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…

Reinventing Ourselves

When I was younger, I often came home from social gatherings and replayed conversations in my head. Did I talk too much? Had I sounded silly? I’d wish I could go back and change what I’d said. I wanted to…

Basking in the Reflected Glory

Not so long ago,  early one morning, I put on my coat – there was a bitter wind blowing – and set out on a solo adventure with my camera and a travel mug of coffee. Thirty or so minutes…

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.…

Latest

How to Unschool Maths and Still Fulfil Homeschool Registration Requirements

Can Registered Homeschoolers Unschool Maths? Perhaps you’d like to let your kids unschool maths, but you’re worried. Will you have enough maths notes in your records book if you let them drop the formal maths program they’re using? Can you satisfy the maths requirement for homeschool registration without traditional style workbook maths exercises? For us, the answer to these questions was yes. My youngest girls approached maths in an unschooling way, and we never had any trouble getting through our registration…

An End of the Year Unschooling Challenge

At the end of 2020, which was a very tough year, I wrote the following unschooling challenge. 2021 turned out to be a difficult year too. I think we could substitute 2021 for 2020 and do the challenge again! This week, we’re going to think about 2021 and write our end-of-the-year reviews. Maybe we don’t want to do this. It’s been a tough year, hasn’t it? We might just want to move on. Forget this year and hope that next…

Turning a Shopping Trip into Homeschool Record Notes

Earlier this year, when the covid restrictions eased, and life felt like it was returning to normal after our lockdown – and before the next lockdown arrived – my girls and I enjoyed a big shopping day out together. After we returned home, I wrote the following post for our unschooling community. Yesterday, I went shopping with three of my girls. We drove to a nearby city to the ‘big shops’ and enjoyed browsing for books, clothes and makeup. We…

Younger Unschoolers: What About Technology and Screen Time?

When I announced that I was going to write about younger unschoolers, a friend said, “I’d love to read about little kids and technology!” Could I share how we approached screen time during our children’s younger years? My kids all have a good relationship with technology. Is that because of how we handled such things as computers and the Internet during their early years? No. You see, we didn’t get a computer until after the birth of our 5th…

My New Book!

Quinn barks loudly at a man in a mask who’s walking up our driveway. I open the front door, holding back the dog, and the man thrusts a box at me. No need to sign for it.  No one does that anymore. The box is from Amazon, and when I open it, I see six copies of my latest children’s novel, The Angels of Wallaby Way. Yes, I’ve published a new book! I wrote the first draft of this novel during…

The Important People in Our Lives

About a week or so ago, I received a beautifully encouraging message from one of my friends in our unschooling community who’d listened to my podcast, The Problem with Being Too Nice. You might remember that I made that episode in March last year, at a time when I felt overloaded with various difficulties, including the pandemic lockdown. As I rarely received any feedback about the unschooling work I was doing, I wondered why I was sticking around trying to…

What I Discovered When I Became a Video Gamer

Discover how video games helped one person cope with difficult times and how finding the right game can offer a chance for success. Explore the benefits of playing puzzle games and how they can improve thinking skills and creativity. Read on to learn more about the surprising benefits of video gaming.…

Small Steps Towards Unschooling: A Challenge

For the past year and a half or so, I’ve been writing unschooling challenges for our Stories of an Unschooling Family community. Each challenge is designed to stimulate thought and discussion about a particular aspect of unschooling. Hopefully, the challenges help turn unschooling principles into something real in people’s lives. This week, I posted A Small Steps Unschooling Challenge in the community, but I’m posting it here on my blog as well! A Small Steps Unschooling Challenge  Hey friends, it’s time for…
1 … 23 24 25 26 27 … 109

My Unschooling Books

Parents and Kids

Busy Days and Catch-Up Days

Do you ever have weeks where you find yourself racing through your days trying to keep up? We’re having one of those weeks right…

The Ladies Fixing the World

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!…

How Unschoolers Can Deal with Questions and Sceptics

My mother-in-law visited us for the birth of our son, Thomas. After he died and we’d buried him in his tiny white casket, Andy’s mother asked me if we wanted more children. As I replied, “Oh, yes!”, my mother-in-law’s face dropped into a disapproving frown. “She thinks we already have enough kids,” I thought as my defence hackles rose. But…

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

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…

Respecting Kids and Christmas Presents

Does having a simple Christmas sound good? It does to me. This year, like last year and the one before, I wanted to announce that I’m not buying a lot of Christmas presents. I thought about saying that I’m not buying any at all. I didn’t want to think and think until the perfect gift ideas came to mind. I…
Go toTop