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.…

Are You a Curious Unschooler?

Do you ever follow rabbit trails, going from one thing to other until your head is spinning with new knowledge? My head is constantly spinning. I guess my girls’ heads are too. You see, I don’t keep my discoveries to myself.…

A Teenager Talks About Unschool Maths

My daughter Sophie hasn’t done any formal maths since she was about 9 or 10 years old. But she does know a lot about this subject. She’s been learning maths in a different way. Several years ago, I said to…

Be Brave and The Unschool Challenge

Sometimes we have to be brave, don’t we? We might need to ignore people’s opinions and possible criticism and do whatever fulfils the needs of our kids. We could need courage to ignore our fears about how our work will…

Solo Adventures

This morning, Gemma-Rose and I left home earlier than usual because we wanted to drive the scenic route to town instead of going the direct way. After my youngest daughter slid into the driver’s seat of her nifty blue car,…

Latest

Radical Unschool Love, Praise and Joy

Do you ever praise your kids? Do you tell them you’re proud of them? Some people say we shouldn’t praise our kids. Maybe that’s because our children might end up doing things only because they want to gain our approval. And is there a risk a child might think she is better than everyone else if we praise her too often? We don’t want our kids becoming proud and obnoxious, do we? So, many parents stay well away from praise.…

A Wasting Time Unschooling Challenge

When I was a child, I always felt I should be doing something useful rather than sit still and dream, think or watch TV. I thought I had to be productive and not waste time. As an adult, I‘ve discovered that we learn a lot by doing such things as watching movies and playing video games. These activities aren’t time-wasters. They’re rich learning experiences. But what about those times when we or our kids aren’t even watching movies, when we’re…

Rules for Having Fabulous Unschool Learning Adventures

I know unschooling isn’t supposed to have any rules, but we do have a few. They’re called Our Rules for Having Fabulous Learning Adventures. When my kids were younger, whenever we headed out the door to explore the bigger world, we chose to follow these seven rules: ♡ Adventure with exploring eyes and curious minds ♡ Talk about what we discover but don’t interrogate or lecture ♡ No worksheets allowed. If we have our eyes on a piece of paper,…

What’s the Best Place to Bring Up Kids?

Do you ever wonder where you should live? Are you providing the best environment for your kids? Is it rich and full of opportunities for learning? While Imogen and I were on holiday together, we wandered around Kiama where we were staying, taking photos and chatting about the differences between this coastal town and our village in the bush. Would we prefer to move to the beach? How would our life change if we did? Would we miss anything at…

When You’re Tempted to Leave Unschooling and Try Something Else

Every evening of our recent holiday, Imogen and I swished through the warm waves as we walked along the beach, waiting for the sun to set. One evening, I noticed a group of birds on the sand. At first glance it looked like a gathering of seagulls, but there were two imposters in the lineup. The word imposter makes me think of all the times I’ve felt like an unschooling imposter. For many years I’ve blogged, podcasted, written books and…

Could a Lack of Freedom Damage Our Kids’ Mental Health?

On the first morning of my recent holiday with my daughter Imogen, I got up early, grabbed my camera and headed to the beach. I sat alone on the sand, waiting for the sun to rise and thought about freedom. The last couple of years have been hard, haven’t they? In 2020, here in Australia, we endured a lockdown of several months. Last year, I was confined to home for almost 6 months. Right back at the beginning, when we…

Parents Or Friends? Or Can We Be Both?

A few weeks ago, my gorgeous adult daughter, Imogen, said, “Mum, we need a break. How about we go to the beach together for a few days?” Oh my, that was a fabulous suggestion. We’ve both had a hard time this last year or so. A holiday away from the cares of everyday life sounded perfect. Actually, it sounded like a lifesaver. So we packed our swimming gear, hoping the water would be warm, even though it’s now autumn here…

How to Turn Cooking into Unschool Maths Homeschool Records Notes

When you hear the words ‘real life maths’ or ‘real world maths’ what do you think of? Cooking? That’s the usual example, isn’t it? “My kids did lots of real life maths today. They cooked a cake for morning tea.” When my children were younger, they often made cakes and biscuits and even whole meals. And each time, I’d jot down some notes in our homeschool records notebook and label them as ‘maths.’ When I first started doing this, it…
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My Unschooling Books

Parents and Kids

Why I Wanted to Delete My Blogs

I was staring gloomily at my computer this morning. “What are you doing, Mum?” asked my daughter Imogen. “I’m about to delete my blogs,”…

Parents, Teenagers and Opinions

Why do some parents want to impose their opinions on their children? Do they do this because they care? Perhaps they want their teenagers…

The Ladies Fixing the World

Unschooling Isn’t Freedom Gone Wild: Why Choices Matter More Than Ideals

My husband Andy returned to work today after two weeks at home. Holiday time is over. We’ve now moved into term time. A whole term of possibility days stretches before me. I’m free to do whatever I like with my time while Andy is at school. My eyes light up with delight. But then I remember there are many…

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…

Unschooling: How Do We Know They’re Learning?

There are loads of unschooling questions we could ask about learning: How do we know unschooling kids are learning? Should they be learning particular things? Is there knowledge that all kids need? Are our unschooled kids learning enough? Can they get behind? Should we just trust our kids are learning? But what if we have doubts? Or what if we…

Christian unschooling

Does Christian Unschooling Interest You?

I’ve written three unschooling books: I focused on the educational side of unschooling in Curious Unschoolers. I extended the unschooling story in Radical Unschool Love by sharing parenting thoughts and stories. And I offered practical suggestions for turning all those interesting unschooling ideas into something real in families’ lives in The Unschool Challenge. Three books. A trilogy. Everything I can…
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