-month…
How Seemingly Trivial Interests Are Full of Valuable Learning
There is no excerpt because this is a protected post.…
Sharing the Ice Cream and Rejecting Tough Love
There’s a woman on YouTube who sips wine from a large glass while digging into a family-sized bucket of ice cream. She has some advice for parents. Her message goes something like this: Parents take back the reins. Forget all this being friends stuff. Show some tough love. It doesn’t matter if our kids protest and say such things as, “I don’t like you!” Hey, parenting isn’t a popularity contest. Take control. The battle is on, and we’re going to…
How to Parent So We’ll Have No Regrets
When I look at family photos from a few years ago, I remember those chaotic and messy days when I was at the centre…
Unschooling Imposters and Difficult Days
After a few quiet weeks – life has been busy – I’m back with a new podcast, episode 97. It’s called Unschooling Imposters and…
Encouraging Kids to Write (and the Youngest Child in the Family)
When my son Duncan was about six or seven years old, his head was bursting with stories he wanted to tell. Every morning he…
Unschooling Is Carried by Conversations
Dinner tables, car rides, bedtime chats, and café corners are the real places where unschooling lives and grows. Conversations—often unscheduled, informal, and unplanned—can become the central structure of a learning life. Gathering at the Dinner Table In our house, we never met for breakfast or lunch. Those were meals where people ate what, where and when they liked. But we…
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: Coping With the Unexpected
I used to think I could control my life. To achieve a perfect life, all I had to do was organise everything well, including my kids. What is a perfect life? My perfect life vision included a graduated row of good-looking and well-behaved children. I wanted people to admire my family and home, saying, “Sue is such a good mother!…
Speed Angel Joy
I am sitting by the lake watching four girls scooting along the path. They are the Speed Angel Sisters and they are fast! Every now and then the girls veer off onto the grass and come to a sudden halt: a pedestrian is approaching. Now the speedway is clear again, and strong legs start pushing, wheels are revolving, hair…
Unschool: Greater Things
She was tempted to aim low, afraid to risk failure, but she knew she shouldn’t settle for ordinary. More was expected. So she gathered her courage, did what she should, and life got exciting. And she changed. How often do we aim low because we’re too afraid to risk disappointment or failure? We want to stay where it’s comfortable and…